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  1. Tracks
  2. Hole
  3. Celebrity Skin
  4. Petals
Petals by Hole

TRACK

Hole

Petals

Release date: 1st September 1998

From Celebrity Skin
Track 12
5:29
RockMusicAdult AlternativeAlternative
Spotify Apple Music More on Hole

About This Track

A meditation on lost innocence and the corruption of purity, 'Petals' builds from whispered vulnerability into something harder and more accusatory. Courtney Love, Billy Corgan, and Eric Erlandson wrote the track with producer Michael Beinhorn, constructing a song that moves between admiration and interrogation. The chorus phrase "Tear the petals off of you" carries weight beyond the song itself; it echoes a line from the band's earlier work, creating a through-line between past and present. The song's emotional arc traces a fall from grace. Love sings of angels and innocence, of summer youth and sweetness, but the world intrudes with cynicism and corruption. Flowers wilt and wither; purity cannot survive contact with a damaged world. What begins as almost delicate becomes something more violent in intent, the repeated insistence on truth-telling taking on an edge of compulsion. The track sits among the album's more introspective moments, a counterpoint to its harder material.

"Petals" is a track by Hole, from the album Celebrity Skin, released 1st September 1998. The track is 5:29 long. It's filed under Rock. Full lyrics are available below. Dork has published 2 articles about Hole.

About the Artist

Hole

Hole

Lyrics

Petals

[Verse 1]

She's the angel on

Top of the tree

Sugar heart, here she comes

She's going to fall on me

[Verse 2]

Innocence was our fire

We told the truth

I miss the sweet boys in

The summer of their youth

[Chorus]

Tear the petals off of you

And make you tell the truth

Tear the petals off of you

Tear the petals off of you

And make you tell the truth

Tear the petals off of you

[Verse 3]

They will make you so

So cynical

The fire burns the flesh

Destroys the best that made us old

[Verse 4]

She's the grace of this world

She's too pure

For the likes of this world

This world is a whore

[Chorus]

Tear the petals off of you

And make you tell the truth

Tear the petals off of you

(La, la, la, la)

Tear the petals off of you

And make you tell the truth

Tear the petals off of you

[Bridge]

And, oh, it's all mine

And, hey, it's all mine

And, help, it's all mine

I never knew what I could be

All the darling buds of May

They fall with no sound

They carry you down

They carry you down

Ooh, ooh

Ooh, ooh

[Verse 5]

All the lilies bloomed and blossomed

Wilted and they're shivering

I can't stop their withering

Oh, this world is a war

[Chorus]

Tear the petals off of you

And make you tell the truth

Tear the petals off of you

(La, la, la, la)

Tear the petals off of you

And make you tell the truth

Tear the petals off of you

(La, la, la, la)

Tear the petals off of you

And make you tell the truth

Tear the petals off of you

[Instrumental Outro]

Lyrics provided by LRCLIB

View full lyrics page →

Track details

From Celebrity Skin

5:291998
Listen
Album
Celebrity Skin
Celebrity Skin
Hole
2nd September 1998
Track number
12
Release year
1998
  1. 1Celebrity Skin
    2:43
  2. 2Awful
    3:16
  3. 3Hit So Hard
    4:01
  4. 4Malibu
    3:50

More from Hole

Albums & EPs

Burning The Ground (Live Berkeley '94)
Burning The Ground (Live Berkeley '94)
2025
Fake It So Real (Live)
Fake It So Real (Live)
2024
Unplugged (Live 1995)
Unplugged (Live 1995)
2020
Nobody’s Daughter
Nobody’s Daughter
2009
The First Session
The First Session
1997
Live Through This
Live Through This
1994

Explore

More tracks by Hole

  1. Asking for It (Live at Riverside Theater September 7, 1994)
  2. Asking for It (Live at The Moore Theatre, Seattle, Washington, November 14, 1994)
  3. Awful (Live at Enmore Theater, January 20, 1999)
  4. Biggest Star (Live at Enmore Theater, January 20, 1999)
  5. Boys on the Radio (Live at Riverside Theatre, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, May 28, 1999)
  6. Celebrity Skin (Live at Ericsson Stadium, January 15, 1999)
  7. Celebrity Skin (Live at Riverside Theatre, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, May 28, 1999)
  8. Credit in the Straight World (Live at Irvine Meadows Amphitheater, August 14, 1995)
  9. Dear Prudence (Live at the SDSU Open Air Theatre, San Diego, June 3, 1999)
  10. Dying (Live at Enmore Theater, January 20, 1999)

Showing 10 of 50

If you like Hole

Courtney Love

Courtney Love

Babes in Toyland

Babes in Toyland

Jack Off Jill

Jack Off Jill

Veruca Salt

Veruca Salt

Bikini Kill

L7

L7

5Reasons to Be Beautiful
5:19
  • 6Dying
    3:45
  • 7Use Once and Destroy
    5:05
  • 8Northern Star
    4:58
  • 9Boys on the Radio
    5:10
  • 10Heaven Tonight
    3:31
  • 11Playing Your Song
    3:20
  • 12Petals
    5:29
  • —Celebrity Skin Liner Notes

    • Credits

    Production & Engineering

    Writer
    Billy Corgan, Courtney Love, Eric Erlandson
    Producer
    Michael Beinhorn
    Engineer
    Paul Northfield
    Bass
    Melissa Auf der Maur
    Drums
    Deen Castronovo
    Guitar
    Courtney Love, Eric Erlandson
    Vocals
    Courtney Love
    A&R
    James Barber
    Additional Production
    Eric Erlandson
    Assistant Engineer
    John Nelson
    Background Vocals
    Melissa Auf der Maur
    Engineered At
    Right Track Recording
    Legal
    Codikow, Carroll, Guido & Groffman
    Mastering Engineer
    Ted Jensen
    Mixing Engineer
    Tom Lord‐Alge
    Programmer
    Chris Vrenna, Max Risenhoover, Michael Beinhorn, Nick Franglen, Paul DeCarli
    Strings Arranger
    Craig Armstrong
    READ MORE ABOUT HOLEREAD MORE ABOUT HOLEREAD MORE ABOUT HOLEREAD MORE ABOUT HOLE
    READ MORE ABOUT HOLEREAD MORE ABOUT HOLEREAD MORE ABOUT HOLEREAD MORE ABOUT HOLE
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