The 1991 Red Hot Chili Peppers song Anthony Kiedis can’t stand: “I hate the vocals”
Every Red Hot Chili Peppers album feels like listening to a different band.
Though the funk rockers have relied on their love of classic bands like Parliament Funkadelic to inform their sound, there are just as many influences from acts like The Beach Boys or The Beatles on some of their later tracks off By the Way or Stadium Arcadium. Of all their classic albums, though, nothing captures the band’s spirit better than what happened on Blood Sugar Sex Magik.
Hooking up with Rick Rubin for the first time, The Peppers nailed down the most concentrated version of their signature sound. While there were bona fide rock classics amongst the track listing like ‘Give It Away’ and ‘Suck My Kiss’, vocalist Anthony Kiedis was able to stretch out for the first time in his career as well.
Embracing singing instead of rapping the entire time, Kiedis’ approach to lyrics got more introspective on tracks like ‘I Could Have Lied’, written as a tribute to his doomed romance with Sinéad O’Connor. Then again, everything paled in comparison to ‘Under the Bridge’, as Kiedis poured out his heart about his struggles with drugs and how the city of Los Angeles has always looked out for him.
Considering the length of the project, though, there are bound to be a handful of songs that don’t mesh with the classics. Though the band did deliver one of the most laughable songs of their career with their cover of Robert Johnson’s ‘They’re Red Hot’, Kiedis has made it clear that he isn’t a fan of ‘The Greeting Song’.
Coming towards the tail end of the project, The Peppers are still in fine form, with John Frusciante delivering a solid riff across most of the song. Regardless of its appeal, Kiedis didn’t look back on the song fondly.
Part of the frustration likely came from how personal Blood Sugar Sex Magik had become by that point in the sessions. Rubin had pushed the band to strip away some of the cartoonish bravado of their earlier years and focus on performances that felt emotionally honest.
Songs like ‘Breaking the Girl’ and ‘Under the Bridge’ revealed a vulnerability that hadn’t fully surfaced on previous albums, which made something as straightforward as ‘The Greeting Song’ feel slightly disconnected from the rest of the record’s emotional core.
Even so, the track still highlighted how explosive the chemistry between the four musicians had become during that era. Frusciante’s jagged guitar lines, Flea’s restless bass playing and Chad Smith’s muscular groove ensured that even the album’s lesser-loved moments carried an undeniable energy. Blood Sugar Sex Magik worked because the band sounded fearless throughout, willing to bounce between heartfelt confessionals and absurd funk-rock workouts without losing sight of who they were.
When putting together material for the album, Kiedis remembered ‘The Greeting Song’ being haphazardly thrown together, recounting in Scar Tissue, “To this day, I hate that song. I hate the lyrics, I hate the vocals. It was a lively tune in the Led Zeppelin tradition, but I never found my place in it.”
Though the album was pretty frontloaded already, Kiedis remembered the song coming together at Rubin’s suggestion, thinking the band needed a song about girls and cars. This was a far cry from the rest of the record, touching on everything from sexual pleasures to sociopolitical themes to abstract psychedelic ideas.
In an ironic twist of fate, ‘Greeting Song’ was originally going to be used in a car commercial before Kiedis eventually backpedalled on the idea, explaining, “General Motors called us up and wanted to create an advertising campaign for Chevy by printing the words to ‘Greeting Song’ on a blank page. I couldn’t let them do it; I didn’t believe in those lyrics.”
Going forward, the band would have a lot more success creating music from the heart, whether showing off their scar collection on songs like ‘Otherside’ or celebrating the thrill of surviving this long on ‘Can’t Stop’. No matter what era the Peppers might find themselves in, it was always about singing for the moment rather than anything generic.
