"Garbadge Man" is a song by the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band

Hole A hole is an opening in or through a particular medium, usually a solid body. Holes occur through natural and artificial processes, and may be useful for various purposes, or may represent a problem needing to be addressed in many fields of en ...

, written collectively by the band's original line-up. It is the third track on the band's first studio album, ''

Pretty on the Inside ''Pretty on the Inside'' is the debut studio album by American alternative rock band Hole, released on September 17, 1991, in the United States on Caroline Records. Produced by Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, and Gumball frontman Don Fleming, the al ...

'', released on September 17, 1991, by

Caroline Records Caroline Records is a record label originally founded in 1973. Initially founded in the United Kingdom to showcase British progressive rock groups, the label ceased releasing titles in 1976, and then re-emerged in the United States in 1986. ...

. Dealing with religious and personal issues, "Garbadge Man" was Hole's first song to have a

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

, which was broadcast on ''

120 Minutes ''120 Minutes'' is a television program in the United States dedicated to the alternative music genre, that originally aired on MTV from 1986 to 2000, and then aired on MTV's associate channel MTV2 from 2001 to 2003. After its cancellation, MTV ...

'' on

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

several times in the early 1990s. The song’s title, with a seemingly-misplaced "d," is intentionally misspelled. A ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born ...

'' review on Hole's live performance at Club Lingerie in

Hollywood, California Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios, such as Columbia Pictures, ...

, on May 23, 1991, written by

Everett True Everett True (born Jeremy Andrew Thackray on 21 April 1961) is an English music journalist and musician. He became interested in rock music after hearing The Residents, and formed a band with school friends. He has written and recorded as The ...

, a friend of the co-writers

Courtney Love Courtney Michelle Love (née Harrison; born July 9, 1964) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and actress. A figure in the alternative and grunge scenes of the 1990s, her career has spanned four decades. She rose to prominence as t ...

and

Eric Erlandson Eric Theodore Erlandson (born January 9, 1963) is an American musician, guitarist, and writer, primarily known as founding member, songwriter and lead guitarist of alternative rock band Hole from 1989 to 2002. He has also had several musical si ...

, clearly stated the grammatical error and the original register at BMI for copyright collect also has the "d" in "Garbadge".

Origin and recording

"Garbadge Man" is known to have been written before July 1990, as Hole performed an embryonic version of the song at a live performance at

Raji's Raji's was a rock and roll nightclub in central Hollywood, open in the 1980s and early 1990s. It was located in the Hastings Hotel building, 6160 Hollywood Blvd. The space had previously been occupied by a Greek restaurant called The King's Palac ...

in Hollywood on July 26, 1990, as part of an eight-song set. Diary entries from 1990, featured in '' Dirty Blonde: The Diaries of Courtney Love'' (2006), also reveal that the song was originally known as simply "Garbadge". The first and only known studio recording of the song was made in March 1991 at Music Box Studios in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, as part of the sessions for ''

'' (1991). The song was produced and engineered by

Kim Gordon Kim Althea Gordon (born April 28, 1953) is an American musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the bassist, guitarist, and vocalist of alternative rock band Sonic Youth. Born in Rochester, New York, she was raised in Los Angeles, Califor ...

Sonic Youth Sonic Youth was an American rock band based in New York City, formed in 1981. Founding members Thurston Moore (guitar, vocals), Kim Gordon (bass, vocals, guitar) and Lee Ranaldo (guitar, vocals) remained together for the entire history of the b ...

and Don Fleming of Gumball and mixed by the regular Hole engineer Brian Foxworthy. It was eventually featured as the third track on the album, which saw worldwide release in September 1991.

