Music Review: Hole "Celebrity Skin"
Hole
from 
JoeUser Forums
JoeUser Forums
Celebrity Skin
Album: Celebrity Skin
Year: 1998
Courtney Love is disillusioned about stardom and Hollywood in the scathing "Celebrity Skin."
Virile guitars start the single. Love first attacks the perception of beauty. She says although she is already considered beautiful and praised for it, she needs to have more surgery. She's her own worst enemy. "Oh, make me over. I'm all I wanna be, a walking study - in demonology."
The single's refrain (the traditional verse-chorus-verse chorus is not used.) is next, with Love congratulating her new starlet friend on her current "It Girl" statuts. "Hey, so glad you could make it/Yeah, now you really made it/Hey, so glad you could make it now."
Love notes that celebrity is fading. She runs through the process every person who goes to California or New York for a life of constant admiration and immense wealth. They get a few auditions but mainly act in unknown plays, if they are lucky. They are replaceable by the next nubile young person arriving in LAX with big dreams. "Oh, look at my face/My name is 'might have been', my name is 'never was', my name's forgotten."
The refrain is sung again. However, she adds they are the truly human people left in Hollywood. "Hey, so glad you could make it/Yeah, now you really made it/Hey, there's only us left now."
Love discusses the pressure a celebrity feels to look perfectly made up every second of the day. She's obsessed with wearing makeup, even in her sleep. She views her closet, filled with expensive clothes and flowing dresses. However, she prefers to wear her sweatpants and a ratty t-shirt. The dress represents her former level of fame, which she longer has. Her friend is no longer considered riding Love's coattails. Her friend is an overnight sensation with a hit movie. She's a ingenue but yet vacuous. Inside, celebrities are a mess in gorgeous formal wear. She wonders if her friend will be handle being a star or if she will collapse. She warns her friend that fame is something she truly wants. Otherwise, she will find herself becomnig a new person, ruled by image and publicity. She's sacrificing herself. "When I wake up in my makeup/It's too early for that dress/Wilted and faded - somewhere in Hollywood/I'm glad I came here with your pound of flesh/No second billing, cause you're a star now!/Oh Cinderella, they aren't sluts like you/Beautiful garbage, beautiful dresses/Can you stand up, or will you just fall down?/You better watch out what you wish for/It better be worth it/So much to die for."
The second refrain is sung again.
In the last verse, she comments the Hollywood machine has chewed her up and spat her out already. The celebrity life is without substance. Everybody looks and acts the same. She knows of a cutthroat actress she nicknames Honeysuckle who screwed her way to fame. But all the directors, singers, and actors she slept with couldn't her keep her name in the papers. She only ruined their careers as well as her own. "When I wake up in my makeup/Have you ever felt so used up as this?/It's all so sugarless/Hooker/waitress/model/actress, oh, just go nameless/Honeysuckle, she's full of poison/She obliterated everything she kissed/Now she's fading - somewhere in Hollywood/I'm so glad I came here with your pound of flesh."
In the final refrain, she tells a green agent she won't return to Hollywood without being allowed to maintain a sense of self. "You want a part of me?/Well, I'm not selling cheap, no, I'm not selling cheap."
Love's downfall and disapperance from a promising future in movies is foreshadowed in the edgy "Celebrity Skin." From my speculation, she grew tired of being a pre-packaged image ("Versace Courtney, as I like to term the phase) which wasn't her at all. For a brief moment she was "Miss World," a character from her Live Through This album. And like Miss World, she wanted out of it.
"Celebrity Skin" is notable for deconstruction of Hollywood politics. It also has intelligent, solid lyrics ("It's all so sugarless/Hooker/waitress/model/actress, oh, just go nameless...Oh Cinderella, they aren't sluts like you...Oh, look at my face/My name is 'might've been,' my name is 'never was,' my name is forgotten") and a fierce rhythm. Love's gritty vocals pierce the shinier tone. Although the music is gussied up, Love offsets it which adds another layer to the song.
