Thread: RHCP - GAH Week 14 - 2.9.23

I just started Flea's bio today.

I plan to spend a few weeks with the Chilis.

They might be #1.

I finished Flea's bio earlier today. I started and finished pretty much nonstop with sleep in between.

I can relate with Flea and really enjoyed his story. I relate because I'm a free spirit, was latchkey, moved around a ton, have serious anxiety, am super sensitive, really connect through music, was a sort of parkour nut before it was a thing, did wild stupid shit, etc.

I jumped off a roof but not into a kidney...kidney shaped pool.

Man. Back in the AF days someone would get to know me and I'd share the whole story, they would be like 'how the **** are you a fighter pilot, dude?'

So I really, really got absorbed in Flea's story and am really grateful he shared that stuff, it felt sorta like a modern day Huck Finn.

Anyways, I started with Out in LA and I'm digging back in.

I think with the Chili Peppers, you may not like the sound and that's that.

But 83-2023 is a good run, and besides their early stuff, it's high quality.

27 million monthly listeners on Spotify, same as the Beatles.

Chilis have some bangers, but their thing is more along the lines of "every ******* song is aite, man."

Here are some more deep-cut type songs today that I heard again and really enjoyed. Enjoyed on the same level as some other band's bangers. Journey and Steely Dan and Talking Heads are like this, too.

Fight Like a Brave
Righteous & The Wicked
The Greeting Song
Easily
Walkabout
This Velvet Glove
Nobody Weird Like Me

How have I never heard this before today? This doesn't change everything, but it sorta does.



That's some Jimi shit right there.

That is special.

Y'all with international experience, especially more recent stuff, how much does the rest of the world care?

Nothing personal, Anthony.

These dudes have some James Brown / Count Basie / Bruce Springsteen / Tom Petty shit going on.

It's interesting about Fru and Flea, they make some ridiculously good music together.

This a real contender.

Never cared about them since Blood Sugar.

I think they are one of the strongest contenders.

John Frusciante, Flea “Fine” With Anthony Kiedis Naming Harmonious, Beautifully Intricate Song “Clappa Dap Funk Suckin’ Mama”
https://thehardtimes.net/music/rock/...k-suckin-mama/

“After a decade away, what made me want to rejoin the band was the special relationship I have with Flea. And with Chad behind the kit, the magic we create is just too special to ignore. Oh and Anthony is there, as well. Nice guy,” explained RHCP guitarist Frusciante, while sheepishly looking around the room. “Recently, Flea and I were totally in the pocket jamming on a new track. It was this really sophisticated groove that blends early Parliament and some Buzzcocks, with even a little Halim El-Dabh. Anthony heard it and immediately started writing lyrics about ‘a chick who was some type of Spanish’ that he banged at one of Diddy’s white parties. Took him no more than five minutes to write all the lyrics on a used napkin.”

The frequently maligned Kiedis explained his songwriting process.

“I don’t know if it’s just my years of experience, or perhaps something supernatural even, but sometimes lyrics just pour out of me. And that’s exactly what happened with ‘Clappa Dap Funk Suckin’ Mama.’ To the untrained plebeian, lyrics like ‘suckin’ on mine in a 69,’ or even ‘ding dang dang dong dong dang’ might seem like the ravings of a drooling, poon-crazy lunatic. But there’s actually a much deeper meaning to it all,” explained Kiedis while gesticulating his arms wildly. “Of course, I can’t just explain how and why my lyrics are so profound, but true fans understand that there are many layers to ‘Catholic School Girls rule.’”

Every Red Hot Chili Peppers Studio Album, Ranked
https://uproxx.com/indie/every-red-h...-album-ranked/

Whenever I contemplate the career of the Red Hot Chili Peppers — which I’ve done possibly more than Anthony Kiedis, Flea, John Frusciante or Chad Smith — I find myself stuck on the same unanswerable question: Why them?

Why them and not any of the other bands (Black Flag, X, Fear) that also came out of Southern California in the early ’80s? Why them and not any of the other indie bands (The Replacements, Husker Du, Minutemen) who also became underground stars in the mid-’80s? Why them and not Jane’s Addiction or Fishbone in the late ’80s? Why them and not Soundgarden or Alice In Chains in the early ’90s? Why did all of those other bands either fall apart or fade away while they survived and thrived? The Chili Peppers played at the start of the riots at Woodstock 99 and the press still blamed Limp Bizkit. They lip-synced at the Super Bowl and yet you still hear “Otherside” every other hour on rock radio. Why are they so bulletproof? Why them?

Coming out of L.A. in 1983, the Red Hot Chili Peppers for years did not seem like prime candidates for rock immortality. One member died from drugs, and several others were crippled by long-running addictions. They have been legally charged on multiple occasions for boorish behavior toward women. Also, they are white guys who play funk rock. And yet, here they are, almost 40 years and more than 100 million albums shipped later, as one of the biggest bands in the world.

