Billy Corgan is looking to take home a very personal piece of alt-rock history — Courtney Love’s handwritten lyrics for Hole’s “Violet,” which were partly inspired by their relationship.
Love donated the lyrics to be raffled off as part of a fundraiser for the Ellis Park Wildlife Sanctuary in Indonesia (co-founded by Bad Seeds member and Nick Cave collaborator, Warren Ellis). Raffle tickets are currently on sale for £10 a pop (or £20 for three) through Dec. 15. Corgan, for his part, shared a video on social media boosting the fundraiser and confirming that he’d entered the raffle with the three-for-£20 deal because, “I’m in it to win it.”
In the clip, Corgan showed off his ticket and remarked, “Now, it’s made a lot of press this week that this auction’s going off. So, I’ve actually bought my ticket because I’d like to win these lyrics.” He then quipped, “I think it’s about a guy I know a little bit about and I’d love to put that on my wall.”
“Violet” famously opened Hole’s classic 1994 album, Live Through This, though Love wrote it three years prior before the band kicked off their tour in support of their debut, Pretty on the Inside. Corgan and Love briefly dated in the early Nineties, leading many to believe “Violet” was about their relationship. Love further cemented that legend during a 1995 performance on Later… With Jools Holland when she introduced “Violet” as a “song about a jerk,” then cracked: “I hexed him and now he’s losing his hair.”
Love, for her part, recently clarified all that speculation in a statement shared with NME after she donated the “Violet” lyrics to the raffle. While she definitely did not deny the song was about Corgan, she did say: “It’s not just about Billy Corgan, as many might assume; it’s about sitting on the fire escape of his flat, sipping cheap wine and taking a Vicodin (oh, to be young!) while the Chicago sun sets, leaving behind a bejewelled amethyst sky.”
She added: “Sometimes I just channel whatever comes. I realize my comment on Jools Holland was a bit mean — I was just being bitchy beefy. But someone has to uphold the standards of good faith beef!”
Love went on to explain some of the other inspirations behind “Violet,” including Alexander Pope’s narrative poem, The Dunciad, as well as a poem by Emily Brontë (though Love admitted she “ultimately decided to cross” that part out).
“The rhyme scheme is good but it felt too much like imitation — I was trying being ‘method,’ but it ended up feeling excessive,” she said, adding: “The piece also touches on the theme of being caught between two boys —representing the angel and devil within me, as well as my own nature. There’s a line that mentions ‘Danny’s new number,’ referring either to Goldberg or a drug dealer — another Danny, known as ‘Bobby Bones,’ who Flea will remember. Yikes!”
Corgan, in his video boosting the fundraiser, also included a short text note where he claimed to have made a small, uncredited contribution to “Violet”: “[Love] forgot to mention that I wrote one of the heart-rending couplets contained therein. But I will always love this song. Love you Court.”