Album: Celebrity Skin
Year: 1998
Courtney Love is disillusioned about stardom and Hollywood in the scathing "Celebrity Skin."
Virile guitars start the single. Love first attacks the perception of beauty. She says although she is already considered beautiful and praised for it, she needs to have more surgery. She's her own worst enemy. "Oh, make me over. I'm all I wanna be, a walking study - in demonology."
The single's refrain (the traditional verse-chorus-verse chorus is not used.) is next, with Love congratulating her new starlet friend on her current "It Girl" statuts. "Hey, so glad you could make it/Yeah, now you really made it/Hey, so glad you could make it now."
Love notes that celebrity is fading. She runs through the process every person who goes to California or New York for a life of constant admiration and immense wealth. They get a few auditions but mainly act in unknown plays, if they are lucky. They are replaceable by the next nubile young person arriving in LAX with big dreams. "Oh, look at my face/My name is 'might have been', my name is 'never was', my name's forgotten."
The refrain is sung again. However, she adds they are the truly human people left in Hollywood. "Hey, so glad you could make it/Yeah, now you really made it/Hey, there's only us left now."
Love discusses the pressure a celebrity feels to look perfectly made up every second of the day. She's obsessed with wearing makeup, even in her sleep. She views her closet, filled with expensive clothes and flowing dresses. However, she prefers to wear her sweatpants and a ratty t-shirt. The dress represents her former level of fame, which she longer has. Her friend is no longer considered riding Love's coattails. Her friend is an overnight sensation with a hit movie. She's a ingenue but yet vacuous. Inside, celebrities are a mess in gorgeous formal wear. She wonders if her friend will be handle being a star or if she will collapse. She warns her friend that fame is something she truly wants. Otherwise, she will find herself becomnig a new person, ruled by image and publicity. She's sacrificing herself. "When I wake up in my makeup/It's too early for that dress/Wilted and faded - somewhere in Hollywood/I'm glad I came here with your pound of flesh/No second billing, cause you're a star now!/Oh Cinderella, they aren't sluts like you/Beautiful garbage, beautiful dresses/Can you stand up, or will you just fall down?/You better watch out what you wish for/It better be worth it/So much to die for."
The second refrain is sung again.
In the last verse, she comments the Hollywood machine has chewed her up and spat her out already. The celebrity life is without substance. Everybody looks and acts the same. She knows of a cutthroat actress she nicknames Honeysuckle who screwed her way to fame. But all the directors, singers, and actors she slept with couldn't her keep her name in the papers. She only ruined their careers as well as her own. "When I wake up in my makeup/Have you ever felt so used up as this?/It's all so sugarless/Hooker/waitress/model/actress, oh, just go nameless/Honeysuckle, she's full of poison/She obliterated everything she kissed/Now she's fading - somewhere in Hollywood/I'm so glad I came here with your pound of flesh."
In the final refrain, she tells a green agent she won't return to Hollywood without being allowed to maintain a sense of self. "You want a part of me?/Well, I'm not selling cheap, no, I'm not selling cheap."
Love's downfall and disapperance from a promising future in movies is foreshadowed in the edgy "Celebrity Skin." From my speculation, she grew tired of being a pre-packaged image ("Versace Courtney, as I like to term the phase) which wasn't her at all. For a brief moment she was "Miss World," a character from her Live Through This album. And like Miss World, she wanted out of it.
"Celebrity Skin" is notable for deconstruction of Hollywood politics. It also has intelligent, solid lyrics ("It's all so sugarless/Hooker/waitress/model/actress, oh, just go nameless...Oh Cinderella, they aren't sluts like you...Oh, look at my face/My name is 'might've been,' my name is 'never was,' my name is forgotten") and a fierce rhythm. Love's gritty vocals pierce the shinier tone. Although the music is gussied up, Love offsets it which adds another layer to the song.