"Turpentine" is a song by the American

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 mainstream or commerci ...

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 ...

. It was written by vocalist and rhythm guitarist

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 ...

and lead guitarist

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 s ...

. The song was one of the band's first compositions and remained unreleased for seven years before being released on the band's second EP, '' The First Session'' on August 26, 1997. Although not as well known as Hole's later songs, "Turpentine" is a notable song for the band as it is often cited as "the first Hole song."

Origin and recording

"Turpentine" was reputedly the first song written for Hole, with the music composed

and the lyrics written by

. The song is known to have been written as early as November 1989 as Hole performed the song during their third live show in Huntington Beach, California on November 11, 1989. However, some of the lyrics of the song seem to have been written by Love earlier with the line "my water breaks like turpentine" appearing in a poem written by Love in the mid-late 1980s which also features lines that would later appear in "Loaded", a track on Hole's debut 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 ...

'' (1991). The first and only known studio version of the song was recorded on March 17, 1990 during Hole's first studio session at Rudy's Rising Star, a "tiny ... basement studio" in

Los Angeles, California 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' ...

after

Sympathy for the Record Industry Sympathy for the Record Industry (also known as Sympathy Records or Sympathy 4 the R.I.) is a mainly independent garage rock and punk label formed in 1988 by Long Gone John. The first Sympathy release was the Lazy Cowgirls' ''Radio Cowgirl'' ...

's president, Long Gone John, gave the band a budget of $500 to record their first single, "

Retard Girl "Retard Girl" is the debut single by American alternative rock band Hole, written by vocalist and guitarist Courtney Love, and released in April 1990 by Sympathy for the Record Industry. Recorded in March 1990, the single was produced by Love's ...

Composition

Music

The musical content of "Turpentine" is highly influenced by punk rock,

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

and no wave music. The song's chord progression shifts throughout the song with the verse riff being composed with four

chord progression In a musical composition, a chord progression or harmonic progression (informally chord changes, used as a plural) is a succession of chords. Chord progressions are the foundation of harmony in Western musical tradition from the common practice ...

. The pre-chorus uses a two chord progression which is widely used in punk music and further progressions baring resemblance to no wave music. In the studio version of the song, the guitars are tuned down and throughout the entirety of the song use

distortion In signal processing, distortion is the alteration of the original shape (or other characteristic) of a signal. In communications and electronics it means the alteration of the waveform of an information-bearing signal, such as an audio signa ...

and the drums are also emphasised in the song. The song follows an A-B-C-A musical form.

Lyrics

"Turpentine" is typical of Love's writing standards at the time, using sardonic and cryptic imagery as well as the frequent usage of derogatory terms. The song, however, also uses religious imagery, most obvious in the line "I know all you devils by your Christian names" and "bless my body / bless my soul." One interpretation of the song's lyrics refers to it as Love's "mockery on ...

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

." However, there are also several allusions to themes such as alienation and self-image, both of which are significant themes in lyrics on ''Pretty on the Inside'' and also ''

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). One of the main lyrics of the song ("my water breaks like turpentine") was also later featured as a lyric on "20 Years in the Dakota," a song recorded in 1992 and released on the " Beautiful Son" single and similarly, a large proportion of the lyrics were featured, alongside the lyrics to "Burn Black," on "Amen," an outtake from ''

Nobody's Daughter ''Nobody's Daughter'' is the fourth and final studio album by the American alternative rock band Hole, released on April 23, 2010, by Mercury Records. The album was initially conceived as a solo project and follow-up to the Hole frontwoman Courtn ...

'' (2010).

Personnel

;Hole *

–

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 withou ...

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 strin ...

– guitar * Jill Emery – bass *

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 ...

– drums,

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. Ex ...

;Technical personnel *James Moreland – 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 limit ...

*Eric Erlandson – additional producer *John Vestman – mastering

References

{{Hole Hole (band) songs 1990 songs Songs written by Courtney Love Songs written by Eric Erlandson