History Music / RedHotChiliPeppers

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Generally 4 or 5. They drop to a 3 with "Breaking The Girl", while songs like "Californication" and "Under The Bridge" would be a 2. Occasionally, they go up to a 6 ("Parallel Universe", etc.), or write songs with different sections that make them a bit harder to place accurately (Does the ultra-fast, distortion-laden, MetalScream intro and bridge of ''Around the World'' make it a 5? Does the melodic chorus make it lower?). It should be noted, however, that the album ''Californication'' sounds heavier than it is due to LoudnessWar making it distorted. The ''Californication'' outtake "Slowly Deeply" (Released belatedly as the B-Side to "Universally Speaking" [=CD2=] in 2003) is one of the heaviest songs the band has ever done.
** The band had a notable hardcore punk influence in their earlier days, as heard on "You Always Sing The Same,” "Battleship,” "Catholic School Girls Rule,” "Skinny Sweaty Man,” "No Chump Love Sucker,” "Love Trilogy,” "Stone Cold Bush" and "Punk Rock Classic,” "The Greeting Song,” "Search And Destroy" and "Sikamikanico" most of which are in the 7 or 8 area.
*** ''One Hot Minute'' has some moments which indicate a metal influence, these being "Warped,” "Coffee Shop,” "One Big Mob,” "One Hot Minute,” "Shallow Be Thy Game" and the closing part of "Transcending.”
** They covered [[GothRock 45 Grave's]] song "Black Cross", which proves that they are capable of playing at least an 8 on the scale. The unreleased original "Mini-Epic,” from around the same time, has a hardcore punk/thrash metal influenced section at the end which is probably the heaviest they played in years.
** They've started really dropping down the scale after ''Californication'', which has fueled fan arguments about LighterAndSofter decadence. It doesn't help that a lot of newer fans either don't know about or ignore their pre-''Mother's Milk'' albums and ''One Hot Minute'', despite how awesome they are.
*** The B-Side "Eskimo" has one of the heaviest choruses they've ever done, despite having subdued (if eerie) verses. The unreleased track "Fall Water" recorded around the same time follows a similar pattern.
*** "Body Of Water" is feedback drenched and grungy, although is rather melodic. "Victorian Machinery" was seen by fans as being quite similar to One Hot Minute era material.

** The funkiness of their sound varies between albums, however. Their first six albums are funkier than the ones that came after, with ''Freaky Styley'' being the funkiest one of them all; some songs on it are more straightforward Funk than they are Funk Rock. On ''Californication'', they would start to alternate between Funk Rock and a more conventional AlternativeRock sound, sometimes within the same song (the opening track "Around the World" showcases this best). ''By the Way'' largely does away with the funk, with only three songs from it being Funk Rock and Alternative Rock hybrids. ''Stadium Arcadium'' returns to balancing both sounds the way ''Californication'' did, and even includes a song that wouldn't sound out-of-place on ''Freaky Styley'', with "Hump de Bump," while another song sounds like it came straight out of 'Blood Sugar Sex Magik," with "Warlocks." Their next two albums would keep this sort of balance.

* BadassBeard: John, post-rejoining the band
* BadassMustache: Anthony now sports one.

* AscendedFanboy: John Frusciante. He became a diehard fan of the band after attending one of their concerts when he was 15, especially idolizing Hillel Slovak and learning the guitar and bass for all of the band's first three albums. Through ties, he grew a musical relationship with Flea, and in light of the [[RevolvingDoorBand ample changes made to the band roster after Slovak's death]], Flea ended up proposing to get John on board out of how impressed he was by John's encyclopedic knowledge of the band. After auditioning him, he and Anthony both agreed he was the right pick; after hearing the news, John reportedly ran through his house screaming with excitement, and jumped on his wall, leaving permanent boot marks.

** John Frusciante - the musical monk that swears he once masturbated in front of a ''ghost'', regularly talks to spirits

** On ''Magik'', the band's friend Pete Weiss played jaw harp on "Give It Away,” and mixing engineer Brendan O'Brien played the mellotron on "Sir Psycho Sexy,” nearly inaudible piano on "Mellowship Slinky in B Major" and nearly inaudible toy celeste on "Apache Rose Peacock.” John's mother Gail Frusciante and some of her friends were brought in to perform the female choir part in "Under the Bridge.”

