Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan has entered a charity raffle to win his friend Courtney Love's hand-written lyrics for Hole song Violet, which was written about... Billy Corgan.
Promising his followers a “very special announcement" at the outset of a video posted on his Instagram account, Corgan shows off his home-printed ticket for the raffle - which is being held to raise funds for the Ellis Park Wildlife Sanctuary in Sumatra, founded by Nick Cave's right hand man Warren Ellis - and says, “Now, it’s made a lot of press this week that this auction’s going off. So, I’ve actually bought my ticket because I’d like to win these lyrics.”
Corgan continues, “I think it’s about a guy I know a little bit about and I’d love to put that on my wall.”
Violet features on Hole's 1994 album Live Through This. In a famous 1995 performance of the song on the BBC's Later... with Jools Holland show, Love introduced Violet by saying that it was a “song about a jerk” adding, “I hexed him and now he’s losing his hair.”
In a statement given to NME recently, Love insisted, “It’s not just about Billy Corgan, as many might assume."
She continued, “It’s about sitting on the fire escape of his flat, sipping cheap wine and taking a Vicodin (oh, to be young!) while the Chicago sun sets, leaving behind a bejewelled amethyst sky.
“Sometimes I just channel whatever comes. I realise my comment on Jools Holland [see below] was a bit mean – I was just being bitchy beefy. But someone has to uphold the standards of good faith beef!”
Diving deeper into her inspiration for the song, she added: “It is somewhat influenced by Pope and Brontë. I drew from Pope’s The Dunciad and an Emily Brontë poem. I did borrow from Brontë but ultimately decided to cross it out. The rhyme scheme is good but it felt too much like imitation – I was trying being “method”, but it ended up feeling excessive.”
“The piece also touches on the theme of being caught between two boys - representing the angel and devil within me, as well as my own nature. There’s a line that mentions “Danny’s new number,” referring either to Goldberg or a drug dealer – another Danny, known as “Bobby Bones,” who Flea will remember. Yikes!”
You can watch Hole's Later... performance of Violet below.
Other items in the charity raffle/auction included a bespoke Gucci jacket donated by Nick Cave, a signed Philip Glass score, a Fender Jazz Bass owned by Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, and a drum head signed by the members of Coldplay.
The raffles and auctions close at 23:59 UK time on the December 15. Enter here.
