Why i love the Red Hot Chili Peppers and why i don't listen to them anymore .

steemusic (51)in #music • 8 years ago (edited)

I remember exactly the first time i listened to the red hot chili peppers . I was on vacation in Portugal and was something like 11 years old . I was really bored because on the family house in the countryside there was nothing to do . My sister had the album Blood sugar sex magic of the red hot chili peppers and i decided to listen to it . For an uncultured guy like me it was really too much . This album was really rich of a lot of influences , rap funk , rock , punk . i think it is maybe the first album i started to really listen .
After that i started to be really interested by the red hot and their music .

The 3 songs i loved the most were " give it away " , " under the bridge " and " blood sugar sex magc " . During those vacations it was the 3 songs i was always listening but years after years i started to appreciate the other songs of the albums and to learn more about the red hot chili peppers .

For me this album is one of the two best of them . The second one is Californication . I'm gonna try to explain why i love those albums and why i don't listen to the Red hot chli peppers anymore .

To understand my point of view you've got to understand where the red hot chili peppers come from .
At first the RHCP were a very crazy band , their first 3 albums are full of energy but i don't listen to them a lot . It is a kind of mix of funk punk rock rap music . The first guitarist was Hillel Slovak . I have to admit that i have never really been interested by those albums and by this guitarist . Hillel Slovak just as Anthony Kiedis were junkies and Hillel Slovak finally died because of drugs . The RHCP needed a new guitarist and finally chose John Frusciante who was a fan of the band . It has been the beginning of the success for them .
John Frusciante is one of my favorite guitarist and the reason why i love so much the next albums .

The first album with him has been Mother's milk :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother%27s_Milk

This album is the beggining of what i consider the best period of the band , it is less punk and more funky . Some of John Frusciante's riff are really unique and since now i have never listened so much creativity .

The album contains several good songs :

a cover of higher ground of Stevie Wonder

An ode to Magic Johnson with an crazy riff and insane solo

a song with a trumpet riff of Flea which has been sampled by the band crazy town

and a song with an female orgasm during Frusciante's solo

This album is really good but all is energy and i have the feeling that they need more maturity . The next album will be the good one .

Blood sugar sex magic has been recorded in the mansion (

) . In this documentary you can see how much creativity they have . By listening to the album you also realise how deep and mature it is .
The sound of the RHCP has changed , it sounds less as a live session . Everything is more clean and arranged . You can feel that they took the time to think about every arrangements . Every song has a different atmosphere but everything is logical . This album contains their 2 first big hits :

Give it away ( if you listen carefully you can listen a jew's harp )

and Under the bridge

but other wonderful songs

i could have lied with it's solo

funky monks with the guitar slap riff

breaking the girl with a 12 strings guitar (

)

sir psycho sexy and its wonderfull arrangements (

)

You can not throw anything in this album and the strenght of it is that you have the full energy of the band with ability to make great arrangements , deep and beautiful songs .

After this album John Frusciante decided to quit the band and Dave Navarro replaced him for the album " one hot minute " . The album is great but more rock and less funky ( a different RHCP style ) .

The next album is Californication which my second favorite one . John Frusciante comes back and you can feel it . On this album the RHCP succeeded to make something really huge . Composing song with minimalism , some songs are created on few notes riffs with for example :

Scar tissue

or Californication

with a riff starts with the guitar and finishes with bass

On this album this is just as if they tried to put on the trash all the things which were not necessary and that they tried to marry the guitar and the bass . Everything is simple and really complicated at the same time ( check at the 2 notes riff of " around the world "

)
On some songs the vocal harmonies are for me as good as the ones of the beatles ( fo example in " Road trippin' "

) .

For a lot of music bands there is one major album which is the beggining of the end . for example i consider that even if it was still good , Michael Jackson never succeed to do better than Thriller . After that even Bad which is a good album was worst . It was simply not possible to do better . Little by little the RHCP worked less on their songs and John Frusciante quit the band once again . This guy was the soul of this band ( at least let's say that the alchemy between the members of the band is not here anymore) .
With Bruno Mars at the superbowl they didn't play for real

. I can not even remember a good riff of the RHCP since Californication and their new guitarist seems like a clone of John Frusciante . Everytime there is a new album of the RHCP i'm thinking " well maybe... " after a few minutes that's always the same disappointment . Maybe it's them , maybe it's me , i don't know exactly but something has been lost .

Long life to John Frusciante !!!