Exile in Blonde - Background and Development

Background and Development

In September 2005, after violating a legal drug probation, Courtney Love was sentenced to a six-month program in a lock-down rehabilitation center, Beau Monde, from which she was released after one half of the sentenced time and completed the other three months under house arrest. During the period in rehab Linda Perry visited Love and supported her by encouraging to write new songs, giving Love a Martin acoustic guitar. The musician then borrowed a Panasonic compact-cassette recorder and penned eight songs during her time in rehab, among them "My Bedroom Walls", "The Depths of My Despair", "Sad But True" and "How Dirty Girls Get Clean." Love later told Billboard magazine that her "hand-eye coordination was so bad, didn't even know chords anymore. It was like fingers were frozen. And wasn't allowed to make noise ." She also told of how she would "sit there and try to quietly write and struggle", as well as her negative mindset. "I never thought I would work again. 'No one is ever going to talk to me. I'm never going to get a record deal. I'm never going to get on stage again.' So, I just kept writing. This is a very personal album."

Only a few days after her release in November 2005, Love dubbed "The Rehab Tapes" demos with Perry and Billy Corgan. After having returned for the third time to her Nichiren Buddhist practice, Love allegedly started writing a song a day (according to her, the tune "Pacific Coast Highway" was written in a Los Angeles hotel on Christmas Eve, and "Never Go Hungry" was penned in the same day she got out of rehab). In a sequel, the trio put together a back-up band to Love—including guitarist Paul Thorn, bassist Paul Ill and drummer Nathan Washington — and started recording the actual album, with Linda Perry in charge of production and Corgan as a guitarist and arranger. Anthony Rossomando of Dirty Pretty Things and Ben Gordon of The Dead 60s were also said to be present on the work as guest musicians. Love and her band then began rehearsing at a studio in West Hollywood. Many of these rehearsals, as well as various other studio sessions, were featured in the 2006 documentary, The Return of Courtney Love.

In a September 2006 interview, Love declared that the album would be mixed in London by Danton Supple, best known for his work with Coldplay, and was predicted to be released in February 2007. Love did not release the record at that time and continued to issue new release dates which also were not adhered to. The working title How Dirty Girls Get Clean was changed to Nobody's Daughter. Later in November, Love listed the songs that would not make the album, "Wildfire", "The Depths of My Despair", "Sad But True", "Good In Bed" (adding that they "really tried" to make the latest two work) and "My Bedroom Walls", though the lyrics of this one were used on another. The song "How Dirty Girls Get Clean" (which also was the working title of the album) was reworked and was then confirmed not to be featured on the release. Later, she also confessed that she felt the album needed one more song for the work, which apparently had been written in January. Courtney described the tune, which carried the working title of "Can You Make Me Cry", as being influenced by White Stripes, and she would be "fine-toothing" the lyrics and finishing it with Linda Perry in the following days. In the same month, Moby, was rumored to be involved in the album's production in the early stages, told Billboard: "Courtney sent me a CD of demos and I thought the music was remarkably good, it reminded me of Irish protest songs or old Bob Dylan. It was just her with an acoustic guitar." Besides Dylan, -- mainly the album Blood on the Tracks—Love had confirmed R.E.M., Radiohead, U2 and Fleetwood Mac as influences on the album.

More information regarding possible songs to be featured on the album were leaked in early February 2007. According to Love, there were another five songs that could be on the album, named "I See Red", "Too Much Dope", "In My Gutters", "Samantha" and "Honey". Love later stated that these songs were mostly demos, except "Samantha", which was the last song to be recorded in late March 2007 and was being considered as a possible first single. In the January 2009 issue of Elle Magazine, Love announced that the album would be released as a digital download on her official website on January 1, 2009. However, this did not happen. On January 2, Love's MySpace administrator posted a blog entry on the site explaining that with much regret the album had again been delayed, in part, due to technical sound issues at the studio where the album was recorded.

On April 29, 2006, Love performed at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center Benefit at the Henry Fonda Theater in Los Angeles. With Billy Corgan and Linda Perry, she played acoustic versions of "Sunset Marquis" and "Pacific Coast Highway", as well as a one-time performance of Fleetwood Mac's "Rhiannon". Love later invited NME journalists to a private acoustic performance of more songs in her London hotel room, "Stand Up Motherfucker", "Good in Bed" and "Dirty Girls". Love played four songs from her new album at the Los Angeles House of Blues on June 1, 2007 as a special guest of Linda Perry. Perry played acoustic guitar and sang backup.

In July 2006, Perry talked again about working with Love in an interview with rock journalist Morley Seaver, from RocknWorld.com. Between comments about Courtney's musical abilities, she revealed "working on this record has been just a pleasure" and "a slow process because we've been really horning in on a vibe."

A month later - with her new backing band consisting of Micko Larkin, bassist Patricia "Pato" Vidal, drummer Stu Fisher, pianist Bethia Beadman and guitarist Liam Wade - on July 4, Love performed in Paris, France and on July 9, 2007, performed a "secret" birthday show at London's Bush Hall. Love's final two shows of 2007 were held in the Hiro Ballroom in New York on July 12 and the famous Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood on July 17. Her performance at the Hiro Ballroom was recorded by music website IMEEM and footage from the show was released on Love's official IMEEM page. Love's performance at the Roxy Theatre was also recorded partially by MySpace.com and six songs were posted on Love's official page a few days after the show.

For her final solo dates before Hole's reunion shows, Love performed at Carnegie Hall as part of the (RED) Nights concert series on October 4, 2009 - which benefited the (RED) Campaign - and on December 31, 2009 at New York's Standard Hotel's Boom Boom Room as part of its New Year celebration.

On September 27, 2006, a documentary entitled The Return Of Courtney Love was aired on More4 in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Directed by Will Yapp, the documentary followed Love while she recorded How Dirty Girls Get Clean, the original incarnation of Nobody's Daughter, as well as how Love was coping with life after rehab. Throughout the documentary excerpts of new songs were played, which included "How Dirty Girls Get Clean", "Sunset Marquis", "Letter to God", "Pacific Coast Highway" and "Stand Up Motherfucker", as well as others which remain unidentified.

In October 2006, during an interview for Rolling Stone concerning Dirty Blonde, Love played an impromptu and "raspy, absurdly awesome" version of "Never Go Hungry", which at the time was titled "Never Go Hungry Again." The comments were pleasant, noting that "this proud confessional combines simple folk-rock soundcraft with the guttural scream and lyrical fire of a never-to-be-retired riot grrrl it's 1994 all over again." In November, a rough recording of "Never Go Hungry" was released from a podcast interview for The Times and later the same month, Love exclusively played two separate clips of "Pacific Coast Highway" from the unmixed album on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour and Russell Brand's radio show. Love later appeared on Brand's show for a second time and performed an acoustic version of "Sunset Marquis."