Doll Parts - Composition and Lyrics

Composition and Lyrics

"Doll Parts" is known to deal with themes of both love and rejection. Speaking to Uncut magazine in 2010, Love stated that it was "a song about Kurt (Cobain)."

In the 1990s, during an interview on the television show Rage, Love divulged that she had written the song while staying in Boston at Joyce Linehan's apartment—

I was really impressed . She was a lower-level music executive and she had lots of matching Body Shop shampoo and I'd never seen that before. And I thought 'one day I'll have enough money and all my cosmetics are gonna match'. I also thought that the guy I was going out with - who I later married ... and that wasn't the transvestite in Las Vegas the other time ... I thought that he didn't like me and that he liked this total poser idiot girl, so I wrote this song about him.

Love also said that the line "dog beg" was written into the first verse because there was a dog in the room with her begging for food.

Both the title of the song and the lyrical meaning are inspired by an encounter Love had with Kurt Cobain in 1991 prior to their relationship and marriage. Love had sent Cobain "a heart-shaped box scented with perfume and inside a porcelain doll, three dried roses, a miniature teacup and shellac-covered seashells" to apologize for their first meeting in May 1991, where Love infamously wrestled with Cobain. The box, purchased in an antique store in New Orleans, was later the influence for the Cobain-penned Nirvana song, "Heart-Shaped Box." The lyrics reflect Love's initial feelings about Cobain having felt rejected by his lack of communication, which is most accurately conveyed in the line: "he only loves those things because he loves to see them break."

After Cobain's death in April 1994, "Doll Parts" took on a more tragic meaning with Love giving anguished performances of the song on tour. Drummer Patty Schemel has said that "certain things would remind her, a lot of the time on-stage, and it would just come out. Certain lyrics had a lot more meaning."

Musically, the song is composed of only three chords: A, Cmaj7, and G. In retrospect, Love noted the song's musical simplicity— "I still don't understand why that one song with just three chords is such a big thing, but it's definitely got some good lyrics." On both Live Through This and the individual single, the song is credited on record as written by Hole as a band, however according to BMI's website, the official author is solely Courtney Love.