Violet (Hole song)
   HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - Violet (Hole song)
OR:
Violet (Hole song) on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

"Violet" is a song by American
alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commerci ...
band
Hole A hole is an opening in or through a particular medium, usually a solid body. Holes occur through natural and artificial processes, and may be useful for various purposes, or may represent a problem needing to be addressed in many fields of en ...
, written by vocalist and guitarist
Courtney Love Courtney Michelle Love (née Harrison; born July 9, 1964) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and actress. A figure in the alternative and grunge scenes of the 1990s, her career has spanned four decades. She rose to prominence as ...
and guitarist
Eric Erlandson Eric Theodore Erlandson (born January 9, 1963) is an American musician, guitarist, and writer, primarily known as founding member, songwriter and lead guitarist of alternative rock band Hole from 1989 to 2002. He has also had several musical s ...
. The song was written in mid-1991, and was performed live between 1991 and 1992 during Hole's earlier tours, eventually appearing as the opening track on the band's second studio album ''
Live Through This ''Live Through This'' is the second studio album by the American alternative rock band Hole, released on April 12, 1994, by DGC Records. Recorded in late 1993, it departed from the band's unpolished hardcore aesthetics to more refined melodies ...
'' (1994). The song was released as the group's seventh single and the third from that album in early 1995. The lyrics of "Violet" were inspired by Love's tumultuous relationship with
Smashing Pumpkins Smash may refer to: People * Smash (wrestler) (born 1959), professional wrestler * Moondog Rex, another professional wrestler who briefly wrestled as the original Smash, before being replaced by the above. * DJ Smash, DJ and music producer Ar ...
frontman Billy Corgan in 1990. Several critics and scholars have noted parallels in the lyrics between Corgan as well as Love's late husband, Kurt Cobain. The themes of
sexual exploitation Sexual slavery and sexual exploitation is an attachment of any ownership right over one or more people with the intent of coercing or otherwise forcing them to engage in sexual activities. This includes forced labor, reducing a person to a s ...
, violence, self-abasement, and resentment, have also been noted, and some critics have compared elements of the song to the works of
Bessie Smith Bessie Smith (April 15, 1894 – September 26, 1937) was an American blues singer widely renowned during the Jazz Age. Nicknamed the " Empress of the Blues", she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1930s. Inducted into the Rock a ...
and Janis Joplin. "Violet" peaked at number 29 on the ''Billboard''s Modern Rock Tracks after the album's release in 1994, and is considered one of Hole's most well-known and critically recognized songs. It charted at number 116 on ''The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born'' list by ''
Blender A blender (sometimes called a mixer or liquidiser in British English) is a kitchen and laboratory appliance used to mix, crush, purée or emulsify food and other substances. A stationary blender consists of a blender container with a rotating me ...
'' magazine in 2005. The cover artwork for the single features a Victorian
mourning portrait A mourning portrait or deathbed portrait is a portrait of a person who has recently died, usually shown on their deathbed, or lying in repose, displayed for mourners. These were not rare in European homes of well-to-do people as a way of rememberi ...
of a deceased young girl which was acquired from the historical archives of Stanley Burns. A music video, released in 1995, features Love among numerous strippers performing in an early-20th century
dance hall Dance hall in its general meaning is a hall for dancing. From the earliest years of the twentieth century until the early 1960s, the dance hall was the popular forerunner of the discothèque or nightclub. The majority of towns and cities in ...
, contrasted with ballerinas and young girls dancing in an elegant theater.


