Californication

Just a mirror for the sun. These smiling eyes are just a mirror for.

Hi Son,

I want to preface this by saying the motivation I received for telling you my experience with Californication came from a documentary recently released by Netflix called “The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother Hillel.” It shed a lot of light onto an era of the band I knew little-to-nothing about. My familiarity was mainly during the mid-90s. They were big at that point, coming off of their masterpiece “Blood Sugar Sex Magik.” My first lasting impression of them was a single off of their subsequent record, “One Hot Minute,” called “Aeroplane.” It was played on almost every station in Kansas City that would play alternative rock. The other lasting impression I had was not of the band, but of their bassist Michael Balzary otherwise known as Flea. One of my favorite movies growing up was “Back to the Future” and the subsequent trilogy that would come out to the box office. I watched all three movies constantly when I was able to get them on VHS. Because I watched them so frequently, I would eventually come to watch and study the casting credits at the end of each film. The credits in the second movie listed Flea as a character named Douglas J. Needles who went by his last name. Needles also appeared in the third movie after Marty McFly was able to make his way back to 1985. Flea’s character was interesting in the fact he caused two catastrophic events that ruined Marty’s life. The first scene is in the second movie in 2015, where he gets Marty fired. The second scene was talked about throughout the second movie, but it wasn’t revealed that Needles was involved until his appearance in the third movie. Anyway, this wasn’t meant to be about “Back to the Future!” Although I could go on about all three movies for hours, I need to focus back on the Red Hot Chili Peppers (RHCPs).

I started this whole blather about how I knew next-to-little about the band and their history. “The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother Hillel,” focused on the formation of the band in the early 80s up until they lost two of their founding members. One being their drummer who I have gushed over in previous notes, Jack Irons. The other member was tragically lost to a drug addiction with heroin. Hillel Slovak passed away on June 25, 1988 at the age of only 26. After the loss of Jack and Hillel, the band was left with Flea and lead vocalist Anthony Kiedis. They found a drummer in Chad Smith who made the band as the last drummer of ca. 50-60 who auditioned. Their lead guitarist became John Frusciante, who was extremely familiar with the band’s music and also idolized Hillel. John was also only 18 when he joined and then recorded their album “Mother’s Milk” which was the preceeding record to “Blood Sugar Sex Magik.” He was phenomenal with the band for both of those records that resulted in the meteoric rise of the RHCPs. However, John did not deal well with the fame and spotlight that came with becoming one of the biggest bands in the world.

Like Hillel, John began to struggle with addiction to heroin. He left the band in 1992, which left Flea, Anthony and Chad needing another lead guitarist. They would turn to Dave Navarro, who recorded “One Hot Minute” with the band. However, the chemistry with Dave was much worse than it was with either Hillel or John. He would eventually get fired in 1998. To recap, the band was formed in 1982 with the only two members being a constant were Flea and Anthony. To add onto the drama during that 16-year period, Anthony was constantly relapsing into drug abuse as well. There was really very little stability in the RHCPs until 1998. This timeline is one of the most tumultuous histories that I have learned about, if not the most, of any band that I can remember.

In April 1998, John Frusciante would rejoin the band having rehabbed and also began to lead a much more stable and consistent life. The band would record and release the album that I will finally get around to talking about, “Californication” in June 1999. My experience with “Californication” did not start until my freshman year of college. During the fall of 2000, the student union played the music video of the title track of “Californication.” That music video was amongst a handful of songs which became embedded in my mind and motivated me to buy the CD of the album it resided. The title track, “Californication” was actually the fourth single released off of the record. I honestly can’t remember hearing any of them until I listened to the CD for the first time.

The album starts off loud with a powerful bass riff played by Flea. “Around the World” really sets the stage well for the entire tracklist. It’s what you would expect from the band given their track record. One interesting fact I really enjoy about the song is the final chorus. Anthony “scats” the lyrics going “ding dang, dong dong, deng deng, dong dong, ding dang.” When the recording of the song began, Anthony had trouble coming up with the lyrics so he scatted that line. Eventually, Anthony would come up with lyrics to replace the scat, but Flea’s daughter was bummed that the scat had been removed. So at the request of Flea’s daughter, the final recording includes the scat. “Around the World” was the second single released off of the record, but track 3, “Scar Tissue” was the first single. This song brings the intensity down after the first two tracks (track 2 is “Parallel Universe”). I’ve read from a few different sources that the sound in “Scar Tissue” was a change in sound for the band. It was considered “more melodic” and was the first of many songs to come with the new sound. The vocals by Anthony really shine by displaying his range. John provides slide guitar riffs and a fantastic solo about two-thirds of a way through the song. It’s considered one of the best songs in the entire catalog.

Track 4, “Otherside,” is another single released from “Californication.” It was written by Anthony about addicts who battle their prior addictions. He mentioned that the person in mind when he wrote the song was Hillel. It’s a great track. The tone is very steady throughout until it starts to build in energy up to the final chorus. The title track, which is what sucked me into the album in the first place, is track 6. I really like the placement of it, because it keeps me hooked to listen to the rest of the tracklist. The track “Californication” is a great song. It’s not only one of their most recognizable guitar riffs by John in their catalog, but it’s one of the most recognizable I’ve ever heard by any song ever. Many consider the song the best in the RHCP catalog.

Given how much I have gone on about the RHCPs history and “Californication” to this point, I’m not going to touch on every track from the rest of the tracklist. The most chill track on the album is number 8, “Porcelain.” The sound and the vocals are very minimal. The inspiration for the song was from meeting a single mother who was struggling with drug addiction. The song alludes to the lone positivity the mother has to draw herself to while trapped with her harmful habit. Track 12, “Savior,” is a song that I really enjoy. The tempo starts off fairly slow, but the vocals and the music are epic. It then picks up the tempo a little in intervals where the music backs off and Anthony gets quieter. The meaning of the song is about Anthony’s relationship with his father. His parents were separated and his father lived out in Hollywood. Most of his adolescence was spent with his father who partied a lot, dealt drugs and hooked up with a lot of different women. This lifestyle had Anthony beginning to take drugs at the age of 14, which he believes is why he became an addict later in life. The song is an acknowledgement of what made him the man he became.

The closer on the album is “Road Trippin.” This was the first single (of six total) to be released. it’s a beautiful way to finish the tracklist. The music is only an acoustic guitar played by John. The song describes a road trip the band took, except for Chad, just after John had rejoined the band. “Just a mirror for the sun. These smiling eyes are just a mirror for.” The record would become the RHCPs highest selling album from their catalog. It put the band back onto a similar platform they had reached after “Blood Sugar Sex Magik,” however this time there would be no bottoming out on the horizon. The lineup would remain unchanged for the next decade, which gave rise to two more brilliant records in “By the Way” and “Stadium Arcadium.” My first lasting impression of the RHCPs was a band of stability with a refined sound. Two things they were not known for in over 16 years. I’ve taken the time over the last couple of weeks to get more familiar with their work pre-1999, especially in the 1980s. Their style was truly innovative, especially in the manner of which Anthony delivered his vocals and the mastery and grooviness of Flea on the bass. It’s hard to get that initially given how ruckus their delivery was, but if you learn more about them and really listen to them, you really start to understand the genius of what they were and continue to be.

Love,

Dad

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