Mono

"Hey hey hey yeah we had everything Vinyl in mono And we looked the other way Man we were so dumb "

Monophone recordings in vinyl are a very old medium, probably last produced for the mass market in the 60s and abandoned before the end of the 60s. Truly great founders or precursors of rock and roll cut mono in vinyl. But someone figured something new was better than the original rock and roll inspiration, and this increasingly was the trend until punk came along trying to reestablish the roots of rock and roll.

"Is this the part in the book that you wrote Where I gotta come and save the day Did you miss me Did you miss me Yeah yeah yeah yeah "

Who is "you"? From the rest of the lyrics, it would seem to refer to God, or some kind of god that cares in the least about the fate of rock and roll music, impliedly in a positive way. An odd attitude to attribute to the Judeo-Christian conception of God, in the least, but maybe that isn't the exclusive conception of God being talked about here. After all, those 12-steppers can as a matter of necessity come up with a "higher power" suited to their idiosyncrasies.

Apparently Ms. Love's higher power referenced in this work would want something about rock and roll salvaged and would like her to do it, or maybe was ignoring her thinking she wasn't able to anyhow? She seems ambivalent about just how much her higher power is willing to be supportive of her throughout the song.

"Oh God you owe me one more song So I can prove to you that I'm so much better than him Oh god please listen fast Here comes the crash We're gonna rise above We gotta smash it up You won't abandon us again hey"

Actually the "him" in this is probably neither Cobain nor any form of deity. Rather it is more likely famous poser and mediocre musician "Marilyn Manson" who she wants people to see she is better than, among others who may have been involved in the "Rock is Dead Tour". ("Well they say that Rock is Dead"). Love's experience on that tour is that few parents are going to let their little daughters, her core audience, go to a testosterone drenched adolescent puke-fest featuring goth posers, and you could get at most "99 girls in the pit".

"Well they say that rock is dead And they're probably right 99 girls in the pit Did it have to come to this?"

And they said "God" was "dead" one time too (as a predominant cultural anchor, not in any theological sense). But along came Carter, the whole Born Again she-bang, and it seems "God" is not "dead". Maybe this kind of thing could happen for rock too, despite failing attendence - a mere 99 girls. Of course this can also be interpreted in a certain "the world revolves about me" sense, and she may be referring only to riot grrrl rock, of which I suppose she means mostly herself. There's something about Courtney Love's estimate of her importance which can be matched only by Yoko Ono's overblown opinion of herself, so maybe this meaning does apply throughout the song.

Maybe a little harsh but could the line "Oh God you owe me one more song, So I can prove to you that I'm so much better than him" be a statement that she feels overshadowed by ex-husband Kurt Cobain's songwriting legacy?

in the music video, she destroys a rap video set, to me its kinda speaking out to rap, and saying shes better than it, and i hate rap and this song kinda seems like shes saying rock is better, which i totally agree with

'99 girls in the pit' refers to rapestock, where I think the official 'number' was 29. Courtney Love said that she believes the real number would have been more like 99. The sleevenotes have a discrepancy in this lyric, they read: they say that rock is dead and it's probably true 99 girls in the pit and the blame all lies with you. Though she clearly sings 'did it have to come to this?'

She's attacking the Fred Dursts and Eminems who have used music to spread mysogyny and hatred whereas she would prefer the traditional 'brilliant boys' like Cobain and other icons who used music, arguably, to spread ideas and for cartharsis for their pain.

courtney love is beautiful! she's my idol. this sonng rules!:D

HAHAH shes my idol too RIOT grrl- i love that kinderwhore baby doll look its so pretty n so ironic

kristy72- have you been living under a rock or something for the past 10 years? everyone and their mom knows kurt cobain committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. courtney singing about car vandalism has nothing to do with kurt cobain's death. i don't think ive heard a dumber statement before. just because an artist will write a lyric about something doesnt mean they actually did it or will do it. sometimes i wonder how people can be so DENSE.

Yeah Drive a million miles down the PCH/

The PCH is a well known acronym for The Pacific Coast Highway. The PCH is the main road into and out of Malibu, which is another Love lyric which probably ties in with this use here. Technically, the PCH is the same highway that extends all the way up the Pacific Coast into Washington and you can drive it up to Seattle. A number of grunge works make reference to this highway for various lyrical purposes.

And now he's gone / I slashed his tires, I bled his brakes /

"Malibu" opens with the lyric "Crash and burn", interestingly enough.

It had to be done / Their hand-job lives were just too cruel /

I would understand this largely to refer to the enormously phony or nongenuine ("hand job") cultural mileau that is the Hollywood movie and music business - whose main colony is often considered to be Malibu.

(But) mercy was done / We drowned them all in their swimming pools / Run away, run away, run away yeah

Leave the phony Hollywood ethos behind, and run away. This again is reminiscent of the ethos of punk, which the song elsewhere references with its "three chords in your pocket tonight ... bring my punk rock back" - three chords being a staple musical device of punk. Punk in LA was centered in Hollywood, ironically, because that's where the run down venues and seedy atmospheres that would host these acts in their formative days could manage to play given their lack of financial clout and limited audiences.