Making of By the Way (Part Two)

"By the Way" is the title track on the eighth studio album by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It was released as the album's foremost single and eventually a music video was made as an accompaniment. The song was the band's sixth Modern Rock Tracks #1 hit and the first from the album.

The track is a popular and energetic number when played in concert, and always included in a live act albeit circumstances when they include only a small amount of songs (such as special performances) in their repertoire.

An electro house remix by Rene Amesz and Peter Gelderblom was released on the 5th of July, 2007, and became a popular track in clubs worldwide. The remix is also known as "Waiting 4", which is a prominently featured lyric. It reached #29 for one week in late November/early December 2007 in the United Kingdom

The frenetic video was directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, a couple who has collaborated with the band to create music videos on numerous other occasions. It is not a visual verbatim demonstration of the lyrical denotations, but rather a story all its own.

The video starts off with Anthony calling for a taxi. He gets in the taxi and a cabbie realizes he has Anthony as his passenger and puts a copy of the "By the Way" single into the CD player to please him, making Anthony smile mildly. Suddenly, the cabbie begins to be out of control as he lip-synchs the song loud and clear and begins to accelerate the taxi faster and faster and drive rambunctiously throughout the streets of L.A. after locking the car door, which makes Anthony uncomfortable and apprehensive. Anthony attempts to call on his cell phone, but the cabbie brakes so hard Anthony loses grip of his cell phone and the cabbie snatches it and throws it out of the window. The cabbie drives Anthony even more crazy as he drives the car in a cloud of dust and backs up under a bridge [Fans might think that it is the bridge that Anthony talked about in the song, "Under the Bridge"]. While under the bridge, the cabbie pulls out flare sticks and begins to torture him through awkward dancing while Anthony finally pages Flea and John, who are having lunch in a cafe, which says "Help! I've been kidnapped." At first John and Flea thinks it a hoax so they ignore the first message, then when Anthony pages them for the second time, Flea and John set out on Flea's Ford Bronco to find Anthony once again with the crazy cabbie in the taxi and begin a wild chase and even having some road rage. Anthony soon sees them, and breaks out of the taxi window and jumps in Flea's truck with a sigh of relief as the Chilis drive on another road to escape the cabbie. At the end, Chad calls for the taxi, and the cabbie realizes that he is a member of the Chilis too, so he drives off [the window that was broken was not shown intact] with him.

If you look closely, you can see the word "Jammin'!" on the cabbie's shirt.
The bridge that Anthony gets driven under may be the one he sang about in the song, "Under the Bridge" where he struggled with drugs and almost ended his life.
The book that Anthony holds in his hand at the beginning is Lexicon Devil which is a biography of his earlier influence, The Germs.




" It's kidnapping... A cab driver kidnaps me and just goes haywire through the town; he's a fan, but he's kind of a (pause) obsessive, compulsive, psychologically misarranged fan, and he sees me and starts enjoying himself a little too much and my friends have to come and rescue me. "

Anthony Kiedis -- The Making of: By the Way; Greatest Hits.

The fast and often jerky camera angles used in the high speed chase sequences are based on the 2000 Mexican film Amores Perros in which all the characters are linked by a car crash at the beginning of the film, before the crash is an almost identical high speed car chase sequence.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Making
• of
• By
• the
• Way
• RHCP
• Redhot
• Chili
• Peppers
• Alternative
• Rocks
• MTV

[koenzz17]

Love it how the cab driver stays in his role.

[BuzzKillington24]

why is everyone callin the cab driver a retard! he was a friendly guy and he was a good laugh, people should be nicer!

[evenonacloudyday17]

Flea at 2:47 is just hilarious

[raindropthunderstorm]

oh he is DEFINITELY on somethin...hah XD

[Evaquiel]

and by the way... its a good song... "by the way".

[Loishippiebastard]

Johnny just can't get any cuter. AND FUKIN EPIC

[PinkMiaka15]

2:30 love u Anthony teddy bear!! <3

[Sumalene]

@scielncerules1000 Nooo, Chad Smith: "I'm not bisexual, but I do like to buy sex" - haven't heard of it?

[Leopold72006]

The cab driver is Dave Sheridan. 

[Waptrickas9]

to the flea mobile!

[TheSundevil13]

@painextreme yeah your right on. im an oral surgery assistant and dental implants are just like you describe. Individual titanium implants that are screwed into the jaw bone. The bone fuses around the implant over a period of months and then a dentist puts screws a crown into the top of the titanium post. They cant be taken out like dentures can and are considered permanent.

[painxtreme]

@ChrisAngel63 They aren't Dentures, they are individually attached, artificial teeth. A friend of my son was in a bad wreck, and lost almost all his teeth at 17, and that's what they do for non-geriatric patients. They either anchor them to remaining solid tooth material, or if none, to the jawbone. Now if John had been in his 70's, they probably would have said "fuck it, dentures".