How Dirty Girls Get Clean (The Rehab Demos)

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How Dirty Girls Get Clean
Studio album by Courtney Love
Released 2007[citation needed]
Recorded February 2006-March 2007, Los Angeles
Genre Grunge/Rock
Label Custard Records, dist. by Universal Music
Courtney Love chronology
America's Sweetheart
(2004)		 How Dirty Girls Get Clean
(2007)


How Dirty Girls Get Clean is the working title for the forthcoming sophomore solo album by American rock singer Courtney Love. A release date is not certain at this point, Love had stated a March 1, 2007 release was desired, but this wasn't accomplished. The record is yet to be mixed and Love has expressed interest in writing more songs for the record. Thus far, 21 different song titles have been mentioned in news articles chronicling Love's life after rehab and the progress of the album.[citation needed]

Contents

Album information

In September 2005, after violating a legal drug probation, Courtney Love was sentenced to a six-month program in a lock down rehabilitation center, which she was released after one half of the sentenced time and completed the other three months left in house arrest. During the period on the clinic, friend and producer Linda Perry visited Love and supported her by encouraging to write new songs, giving her a Martin acoustic guitar. The musician then borrowed a Panasonic compact cassette recorder and penned eight songs on rehab, among them "My Bedroom Walls", "The Depths of My Despair", "Sad But True" and "How Dirty Girls Get Clean".[1] She declared about the new guitar-playing and songwriting stint: "My hand-eye coordination was so bad, I didn't even know chords anymore. It was like my fingers were frozen. And I wasn't allowed to make noise (in rehab). So I'd sit there and try to quietly write and struggle. I never thought I would work again. No one is ever going to talk to me. I'm never going to get a record deal. I'm never going to get on stage again. So, I just kept writing. This is a very personal album."[2]

In November 2005, a few days after Love's release, she dubbed "The Rehab Tapes" demos with Perry and friend musician Billy Corgan. After having returned for the third time to her Nichiren Buddhist practice, Love allegedly started writing a song a day (according to her, the tune "Pacific Coast Highway" was written on a Los Angeles hotel at Christmas Eve, and "Never Go Hungry Again" was penned in the same day she got out of rehab). In a sequel, the trio put together a backup band to Love -- including guitarist Paul Thorn, bassist Paul Ill and drummer Nathan Washington -- and started recording the actual album, with Linda Perry in charge of production and Corgan as a guitarist and arranger. Anthony Rossomando (Dirty Pretty Things) and Ben Gordon (The Dead 60s) are also said to be present on the work as guest musicians.

In an September 2006 interview, Love declared that the album will be mixed in London by Danton Supple, best known for his work with Coldplay, and was predicted to be released in February 2007. However, in January the singer has stated on the news' comments section of her fansite MoonWashedRose.com that she has March 1 as a deadline for the release of the album. Otherwise, the work would only hit the stores in Winter, probably because of record company's issues. Love declared she "can't be a winter release", or else she would "go insane".[1]

She also confessed that she felt the album needed one more song for the work, which apparently had been written in January. On the same comment section above, Courtney describes the tune, which carries the working title of "Can You Make Me Cry", as being influenced by White Stripes, and she would be "fine-toothing" the lyrics and finishing it with Linda Perry on the following days.

In early February, more song info leaked on MoonWashedRose.com's news comments. According to another post by Courtney, there are more five songs that can be on the record, named "I See Red", "Too Much Dope", "In My Gutters", "Samantha" and "Honey". The last one was described as a "sexxx song (...) wich [sic] is really nasty and has an evil riff". [2] Love also added that she is considering "Samantha" as the first single.

Album Tracklisting

  1. "The Depths of My Despair"
  2. "Letter To God"
  3. "Sunset Marquis"
  4. "Sad But True"
  5. "My Bedroom Walls"
  6. "Pacific Coast Highway"
  7. "For Once In Your Life"
  8. "Nobody's Daughter"
  9. "Wildfire"
  10. "Loser Dust"
  11. "Never Go Hungry Again"
  12. "Happy Ending Story"
  13. "Stand Up Mother Fucker"
  14. "Good In Bed"
  15. "Can You Make Me Cry"
  16. "How Dirty Girls Get Clean"


All Songs Written & Composed By Courtney Love

Except:
Track 2 - (Linda Perry)
Tracks 3, 16, 20 - (Courtney Love/Billy Corgan/Linda Perry)
Tracks 7, 12, 15 - (Courtney Love/Linda Perry)
Track 8 - (Courtney Love/Linda Perry/Nathan Washington/Paul Ill/Pete Thorn)

Produced By Linda Perry, Billy Corgan & Courtney Love
© 2008 Custard Records, under exclusive license to Universal Music

Publishing:
Courtney Love - America's Sweetheart Music (BMI)
Linda Perry - Stuck In The Throat/Famous Music Corp. (ASCAP)
Billy Corgan - Echo Echo Tunes (BMI)

Recording Process

Billy Corgan and Linda Perry are the principal personnel involved in the recording of the album; Corgan has helped Love lay down some of the demos in the studio and assumed the role of guitar player on most of the songs, while Perry co-wrote some of the new tunes and is heading the production. She stated in a May 2006 interview: "my dedication right now is to bring back the queen of rock and roll, and that's Courtney Love... My job now is to make that (Courtney Love) rock and roll record that everybody's gonna love."[3]

Although she has had support from friends in the progress of the album, Love has clarified that most of the songs are indeed her own work: "Make no mistake, I've written these songs by myself. It's great to have good musicians, but this is me and a guitar."