Background and recording

Love began writing "Violet" in the summer of 1991, during a Hole tour before the release of the band's debut album,''
Pretty on the Inside ''Pretty on the Inside'' is the debut studio album by American alternative rock band Hole, released on September 17, 1991, in the United States on Caroline Records. Produced by Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, and Gumball frontman Don Fleming, the al ...
''; "Violet" lyrics appear on a flyer designed by Love to advertise a show at
Jabberjaw ''Jabberjaw'' is an American animated television series created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears and produced by Hanna-Barbera which aired 16 original episodes on ABC from September 11 to December 18, 1976. Reruns continued on ABC until September 3 ...
, a rock club in
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
, on August 7, 1991; she stated that she partly wrote the song at Jabberjaw. In a 1995 interview, she stated that she finished the song in the band's tour van outside St. Andrews Hall in
Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
,
Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...
during the band's sound check. As Love recalled, "
t was T, or t, is the twentieth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''tee'' (pronounced ), plural ''tees''. It is deri ...
on Halloween... we were opening for the
Laughing Hyenas Laughing Hyenas was an American post-hardcore band from Ann Arbor, Michigan, that existed from 1985 to 1995, fronted by Negative Approach vocalist John Brannon. According to AllMusic, "At first, the band specialized in dirges overlaid with the t ...
, and there were 40 people there. had heardfive songs from ''
Nevermind ''Nevermind'' is the second studio album by the American rock band Nirvana, released on September 24, 1991, by DGC Records. It was Nirvana's first release on a major label and the first to feature drummer Dave Grohl. Produced by Butch Vig, '' ...
'', and I was so jealous of those songs that I had to try to top them. I could not believe that somebody I knew, somebody from our underground, had written a batch of songs so fiercely great." The band played the song live in
Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
, Canada on November 1, 1991 during the band's tour to promote their first album, ''Pretty on the Inside''. Early versions of the song were played several times between 1991 and 1992 at other live performances. The first known studio version of "Violet" was recorded on November 19, 1991 at
Maida Vale Studios Maida Vale Studios is a complex of seven BBC sound studios, of which five are in regular use, in Delaware Road, Maida Vale, west London. It has been used to record thousands of classical music, popular music and drama sessions for BBC Radio 1 ...
as part of Hole's first radio session with
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
DJ John Peel. In October 1993, the band recorded the album version of the song as part of the ''Live Through This'' sessions at Triclops Studios in
Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...
. The recording from the 1991 Peel session was included on the band's 1995 EP '' Ask For It'', along with "
Doll Parts "Doll Parts" is a song by American alternative rock band Hole, written by vocalist and rhythm guitarist Courtney Love. The song was released as the band's sixth single and second from their second studio album, ''Live Through This'', in November ...
", which was recorded during the same studio visit. On both ''Live Through This'' and the individual single, the songwriting is credited collectively to Hole, however according to BMI's website, "Violet" was written only by Eric Erlandson and Courtney Love.


Composition

The song is composed of a series of 3-note
power chords A power chord (also fifth chord) is a colloquial name for a chord in guitar music, especially electric guitar, that consists of the root note and the fifth, as well as possibly octaves of those notes. Power chords are commonly played on ...
, and veers between "soft verses and harsher choruses." The verses of the song feature a singular chord progression composed of the power chords (E5-C5-G5). The choruses of the song feature a three-chord progression (E5-F5-G5), as well as a chord progression similar to that of the chorus (E5-C5-D5-A5). There are two guitars featured in the song, with Love playing clean rhythm guitar and Erlandson playing lead guitar with heavy
distortion In signal processing, distortion is the alteration of the original shape (or other characteristic) of a signal. In communications and electronics it means the alteration of the waveform of an information-bearing signal, such as an audio signa ...
. "Violet" was reputedly written about
The Smashing Pumpkins The Smashing Pumpkins (also referred to as simply Smashing Pumpkins) are an American alternative rock band from Chicago. Formed in 1988 by frontman and guitarist Billy Corgan, bassist D'arcy Wretzky, guitarist James Iha and drummer Jimmy Ch ...
frontman Billy Corgan, with whom Love had had a relationship with prior to her relationship with
Nirvana ( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...
frontman Kurt Cobain. On May 5, 1995, Love introduced the song on '' Later... with Jools Holland'' as "a song about a jerk, I hexed him and now he's losing his hair", which is seen as a reference to Corgan's hair loss. As a result of the reports that the song was written about Corgan, it was featured at No. 9 on ''
The Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. It was founded in 2008. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief from 2018 to 2021. In a 20 ...
s "14 Fiercest Breakup Songs" list in 2010. Variations of the song's lyrics, such as: "The sky turned violet / I want it again / And violent more violent", figure in a poem titled "Above The Boy" that Love wrote in 1991.


