Rotten Apple

this is my most favorite AIC song. i love the overlapping guitars, the echoes of the acoustics and the squeal of the electrics, all tied in by this vocal mantra. i think staley is writing first about original sin, but in a big picture sense, so that we are given a picture of the entire world composed of many smaller images of the world and how it is cold and ignorant and a mess. the apple is back to the bible - the people are corrupted at such young ages now, so that they can never get back to that place of innocence ever again, and staley wants it, but it's too late for him. freakin' apples.

Haunting, lucid, melancholy, visionary images distorted by the concept of original sin, eating the forbidden apple, and seeing the world as a sustenance-draining entity of greed, consumption, evil, corruption, disillusionment, angst, etc. The song is borderline creepy, which in song format is difficult if not impossible to convey. However, this song is possibly the exception and will give you a haunting stare into your own imagination, with sensations of distraught and disillusionment until the very last note. Rotten Apple is a mental masterpiece in the likes of which may never be duplicated. The creative genius behind Alice in Chains is exemplified in this, Rotten Apple. eat of the apple so young, I'm crawling back, to start...

Hmmm.... I think this song is about innocence lost. (Which tends to be a recurring theme in Layne Staley's lyrics.)

The apple is a biblical metaphor--when Adam & Eve bit into it they had to leave the Garden of Eden, thus losing their innocence. It could also be the "poison" apple of the Snow White fairy tale.

Once the innocence is lost, bad things happen (Innocence is over/Ignorance is spoken/Confidence is broken/Sustenance is stolen/Arrogance is potent). The narrator is upset because he feels that he has lost his innocence "too young," that he has chosen a fate that he didn't want ("I've written my own part"). Resignation to fate is also a common Staley theme. He bit the rotten apple, thus losing his innocence and dooming himself.

Metaphorically it's something that most people can relate to on some level, I think ... we all lose our innocence as we grow up. More literally, it's also a warning against heroin use--most listeners know that for Staley, the loss of innocence that doomed him was caused by that drug.

On one level it's very personal and specific, on another it's a universal theme that many people in other circumstances can also relate to.

Although I agree with that Adam & Eve theory, I found another meaning in it, at least for me. The line says "Eat of the apple, so young", and the name of the song is Rotten Apple, so I take it to also mean that early in life is when you're at your most corruptible.

I think, that Layne talks in this wonderful song about his own life, deprived of such things as innocence, confidence, romance and so on, which causes him much suffering and sorrow. But he also admits that to some degree it is the result of his own choice: he's written his own part and choosed to live in his own world of unreality of which he is fully aware. He ate of the rotten apple being too young and, poisoned, he now is crawling back to start, that is to the nonexistence or death. Obviously he didn't believe he had any chances to win in that battle he fought all alone finding no one to cry to and no place to call home (Nutshell).

I think it's about failure, mistakes. listen to the chorus: 'what i see is unreal'-that looks fun 'i've written my own part'-i can do what i want 'eat of the apple, so young'-i try it 'i'm crawling back to start'-stupid mistake/failure but that's just my interpetation

I think it's about a child having experiences that forces them to grow up too fast.

the intro is one of the best....

this is one of the best AIC songs...its sooo relaxing for me..i listen to it all the time

Ahh i love this song so much - so much emotion in it, makes me want to cry