How John Frusciante’s mother gave Red Hot Chili Peppers their greatest song
There is a common joke about Red Hot Chili Peppers where people claim all their songs sound the same. You need a funky guitar lick, an upbeat bassline, and a few California references, and you’ve got yourself a hit. This might be the case for a few tracks, but it’s not their biggest hit of all time.
‘Under The Bridge’ has become one of the most famous rock ballads of recent decades. The sweet-sounding plucking guitar chords, running bass and gorgeous lyrics are intoxicating. It’s an equally sad and beautiful song, where everybody knows the words, but nobody remembers learning them as they are embedded in our brains the moment we listen.
The track was born because Rick Rubin knew that the band had more in them than just being a funk-rock outfit. Vocalist Anthony Kiedis wrote the lyrics as a poem and showed them to John Frusciante, who added music. The piece found form there and steadily developed.
While it might be a triumph, it didn’t come naturally. The band managed to piece together the verse and chorus quickly, but they hit a brick wall afterwards. The chorus was such a massive standout throughout the song that simply closing the track with repetition seemed like an anti-climax, so they had to figure out a workaround.
Inspiration can come from a large number of different places. If you ask every creative person on the planet who or what inspires them, they will give you a massive variety of answers; however, one of the universal aspects that will inspire people will be their parents. This could be for better or worse, but in the case of ‘Under The Bridge’, it was for the better, as lead guitarist John Frusciante called his mother and asked her to lend a hand.
To take that iconic chorus and elevate it for the outro, his Mum came in with some of her friends to layer the vocals with a more angelic feel. “John’s Mum came in,” remembers Flea, “With, I think, people from her church group and sang the background vocals.”
The outro adds another layer to the song as the sound we have become familiar with throughout gets added to without compromising it, giving it a choir-like feel. The track goes from being a good slow rock song to an absolute ballad. The fact you can hear the original vocal amongst the choir sound also helps, as it keeps that heir of familiarity within the piece whilst taking it higher.
It just goes to show that no matter how successful you are, no matter how big your band is or what kind of accolades you have within the world of music, your Mum still always knows best.