Analysis

Scholar Carol Siegel compared "Violet" to Janis Joplin's "
Piece of My Heart "Piece of My Heart" is a romantic soul love song written by Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns, originally recorded by Erma Franklin in 1967. Franklin's single peaked in December 1967 at number 10 on the ''Billboard'' Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles char ...
" as a "popular song styling of female sexuality at different points in white women's emancipation." Commenting on the song's lyrical content, she writes that "Love's body becomes the battleground upon which she meets and defeats males who would possess her." Siegel suggests that the song's lyrics toy with the idea of offering one's body for subjugation, but that Love shifts the power dynamic "at the moment of her offer...  she reasserts her control, not unlike
Bessie Smith Bessie Smith (April 15, 1894 – September 26, 1937) was an American blues singer widely renowned during the Jazz Age. Nicknamed the " Empress of the Blues", she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1930s. Inducted into the Rock a ...
challenging her listeners to deny that her body belongs to her, to destroy because it is she who chooses." Furthermore, Siegel suggests that the song's title itself alludes to the word "violate" as Love vocalizes it in her performance. Music critic Ronald Lankford echoes a similar sentiment, interpreting the song as being clearly written from the perspective of a woman speaking to her former lover, as well as "no one in particular," and also characterizes the song as a "mini-drama between lasting love and temporary fame." Other music scholars, such as Anwen Crawford, have drawn parallels between the song's lyrical references to amethyst and "little fish" to Kurt Cobain and Billy Corgan, both of whom were born in February (the month whose birthstone is amethyst), and whose
astrological sign In Western astrology, astrological signs are the twelve 30-degree sectors that make up Earth's 360-degree orbit around the Sun. The signs enumerate from the first day of spring, known as the First Point of Aries, which is the vernal equinox. ...
s are
Pisces Pisces may refer to: * Pisces, an obsolete (because of land vertebrates) taxonomic superclass including all fish * Pisces (astrology), an astrological sign * Pisces (constellation), a constellation **Pisces Overdensity, an overdensity of stars in ...
.


Reception

"Violet" was the band's third most popular single from ''Live Through This'', behind "Doll Parts" and " Miss World", charting at number 29 in the Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks in April 1995, and went on to become one of the band's signature songs. It was released as a single on February 8, 1995. The song was well-reviewed by critics. "''Live Through This'' is barely seconds old before Courtney takes 'Violet' by the horns and bellows, 'Go, take everything! Take everything, I dare you to!' in a manner guaranteed to have anyone who has ever given her so much as a surly glance watching their backs," noted Clark Collis in '' Select''. ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'' said of it: "With its daydream whispers and startling gunshot-guitar chorus, "Violet" shakes, rattles and roars like a godless marriage of "
Smells Like Teen Spirit "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is a song by the American rock band Nirvana. It is the opening track and lead single from the band's second album, ''Nevermind'' (1991), released on DGC Records. The unexpected success of the song propelled ''Neve ...
" and Fleetwood Mac's "Go Your Own Way."" The song was placed in a 2010 ''NME'' article titled ''Hole's 10 Finest Moments'', where it was referred to as "the quintessential Hole track" and a "titanic temper tantrum and exhilarating rush of inconsolable rage at full vent... "Go on, take everything, take everything I want you to", she bellows, turning powerlessness into power over riffs that swing from sweet and melancholy to boiling and volcanic on a dime." The song has been featured in several films, and in 2005 ranked at number 116 on ''The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born'' list by ''
Blender A blender (sometimes called a mixer or liquidiser in British English) is a kitchen and laboratory appliance used to mix, crush, purée or emulsify food and other substances. A stationary blender consists of a blender container with a rotating me ...
'' magazine.