Love said of 'Stand Up Motherfucker': "There was an incident where my novelist grandmother (author Paula Fox) said in the New York Times (that) she didn't like the way I used language. I reacted to that, and wrote an elegiac sort of song using the word 'motherfucker' in it."[4] She later declared about the song: "I was listening to a lot of Dylan and I wanted to do a snarling description of a real son of a bitch- someone I loathe - but someone who at the same time I'm totally in love with, but loathe myself for being so."

About the melancholic 'Sunset Marquis', Love stated that it's "self-explanatory. It's about someone who's really, really lost. Two people who are really, really lost who briefly find each other and then burn each other down because they're both just sad damned people and while one gets better the other one stays lost." It is possible that 'The Depths of My Despair' is a working title for 'Sunset Marquis'. The last verse of the song is "you're the depths of my despair" and Courtney later stated in an interview that 'Sunset' was the first tune to be penned at rehab.

The tracklist also contains Linda Perry's sequel to 'Beautiful' (recorded by Christina Aguilera): the piano-driven power ballad 'Letter to God', which was later "courtnified" by Love and Perry, recasting it in minor chords and adding what Perry calls "Courtney swagger."

The Dead 60s guitarist Ben Gordon met Love through friends and heard her play some of the new material in the studio. He told NME, "I had an amazing time. I think she's got some really good ideas. The songs sound fresh. Some of it has a (Bob) Dylan quality to it. It's quite raw and more personal". Gordon considered 'Sunset Marquis', named after a Los Angeles hotel, as one of the standout cuts: "It has a really good story in (the lyrics). It sounds like a classic Courtney Love song and feels like it could be a big hit."[5]

Poptones' boss Alan McGee also said in an interview that "she is in excellent shape. Her state of mind and being is the best that I've seen her in five years. Her Buddhist techniques are keeping her strong mentally and physically. And the songs? The songs are classic. They are acoustic demos but they are the strongest songs that I’ve heard out of Courtney in ages. They are heavy blues numbers... the one that they talked about in The Guardian, ‘How Dirty Girls Get Clean’, is a classic Courtney Love billowy number. And the others are like PJ Harvey, heavy rock blues on acoustic. I was just there as her mate and I’ve got to say that I’m really pleased that she’s got herself sorted."[6]

Live comeback

On May 1, Love officially returned to stage, playing at the Gay and Lesbian Community Centre benefit at the Henry Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles. With the help of Billy Corgan and Linda Perry, she played two of the new songs in acoustic versions: 'Sunset Marquis' and 'Pacific Coast Highway'.[7] Video clips of the performance surfaced in November on YouTube.com; 'Sunset Marquis' and small clip of "Pacific Coast Highway",[8] as well as a rare performance of Fleetwood Mac's classic 'Rhiannon'.[9]

A week later, Courtney played some of her new demos to NME magazine, and their observations have given fans valuable insight on how the new tracks sound. According to the reporters, "Pacific Coast Highway" is "a glam yet bruising pop ditty that, when treated with enough guitars, will sound gigantic". "Never Go Hungry Again" was described as "a soft country lament that, like most of the new songs, is about survival."

Courtney then treated the reporters to a private acoustic performance of a few more songs in her London hotel room: 'Stand Up Motherfucker', "which sounds better acoustic", 'Good In Bed' and 'How Dirty Girls Get Clean'. NME wrote that 'Stand Up Motherfucker' is "paid of with a killer chorus, boasting the line: 'I never was respectable but at least I was well dressed'." 'Good In Bed' is "based around the cheeky refrain, 'tell my why the evil people are so good in bed'", and "sounds like Love once again having fun." However 'How Dirty Girls Get Clean' is the track which Courtney is proudest, and is "not letting Billy touch because he'll put to many chords on it". NME labelled the track a "hard rocking autobiographical...and 'totally indulgent' tour de force." They wrote that the biggest surprise, though, is "that it's all brilliant."[10]

Record Deal

Love signed Linda Perry's label, Custard Records, for the release, and Universal Music -- company which Hole has been on a legal battle a few years ago for getting out of contract -- may be the worldwide distributor of the album. Love declared "not holding any grudges about it".[11] Round the same time, some of the new lyrics, like the title-track, 'Letter To God' and 'Sunset Marquis', plus excerpts from 'Sad But True' and 'Stand Up Motherfucker', leaked in Internet. Some of them (plus others, like 'My Bedroom Walls' and 'The Depths of My Despair') are featured n their original handwritten versions on Love's memoir/journal entry-collection hardcover book Dirty Blonde, released in October 2006.

