Seven Songs a Week: 04/22/21

Hello, Welcome to Seven Songs a Week

Today we have a song that always interested me as a kid, mostly because of it's lyrics. We have the title track from American Rock band, Hole, from their third studio album named "Celebrity Skin." I used to play a lot of "Rock Band" as a kid and my favorite songs were always the ones sung by women like "We Got the Beat," "I Think I'm Paranoid" and "Celebrity Skin." "Celebrity Skin" always stood out to me because of the little things like the band's name being Hole or the sarcastic storybook delivery of Courtney Love's lyrics. The video struck me too with the hanging princesses and Love's beauty, I suppose, and the tune stayed with me but I didn't remember the name of the song. It wasn't until middle or high school that I even googling "when I wake up, in my makeup," the only lyrics that I remembered and I found it.

Single Cover for "Celebrity Skin"

The song thematically is about fame in Hollywood and what happens after it. Love begins the song asking to be made over because she's "all [she wants to] be" which is something that happened after she got famous, she gained fame and she cleaned up her image. She then goes on to mention how she's been placed under a microscope after her husband, Kurt Cobain, passed away. People say that she murdered her husband, which is all speculation, but she is studied as if she was not human which Love describes herself as "a walking study in demonology." The chorus is Love congratulating the new actor or singer or whoever that made it in Hollywood but with irony. Love sings tells the newbie that "you've really made it" in her sarcastic tone that is present throughout the song. Love continues with a reworking of Dante Gabriel Rossetti "The House of Life: 97. A Superscription"as she describes the three things a creative can be, a "Might-Have-Been," a"Never Was" or "forgotten." Love repeats the chorus again before "[waking] up, In [her] makeup." The makeup lyric can reference the fact that stars don't want to be scene without their image or literally without their makeup. Love describes her own life as she calls the subject "Wilted and faded, Somewhere in Hollywood" as "Celebrity Skin" and it's album were her comeback which charted at nine on the Billboard Hot 200 while their two projects didn't chart at all. Love calls her fame "a pound of flesh" to describe her image in Hollywood. She is well-known but she is also infamous, she is judged all the time and people still think that she killed Cobain. But that doesn't matter because "you're a star now" or Love is a star singer and actor with top billing. "Oh, Cinderella, they aren't sluts like you" could reference the gossip about female celebrities, no matter how young or innocent they are as there is always be someone talking about a woman in the public eye. Love ends the post-chorus with a question to anybody facing scrutiny in the public eye "Can you stand up or will you just fall down?"

I think the third verse speaks for it's, Love sings "You better watch out. Oh, what you wish for it better be worth it. So much to die for" as a sort of "all that glitters, is not gold." During the second post-chorus, Love realizes how hurtful fame can be as she saying that she feels used and that "It's all so sugarless." She mentions the four jobs that the public see women occupying "Hooker, waitress, Model, actress," Love has been all of these besides "hooker" but that didn't stop people from calling her one. She then says to "go nameless" because once society finds out what a women was, that's all they see her as. Love goes to describe herself again with "Honeysuckle, she's full of poison" which references that many people see her as beautiful but she is a rockstar with harsh lyrics. The lyric may also reference how many people think that she murdered her late husband, while the next one definitely mentions him. "She obliterated everything she kissed"addresses the rumors and how she feels like she is to blame for what happened to her husband. After Cobain's passing, Love finds herself "fading, somewhere in Hollywood." After all of this, Love has the fame game down to a science and is "not selling cheap."

The video for "Celebrity Skin" begins with Love falling which cuts to a chandelier falling, which I believe is a metaphor for her fame collapsing after being admired for so long. Love and the rest of Hole perform the song in a ballroom with purple clad princesses dangling from the ceiling with glitter and shine everywhere. Cut between this are scenes of Love and Melissa Auf der Maur, bass player at the time, lying in love chairs and gawking at the camera.

I love this song, I love the lyrics and I love Love's voice. The "Celebrity Skin" album an era are still extremely iconic to this day as it birthed a new generation of punks.

I give "Celebrity Skin" 4.6 has-beens out of 5

I hope you enjoyed my review. How do you feel about "Celebrity Skin"? Leave a comment and a request for Saturday down below.

I listed my sources below in case you are interested in reading more.

Take Care,

Jonathan