"Doll Parts"

Hole - "Doll Parts" (1994)

We all needed this song.



Released about six months after the death of her husband, and Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain, this was the catharsis song that Courtney Love, and many American teenagers needed. Of course, it turns out that Love wrote the song starting back in 1991, before anyone outside of Seattle had ever heard of Nirvana, Hole, or Cobain. Hole recorded the song in October of 1993 along with the rest of the songs for their second album Live Through This.  The first single off of the album "Miss World" was released in late March of 1993, and the album was released a few days later, but just as it climbed the charts, Kurt Cobain killed himself and the story changed. There was a lot of blame floating in the air, and a lot of anger. Fans wanted to grieve with Love, and yet wanted to blame someone for his unhappiness. Months later, soon after the video for "Doll Parts" was filmed, hole bassist Kristen Pfaff died of a drug overdose, so the release of the video and single was pushed back. When it finally was released, and we all heard Courtney Love crying and screaming about aching and loss it didn't matter that the song had been recorded a year before it was released, and more than six months after Cobain died; she was singing about him to us, and it was what we needed to hear.

"Interstate Love Song"

Stone Temple Pilots - "Interstate Love Song" (1994)

This song spent 15 weeks at #1 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks list. Not record breaking, but pretty impressive.



Great traveling song. The song is credited to Robert DeLeo and Scott Weiland, DeLeo was the band's basist and wrote the music, while Weiland wrote the lyrics. Many on the songs on the album were written by bassistt DeLeo, or his brother, guitarist Dean DeLeo, or by both of them. Weiland wrote all of the lyrics on Purple, an album that gave STP a huge following and three big singles. The bass does take a prominent roll in the song, both in the quiet more introspective sections, and in the louder parts where the brothers double each other in an almost Punk way. Robert DeLeo has said that when he was writing the song he based it on a bossa nova theme, particularly the works of Carlo Jobim. You can hear the beat in the drums right at the beginning. After that it's hard to really call it bossa nova, but it is a fun song for a bass player for sure.

The chorus includes the phrase '/leaving on a Southern train/" (Weiland), so many people on the internet have including the song in the southern rock genre, but I'm not really hearing it. Southern rock is rock influenced by country, bluegrass, or some other roots music. This is based in a Brazilian dance style and aside from that lyric and the electric guitar opening sounding sort of like a slide guitar, I'm just not buying it as Southern rock. Weiland is the vocalist on the track, so the harmony in the chorus is him multitracked with himself. I actually like the opening section, before the guitar gets fuzzy and the lyrics kick in. Nothing against Weiland, I think the whole song works, but after the intro it is really just a grunge song with a slightly different drum and a prominent bass player. The intro however is a perfect little 'what-could-have-been' if the pressures of a record label to make grunge music hadn't been so strong on this sophomore effort.

"Touch Me I'm Sick"

Mudhoney - Touch Me I'm Sick (1988)

Proto-Grunge



Vocalist Mark Arm is often credited as the first person to call the music that was coming out of Seattle "Grunge". This song is a pretty clear indication of where that came from. The song is growling vocals and distorted guitars. Sure there's a bass line and drums holding the shrieking swaying mass together, but mostly it's a repeated guitar riff on two heavily distorted guitars and a shouted vocal about diseases and rot. The and a half minutes, three chords and anger; like Punk but with more fuzz on the guitar.

"All Apologies"

Nirvana - All Apologies (1994)

I wrote this whole thing before I realized that I was supposed to be reviewing the Unplugged version. So you get a little of both.

It only takes 3:50 to go from the "Peaceful Happy Comfort"(Cobain-Come as You Are p32) opening to the raucous angry ending, with only the depressing/uplifting mantra "All in all is all we are" to take away.

There is a drone during the verses. Kris Novoselic plays that bottom note like his life depends on it. It's like a Didgeridoo or the lowest tone of a bagpipe. He still plays a standard baseline over it, but all through the verse and the "All in all" it never stops ringing. That repetitive guitar line sticks in your head like all the great ones. Listen to the riffs that kick off Day Tripper, (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction or 7 Nation Army for that matter and tell me that the riff for All Apologies is less catchy. During the chorus, the guitar really gets feedback heavy and loud. Dave Grohl keeps up, switching from a tom heavy beat during the verse, only using a cymbal every other measure to accenting every beat with one during the majority of the chorus.

There is a fourth performer on this track. One of two on the album, both the same performer. Kera Schaley is a cello player and was still in school when she got a call from producer Steve Albini. She was brought in to perform on Dumb. She wrote her part, then Kurt Cobain told her what to keep and what to cut. She performed, and he liked it enough to ask her to fool around on All Apologies. In an interview (last paragraph), she says that she was just fooling around and expected the part to get cut. the only part that Kurt insisted on was a few bars when everyone was going to play the same part. You can hear her playing along with Kurt's vocals at 1:42.

So this is the version that you still hear on the radio.

Firstly, I think Kurt sounds a little flat in a few places. Secondly, that's not cellist Kera Schaley on stage with the band, it's Lori Goldston, who apparently toured with the band during '93-'94. Third, they all look young, But Dave Grohl is a fricken' baby on that stage! He's 24 but he looks so much younger. Pat Smear on the other hand is looking good for 34.

The band added Pat Smear just a few months prior to the Unplugged performance. He's the one playing the much subdued riff. The whole song is subdued. 30 minutes ago I would have told you that the unplugged version was superior, but having now listened back to back to them both, while Kurt's vocals do seem to go to a completely new emotional level, the song loses something in not being able to get angry. Dave Grohl's harmony right at the end is pretty special though. Their last original song on their last album before Kurt killed himself, Kris became a political activist and Dave became one of the most in demand session drummers in rock. Oh yea, and founding one of the biggest bands in the world right now, Foo Fighters. But right then, in that moment, he was just the drummer, singing a little harmony. It should be noted that they are all playing acoustic/electrics not just straight acoustics with mics. On the other hand, the whole show was done in one take, like a concert,which must have been awesome for the audience.

Final thoughts: I like them both, but I'm going to give the edge to the cut off of In Utero because of that anger.

"River of Deceit"

Mad Season - River of Deceit (1995)

The other grunge supergroup.

Many people know Temple of the Dog, made up of members of Soundgarden and Pearl Jam (albeit before they became Pearl Jam). This group, Mad Season, was made up of members of Alice in Chains, The Walkabouts, Screaming Trees, and Pearl Jam. Released a year after the suicide of Kurt Cobain, as the grunge scene was dying; the song is in no way a light note. It is a down track that seems to be about the addiction that singer Layne Staley was fighting which would ultimately take his life. Like the songs on the Pearl Jam album Ten, this track was written as an instrumental jam and then the singer came along and added his vocals.

Musically, we've got a good track here. Not a great track, but nice. The drums are really sparse, mostly we hear a ride cymbal and 'click' of a drumstick on the edge of a snare. There is almost no tom or bass drum, and very little crash cymbal. This is of note because drummer Barrett Martin is known for his heavy tom use. At least, that's what the Internet says. Bass wise I have very little to say, he's holding the song together, but it doesn't resonate with me. Mike McCready is the primary lead guitarist for Pearl Jam. His guitar work here is very technically good. It's a little loose and jangly, but the song needed something to lift it up out of the darkness. I'm not feeling anything emotionally attached to the guitar parts, it's as I said earlier: the song was written as a instrumental jam, therefore it was always going to be a platform for something else. Staley's vocals are touching here. His lyrics are raw and the vocal sound really adds to your connection to them. As a platform for Staley, the song shines.