Music video

The promotional music video for "Violet" was filmed in late 1994 and was directed by Mark Seliger and Fred Woodward. The video features a 1920s-era strip club with burlesque dancers, juxtaposed with footage of several young ballerinas and young girls dancing on a theatre stage. Writer Barbara O'Dair summarized the video as consisting of "innocent girls in tutus juxtaposed with naughty, fleshy sex-club dancers." Love pole dances in the music video in the period fashion, and is also featured in a tutu on the ballet stage with the girls. These scenes are integrated with footage of the band performing the song. The video follows themes discussed in the song, particularly Sexual slavery, sexual exploitation of women. According to Love, the content of the video was inspired by "LSD, acid flashbacks" and "old film stock". "I love old pornography," Love said, "But I wanted to at the same time, you know... all of the [music] videos for years that have put stripping or half-naked women on a pedestal, I wanted to sort of show the degrading experience that it is." Siegel notes that the music video replays Love's "well-known past as a stripper through performances that are more threatening than erotic." An article in ''Spin'' described the aged footage in the video as avant-garde. Many of the scenes in the video aesthetically mimic early-20th century silent films and talkies, with faux-aged cinematography and lapses in audio and visual synchronization. The music video was the first video to feature newly recruited bassist Melissa Auf der Maur after the death of Kristen Pfaff in June 1994. In a 1995 interview during the KROQ Weenie Roast, Auf der Maur commented on the music video's themes, citing "pornography versus ballet, strippers, and beautiful out-of-synch artwork".
/ref> According to drummer Patty Schemel, the dancers featured in the music video were actual strippers handpicked by Courtney Love from Jumbo's Clown Room, a Los Angeles dance bar where Love had worked in the 1980s. In 2021, ''Slant Magazine'' named it the 25th greatest music video of all time.


Track listing

All songs written by
Courtney Love Courtney Michelle Love (née Harrison; born July 9, 1964) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and actress. A figure in the alternative and grunge scenes of the 1990s, her career has spanned four decades. She rose to prominence as ...
and
Eric Erlandson Eric Theodore Erlandson (born January 9, 1963) is an American musician, guitarist, and writer, primarily known as founding member, songwriter and lead guitarist of alternative rock band Hole from 1989 to 2002. He has also had several musical s ...
, except where noted. US 7" single (GFS 94) #"Violet"3:25 #"Old Age (song), Old Age" (Love, Kurt Cobain)4:23 Australian CD single (GEFDS21979) #"Violet"3:25 #"Credit in the Straight World" (Young Marble Giants, Stuart Moxham)2:32 Dutch CD single (GED 22070) #"Violet"3:25 #"Old Age" (Love, Cobain)4:23 German (EFA 04961-2) and UK (GFSTD 94) CD singles #"Violet" – 3:25 #"Old Age" (Love, Cobain)4:23 #"He Hit Me (It Felt Like A Kiss), He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)" (Carole King, Gerry Goffin)3:48 #"Whose Porno You Burn (Black)" 3:44 UK 7" single (GSF 94) #"Violet"3:25 #"Old Age" (Love, Cobain)4:23 UK 7" single, violet vinyl (GFSP 94) #"Violet"3:25 #"He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)" (King, Goffin)3:48


Credits and personnel

Hole *
Courtney Love Courtney Michelle Love (née Harrison; born July 9, 1964) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and actress. A figure in the alternative and grunge scenes of the 1990s, her career has spanned four decades. She rose to prominence as ...
lead vocals, guitar *
Eric Erlandson Eric Theodore Erlandson (born January 9, 1963) is an American musician, guitarist, and writer, primarily known as founding member, songwriter and lead guitarist of alternative rock band Hole from 1989 to 2002. He has also had several musical s ...
guitar *Kristen Pfaffbass, backing vocals *Patty Schemeldrums, percussion Production *Paul Q. Kolderieproducer, Sound engineering, engineer *Sean Sladeproducer, engineer *Hal Willnerproducer *Levi Tecofskiengineering *Scott LittAudio mixing (recorded music), mixing *Pat McCarthy (record producer), Pat McCarthymixing


Charts


Notes


References


Sources

* * * * *


External links

* * {{Hole, state=collapsed Hole (band) songs 1995 singles Songs with feminist themes Grunge songs Songs written by Courtney Love Songs written by Eric Erlandson