Courtney takes over 6Music

Last week, Courtney Love took over BBC 6music for the day.

She was let loose on the BBC archives (lucky cow) and was allowed to pick and introduce tracks to play throughout the day. It was a great selection and mainly 70's and alternative 80's tracks. In the absence of being able to record from digital radio and only being able to listen to the tracks for a week until they disappear from the 6music site, I have been really geeky and transcribed her introductions and put the odd Youtube link to some of the music she played (where I could find the songs she chose, in other places I have taken the liberty of choosing another track by the artist in its place):

First of all, Courtney's Album of the Day was REM's Reckoning and from that they played a number of tracks:

7 Chinese Brothers
"I chose REM's Reckoning as Album of the Day because I don't know, for me it captures a moment in time in my life when I had just returned from Liverpool, I'd lived in Liverpool and had been exposed to The Bunneymen, been around all of the great Mancunian bands and seen like New Order's second show at the Hacienda and was completely Anglophiled out and I came back to Portland, Oregon and I saw REM's Chronic Town in a window and was so happy there was an American band that I could like and Reckoning is really symbolic of the time that I lived in San Francisco and first met this girl named Kat that went on to form a band called Babes in Toyland and I started Hole and we were just listening to Reckoning the whole time and we went to Fairfax High for a little while with Flea and Anthony from the Chili Peppers and Lenny Kravitz, whose name at the time was Remeo Blue so I just kinda lost the REM record. The first track I chose is 7 Chinese Brothers and I like it cos its like Michael Stipe's mumbling period when nobody (including him) knew what he was singing, nobody knew except for the part where he sings "7 Chinese Brothers swallowing the ocean" and the rest of it is just mumbling, it's great."

So Central Rain
"This song is err... So Central Rain. It's the famous 'I'm Sorry' song, its so wonderful, its such a great song. I love the refrain of the chorus. It's one of my favourite REM songs in the world. I love this song."

Pretty Persuasion
"The third track I'm picking is Pretty Persuasion because a) its one of my favourite REM songs ever and b) when I asked Michael about this he told me that when he and Peter Buck were living in this church in Athens, Georgia he had a dream that he had this early Stones album, it was called Pretty Persuasion, he could see the album cover they were on the dock in front of the Thames and it was this great Stones album and he woke up and had to write this song and I thought it was even more genius because of that. Sometimes whenever I hang out or are even around him, this song will start going through my head and I go, "Oh my god, I know the guy who wrote Pretty Persuasion. He's my friend."

Don't go back to Rockville
"Mike Mills wrote this song... err... Mike Mills is the bass player in REM, he's a great guy... I made out with him once. It's like kiss and tell... No, I wanted to play it cos it's such a good song and its really in the err... context of this record there's a lot of non-linear songs and Don't go back to Rockville is a really linear pop song and that's why I like it."

The Beatles - Cry Baby Cry

"This is my favourite Beatles song, it's a John Lennon Song it's called Cry Baby Cry, it's off The White Album. I don't know why, I can't play this song for the life of me, there's too many B's and F's and dropped chords, it's just a gorgeous song." (Video)

Nirvana - Been A Son (Evening Session, September 1991)
"The first time that I saw a Nirvana record was a single of Lovebuzz and Kurt was wearing a Harley Davidson T-shirt and I thought he was a total tosser and from that I thought what is this long haired, icky guy doing in a Harley Davidson shirt and I saw him, no, I saw him first and he was really cute and kinda clever and I i'd met him and the single and I had a choice between a Nirvana record or a Cat Butt album. No one remembers Cat Butt, but I bought the Cat Butt album but it was around the time that Sliver was recorded and it had a b-side called Dive that I was like, "Who was that cute guy that can write songs? Oh my god. I think I wanna go on tour with him." So, I really, really chanced to get a Nirvana tour and then I just ended up going out with the guy err this is one of Kurt's really good songs, it's called Been a Son and was recorded for The Evening Session in September 1991 and I was around..." (Video)

Robots in Disguise - Hot Gossip
"I met this girl one night, I was in London, I meet a lot of people who give me lots of records and erm I met this girl named Dean she was very funny and she hangs out with Noel Fielding from The Mighty Boosh and she's really a force of nature in her own self and she's got a band called Robots in Disguise and erm it was just a bunch of people and I'm not gonna name drop, oh I can't tell the whole story cos there's drugs involved... erm anyway, what ended up happening is it was about 3 in the morning and we were at Claridges and my record was just not working with the mood of the room, we had my record, a rough mix of my record which is much much more mellow but put on the Robots in Disguise record and the whole mood and this song Hot Gossip is the second single off their record." (Video)

Joy Division - Love will tear us apart (Peel Session 1979)

"This next track is a session version of probaby one of my favourite song in the whole world, which is Love Will Tear Us Apart by the great Joy Division erm it was recorded in 1979 for John Peel which makes it all the more great, I think. I never saw Joy Division, I'm old but I'm not that old. I've been figuring out a way to cover this song for years and years and recently I had Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins living in my house and we worked on an arrangement for it y'know because this is like remaking All About Eve or Gone with the Wind, you shouldn't touch the damn song unless you really really know what you are doing and to cover it would be sacriledge.. y'know we thought if we could get Peter Hook to play bass and we could re-arrange it... y'know we might be able to do something with it... it's sort of a work in progress. I... it's one of my Top 5 songs of all time." (Video)

