#5: Mother Love Bone - Shine
Mother Love Bone - Shine
Released: March 20, 1989
Musicians:
Andrew Wood - lead vocals, piano
Bruce Fairweather - lead guitar
Stone Gossard - rhythm guitar
Jeff Ament - bass
Greg Gilmore - drums
People hear grunge they tend to think three things: Nirvana, Seattle, & flannel
Andy Wood lead Mother Love Bone through Seattle’s burgeoning music scene to become the first major-label release by a “grunge” act. But are they really grunge? They owe more to Guns N’Roses than the dirty grunge scene.
Mother Love Bone was born in the wake of “Green River’s” break-up. Stone Gossard & Jeff Ament (both of whom would later go on to form Pearl Jam) wanted to pursue a major label deal while Mark Arm was more interested in staying independent viewing the two of them as being “careerist.” This in-fighting lead to the band’s final album being a bit of a mess.
Music by Jeff Ament, Bruce Fairweather, Greg Gilmore, Stone Gossard and Andrew Wood. Lyrics by Andrew Wood.
Track listing:
Thru Fade Away
Mindshaker Meltdown
Half Ass Monkey Boy
Chloe Dancer/Crown. ofThorns
Capricorn Sister
Arm went on to form “Mudhoney.” While Stone, Jeff, and Bruce Fairweather formed a cover band, The Lords of the Wasteland, with Andrew Wood, who at the time was the frontman of “Malfunkshun.” Wood’s attention shifted focus heavily to this new band and "Malfunkshun imploded as a result. The Lords of the Wasteland dropped the idea of being a cover band and adopted the name Mother Love Bone.
Andy was known on stage as “Landrew the Lovechild.” He was Freddie Mercury incarnate. Often being compared to a stand-up comedian with the way he interacted with fans. Their first EP, “Shine.” was released on Stardog Records; a vanity imprint from Mercury. The album contained 5 tracks. (6 if you include the hidden track, “Zanzibar”). Chris Cornell would released Soundgarden’s first major label album six months later. Thus, Mother Love Bone becomes the first major label release from the Seattle grunge scene.
But as I said, is it really “grunge?” What even IS “grunge?” Generally it’s considered a mix of punk and heavy metal. The lyrics are typically focused on self-doubt, abuse, neglect, social and emotional isolation, betrayal, psychological trauma.
“She’s my sunshine, she’s my moonshine.
She’s ma’ Hot, ma hotma Ghandi.”
Not really…
“If you want a plate of my beef swellington, baby
you’re gonna have to pay the cover charge.”
…uh…no. …clever though.
Andy Wood’s lyrics tend to just be…Led Zeppelin with a bit more heroine and jokes. They were fun. They were rock and roll at its purest.
Wood was a smack addict who knew he had a problem. He had tried rehab a few times and it just never took. I often think about the lyric from “Crown of Thorns” (my favorite of theirs, and one of, if not my favorite song of all time):
“It’s a broken kind of feelin’, she’d have to tie me the ceiling
a bad moon’s a-comin’, better say your prayers, child”
The song is technically about a relationship ruined by drugs. But, really, he knew he was in trouble. If you go back to many musician’s work, (especially the 27 club), you find quite a number of quotes like this. It’s a sad reality that I think about all too often. See, Andy Wood died one year after the release of “Shine.” Which happened to be one day before the release of their first full album, “Apple.”
After “Shine” was released, and received overwhelmingly favorable reviews, they almost immediately cut a full album. Wood decided to head to rehab in anticipation of the release, knowing it was gonna be a new era for his career. After he was clean and his resistance had dropped, he fell off the wagon a single night, and as many addicts do went immediately back to his old dosage and overdosed. He fell into a coma, was pronounced brain dead, and kept alive on ventilators long enough for his friends and family to say goodbye.
Gossard and Ament would meet Mike McCready and Eddie Vedder through a side project called “Temple of the Dog” (which I’ll get to at a later point), and would go on to form “Pearl Jam.” They made their debut in a Seattle club six months after Wood’s death. Pearl Jam continues to this day being a massive success.
In 2003 a nebbish teen went by himself to a Pearl Jam concert in Madison Square Garden. Ben Harper joined for a long and awesome version of their song Daughter. Then…the bass hit this three note slow dirge. I had never heard this in my life. I knew every Pearl Jam song like the back of my hand. New album?!
I was completely enamored for 8 minutes as Eddie wailed these lyrics and Mike played this dirty, delay driven solo. After it hit its climax (and boy did it ever climax…), Eddie looked at the crowd. Then he looked back at Stone. Then he said, “I think Jeff and Stone will back me up on this…Andy would have loved it here.” The concert is actually a recorded release on video if you need/want to see that moment. It’s wonderful.
Whenever I throw this record on…and I actually do quite often…I feel this sense of love for music and love for people. The album never felt like one of those “i’m finally gonna get out of this town,” kind of record. It always felt more like: “I’m from Seattle. Fuck you, I love you,” kind of record.
I was fortunate enough to be the music direct for the 20th Anniversary tour of “Rent.” It was definitely a life changing experience. But in the end, I’d be making my friends laugh with some of the things I’d complain about. I’d be able to exchange stories with a choreographer/director friend of mine who was working at a community theater. We’d literally be able to trade off stories…which ended up being the same thing. The only difference being her theater was seating about 150, mine typically 1,500. It was quite hilarious. Sometimes however…it was quite disheartening. I had days where I thought I had gone nowhere. If I’m dealing with the same stuff…what’s different?
One day when I was on the bus and this album came on, I heard this lyric.
“Boys..boys…boys…this is the big record company’s money we’re spending here.
…oh there’s bugs in the studio.”
There was this definitely this sense that they had made it. But they knew immediately it’s the same shit everywhere. The only difference is a bigger budget, and larger audience. Nothing changes as you move up. Just budget and audience. And that’s more than ok. Because at the heart they were doing what they do best. Making loud, balls to the wall music. I…was making music. That’s what mattered. That’s what I loved. And now I got to make music around the world. THAT’s grunge.