In July, Perry talked again about working with Love in an interview with rock journalist Morley Seaver, from RocknWorld.com. Between great comments about Courtney's lyrics, emotional voice and rock'n'roll power, she revealed that "(...) Working on this record has been just a pleasure. It’s been a slow process because we’ve been really horning in on a vibe. Like the thing I wanted to do with Courtney is create a real cool vibe. There’s some fast songs on there, but the majority of it are kinda mid-tempo, hypnotic type songs, that, you just kinda get lost in her songs and then here’s her voice and all we’re doing musically is kinda creating a cool little landscape, an atmosphere for her to showcase her voice. And then there’ll be the big punky rock song but personally, I wanted to hear on this record with Courtney, who Courtney is at 42. She’s definitely not a stage diver, you know what I mean? She’s not going out play a concert and dive into the audience anymore. So I wanted to make a record with her that gave a little bit of Hole and who Courtney is right now, after the shit she’s been through because what people forgot about with Courtney is the music."[12]

First single rumours, documentary and song leakage

On August 6, New York Post gossip column pagesix reported that the title of the album's lead single is 'Letter To God', and Brett Ratner, director of "X-Men: The Last Stand" and friend of Love's, is set to direct the video. However these claims have not been verified by Love, Ratner or Custard Records and should generally be treated as rumours until more information surfaces.

A documentary about the making of the record and Love's post-rehab life improvement, entitled "The Return of Courtney Love", was directed by Will Yapp and aired on British TV network More4 on September 27. Among the songs whose excerpts appeared on the television program, there are 'How Dirty Girls Get Clean', 'Sunset Marquis', 'Letter to God', 'Pacific Coast Highway' and 'Stand Up Motherfucker', between others who remain unidentified.

In the same month, Moby, who was rumoured to be involved in the album's production at early stages, declared to Billboard: "Courtney sent me a CD of demos and I thought the music was remarkably good, It reminded me of Irish protest songs or old Bob Dylan. It was just her with an acoustic guitar."[13] Besides Dylan, -- mainly the album Blood on the Tracks -- Love has confirmed R.E.M., Radiohead, U2 and Fleetwood Mac as influences on the album.

In October 2006, during an interview for Rolling Stone's site concerning Dirty Blonde, the singer played an impromptu and "raspy, absurdly awesome" version of the track "Never Go Hungry Again". The comments were pleasant: "This proud confessional combines simple folk-rock soundcraft with the guttural scream and lyrical fire of a never-to-be-retired riot grrrl (...) It's 1994 all over again. Damn."[14] In early November, a rough recording of the song, which Courtney has written by herself, leaked in Internet from a podcast interview for The Times.[15]

In late November, Courtney exclusively played two separate clips of "Pacific Coast Highway" from the unmixed album on BBC Radio 4's Women's Hour and Russell Brand's Radio Show. Recently, Love's fansite MoonWashedRose.com posted a rather polished clip of "Pacific Coast Highway" on its website.

Management deal and artwork

By the end of January 2007, Love signed with The Firm, notorious Californian management company, for representing her on the sale of the upcoming album. Press comments on previews of the album are rather positive, rating it as a potential masterpiece and even comparing the work to Marianne Faithfull's Broken English, Patti Smith's Horses and The Eagles' Hotel California.[16]

It is also known that David LaChapelle is slated to do the cover artwork, according to Love's posts on MoonWashedRose.com.

Internet Links

01. http://www.courtneylove.com (Official Courtney Love site COMING SOON)
02. http://www.custardrecords.com (Linda Perry's Official Custard Records site)
03. http://www.moonwashedrose.com (MoonWashedRose - Courtney Fansite)

References

  1. ^ Enduring Love
  2. ^ Billboard: Love Wants Her Throne Back On New Album
  3. ^ Linda Perry Wants To Save 'Queen of Rock and Roll' Courtney Love
  4. ^ Courtney Is Cleared, Ready To Rock
  5. ^ Courtney Love Gets UK Stars on New Album
  6. ^ Alan in LA with Dirty Pretty Things and Courtney Love!
  7. ^ Courtney Love Makes Shock Live Appearance
  8. ^ Sunset Marquis and Pacific Coast Highway Live at the Henry Fonda Theatre
  9. ^ Rhiannon Live at the Henry Fonda Theatre
  10. ^ "What do Dave and Krist think about me selling the Nirvana rights? Tough shit!"
  11. ^ Courtney Love to Play London’s West End
  12. ^ RocknWorld.com: MorleyView: Linda Perry interview
  13. ^ New Courtney Love Songs Like 'Old Bob Dylan'
  14. ^ Rolling Stone: We Remember to Eat, Courtney Love Joins Us
  15. ^ TheTimes.co.uk - Podcasts
  16. ^ FOXNews.com - Courtney Love's New Album Could Be a Masterpiece
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