Composition and lyrics

The song is one of the more structured compositions on ''Pretty on the Inside'', with both its lyrics and music following a more standard verse-chorus-verse formula. The music was composed by the lead guitarist

, the bass guitarist

Jill Emery Hole was an American alternative rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1989. It was founded by singer Courtney Love and guitarist Eric Erlandson. It had several different bassists and drummers, the most prolific being drummer Patty Sch ...

and the drummer

Caroline Rue Hole was an American alternative rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1989. It was founded by singer Courtney Love and guitarist Eric Erlandson. It had several different bassists and drummers, the most prolific being drummer Patty Sc ...

with additions by Love, who focused primarily on lyrics. The musical content is heavily influenced by no wave and punk rock and resembles

noise rock Noise rock (sometimes called noise punk) is a noise music, noise-oriented style of experimental rock that spun off from punk rock in the 1980s. Drawing on movements such as minimal music, minimalism, industrial music, and New York hardcore, a ...

similar to Sonic Youth, with whom the album's sound was largely compared, due to the overuse of

feedback Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause-and-effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to ''feed back'' into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handled ...

and distorted guitars. Unlike other songs on the album, "Garbadge Man" was written in standard tuning. The verses are composed of four

barre chords In music, a barre chord (also spelled bar chord) is a type of chord on a guitar or other stringed instrument played by using one finger to press down multiple strings across a single fret of the fingerboard (like a bar pressing down the strings ...

(D5-E5-C5-G5) and one

major chord In music theory, a major chord is a chord that has a root, a major third, and a perfect fifth. When a chord comprises only these three notes, it is called a major triad. For example, the major triad built on C, called a C major triad, has pitch ...

(E) and use two distinctive guitar techniques: sliding and string muting. The song's chorus is repetitive, rearranging three of the five verse chords, and focusing largely on sliding. The lyrics, written solely by Love, narrate themes common in Hole songs from this period and also use vast amounts of

religious Religion is usually defined as a social system, social-cultural system of designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morality, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sacred site, sanctified places, prophecy, prophecie ...

imagery, similar to that in "

Turpentine Turpentine (which is also called spirit of turpentine, oil of turpentine, terebenthene, terebinthine and (colloquially) turps) is a fluid obtained by the distillation of resin harvested from living trees, mainly pines. Mainly used as a special ...

". The first verse explores religious decay and the chorus questions conventional religious ideals as well as lashing out at an unnamed person in the narrator's life. The end of the song references Love's feelings toward those around her, saying that every one of them "looks the same" and "feels the same". This theme of conformity was found in several songs on the band's second album, ''

Live Through This ''Live Through This'' is the second studio album by the American alternative rock band Hole, released on April 12, 1994, by DGC Records. Recorded in late 1993, it departed from the band's unpolished hardcore aesthetics to more refined melodies ...

'' (1994).

Music video

"Garbadge Man" was Hole's first song to receive a

, and the only video recorded for ''Pretty on the Inside'', even though it was not released as a single. Directed by an Kevin Kerslake, the video is extremely abstract, with no definitive visual characteristics other than major use of contrast and light. Some fans have interpreted this concept as a reflection of Hole's no wave influence at the time. Shots of Love and Rue asleep and drawing artwork in a trembling car are interspersed with shots of the band playing on a stage outside the car window. According to Love, she obtained original rolls of radiographic medical film from

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

that had been used in the

Vietnam war The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

, which the music video was then shot on, giving many of the images an

X-ray An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nb ...

-like appearance. The video was broadcast three times on

; in 1992 during an interview with Love and Gordon, again in 1994, and in 1995 as part of ''

''. However, it was never as popular as their later videos for ''

''(1994) and ''

Celebrity Skin ''Celebrity Skin'' is the third studio album by American alternative rock band Hole, released on September 8, 1998, in the United States on DGC Records and internationally on Geffen Records. It was the last album released by the band before the ...

'' (1998). For the music video, a different studio mix of the song was used. This mix, reputedly done solely by Gordon, diverged significantly from the final version featured on ''Pretty on the Inside''. In order to be broadcast, the mix censored the profanity in the song, down-tuned the song one-half step, and shortened the song by removing most of the feedback-laden coda. There were also several minor changes in phrasing, especially evident in the last verse. There is also a second version of the video with another slightly different mix of the song that removes the profanity but sounds closer to the album mix. Similarities include no vocal doubles on the chorus and a guitar sound that has less bass.

Personnel

;Musicians *

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

- guitar *

Bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

;Technical personnel *

- producer,

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

* Don Fleming - producer, engineer *Brian Foxworthy - engineer, mixing

References

{{authority control 1991 songs Hole (band) songs Songs written by Courtney Love Songs written by Eric Erlandson Music videos directed by Kevin Kerslake Song recordings produced by Don Fleming (musician) Songs critical of religion