12 More Songs That Are Most Likely About Courtney Love
As you might know, Courtney Love is a controversial figure. She fronted trailblazing alt rockers Hole, racked up Modern Rock Radio hallmarks like “Violet”, “Miss World” and “Celebrity Skin”. However most know her for her famous husband and or her contentious public persona. And because of that she’s accrued an array of enemies, and some of those enemies have written songs to express their complicated feelings. Nearly eight years ago I talked about how “I’ll Stick Around”, “Hollaback Girl” and a few other alternative hits are probably about her. Well here’s the sequel: These are some more songs that are maybe, probably about Courtney Love.
#courtneylove #alternativerock #musicdocumentary
Fact-checking by Chad Van Wagner.
Soundtrack
Luar – Citrine (https://soundcloud.com/luarbeats)
Jesse Gallagher – The Golden Present
Luar – Anchor (https://soundcloud.com/luarbeats)
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Sources
Everybody Loves Our Town: A History of Grunge by Mark Yarm, 2011, Faber & Faber
Siamese Dream Reissue Liner Notes by Billy Corgan, 2011, Virgin
“Strange Love: The Story of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love” Lynn Hirshberg, Vanity Fair, Sep 1992
“Courtney Love: Life Without Kurt” David Fricke, Rolling Stone, Dec 1994
“The Art Of Darkness” Chris Heath, Details Magazine, Apr 1995
“Ex-Nymph Inger Lorre Pens Retort To Hole’s ‘Sassy’” Carrie Borzillo, ALLSTAR, Jul 1998
“New Radicals Discuss Slighting Marilyn Manson And Courtney Love, Manson Responds” MTV Staff, MTV News, Dec 1998
“New Radicals Song Misunderstood, Singer Says” Gianni Sibilla, MTV News, Mar 1999
“Inger Lorre, Patron Saint of F–ked-over Musicians” Sarah Luck Pearson, LA Weekly, Mar 1999
“Garbage: Cash For Questions With Shirley Manson” David Quantick, Q, Jun 2000
“Courtney Love Sues Grohl And Novoselic, Blocks Nirvana Rarity” Teri vanHorn, MTV News, Jun 2001
“I Want A Fight” Paul Elliott, Q Magazine, January 2002
“The Nirvana Wars” Jim DeRogatis Spin Magazine, Jun 2002
“Who’s Scruffy Lookin’? An Interview with Parry Grip of Nerf Herder” Julio Diaz, INK19, Aug 2002
“Trial by fire” Alex Needham, NME, Sep 2003
“liveDaily Interview: Zac Hanson of Hanson” Christina Fuoco, liveDaily, Jul 2004
“No turning Beck” Simon Mills, The Sunday Times, Jul 2005
“First Cuts: An audience with Courtney Love” John Lewis, Uncut Magazine, Aug 2010
“The First Time with Courtney Love” Matt Everitt, BBC Radio 6, Oct 2014
“Courtney Love Claims to Be Inspiration for Tons of Smashing Pumpkins Songs” James Grebey, Spin Magazine, Oct 2014
“11 diss tracks that are probably about Courtney Love” Molly Eichel, Joshua Alston & Annie Zaleski, AV Club, Mar 2016
“To Courtney With Love” Stuart Green, Exclaim, Nov 2016
“From ‘The Burdens of Being Upright’ to ‘Modern Burdens’. By: Tracy Bonham” Jeff Gorra, Artist Waves, Mar 2017
“No Apologies: All 102 Nirvana Songs Ranked” Rolling Stone Staff, Rolling Stone, Jun 2021
“‘I Will Crawl Away For Good’: 20 Years Ago, Nirvana Reconquered Modern Rock With an Uncanny Old New Song” Brad Shoup & Andrew Unterberger, Billboard, Mar 2022
““Oh God, it’s hard to listen to”: The story behind Nirvana’s final song, You Know You’re Right” Paul Brannigan, Louder, Jan 2023
“Garbage’s Shirley Manson and Butch Vig on the early days of the band, forthcoming album + more!” Nicole Alvarez, KROQ 90s At Noon, May 2025
“The Attitude That Launched a Thousand Diss Tracks: 4 Songs Inspired by Courtney Love” Lauren Boisvert, VICE, Aug 2025
“The two REM songs Courtney Love thinks are about her: “We’ve been through fake-a-breakdown”” Jordan Potter, Far Out Magazine, Feb 2026
@TrashTheory
March 28, 2026 at 3:30 am
Every now and then I get people asking for a playlist of every song mentioned in my videos: Well here's a Apple Music link for this one:
https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/more-songs-that-are-probably-about-courtney-love/pl.u-NpXm6p4u4J0prvx
And the YouTube Music one:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLooaZ33lSalf5mN53dwfoL1YGJrwx8gR0&si=0uE-INH-CF_fdPLA
@Madkalibyr
March 28, 2026 at 3:30 am
10:29 ngl this band sucks
@retroman3075
March 28, 2026 at 3:30 am
Ive always felt that Courtney love is to music, what Andy Dick is to comedy
@MrDLOC11
March 28, 2026 at 3:30 am
Has anyone mentioned Echo & the Bunnymen's The Back Of Love yet?