U2 - I will follow (BBC Session 1980)
"I had this very small trust fund, enough to get through college and I lied and said I'd been accepted into Trinity College, in Dublin. Boy had already come out in America and I lived for a very brief period of time in a town called Drada, in County Meath. I then went into Dublin and got a shamrock tatooed on my ankle which has then been expanded into a bracelet of shamrocks and those guys from U2, whenever I see them I like raise my leg and show them and they're like "Yeah, we know you have a shamrock. We've seen it Courtney, a million times." But I think I liked U2 first before anybody else in my circle and I was so excited to be living in Dublin because The Boomtown Rats and U2 were from there, I really liked the Boomtown Rats too and it's really weird, my book came out last week in America and U2's book came out and my book sold more than U2's and like the idea that I could sell more of anything than U2 freaks me out so much, I can't even believe it. This is I Will Follow and its taken from a session that they recorded." (Video)

Boomtown Rats Video (Just for the hell of it)


Peter and Gordon - World Without Love
"I'm managed by the great, legendary Peter Asher who was, at one point, Paul McCartney's very best friend and Paul McCartney lived with his family and dated his sister, Jane and err.. Peter also managed James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt in the '70s. I think he's the only manager thats been on the cover of Rolling Stone. He was in a band called Peter and Gordon and this is called World Without Love." (Video)

The Germs - Forming
"This is the seminal Germs, there were The Weirdos and The Germs and they were the first two punk bands in LA, followed by Black Flag, DOA, erm TSOL. This song is called Forming. Pat Smear, who was later in Nirvana, was later in Foo Fighters was an old friend of mine, in fact my first friend in LA was in The Germs and err... was just really good LA punk rock. It's what LA could do with english punk rock." (Video)

Rolling Stones - The Last Time (BBC Session 1965)
"I've chosen something from The Rolling Stones 'cos I never really made up my mind whether I'm a Beatles person or a Rolling Stones person, y'know that Album of the Day was almost Exile on Main Street, we've all heard Exile on Main Street. If you haven't heard Exile on Main Street, you need to go out and get it right now. But I really wanted something by The Stones, speaking of The Stones, a little bit of rock n'roll, instead of recording this at the BBC, we're recording this in a pub because I smoke like a chimney and we can't record it at the BBC because of my imparement of smoking. So, this is the classic, The Last Time and it was recorded in session with the BBC in 1965. I wanted stuff that was later on but The Stones got so huge so fast they didn't have to record for the BBC anymore so they didn't and so I love The Last Time, it's a great song and erm... I love The Stones." (Video)

The Runaways - Hollywood Cruisin'
"The Runaways were the first all girl or all female oriented, other than Janis Joplin band that I have ever heard of and I saw this Runaways record and went ga ga, I went crazy. It was the coolest thing in the world, an all girl band believe it and err y'know the record at the time was considered a joke and I couldn't believe that because I thought they were really serious, really serious until I got to this one track thats on Queens of Noise, their second or third record and its like, it made me wanna be a rock star, its like its Lita Ford and Joan Jett and they're having slurpies in a parking lot in a 7-11, sometimes in the 70s and they're talking about erm what they're doing tommorrow and Joan says to Lita "What are you doing tommorrow?" and Lita says, "I'm having a photo session!" and Joan says "Photo sessions, God, I hate em." and I thought... I was like... 11 or 10 at the time, that one day I was going to say "Photo sessions, God, I hate em" so I still like them but anyway this is The Runaways." (Video)

Psychedelic Furs - Imitation of Christ (John Peel Session 1979)
"I wanted to choose something from The Psychedelic Furs because I don't think they ever really got their dues in Britain. They're kinda like the Bush of neo-psychadelic, early 80's era where no-one in the UK seemed to like them, not like the americans for lots of reasons, Pretty in Pink, y'know my daughter loves Pretty in Pink so The Psychedelic Furs are in our collective psyche, y'know we love them. This is Imitation of Christ and it was recorded for the great John Peel, '79." (Video)

The Kinks - Waterloo Sunset - (Peel Session 1968)
"This was recorded for John Peel's show in 1968. This is probably my second favourite song. It's just one of the great 60s pop songs, completely definitive and wonderful and if you don't like this song then you just don't like music." (Video)

Libertines - Up the bracket (Evening Session 2002)
"I was living in London when The Libertines moment happened, I was living here for about four months and I was doing a lot a lot a lot of drinking and drugging and y'know just being generally an asshole and a rock star and there was a cocktail bar at The Lanesborough and one night The Libertines were there and Anita Pallenberg was there and we could just drop names for a while: Kate Moss was there, y'know they were all there so they just had this moment and I'd been around a few moments, I was around Seattle during grunge, I was in Liverpool during that Bunnymen moment, I was in Manchester during the New Order moment so i've seen like big epicentres and moments happen and to this Libertines moment I don't know, I wouldn't say they were the greatest band ever but they had a great moment, when that was going on. I just remember seeing them, this girl Pearl was running this club and it was very rock, so this is Up the Bracket by The Libertines." (Video)

