"Doll Parts" is a song by the rock band Hole. It was the second single to be released from their second album, Live Through This, following "Miss World" which was released in the fall of 1994. It was the first single the band released after the untimely death of their bassist, Kristen Pfaff, of a heroin overdose in the June of 1994.
The subject matter of "Doll Parts" is love and rejection. Band leader Courtney Love penned the song in 1991 after meeting her future husband Kurt Cobain, and thinking he wasn't interested in her. The lyrics convey this 'He only loves those things because he loves to see them break... and someday you will ache like I ache.' It was first performed in concerts under the title of "Dissed" and featured entirely different lyrics. The song took on new, more tragic meaning after Cobain died, with Love giving anguished performances of the song on tour.
The song is credited on record as written by Hole, but according to BMI's website, the only official author is Courtney Love; just as "Plump", which was written only by Love and Eric Erlandson.
The video for "Doll Parts" was filmed in June or July of 1994, and was directed by Samuel Bayer, who has also directed videos for the Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana and Green Day. The bassist in the video is Jennifer Finch of L7 as a new bassist hadn't been recruited at this point. The original version of the video had a lot of doll imagery in which was later taken out and replaced with shots of a barefoot Courtney in a field of petals. The video uses both black and white and color imagery and shots of Courtney interspersed with shots of the band playing as a whole. The video also features a small blonde boy, which many take to be the figure of Cobain, as he pays more than a passing resemblance to the singer in his youth.
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