In Defense of Courtney Love

In the past couple weeks, we've learned that women artists can be virgins or whores , or witchypoo sprites. Let's add another stereotype: damaged goods.
I had been planning on writing about Courtney since Gawker posted this video of Courtney and a friend playing The Replacements' "Unsatisfied."

"Paul Westerberg can legally murder Courtney Love now, because of this horrible thing she has done in a hotel room (probably NYC's The Standard) with some British tool playing "Unsatisfied" on guitar while wandering around putting mascara on and mumbling."

I'm still trying to figure out exactly what her crime is. Singing out of tune? That's justification for murder now? Oh yeah, there's that toying with the sacred and canonical* thing. Well what do you sound like when you're just casually playing music with your friends?

Full disclosure: I'm a huge Replacements fan, the kind of superfan that hangs out at message boards. I'm also a stealth defender of Ms. Love, so when this thing hit, and was inevitably reposted at my 'Mats board, I quietly commented that whatever the turmoil surrounding her at the moment, Courtney Love meant a lot to my musical development. I think it got lost in the "grrr, internet rage"nonsense. Apparently, I'm in the minority.

Now Courtney has a new album coming out in a few months. She's reformed Hole and already played one show in London that apparently went off without a hitch, but the blogosphere continues to trash her. In an article for Salon's Broadsheet, Judy Berman says of the music blogosphere's reaction to the not-yet released Nobody's Daughter:

Just about every publication that covers music is taking Wednesday's announcement of the record's label and release date as a chance to weigh in on the rock widow's crazy antics. At Philadelphia Weekly, the news came coupled with the perpetual question of whether Courtney Love is an "inspirational, influential, odds-overcoming tough-chick rocker, or manipulative, soulless, fame-grubbing monster." Dude site Heavy captions a photo of Love with the sarcastic quip, "How can you stand to miss this hotness?" and then (perhaps to meet some quota for the use of the word "hot") refers to her as a "hot mess." Meanwhile, the folks at New York magazine's Vulture prefer to describe Love as a "famous crazy lady" and close their post with an extra dose of schadenfreude: "We wish Love a smooth, uneventful promotional run, and look forward to the exact opposite of that happening."

This is especially poignant:

Listen, Courtney Love courts the press, and she also may be unstable. She may have (or have gotten over, depending who you believe) a drug problem. But how many male musicians can you name that fit this description?

Too many. And usually the talent overshadows the instability.

*Unsatisfied, long held as the favorite Replacement song. Not mine.