Video: Violet

Although Hole officially released "Violet" in 1995, Courtney Love and lead guitarist Eric Erlandson are known to have written lyrics for it as early as 1991, the same year in which it premiered live in Canada.

"Violet" was reputedly written about Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan, with whom Love had a relationship with. She even went as far as to introduce it before a live performance as "a song about a jerk, I hexed him and now he's losing his hair".



It's lyrics speak from the point of view of an angry narrator who has given up on a romance, with the verses: "Go on, take everything, take everything I want you to", and "I told you from the start, just how this would end/When I get what I want, I never want it again". The song also explores themes of sexual exploitation at the hands of others and of oneself.

Variations of it's lyrics, like "the sky turned violet/I want it again/and violent more violent", are from a poem titled "Above the Boy" that Love had written in 1991. The syntax of the words "violet" and "violent" bear similarity to lyrics from Patti Smith's "Kimberly" ("Burst from the barn and flames in a violent violet sky") which Love has cited as a major musical influence.

In a more general sense, the lyrics in the song allude to a person accepting and even enticing abuse. There is also some evidence that the song alludes to Love's days as a stripper since she has on occasion made reference to the "violet lights" in a strip club that she previously worked in. And the video continues this reference following the theme of sexual exploitation of women. The juxtaposition of young ballerinas onstage illustrates the dynamic between dancing as an art form and dancing for the sake of an onlookers visual and sexual gratification. According to Love, the content of the video was inspired by "acid flashbacks" and "old film stock".

"I love old pornography. 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." - Courtney Love

Get the "Violet" look, click here.