FEATURE:
Groovelines
Hole – Miss World
_________
ON 28th March….
Hole’s Miss World turns thirty. The first single from their second studio album, Live Through This (which is thirty next month), I wanted to go deeper with one of the defining songs of the 1990s. Written by Courtney Love and Eric Erlandson, this is a song that will be instantly recognisable to fans of Hole. One of their most-loved moments. I wanted to look ahead to that anniversary. Eric Erlandson and Courtney Love began writing Miss World in the summer of 1992 following the departure of former band members, Jill Emery and Caroline Rue. I will quote from Wikipedia:
“An early version of the song, recorded with drummer Patty Schemel and Love's husband and Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, was recorded in BMG Ariola Ltda in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on January 21, 1993. Featuring Love on lead guitar and vocals, recently recruited drummer Patty Schemel and Cobain on bass, the trio recorded the song, alongside others such as "She Walks on Me", "Softer, Softest" and "Closing Time", during breaks in Nirvana's session. Sound engineer Craig Montgomery stated that though some songs were "half-baked ideas", "'Miss World' was a fairly complete song at that point" and "'the most fleshed out song' of the session"
The band played the song live on July 15 and 16, 1993, during their performances at the Clapham Grand in London and at the Phoenix Festival in Stratford-upon-Avon, respectively. The official album version of the song was recorded as part of the Live Through This sessions at Triclops Studios in Atlanta, Georgia in October of that year”.
There are features and reviews of the fabulous Miss World. Even though the single does not turn thirty until next month, its promotional music video for was recorded in Los Angeles in February 1994. It is the only music video by Hole that features bassist Kristen Pfaff. Directed by the legendary Sophie Muller, it is the perfect accompaniment to the song’s lyrics and themes. There is a poignancy to Miss World. A week after its release – on 5th April, 1994 -, Kurt Cobain died. One of the most tragic and heartbreaking events of the 1990s, we lost an icon. A death that obviously deeply affected Courtney Love. Burning Blogger discussed this in the context of his review of Hole’s Miss World from 2014:
“A single so good and a video so superb, and also a song so precious to me, that I thought it was worth marking in a completely separate post.
Released on March 28th 1994, Miss World is a song that, like the entire album it preceded, has had a special place in the immortal playlist of my mind for twenty years. I think I may have said the same thing in a post about Nirvana’s In Utero album, but there comes a point where a work of art – in whatever medium – transcends beyond its initial nature, be it a painting, a film, a song or whatever else, and has been with you so long that it has become part of the fabric of your very consciousness, of your very life.
Although Doll Parts and Violet are more popularly thought of as the primary singles from Live Through This, it’s Miss World that was the first; and it has, especially because of its video, always seemed like the single that most acts as a microcosm of its parent album, in terms specifically of its evocative themes and imagery.
The superb Sophie Miller directed video features the same Carrie connotations and beauty-queen motif that characterizes the iconic Leilani Bishop cover image of the album. Being the single that preceded the album’s release, we can presume this was the deliberate idea.
The imagery is so resonant, the tone so perfectly captured, the essence of the song so powerfully evoked. Sophie Miller’s video is like a mini film in itself, as well as acting like a fitting thematic trailer for Live Through This.
This is Hole’s best music video, by far. The imagery is iconic. The whole thing – musically and visually – resonates powerfully.
Another reason I’ve always liked it so much is that it seems to capture the band as a whole (or as a Hole) in a way that other Hole videos didn’t do; although of course it’s always Courtney-centric, there’s nevertheless appropriate coverage given to Patti Schemel, Eric Erlandson, and Kristin Pfaff. I also think – I might be wrong – that it’s the only Hole video to properly feature Pfaff, who died barely a couple of months after the single was released.
Pfaff is said to have influenced the lyrics of the chorus, which she also provided haunting backing vocals for, her voice offsetting Courtney’s utterly hauntingly in the mix.
Wonderfully conceived and brilliantly executed, it really is a video perfectly tailored to so beautiful a song. No one makes music videos as tasteful and as beautifully conceived as this anymore. “Music is dead” is a tired, cliched thing to say these days, but in artistic terms there’s probably a case to be made that “Music videos are dead”, or at least dead as a meaningful art-form in itself and not just as over-indulgent promo material.
Another thing too I’ve always liked about the Miss World video, and about the song itself, is Courtney’s emotional nakedness and vulnerability; vulnerability not being a facet that often comes across in Courtney Love’s screen persona, even though it does in her music. The highly Carrie-influenced motif and the Courtney-as-Miss-World-character at the beauty pageant juxtaposes the same triumph/tragedy, elation/sadness duality that permeates the song and much of the Live Through This album.
