Hole, writing a song about Yoko Ono is one of the most brilliantly predictable things that could have happened in 90s rock. The parallels between Ono and herself would have been ringing out loud and clear to Courtney Love as her husband’s band grew to become a globally recognised name, and Love would almost certainly have slapped down anyone who addressed her as being “only” Kurt’s wife. Like Ono, she was an artist in her own right and was married to a man who, in the eyes of many, transcended the label of “musician” and her reward was vilification. Other similarities include drug use and the early deaths of their husbands - via different means - to firearms.
Ultimately, what links Love and Ono is a steel and toughness; quiet and playful in Ono’s case, belligerent and angry in Love’s. What she makes clear in 20 Years in the Dakota, both to herself and the “riot grrrls” trying to bring her down is that Ono is the patron saint of them all, and that none of them will ever truly be able to repay the debt they owe to her. I do find myself wondering who The Fabulous Four would have been in Love’s case: Kurt, Krist, Dave and…..Butch?
At 1:34, the focus of the song shifts from Yoko to Courtney, touching on - among other things - motherhood (My waters break like turpentine), but more pertinently, a recognition of her husband’s developing death wish: The pee girl burns to be a bride/Your ever lovely suicide. Cobain’s heroin usage was growing to the extent that overdoses were becoming an almost normal occurrence for him. In contrast, Love was trying to clean up her health, perhaps shaken by a lengthy and expensive battle the Cobains had gone through with The Department of Family Services, which had seen a very real risk of their daughter, Frances, being taken into care.
In late spring [1993], [Love] hired a psychic to help her kick drugs. Kurt balked at paying the bills from the psychic and laughed at her advice that the couple needed to reject “all toxins”. Courtney took it seriously however; she attempted to stop smoking, began drinking fresh-squeezed juice every day and attended Narcotics Anonymous. Kurt taunted his wife at first, but then encouraged her to attend N.A. meetings if only so he had more free time to get loaded. (Charles R. Cross, Heavier Than Heaven, page 276, Sceptre, 2001)
At its conclusion, 20 Years in the Dakota features one final audacious touch, with the band working in a tribute to the end of Hey Jude, but replacing its choral enormity with a droopier, hazier feel as the lines I don’t remember, I forget fall away like someone nodding off into a drug induced stupor.
In the event, Ono spent 50 years in the Dakota, finally selling her apartment in 2023.
Video courtesy of David Rolfe’s Rock and Metal Channel
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