The Spices of Passion
With the releasing of “Red Hot Chili Peppers – Greatest Hits and Videos”, the legendary band from California demonstrates through 16 songs (with two new ones) and as many videos that chili is even better warmed up.
As they say: “The best wine comes out of an old vessel”. Well, with the release of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Greatest Hits and Videos”, we have the opportunity to sit down and remember the lovely effects of the Red Hots’ intoxicating Funk.*
Twenty years after Michael “Flea” Balzary and Anthony “Swan” Kiedis created the band, the Red Hot Chili Peppers are still as dynamic. Even if during all these years, these chefs’ hot chili con carne became a vegetarian chili flavoured with Buddhism and good intentions, the meal served live doesn’t lack any spices and we’re far away from a cholesterol-free sanitized stew.
Some will tell you that chili is soft, eaten without any hunger. Well, they’re wrong! The Californian chili is an invigorating funk-rock recipe that promises some explosions. But don’t get me wrong, chili doesn’t get bitter, even when it grows old. And to achieve this musical/culinary alchemy, our four chefs -Flea at the bass, Anthony Kiedis at vocals, John Frusciante at the guitar (after a Dave Navarro stint) and Chad Smith’s big arms on the drumkit- incorporated all the ingredients that make the difference.
First of all, let’s forget the organic food, we’ll only center on beef and hormones.
Backstage or live, the Red Hot are pure male energy! Indeed, while Kiedis’ appearance (or the band’s overall, as a matter of fact) – bulging muscles and well placed tattoos – were largely exposed on the cover of their EP “The Abbey Road” (1996), where our friends were playing some kind of nudist Beatles, wrapping their private parts in socks, making their female audience salivate, we also remember some “misdemeanors” (harassment and various abuses) from the members of the RHCP against their fans backstage.
Then, we add a good dose of red beans, we pour a bottle of tabasco -unstoppable riffs from John Frusciante and a nervous flow by Anthony Kiedis- on the whole and we leave it in the oven for a pretty long time. 6 years to meet their first hit with “Higher Ground” (1989) from Mother’s Milk. 8 years to become a name that can’t be ignored with “Under The Bridge” or “Give It Away”, which open the compilation, taken from the album that you MUST have: Blood Sugar Sex Magik. And the sound was as successful as the image. Image that was relayed through music videos that were constantly played on McM** (available on this double-album). Yeah, Chili is also great to watch.
But don’t you think that this Latin-American meal became so presentable that you can quietly enjoy it in the company of your in-laws. The Red Hot style Chili will send fire up your ass as usual. If Flea’s “new age” attitude -a green haired Sting, basically- and Anthony Kiedis’ Dalai-lama delirium seem to say that the Red Hot are calming down, the “Sex, Drugs & Rock ‘n’ Roll” trilogy was and always will be their creed.
Being back since 1998 and the classic “Californication”, John Frusciante looks like a standing anti-heroin advertisement, an addiction that led him to leave the band during the 5 years that followed the BSSM tour. “Under The Bridge”, one of their biggest hits, speaks in a direct way about Kiedis’ drug problems. Hillel Slovak, first guitarist of the band, passed away from a drug overdose, in 1988. Their first drummer has gone insane. Where a lot of rock “roadies” offer a weak musical content once they’ve found peace again, the Red Hot took their revenge with a new and fresh sound.
“No matter who’s the artist, if he starts to repeat himself, he’ll become a parody of himself, the only solution is the will to change and to restrict yourself. It’s like learning to not have sex with any girl. It’s better to make love to a person that counts on you than humping everything around you.” said Flea during the release of “By The Way”***.
Are abstinence and harmony the virtues planned for the shift initiated since “Californication”?
After listening to the two new tracks from “Greatest Hits”, harmony reigns on “Save The Population”, however, the intro to “Fortune Faded” shows that even if Chili is now consumed in a lighter version, the spices are still there. The spices of passion.
— Cécile Coldefy.
