Red Hot Chili Peppers - Higher Ground (Live at The Ritz 1992)

Red Hot Chili Peppers are an American alternative rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1983. The band's current line-up is Anthony Kiedis (vocals), Michael "Flea" Balzary (bass), Chad Smith (drums), and Josh Klinghoffer (guitar). Their musical style has fused traditional funk with elements of other genres including jazz fusion, punk rock, and psychedelic rock. The group originally featured guitarist Hillel Slovak and drummer Jack Irons. Slovak, however, died of a heroin overdose in 1988, resulting in Irons' departure.[1] Irons was replaced briefly by former Dead Kennedys drummer D.H. Peligro before the band found a permanent replacement in Smith, while Slovak was replaced by guitarist John Frusciante. This lineup recorded the band's fourth, fifth, seventh, eighth and ninth albums, Mother's Milk (1989), Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991), Californication (1999), By the Way (2002), and Stadium Arcadium (2006), their five most successful.

The musical style of the band can best be described as a mix of funk, alternative rock, hard rock and punk rock. The band's influences can be traced from Parliament-Funkadelic, Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, Bob Marley, Sly and the Family Stone, Ohio Players, Stevie Wonder, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Black Flag, Ornette Coleman, Led Zeppelin, Bad Brains, Fugazi, Fishbone, Marvin Gaye, Billie Holliday, Santana, Elvis Costello, The Stooges, The Clash, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Devo, and Miles Davis.

Kiedis provides a range of vocal styles while singing. His approach of spoken verse and "rapping" (the primary characteristic of his vocals up to Blood Sugar Sex Magik), complemented with more traditional vocals, have helped the band maintain a relatively consistent style. Nevertheless, as the group has matured, the vocal sequences present in albums starting from Californication have drastically reduced the number of rapidly sung verses. By the Way only contained two songs which remained true to the rap-driven-verses and subsequent melodic choruses. Kiedis' more recent style has been developed through coaching throughout all nine of Red Hot Chili Peppers' albums.

Hillel Slovak's style was strongly based on blues and funk. Early replacements, including former guitarist John Frusciante, based their style significantly on Slovak's.
Frusciante brought a more melodic and textured sound to more recent albums such as By the Way, Californication and Stadium Arcadium. This contrasts with his previous abrasive approach in Mother's Milk, as well as his dry, funky and more docile arrangements on Blood Sugar Sex Magik.
Dave Navarro brought an entirely different sound to the band during his tenure, with his style based on heavy metal, progressive rock and psychedelia.

Flea's electric bass style is an amalgamation of funk, psychedelic, punk, and hard rock. The groove-heavy, low-tuned melodies, played through either finger style, picking, or slapping, have contributed to the Red Hot Chili Peppers' signature style. While Flea's slap bass style was prominent in earlier albums, later albums (post Blood Sugar Sex Magik) have more melodic and funk driven bass lines. He has also used double stops on some newer songs.

Smith blends high powered rock with funk grooves. He mixes funk, rock, metal and jazz to most of his beats. He is influenced from the jazz of Buddy Rich to the big beats of John Bonham. He brought a different sound to the band in 1989's album Mother's Milk, playing tight and fast. In 1991's Blood Sugar Sex Magik, he displays a more powerful way of playing drums. He is very recognized for his grace notes, his beats and his fast right foot. MusicRadar put him in sixth place on their list of the "50 Greatest Drummers Of All Time", behind Mike Portnoy, Neil Peart, Keith Moon, Buddy Rich and their number one choice, John Bonham.

Through the years, Kiedis' lyrics have covered a variety of topics, which have shifted as time has progressed. Themes within his repertoire include love and friendship, teenage angst and good-time aggression, various sexual topics and the link between sex and music, political and social commentary (Native American issues in particular), romance, loneliness globalization and the cons of fame and Hollywood, poverty, drugs, alcohol and dealing with death.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• red hot chili peppers
• alternative rock
• funk rock
• alt rock
• live
• concert
• 1992

[guiguipvn]

Flea said everything in the begining.

[LivingIn1969]

u can tell frusciante wanted out

[angelosinski]

@cursedswordsman sorry man, i didnt... fuck. there should be a RHCP national archive or something

[kiak12]

@RHCP9181 I THINK HE WAS BEING SARCASTIC YOU CAN TELL WHEN ANTHONY SAY WE ARE VERY EXCITED ACTUALLY  JOHN .

[cursedswordsman]

@angelosinski Hey... did you find it? I wanna see!

[cursedswordsman]

LMAO at Flea making fun of John.

[jenskeroro]

@1MW2 Yup.

[1MW2]

when flea says me too i'm really excited, does John give him the finger? ahaah

[SlyCY1078]

Flea didnt say everything, it was obviously Anthony...



[turtlliwdnifuoyehthr]

@RHCP9181

john is an ass here.

he is so sarcastic.

it doesnt take a genius to see that he doesnt want to be in the band

[johnsydjimi]

john frusciante is soooo stoned / too much coke

[RHCP9181]

@LivingIn1969 To show a little proof, 0:21 John saids hes excited about new years and Flea pretty much decides to be an idiot and make fun of what he said at 0:27...