Sputnik Music Forums - Featured Artist #16: Red Hot Chili Peppers

[b][center][u]Red Hot Chili Peppers[/b][/center][/u]

Red Hot Chili Peppers are one of [I]those[/I] bands these days. Everyone knows their classic ‘Under The Bridge’, and many more could reel off a whole list of hits – ‘Give It Away’, ‘Californication’, ‘Scar Tissue’, ‘Can’t Stop’ – the list goes on.

Music fans the world over have an opinion on them, some love them, others despise them and many more fall somewhere in between. However, whatever your personal opinion may be it is undeniable that the [I]Red Hot Chili Peppers[/I] are one of the biggest and most influential bands in the world today.

The band’s story is almost as famous as the music - the mania of their younger days, the infamous ‘socks on cocks’, the death of Hillel Slovak, the collapse of John Frusciante and the band’s resurrection with [I]Californication[/I], it’s a story so ridiculously adventurous and eventful that it is worth hearing almost by itself.

The original members of the Peppers – Anthony Kiedis, Michael Balzary, Hillel Slovak and Jack Irons – all attended Fairfax High School in Los Angeles. Anthony was an actor and a poet, Michael played the trumpet, Hillel was an aspiring guitarist and Jack played drums. Probably the most initially ambitious, Hillel convinced Michael to play the bass. The two of them then talked Anthony into setting his poems to music, and before long the trio were making music. After the recruitment of Jack Irons they began to play live, in strip clubs across the city, which is where their trademark and somewhat inventive usage of socks came about.

Interest in the group widened and they were signed on to EMI. However, due to another band that both Slovak and Irons were members of, Kiedis and Balzary (now known as Flea) were forced to make their [url=http://www.sputnikmusic.com/album.php?albumid=449]self-titled[/url] debut album with another guitarist and drummer and the result was an effort that didn’t really have the energy of the live band, nor the musicianship. Nonetheless, the [I]Red Hot Chili Peppers[/I] were on their way.

Slovak and Irons soon came back to the band, and with producer George Clinton the band produced two more albums – [I][url=http://www.sputnikmusic.com/album.php?albumid=699]Freaky Styley[/url][/I] and [I][url=http://www.sputnikmusic.com/album.php?albumid=1717] The Uplift Mofo Party Plan[/url][/I]. The latter finally got close to showing just how good this band already were, and certainly contained a lot of promise for an even better future. Chart success was round the corner and everyone involved expected the band to have the world at their feet.

Tragically, we can never know what this potent combination of musicians might have achieved, as on June 25th 1988 Hillel Slovak died of a heroin overdose. Grief drove Irons away and Kiedis and Flea were left with their careers and lives in ruins. Nonetheless, they felt the band was too good to give up, and after a lot of effort and failed attempts the two remaining founding members stumbled upon a youngster named John Frusciante, and a rocker called Chad Smith. They both seemed like unlikely candidates to take this shattered band onto superstardom, but a very creative chemistry was set up between the four members, and the band got to work.

In 1989 they came out fighting with [I][url=http://www.sputnikmusic.com/album.php?albumid=360] Mother’s Milk[/I][/url], dedicated to the memory of Slovak but a fine piece of work in its own right. With the hit singles ‘Higher Ground’ and ‘Knock Me Down’, Red Hot Chili Peppers finally began to gain some of the recognition they’d been waiting for.

However, the best was yet to come. In 1991 they found a new, innovative producer in the form of Rick Rubin, and they holed themselves up in a Californian mansion to produce what is considered by many to be their finest work – [I][url=http://www.sputnikmusic.com/album.php?reviewid=1610] Blood Sugar Sex Magik[/url][/I]. One of the first classic albums of the Nineties, this defined a generation with songs like ‘Give It Away’ and their hugely successful ballad ‘Under The Bridge’. The rest went down in rock history – John Frusciante quit the band due to the pressures of fame, they hired Dave Navarro of Jane’s Addiction to record [I][url=http://www.sputnikmusic.com/album.php?albumid=484] One Hot Minute[/I][/url]. This was less commercially successful, and many pronounced the band’s collective career over, although today more and more people are re-examining the album and seeing it in a more objective light.

The band’s fortunes took a dramatic turn yet again when the band managed to persuade Frusciante to make music with them one more time. Rejuvenated, the band spectacularly managed to produce [I][url=http://www.sputnikmusic.com/album.php?albumid=356] Californication[/I][/url] – impressive by anyone’s standards and sent a clear message out to the world – the Peppers were back and they planned on staying.

Since then this band have had the Midas touch – they can sell out huge venues, shift ridiculous numbers of albums and have the fame to do whatever they want. They’ve released one more studio album since [I]Californication[/I] – [I][url=http://www.sputnikmusic.com/album.php?albumid=234] By The Way[/url][/I], a much more soulful and melodic record than all of their previous offerings, which seemed to indicate that this is a band still only getting started.

As they walk into the recording studio once again this week, who can imagine where they intend to go next?

With such a huge fanbase all over the world, the question that naturally arises is ‘what makes this band so good?’. Of course, there is no simple answer to that question, but the band really does have a lot of appeal to disparate people on many different levels.

They blended funk, rap and rock in a way that’s never been so commercially viable before or since. With legendary live shows and songs that sound like no one else this band is something quite unique. They’ve covered such huge ground over their careers it would seem almost impossible not to find a single Red Hot Chili Peppers song that appealed to you. There are the bittersweet, gorgeous ballads such as ‘Under The Bridge’, ‘I Could Have Lied’, ‘Scar Tissue’ and ‘Dosed’, the funk rock anthems such as ‘Suck My Kiss’, ‘Johnny, Kick A Hole In The Sky’, ‘Around The World and ‘Can’t Stop’ and the song writing master classes of ‘Californication’, ‘By The Way’ and ‘Venice Queen’.

Of course, they’re not for everyone. Some of the earlier fans can’t stand their latest work, others detest everything before Frusciante rejoined the band. Then there are those who have never liked the band, and probably never will.

For others, however, Red Hot Chili Peppers can represent something very special and significant in their lives. Most fans have stories about how the music connected with them, how they made an impact on their lives and how they introduced them to yet more music.

As a huge fan myself, it’s difficult to put into words quite what the band means to me. Without [I]By The Way[/I] it would have taken me an awful lot longer to develop my tastes beyond Dido and Coldplay. Without ‘Dosed’ I don’t know how I would have got through one of the toughest periods of my early teenage years. Without the link to other people the music provided me with, I don’t know whether I’d have any of the amazing friends I have today.

To say that this band can change your life may seem a little excessive, but I’m sure I’m not the only one when I say that the various members of Red Hot Chili Peppers have more influence over my life up until this point than a lot of people that I know in my day-to-day life. The two times I have been to the concerts have been some of the most joyful times of my life.

[b]The Records:[/b]

Red Hot Chili Peppers
Freaky Styley
The Uplift Mofo Party Plan
Mother’s Milk
Blood Sugar Sex Magik
One Hot Minute
Californication
By The Way

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