You. Yeah, you. You, reading this. Let me ask you something. How many times have you woken up in the morning and, before you could even wipe the snot from your eyes, had a song playing on repeat in your head? Well, that has happened to me more times than I can count, and today was no different. I woke up, and before I even rolled out of bed, my mind was singing “Crown of Thorns” by Mother Love Bone.
“You ever heard the story of Mr. Faded Glory? Say he who rides a pony must someday fall.” No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t shake it, so I de-funked in the shower, got out, made a cup of coffee, and immediately put on my Mother Love Bone playlist. I played “Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns” first, sending a shiver down my spine and to my feet. For some reason, this song hit me, unlike before, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
Once the song ended, I stopped it and went about my day. I played in the yard with my dog, ate some cold pizza, and sequestered myself down in my basement office to do some writing. As I always do when writing, I needed music to fuel my creativity. No matter what I put on, it didn’t feel right, so I played some more Mother Love Bone. Suddenly, I was filled with this kind of creative spirit that pushed me and inspired me to write with unbreakable focus.
I took a brief break to hop on the Facebooks to see what my friends were eating and my daily dose of obnoxious memes, and low and behold, there it was. A post wishing dearly departed Mother Love Bone vocalist Andrew Wood a happy birthday. He would’ve been 58 years old. I had no fucking clue that today was his birthday. Hell, I’m terrible with birthdays. I have to keep my family’s birthdays in my iCalendar. Even then, I still forget about them, so I sure as hell don’t keep up with musician’s birthdays, so the fact that I needed Andrew and Mother Love Bone so much today, not knowing that it was his birthday, was a little hokey yet very cool.
I’ve been a Mother Love Bone fan since I was a senior in high school in 1991. Mother Love Bone’s music was so dramatically new yet completely familiar. It was glam rock with a darker, at times sinister edge to it, and I was captivated by it after hearing the song “Gentle Groove” on a mix tape that a friend gave me. Since that day in 1991, Mother Love Bone continues to be a considerable part of the soundtrack of my life, but in a strange way.
Mother Love Bone isn’t a band that I wake up every day saying, “I need to jam some Mother Fuckin’ Love Bone today!” For some odd reason, the urge to listen to Mother Love Bone usually strikes me when things in my life are getting a bit chaotic, when significant changes and shifts are about to occur, which I typically struggle with.
I smile when I think of the times that Mother Love Bone was there for me. Sitting in the woods smoking a cigarette a week before high school graduation wondering what the fuck I was going to do in life, I was listening to Mother Love Bone on my Sony Walkman. When I was starting to feel lost and not knowing what path life would lead me down, Mother Love Bone was there for me. Shitty dates, shitty jobs, and shitty life situations presented perfect scenarios for Mother Love Bone to be there and lift me out of the dirt. Even when I met the love of my life 26 years ago, Mother Love Bone’s “Stargazer” was on the first mix tape I ever made for her. Not a shitty situation at all, but again, a significant life change that was hard for me to wrap my head around in the best possible way.
Through my 20s, 30s, 40s, and now at 50, the music of Mother Love Bone has been there when I needed it the most. Today, January 8th, 2024, I needed the music of Mother Love Bone and the words of Andrew Wood. Wherever Andrew is roaming in the cosmos, I hope he can look at me and smile, knowing I needed him the most on his day. Thanks, L’andrew, for always being there for me when I need you most.
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