@trevor_basic
March 28, 2026 at 3:30 am
based just on the thubnail. i think your the crazy obsessed one. your content is always good. but again with this. maybe this is a you problem?
@dxfifa
March 28, 2026 at 3:30 am
Another one is Ricochet by Faith No More
@lukehauser1182
March 28, 2026 at 3:30 am
had no idea Courtney songs were a whole genre – I need to get my team on it!
@daisy-mae-turnips
March 28, 2026 at 3:30 am
Honestly, I think if somebody wanted to get into 90's rock I'd probably recommend Hole because Courtney Love is so interconnected with so many bands. I've found a lot of cool artists just by looking up who she's mentioned or who mentioned her.
@Syt-s3n
March 28, 2026 at 3:30 am
Whatever the truth is behind whether these songs were a reference to her, there is one thing that cannot be disputed:
Love is a pretty repulsive person. As was Kurt at times. Makes sense how they ended up together…..
@hyperbaroque
March 28, 2026 at 3:30 am
Wait, these ones are the most well-known ones. You mean to tell me there are 2 other episodes that are more obscure? Why aren't they linked in the bio holy heck
@davidmatheny1993
March 28, 2026 at 3:30 am
A legacy sequel I think none of us will complain about!
@CGEANE
March 28, 2026 at 3:30 am
Shanri-La Dee Da is criminally underrated.
@thevoid99
March 28, 2026 at 3:30 am
i HATE "you get what you give" and the new radicals. one of the most overplayed songs i have to endure. i think some of the stuff about courtney was unfair although seeing her taking a picture with marilyn manson isn't helping her cause.
@MrMmnngghh
March 28, 2026 at 3:30 am
Tell me you didn't deadpan through a Gene Wonka Willy Wilder chorus @ 20:23. That's cheeky.
@Pbearadactyl
March 28, 2026 at 3:30 am
She definitely faced a lot of misogyny in the 90s, but has also said and done a lot of awful things. There was definitely a negative feedback loop between the two things.
@form347
March 28, 2026 at 3:30 am
Always been amazed how far Courtney went with very little talent </opinion>
@demiller74
March 28, 2026 at 3:30 am
We need more songs about Courtney Love.
@RaverHates
March 28, 2026 at 3:30 am
It's been 8 years?!?! I hate time 😢
@Eric_Hunt194
March 28, 2026 at 3:30 am
Imagine your only defender being terrorist apologist Shirley Manson. Pretty awkward ngl
@menwithven8114
March 28, 2026 at 3:30 am
Come on man!!! I refuse to believe all of these artists made songs about her lol She has zero redeeming qualities. She has never been "hot" and I was a teenager in the 90s. Ive also never seen or her talk about anything good at all. Im genuinely curious because it means behind all of public perception there's something that makes me infatuated
@draugrdraugr
March 28, 2026 at 3:30 am
She features in the Epstein files too. Truly a horrible person
@baeb66
March 28, 2026 at 3:30 am
"Manson was the only one to get snippy" – of course he was. Everything about that guy was fake and forced.
Comments are closed.