Seriously now: Why them?

This question is especially pertinent given that a new Chili Peppers record, Unlimited Love, comes out next week. It’s their first with their prodigal guitarist John Frusciante since 2006’s Stadium Arcadium, and it sets up a tour of stadiums (arcadiums?) due to start this summer. The list of tour openers speaks to the band’s tenure and cultural reach: The Strokes, Haim, St. Vincent, A$AP Rocky, Thundercat, Beck, Anderson .Paak & the Free Nationals, and King Princess.

But do their albums hold up? More important: Are they the greatest bad rock band or the worst great rock band? Let’s investigate.

I can't wait for Shake to drop into this thread.

I'm pretty convinced rn that the Peppers are *the* greatest American band, if you had to argue the case. They would be the one I'd argue, and I'll be surprised if that changes.

Their shitty songs still bang. Kind of like how songs on the Beatles White Album are weird but each have their own logic and hooks and you dig them, like Sexy Sadie or Baby You're a Rich Man, or Polythene Pam... (not every Beatles song actually bangs, too)

Flea and Fru are an incredible songwriting duo. Rubin and O'Brien in the studio did WORK.

I recently learned that Fru's guitar hero (after Jimi) is John McGeoch from Siouxsie. "[McGeoch] is such a guitarist I aspire to be. He has a new brilliant idea for each song. I usually play on the stuff he does on Magazine's albums and Siouxsie & the Banshees's like Juju."

What could be more American than a non-musician white boy aping Grandmaster Flash, just going yolo let's ******* rock dudes, and putting on a show? OO. I know--if the bassist and guitarist steal everything from jazz and funk and whatever Hendrix did.

And put it in a Hollywood package.

Just sayin...there's a case.

Originally Posted by Hawgdriver

I can't wait for Shake to drop into this thread.

I'm pretty convinced rn that the Peppers are *the* greatest American band, if you had to argue the case. They would be the one I'd argue, and I'll be surprised if that changes.

Their shitty songs still bang. Kind of like how songs on the Beatles White Album are weird but each have their own logic and hooks and you dig them, like Sexy Sadie or Baby You're a Rich Man, or Polythene Pam... (not every Beatles song actually bangs, too)

Flea and Fru are an incredible songwriting duo. Rubin and O'Brien in the studio did WORK.

I recently learned that Fru's guitar hero (after Jimi) is John McGeoch from Siouxsie. "[McGeoch] is such a guitarist I aspire to be. He has a new brilliant idea for each song. I usually play on the stuff he does on Magazine's albums and Siouxsie & the Banshees's like Juju."

What could be more American than a non-musician white boy aping Grandmaster Flash, just going yolo let's ******* rock dudes, and putting on a show? OO. I know--if the bassist and guitarist steal everything from jazz and funk and whatever Hendrix did.

And put it in a Hollywood package.

Just sayin...there's a case.

Yo!

Flea's autobiography is fantastic. I found myself looking up the old apartments they lived in on Google maps while reading it. I wasn't a nomad like him, but I definitely identified with the latchkey kid stuff and the freedom of youth that I had with friends when we were the kings of summer in our own little heads!

I have a love/hate relationship with Los Angeles (as in I love visiting there but hate it after a few days), and somehow that intersects with RHCP to me. There is just something that draws me to that place the same way the band embodies it. Its all at once cool, filthy, warm and inviting, yet hard and unforgiving. In the same day you can be walking over human feces in Hollywood to taking in a breathtaking sunset on the beach. Musically, RCHP has a LOT like the city and State (of mind) they celebrate musically in those ways. Going from the practically X-Rated Sir Psycho Sexy to a more tender track like Otherside is the same journey from the slums of Hollywood to Santa Monica beach on a perfect day in musical form.

Also, they have most of what I look for in this discussion: longevity, growth, cultural relevance and impact, and other wild cards unique to them. One unique thing I can think of is that they never really strayed far from their funk/rap/rock roots even on more ambitious albums like One Hot Minute but they still mature musically over the years.

They are also prolific in terms of production, fielding 15 Billboard Top 100 songs nearly every album they put out since 1992: https://www.billboard.com/artist/red...t-history/hsi/ and impressive back to back album releases that charted at no. 1 this past year (even if it was just for a few weeks): https://www.billboard.com/artist/red...t-history/hsi/

So while the may not be everyone's cup of tea, its hard to argue that they are the closest thing we have (band-wise anyway) to a homegrown phenomenon that has cut their own path and stayed on it for 40 years without much dictating their own sense of direction.

I'd put them in my Top 5 of personal band favorites, but I'll leave their place in THIS discussion to y'all if you want to consider my ramblings here as me almost convincing myself that maybe they are The Greatest American Band based on my own head-canon.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

Woot!