BBC Learning EnglishWeekenderCourtney Love on ‘Dirty Blonde’
Amber: Hello, I'm Amber, and you’re listening tobbclearningenglish.com.
In Weekender today, we listen to an interview with thesinger and actress Courtney Love who’s been called ‘themost controversial woman in the history of rock’.
Controversial means shocking, or provoking disapproval.
Just over a year ago an American court ordered CourtneyLove to spend several months in ‘rehab’ to overcome yearsof drug addiction. Since then, she’s written and recordeda new album ‘How Dirty Girls Get Clean’ and she’spublished a ‘scrapbook-memoir’.
A scrapbook is a blank book for sticking in photos,newspaper cuttings or any pieces of paper that you want tokeep. And a memoir is a book about your life. Courtney Love’s scrapbook-memoir is called ‘Dirty Blonde’, and it’sa wild collection reflecting the chaos of her life. Thereare flyers for gigs with her band, Hole, and photos of herhusband Kurt Cobain, a rock musician who committed suicidein 1994. And there are photos of her daughter Frances.
Here is Courtney Love talking about her childhood to theBBC interviewer Martha Kearney. It’s clear that Courtneyknew what she wanted to be when she grew up! But she had a‘disrupted’ and unsettled childhood, living with many‘foster families’, families who look after children whoare not their own, and living in ‘communes’, communityhomes.
As you listen, try to catch the word that Courtney Lovetrips up on – the word she finds difficult to say. Itmeans going from place to place.
Courtney Love‘I was actually doing a lot of children’s radio, and Iwas going to the Ashland Shakespeare festival camp forchildren that we have in Ashland, Oregon every year. So Iknew a lot about acting as a child - I wanted to be anactress - I also wanted to be a rock musician – so Iwanted both things. I was very strong about wanting to bean actress – I would audition for commercials, forge aparent’s signature …(Martha Kearney: And you were living in communes all overthe place weren’t you? Very disrupted …)Foster homes, communes – how do you say ‘peri …’?
(Martha Kearney: Peripatetic.)Peripatetic. Very peripatetic.’
Amber: Courtney Love spent her childhood in many differentplaces. But she says her desire to be an actress was ‘verystrong’, and she would ‘audition’, do tests, for partsin ‘commercials’ or adverts. She would even ‘forge’,write illegally, a parent’s signature, if she thought itwould help her get a job as an actress.
Now Courtney’s life is more settled. She’s happy workingas a singer- songwriter for the ‘sought-after’ producerLinda Perry. If someone is ‘sought- after’, they are muchwanted, they are in high demand. As you listen to the nextpart of the interview, try to catch the word Courtney Loveuses to describe herself and how much she works.
Courtney Love‘I like to work; I’m a bit of a workaholic. Just in doingthis album – we took six months, we did 12-hour days, Iworked with Linda Perry who is probably the most sought-after producer and songwriter in the United States rightnow. I love structure, I being able to get up at a certaintime and I like work, and yet I chose a profession in termsof rock that has a very chaotic element to it!’
Amber: Courtney Love describes herself as ‘a bit of aworkaholic’ – a workaholic is addicted to working. In thelast part of our interview, Courtney Love was asked if shehas ever used work as an escape from the tragedies in herlife. For example, when her husband Kurt Cobain committedsuicide, Courtney Love was ‘on the road’, working as amusician, very quickly after, but she says itwas a lonely and difficult time. And yet it resulted inpowerful performances on stage. She says she was goingthrough a real ‘catharsis’ – a strong release ofemotion.
Courtney Love‘Nobody even suggested a psychiatrist; nobody evensuggested a bereavement group. And so I have to say, if youdid see me in 1994 or 1995, I won’t be able to everreplicate that again because I was going through a realcatharsis. And the truth is that I wouldn’t do this job ofrock and roll, particularly rock and roll – nor do I thinkI would I do any acting, if I didn’t truly, really believein it, and nor would I put out a book, if I didn’t truly,really believe that it was good.’
Amber: So Courtney Love says she truly believes in whatshe does - acting, singing and writing.
Now here’s a list of the language we focussed on in theprogramme today. controversialscrapbook memoir disrupted foster families communesperipatetic forgesought-after workaholic catharsisMore entertainment news stories and language explanationsnext time at bbclearningenglish.com |