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Length
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A song entitled "Rock Star" was originally slated to close the album, but a last-minute decision was made to replace the track with "Olympia." Since the artwork had already been printed, however, the title of "Rock Star" remained and was also used for further releases. The purported reason for the song replacement was concern about the lyric "a barrel of laughs to be Nirvana, you'd rather die." To those not aware that Live Through This was completed before Cobain's death, the lyric could be potentially misconstrued as a reference made in poor taste regarding the discovery of Cobain's body.
Nonetheless, the actual song that closes the album, "Olympia" (under the title "Rock Star"), criticizes the riot grrrl music scene in the Pacific Northwest, which Love was associated but not involved with, and has been described as "a rollicking, good-humored fuck-you to Olympia hipsters." Love had been vocal about her criticism of the riot grrrl movement, calling the musicians "imperious", and pointing out their particular form of feminist politics: "The whole riot grrl thing is so… well, for one thing, the Women's Studies department at Evergreen State College, where a lot of these bands come from, is notorious for being one of the worst programs in the country. It's man-hating, and it doesn't produce intelligent people in that field." Alternate mixes of the song that later were released as b-sides included even more satirical lyrics, such as:
"Well, I went to school in Olympia, and everyone's the same
And what do you do with a revolution?
You just forget your name
Well, I went to school in a fascist state and everyone's the same
We took punk rock, and we got a grade."
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