* StrawmanFallacy: "Millionaires Against Hunger,” a ''Freaky Styley'' b-side, pulls one of these. Hillel plays a greedy millionaire who raps about not caring for the poor, while Anthony plays a nice millionaire who gives his money away, and even sings this chorus:
-->Hey, hey, Mr. Millionaire!
-->You're twice as nice when you share!
-->Hey, hey, Mr. Millionaire!
-->Spiritual price, do you care?

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Generally 4 or 5. They drop to a 3 with ''Breaking The Girl'', while songs like ''Californication'' and ''Under The Bridge'' would be a 2. Occasionally, they go up to a 6 (''Parallel Universe'', etc.), or write songs with different sections that make them a bit harder to place accurately (Does the ultra-fast, distortion-laden, MetalScream intro and bridge of ''Around the World'' make it a 5? Does the melodic chorus make it lower?). It should be noted, however, that the album Californication sounds heavier than it is due to LoudnessWar making it distorted. The Californication outtake "Slowly Deeply" (Released belatedly as the B-Side to Universally Speaking [=CD2=] in 2003) is one of the heaviest songs the band has ever done.

*** "One Hot Minute" has some moments which indicate a metal influence, these being "Warped,” "Coffee Shop,” "One Big Mob,” "One Hot Minute,” "Shallow Be Thy Game" and the closing part of "Transcending.”
** They covered [[GothRock 45 Grave's]] song Black Cross, which proves that they are capable of playing at least an 8 on the scale. The unreleased original "Mini-Epic,” from around the same time, has a hardcore punk/thrash metal influenced section at the end which is probably the heaviest they played in years.
** They've started really dropping down the scale after ''Californication'', which has fueled fan arguments about LighterAndSofter and they changed it now it sucks. It doesn't help that a lot of newer fans either don't know about or ignore their pre-Mother's Milk albums and One Hot Minute, despite how awesome they are.

Singing songs from [[Music/DavidBowie Station to]] [[Music/StationToStation Station]]\\

* Guitarist [=DeWayne=] "Blackbyrd" [=McKnight=] (1988) [[note]]Principal member of [[Music/GeorgeClinton Parliament-Funkadelic[[/note]]

* Drummer Cliff Martinez (1984-1986) [[note]]Formerly a drummer for Music/CaptainBeefheart]]
* Guitarist [=DeWayne=] "Blackbyrd" [=McKnight=] (1988) [[note]]Principal member of [[Music/GeorgeClinton Parliament-Funkadelic]][[/note]]
* Drummer D.H. Peligro [[note]]Principal member of Music/TheDeadKennedys[[/note]] (1988)

* Drummer '''[[Music/PearlJam Jack Irons]]''' (1983, 1986-1988)

* Drummer [[Music/CaptainBeefheart Cliff Martinez]] (1984-1986)
* Guitarist [[Music/GeorgeClinton [=DeWayne=] "Blackbyrd" [=McKnight=]]] (1988)
* Drummer [[Music/DeadKennedys D.H. Peligro]] (1988)

* Guitarist [[Music/JanesAddiction Dave Navarro]] (1993-1998)

** "Californication" includes the line [[Film/ANewHope "Alderaan's not far away it's Californication"]].

** Anthony claims in "Scar Tissue" that the inspiration for the song came from an [[JailBait actual teenage Catholic School girl]], whom he slept with during one of his earlier tours. She also resembled Creator/MarilynMonroe.

* JailBait: "Let's Make Evil,” a ''One Hot Minute'' b-side:
-->Seventeen and thirty-one
-->I am just my mother's son
-->Brown eyes and a silver tongue
-->All the mothers come undone
-->At the sight of me

* MadArtist: John Frusciante is a classic example, going from child prodigy, to a starving drug addict, to a bona-fide musical Jesus figure. Going by interviews from people who know him, he's definitely got the "mad genius" vibe.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: The record company made them change the names of two tracks. First was "Blowjob Park,” which was renamed to "Battleship" for its inclusion on ''Freaky Styley''. The second, "Party On Your Pussy,” was changed to "Special Secret Song Inside.” The lyrics remained the same. Humorously, EMI had plans to release "Special Secret Song Inside" as a single until they realized what the lyrics were about. "Party On Your Pussy" had its original title reinstated on the 2004 remaster. "Battleship" didn't, but this might had to do with ex-member Jack Sherman co-writing it.
** In the video for "Around The World,” Anthony Kiedis is briefly seen playing with a vaguely human-shaped blob of light. At some point, he's quite clearly performing oral sex on it and, later, putting his hand into it's "vagina."

