City Slang Records, 1993

This Hole 1993 single/EP, only released in Germany, was the filler of the gap between the Hole era of 1992 and 1993. The single consisted of only 3 tracks of much waited music from Hole. The songwriting talent of both Eric Erlandson and Courtney Love were showing through during this period. This is the only Hole recording with temporary bassist Leslie Hardy. It wasn't long until she went her separate way and Kristen Pfaff replaced her later for the recording of the then forthcoming album, Live Through This.

The Beautiful Son EP was recorded in the winter of 1992. One of the song's , "Old Age," sounds like a demo other than studio recording. The other 2 songs are studio quality. The title track was obviously written for and about Kurt Cobain. The cover art and lyrics to the song are clues to that.

The cover of the single bored a picture of Kurt Cobain at 8 or 9 years old, on a green background surrounded by pink and blue gift bows. The back was decorated with individual pics of the band, with hand written "thank yous" by Courtney and candy hearts and pills.

The songs were a stretch of rock to pop. The grungy tone of the song-writing had sprung a leak when this Germany-only EP was recorded. It was also released as a vinyl record, with only the title track and "20 Years in the Dakota" as the b-side. The last track, "Old Age" was on a mini-album called "Grunge R.I.P." On the back cover were the words, "survived by" and Hole was listed as the 4th artist, then the song listing of "Old Age." I used to have this CD, but I gave it away on my "for sale" page. You could call it the "Old Age Promo," even though there were 4 other artists on that "Grunge R.I.P" disc.

Beautiful Son--This is the title track written about Kurt Cobain. The thundering guitar effect shines light on the Live Through This era yet to come. The lyrics, "/you look good in my dress/I'll get your friends to clean the mess/you look good in my clothes/I'll be where the doctor goes/my beautiful son/."

20 Years In the Dakota--This is the song on the EP that sounds mostly like a pop song. Great song written about Yoko Ono's life stuck inside the "Dakota." About her 20 years hidden in her own world with John Lennon against the rest of the world. The lyrics state "/she spent 20 years in the Dakota/every single day was black in the Dakota/riot girls think you can stop me/you're forever in her debt/i know you haven't saved me and you haven't saved her yet/." 20 years hiding out is more like it.

Old Age--This song is the "demo" sounding track of the EP. One of the many studio demos of this particular song. At the end of the song you can hear Courtney's voice echo in the studio, asking "Is that to fast Eric?" Some of the lyrics refer to the Cobains' drug problem. "/what a waste of sperm and egg/he fell off his Bambi legs/you can always go back to rehab/." No drums are played on this track.

Email: frankie_82@yahoo.com