SOTD: “Doll Parts”

The song “Doll Parts” began as a poem Courtney Love wrote expressing how Kurt Cobain made her feel. She wrote it in 1991 before the two started dating. In the song, she claims she “wants to be the girl with the most cake” referring to her desire to have everything she wants, the way she wants it —including perfect doll features. Love felt that she could never be enough for Kurt and that she wasn’t worthy of the love he gave to her. Her self-doubt was crippling. It caused her to feel as though she could never measure up to the legion of women and fans who desired Kurt. Love highlights her overwhelm by repeating “they really want you” multiple times, only to say “and I do too” once, evoking a message of powerlessness. The song was released in 1994, after Kurt's death, this led to the song conveying an entirely different meaning with layers of pain and the backlash she was suffering from at the time. When she and Kurt married, Love had a "k" tattooed on her stomach for him. In the second verse of "Doll Parts", “It stands for knife for the rest of my life," she refers to the tattoo, but that it is now seen as a reflection of the claims made against her, ones that blamed her for his death. (Click the picture to listen)