* TextlessAlbumCover: None so far, but famed album artist [[Creator/{{Hipgnosis}} Storm Thorgerson]] did a few conceptual, artsy covers for ''Stadium Arcadium'', which can be seen [[http://stadium-arcadium.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14152 here]]. The band instead went for a (virtually) text-only cover seen [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e6/Stadiumarcadium.jpg here]], which Thorgerson described as "trite, dull, and derivative."

* LongRunnerLineUp[=/=]RevolvingDoorBand: The Kiedis-Frusciante-Flea-Smith line fits fifth type of the former due to fitting the latter so well.

* AbbeyRoadCrossing: ''The Abbey Road EP''. The album cover is a hilarious parody, which features the original four members (Kiedis, Flea, Irons, and Slovak) walking across a Los Angeles road with their [[BestKnownForTheFanservice signature "socks on cocks" gimmick.]] For added hilarity, the dividing lines on the road in the background are zig-zagged.

* ApprovalOfGod: The group was amazed to find George Clinton loved their music as much as they loved his, resulting in him producing Freaky Styley.

* GoneHorriblyWrong: At the notorious Woodstock 1999, Music/JimiHendrix's sister approached the band and asked them to do a cover of one of her brother's songs. The band decided to play the cover after performing "Under the Bridge,” during which they handed out lit candles to the audience as a symbol of peace. As it turned out, [[HarsherInHindsight the song they had chosen to cover was "Fire,"]] unaware of how tense the audience was. All hell broke loose.

*** There is, however, an unmastered version [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes making the rounds on the Internets]] of an earlier version of the album that does not have the clipping problems, although includes a few alternate versions and some outtakes too. This is one of those cases where the album can basically only be truly appreciated through piracy.

* MinimalisticCoverArt: ''I'm With You'' features a plain white background with a fly sitting on top of a pill. [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible Even the band doesn't know about the meaning behind it]].
* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Generally 4 or 5. They drop to a 3 with ''Breaking The Girl'', while songs like ''Californication'' and ''Under The Bridge'' would be a 2. Occasionally, they go up to a 6 (''Parallel Universe'', etc.), or write songs with different sections that make them a bit harder to place accurately (Does the ultra-fast, distortion-laden, MetalScream intro and bridge of ''Around the World'' make it a 5? Does the melodic chorus make it lower?). It should be noted, however, that the album Californication sounds heavier than it is due to LoudnessWar making it distorted. The Californication outtake "Slowly Deeply" (Released belatedly as the B-Side to Universally Speaking CD2 in 2003) is one of the heaviest songs the band has ever done.

** They've started really dropping down the scale after ''Californication'', which has fueled fan arguments about LighterAndSofter and TheyChangedItNowItSucks. It doesn't help that a lot of newer fans either don't know about or ignore their pre-Mother's Milk albums and One Hot Minute, despite how awesome they are.

* RepurposedPopSong: Defied; "The Greeting Song" was nearly picked up by Chevrolet because of its lyrics, but Anthony decided not to give the company the rights to the song by way of CreatorBacklash.

* SpringtimeForHitler: The ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tuByO1kS5U performance of "Under the Bridge"]]. Despite the fact that John's guitar playing nearly derailed the song, it increased album sales and popularity for the band, [[ItsPopularNowItSucks which was the opposite of what he actually wanted]].

* StepUpToTheMicrophone: "Knock Me Down" is sung by both Anthony Kiedis and John Frusciante but the latter's vocals are the most audible ones of the two. John's distinctively high-pitched vocals played an important role in the band after he joined, and are very obvious in many of their songs. In fact, ExecutiveMeddling meant that "Knock Me Down" was subjected to additional mixing to make John's vocals ''louder'' than Anthony's. The Original Long Version of the song features Anthony's voice louder than John's.

** Drummer Cliff Martinez. The whole band was weird, but Cliff was ''weirder''. No surprise, given his time in [[Music/CaptainBeefheart]]'s band.

** Drummer Cliff Martinez. The whole band was weird, but Cliff was ''weirder''. No surprise, given his time in [[Music/Captain Beefheart]]'s band.

** Drummer Cliff Martinez. The whole band was weird, but Cliff was ''weirder''.

* RevolvingDoorBand: As of this writing, the band has had three drummers and '''seven''' guitarists, with Anthony and Flea being the only members left frhe implication that hair metal bands paid MTV off to play them. These days, Guns N Roses are so well respected, many might not even realise the point behind that.