New Order - Temptation (Saturday Live Session 1984)
"This session was recorded in 1984 for Radio 1's Saturday Live show and that's funny because I was running around... yeah... I was running around Manchester in 1984... erm it's New Order with Temptation... the great oh, you've got great eyes, oh you've got green eyes or blue eyes. I wanted to play it because this was the song that went along with the time I lost my virginity and erm... the boy had kinda green/grey eyes and y'know it was when you are a teenager and you get off with someone and you ignore each other at the club the next night and erm pretend it didn't happen... and I just remember this song playing and you looking longingly at him and him pretending I didn't exist and him looking at me and pretending he didn't exist with this song playing. This is in my Top 10 favourite songs of all time. I just love this song so much." (Video)

The Bangles - Going down to Liverpool
"This is not actually a Bangles song, it's a Katrina and the Waves song. I just love it, its a good pop song err as rendered by The Bangles called Going Down to Liverpool." (Video)

Nirvana - Something in the way (Evening Session, November 1991)
"Ok, so y'know obviously I wanted to play some Nirvana erm.. everyone's heard Nirvana and this is Something in the Way recorded for The Evening Session September 1991 and this is a beautiful song, a beautiful song.." (Video)

Hole - Drown Soda (John Peel Session, November 1991)
"Ok, so I was in this band called Hole in the 90s and err y'know, we didn't stick together. People always think we're gonna get back together... (sighs) The drummer hasn't practised in a million years and the guitar player, Eric... he went and married some buddhist in Cambodia and I don't even know where he is now err... so it's not gonna happen but we had fun while it lasted and err y'know... we had some tragedies and y'know we had a member die and we went through a couple of bass players, a couple of drummers, all the usual band stuff but in the very very beginning it was really fun, the drummer... she was pretty crappy, she could handle kinda droney songs like this. This song, I really like this song, it really captures what I was doing in 1991, which wasn't grungy at all. I wasn't doing what Nirvana was doing. I wasn't doing what Mudhoney was doing. I wasn't doing what Soundgarden was doing. I was kinda doing my own thing and erm it's called Drown Soda. I made it up that night on the spot at the BBC and err I was really proud of it. I think we re-recorded at some place else but erm this is the best version of it, cos it was just written on the spot there." (Video)

The Beatles and Siouxsie and the Banshees - Dear Prudence
"If you're gonna cover a Beatles song, you better be good at it and Siouxsie and the Banshees actually did it, Dear Prudence being one of the best Beatles songs. Siouxsie and the Banshees rendering of Dear Prudence, this is both of them, back to back." (Video1) (Video2)



Liverpool: The New Wave Documentary
"I chose this documentary because I lived in Liverpool for two years and when I was there there was a real moment. There was Echo and the Bunneymen, there was Teardrop Explodes, there was our own Tony Wilson, which was Bill Drummond and I remember meeting him and thinking he was absolutely fabulous, he ran a label called Zoo. There was even Dead or Alive with Pete Burns. I have a really funny Pete Burns story if you wanna hear it. So, they used to have this thing on VH1 in the states called The VH1 Fashion Awards, right? One year they they called me and said y'know "You won Most Fashionable Female of the Year" so I go up there and get my err my award and I get offstage to this crazy faced person who says to me in this total scouser accent, "Yr living the dream, Courtney, yr living the dream" and I turn around and it's Pete Burns. Pete Burns used to bully me like crazy in Liverpool. He used to work in a place called Probe Records and he would stand in the doorway in a big brown diaper, with platform shoes with those contact lenses that Manson wears now, that make your entire eyes look black. I mean, Pete Burns was the original Manson, like he was like crazy cuckoo bananas, he had a guy in his band called Wayne Hussey who one time when I had no place to stay, he let me stay in his house and use his shower, he was really nice to me and he started a band called The Mission and I remember being really tense, the whole city being really tense one week because U2's October came out, Siouxsie and the Banshees came out, Heaven up Here came out and Simple Minds came out and you had to get above 20 to get on Top of the Pops and who was gonna get on that slot and you know who got it? Simple Minds... we were all very upset and I remember watching Top of the Pops that week and seeing that guy from Simple Minds in his white leather coat going, "Bummer" anyway, I lived there for nearly two years and most of the time, I lived across the street from Sefton Park at a place called Toxteth in Liverpool 8 and I got thrown out of that house for being nosey err basically I was going through all of Julian's letters and I got caught, then I was sent to Coventry and no-one would talk to me, so anyway this is Part 1 of a six part documentary series that looks at the new wave seen in Liverpool and how it inspired bands..."

Simple Minds
The Mission
Dead of Alive
Echo and the Bunnymen


She also got to choose two live sets to play late at night:

Elastica - 1995 Glastonbury - Line up, Car song, Stutter, SoFT, Connection

PJ Harvey - 1995 - Meet Ze Monsta, C'Mon Billy, Long Snake Moan. 50 Ft Queenie, Water