With hindsight that duality also is all the more poignant in light of subsequent events; what’s extraordinary is that Kurt died precisely a week after the single’s release and a few days before the album’s release-date. What should’ve been Courtney’s and Hole’s creative and commercial triumph and a celebration of an extraordinary album was overshadowed, almost swallowed up, by that soul-destroying tragedy.
The themes and imagery seems so eerily prophetic: Live Through This itself was set up to be Courtney’s and Hole’s commercial and creative triumph or coronation – and instead, it was a moment or event marred by tragedy. You can see that distilled in the Miss World video: the triumphal coronation or homecoming is underpinned by an ever-present bittersweetness or sadness.
As for the song itself, it is of course superb. Tender, plaintive, even heartbreaking, but yet with a chorus that manages to be kick-arse and bittersweet at the same time. Written by Courtney and Eric Erlandson, that classic Courtney/Erlandson dual guitar dynamic is probably most memorable on this track of all the songs on the album, really evoking a perfectly bittersweet tone to act as vehicle for the lyrics in the same way the verse-guitars on Violet does, while the dual Courtney/Pfaff vocals for the chorus are just absolute perfection.
Lyrically, the song, though said by some to be partly about substance abuse, is more obviously a song about warped or damaged self-image, self-loathing, self-esteem, distorted body image, and a theme that seems to flow through a number of Love’s songs; that of the duality/paradox between inner beauty/ugliness and the outer ugliness/beauty as projected into the world and onto others.
It’s not even my favorite song on the album (which illustrates just how good that album is); I probably think Violet or Jennifer’s Body are better songs. But really that’s just minutiae, as it’s virtually impossible to separate the different tracks on that album, as that’s like taking apart chapters in a novel – the whole album is threaded together inextricably, Miss World being a vital piece of a larger story.
But even on its own, what an extraordinary song and how beautifully visualized in the art of video”.
In 2021, Rolling Stone revisited the classic and unforgettable video for Miss World. For anyone who was a teenager in the 1990s, this song and video would have resonated in some way. The first taste of the second album from the sensational Hole, I do think that Miss World deserves more airplay today. Such a strong and incredible single that didn’t really trouble the charts (though it reached thirteen in the U.S .Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart):
“THINGS GOT HEATED (or, shall we say, brutal) last week when Olivia Rodrigo announced her Sour Prom concert film, which featured a photo of her as a Gen Z Carrie wearing a tiara while holding a bouquet of roses. But as her mascara-streaked eyes gazed into the distance, trouble loomed ahead.
Within hours, Courtney Love pointed out the similarity between Rodrigo’s photo and the cover of Hole’s 1994 album Live Through This, and the two musicians had a heartfelt exchange about “twinning” (with Love playfully asking for flowers and a note). Instead of leaving it at that, Love then took to Facebook, where she responded to users’ comments a bit differently. “Does Disney teach kids reading and writing?” she wrote. “God knows. Let’s see. Yes, this is rude. Rage inducing? Honey if I had a dollar for everyone this happens? I’d be real rich!”
None of this is surprising — in fact, the exchange is reminiscent of Love and Lana Del Rey in 2012, when Love called out the singer for covering Nirvana’s “Heart-Shaped Box.” (“You do know the song is about my Vagina right?” she said). But Love and Del Rey formed a friendship following these comments. Hopefully, she’ll soon befriend Rodrigo, too.
But enough of that. Let’s revisit Hole’s “Miss World,” a legendary video soaked in beauty pageant glory and angsty riffs. Love stars as Miss World, who pampers herself before taking the stage in her signature kinderwhore outfit. With a backdrop that reads “Cleanliness Is Next to Godliness,” Love tears through the track with her band; it’s the only Hole video to feature the late bassist Kristen Pfaff, who assists on backing vocals.
As the video concludes, Love is crowned queen and gifted a bouquet. It’s Carrie but somehow more tragic, as Love sings lines like “Kill me pills” and “I’ve made my bed, I’ll die in it” that contrast with the glamour. What teenager — especially one of a younger generation who didn’t grow up with MTV — wouldn’t be enamored by it!”.
I will wrap up now. I will look at the thirtieth anniversary Live Through This closer to April. It is, in my opinion, one of the defining albums of the 1990s. Of course, one cannot really discuss it without also talking about Kurt Cobain. The first single from the album, Miss World, deserved a spotlight. Such a powerful and important song that has endured all these years. It turns thirty on 28th March. I wonder how Courtney Love feels about the track today. If you have not heard this song in a while, I would suggest that you…
PLAY it now.