{"id":18944,"date":"2020-07-20T16:42:40","date_gmt":"2020-07-20T20:42:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southeastofheaven.com\/?p=18944"},"modified":"2022-01-06T19:38:19","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T00:38:19","slug":"mother-love-bones-apple-turns-30-years-old","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/?p=18944","title":{"rendered":"Mother Love Bone’s Apple Turns 30 Years Old"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MotherIt\u2019s hard to believe that 30 years ago this year, Mother Love Bone<\/strong>\u2019s only full-length album Apple<\/strong> <\/em>was released.\u00a0 30 fucking years.\u00a0 At 46 years old, everything feels like it was ten years ago, but 30 years ago, I was an awkward, long-haired metal dork that had a hunger for music at all times.\u00a0 I was like a sponge.\u00a0 When I heard a song I loved, I wanted the album.\u00a0 Then I wanted all the records, all the bootlegs (VHS and cassette), the posters, and anything else I could get my grubby little mitts on.<\/p>\n

My dad worked at Southlake Mall in Morrow, GA, so during the summer to earn a little extra cash during and after the Christmas season, I would hang out at the jewelry store that my dad managed.\u00a0 I would fetch lunch, clean display cases, vacuum floors, shit like that.\u00a0 I would take some time to stroll up to the top level of the mall to Record Bar.\u00a0 I really liked the cranky record store dude there (who I would become life long friends with).\u00a0 He would hook me up with posters, promo CDs, and sometimes make small talk.<\/p>\n

One January day, I just happened to be in there browsing through the few records that were still left as CDs were starting to take over the world.\u00a0 I heard a song playing (I think it was \u201cStardog Champion\u201d), and I was drawn in right away.\u00a0 I looked behind the counter where they had the \u201cNow Playing\u201d stand, and it was an album called Apple<\/strong> <\/em>by a band called Mother Love Bone.<\/p>\n

I found a copy of the record (which is now very rare to find, so I hear), and I brought it up to the counter.\u00a0 Chris, the cranky record store dude, smiled and said, \u201cGood choice, dude.\u201d\u00a0 I took Apple home, and for the next months, I played the living fuck out of that record.\u00a0 I had never heard anything like this before.<\/p>\n

Mother Love Bone seemed to know no boundaries, and this is what makes them such a unique band.\u00a0 Mother Love Bone was a magical band that combined everything I love about music, and there was a little bit of everything for everyone.\u00a0 It was hard rock; it was glam rock, it was sleazy, it was beautiful.\u00a0 Every song was as good if not better than the other.\u00a0 From the stoner rock-tinged \u201cStardog Champion\u201d to the heart-melting \u201cGentle Groove.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lead vocalist Andrew (L\u2019Andrew) Wood had all of the charisma of an arena rock vocalist ala David Lee Roth and oozed with ambiguous sexuality that never left a dry seat in the house.\u00a0 The cheeky \u201cHalf-Assed Monkey Boy,\u201d \u00a0the beautifully introspective \u201cMan of Golden Words\u201d and the sad, moving, and resolving \u201cCrown of Thorns\u201d (which would become Andrew\u2019s title song of sorts) scratched all the itches that would usually take multiple bands to do so.<\/p>\n

Apple<\/strong> <\/em>is a timeless collection of songs.\u00a0 Whenever I listen to Apple<\/strong> <\/em>, I always wonder what would have Mother Love Bone had in store for us.\u00a0 Would they have been as big as Pearl Jam?\u00a0 Would they have gone out on the road opening for bands like Warrant?\u00a0 Would they have been a Lollapalooza band?\u00a0 It will always be a mystery.\u00a0 So many \u201cwhat ifs.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are so many questions as to what Mother Love Bone would have become; what kind of music they would have given us.\u00a0 While I love to think and imagine a present and future with Mother Love Bone, I still look at Apple<\/strong> <\/em>as an album that captured lightning in a bottle.\u00a0 It captured the love, the passion, and fire of a young band from Seattle with a singer\/lyricist who was and always will be a shining star way too bright for this world to contain.<\/p>\n