Tag Archives: red hot chili peppers

My iPod #153: Red Hot Chili Peppers – By the Way

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Well, here I am. The end of another letter. It’s the end of ‘B’. I’ve been doing this since the day I finished my A-Levels, and now I’m in university. That’s crazy. It’s weird to think about. It seems very fitting for it to end on this note.

When will ‘C’ start? God only knows. I wouldn’t say this is the end of “My iPod”, but I can’t see a point in the near future when I’ll start writing about my favourite songs in alphabetical order. It’s a shame. It will be back… soon. Hopefully.

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The video for this song is now censored when it plays on “MTV Rocks” in the UK. It takes out all the best scenes too. Why?! I don’t get it.

“By the Way” was the Chili Peppers’ first single and title track of the band’s eighth album in 2002. The song proved to be very popular in the USA and the UK reaching number one in the many charts they have in the former, and number two in the latter.

The music video features Dave Sheridan (Officer Doofy) who kidnaps Anthony Kiedis with his taxi, a lot of other shit happens, Anthony escapes and Sheridan picks up Chad Smith at the end. It’s action-packed to say the least. If you haven’t seen it, it’s probably one of the best videos that accompanies the tone and mood of the song.

The song initially trolls you with its quiet, Scar Tissue-esque introduction before launching into a pumping combat/style instrumental break driven by Flea’s bass and Anthony’s rapping before launching into the uprising chorus. It’s brilliant stuff to listen to.

I guess that’s it. I’ll see you when I see you. I hope you’ll be waiting for……… me.

Jamie.

My iPod #131: Red Hot Chili Peppers – Breaking the Girl

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I’m very happy. Today marks the first time I make a blog from my new laptop.

No more will I have to suffer with the forever slow and freezing mess that is the family desktop. If you guys want a laptop, ASUS is the way to go. Forget Dell. My sister has a Dell laptop that’s basically falling apart. Whether that’s due to the manufacturer or if my sister abused it I’m not sure. I know that I’m not messing this mine up though.

Now with that intro out of the way, is this my first Red Hot Chili Peppers post? Because I’m pretty sure I haven’t touched upon one song of theirs. They probably don’t have a lot of songs beginning with the letter ‘A’ that I know of. Except for “Aeroplane” of course.

So… Red Hot Chili Peppers….. Ah! “Fight Like a Brave”. That was the first song I’d ever heard by them, thanks to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3. When they released “By the Way” in 2002, I had no idea that it was the band who wrote that song until I actually looked at the in-game menu.

In 2002, I wasn’t really into music. Being six/seven at the time, I was either incessantly up at early hours in the morning to watch Cartoon Network or Thomas the Tank Engine videos. 2006 was the year that I can actually remember the build up towards a Red Hot Chili Peppers album, which we all know is the double album “Stadium Arcadium”.

I can remember it now, the video for “Dani California” premiered at midnight on Channel 4. It was then played every hour on MTV2 the next day. My sister and I liked it. She had a friend who liked the band, who then gave her the “Greatest Hits” album. This is where “Breaking the Girl”comes in.

The song became a favourite of my sister’s. I recall not liking the song as much as the others though. I thin it was the fact that amongst the others on the compilation, this was a tune that I had actually never heard before. Even when I did listen to it, I found it… boring.

However when I downloaded “Blood Sugar Sex Magik” a few months ago, I found myself wailing along to the chorus and air drumming to the trash-can percussion in the instrumental break. I loved it. “Breaking the Girl” isn’t boring at all. The eleven-year old me was a silly child. If you are going to write a song about a meaningful relationship that went wrong and you feel as if you are to blame, you probably wouldn’t want to make it a funky jam as the Peppers normally did around that time. Something more melodic will do. This is that song you want to write. Yes.

Well, until tomorrow you guys.

Jamie.