Red Hot Chili Peppers - Greatest Hits Poll

Other songs which I thought were pretty well known and are missing from the comp:

Around the World
Can't Stop
Zephyr Song
Knock Me Down
If You Have to Ask
Warped
Love Rollercoaster
Aeroplane

Should have been a 2CD album methinks

as far as i know rhcp generally disown the navarro era

anyway for me this is either "soul to squeeze," "breaking the girl," or idk "parallel universe"

Just checked and what a weird choice to not have Around the World when it was #7 in the modern rock charts, meanwhile Parallel Universe topped out at #37 and Road Trippin naught.

anyway for me this is either "soul to squeeze," "breaking the girl," or idk "parallel universe"

― who is extremely unqualified to review this pop album (BradNelson)

Yeah I think this is pretty much my same opinion. Under the Bridge is a classic to but I don't mind if I ever hear it again.

lol at them leaving Aeroplane off the comp.

Tough choice btwn By the Way and Scar Tissue.

No "Taste The Pain" or "Knock Me Down"? What the fuck is this?

No Can't Stop no credibility

Are there basically no songs from their first few albums besides Higher Ground?

It's way too ballad-heavy but I love that they picked a couple of killer nonhits. "Road Trippin'" 4 ever

First 4 albums were EMI, already summarized on that label's What Hits?! This comp was a Warner Bros. release. As I recall, one WB track ("Under the Bridge") was lent to EMI for What Hits?! in exchange for one EMI track eventually being included on a Chili Peppers Greatest Hits for Warners, which is this comp.

I really shouldn't know this shit though

"breaking the girl" is as fine a led zep iii ripoff as the 90s gave us and maybe the only decent song this band ever wrote

scar tissue

^^

they left off their best songs. Navarro era is the only rhcp stuff I can stomach

soul to squeeze

might have voted for Knock Me Down which remains a good song in my memory and, having not heard it in like 15 years, that's where I choose to keep it

Scar Tissue vs Breaking the Girl vs Give It Away vs Under the Bridge

Of these songs, it's easily 'Breaking The Girl' ... call all destroyer OTM about it being a Led Zep rip... there's a bit of a 'Stairway To Heaven' vibe to the mellotron part.

It would have been 'Aeroplane' if that was on here.

I can remember next to nothing about 'Fortune Faded' apart from thinking when I heard it at the time it was released that RHCP were getting stale. I remember thinking "okay, you can write a different kind of song now, guys"

Taste the Pain (with Fishbone's rhythm section) and Knock Me Down pretty much only Peppers I'd BV ever want to hear again. Recall Soul to Squeeze was a good ballad ... B-side? Soundtrack song? Anyway, I heard some crappy Aerosmith song this morning and thought, huh, this sounds like the Chili Peppers today.

Song may be called Lost Child? From Rocks?

'Soul To Squeeze' was on the Coneheads soundtrack, iirc.

'Knock Me Down' still rules.

Breaking The Girl!

just missed the Top 40 in the UK.

Yeah... I mean, 'Under The Bridge' was a huge hit here and everything, but the UK didn't really take to this band until Californication. I think there was a lot of people who saw them as somewhat of a joke band for a long while.

This tracklisting makes no sense. I'm infuriated!

Everyone otm. Breaking the Girl vs. Soul to Squeeze vs. Road Trippin. I'm actually taken aback that Scar Tissue's not in the running for me!

Bradbotm about Parallel Universe. I also would loved to see more One Hot Minute. I could see maybe voting for Aeroplane, and The Ohio Players cover is totally fun...

Great, now all I wanna do is come up sn alternate tracklisting for this greatest hits comp. There goes the weekend!

Listened to One Hot Minute the other day just because I hadn't ... and I wish I had kept it that way.

Would've voted for Knock Me Down.

Wouldn't vote for it but "Otherside" is not getting enough love here. Love those vocal harmonies

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are a could've-been-great band so often let down by Anthony Kiedis's stooopid lyrics

Voted Breaking the Girl because it's a rare exception, over Under the Bridge.

"Give It Away", easiy

Wouldn't vote for it but "Otherside" is not getting enough love here. Love those vocal harmonies

― Wimmels, Saturday, December 10, 2016 2:06 AM (fifteen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

For some reason, the verses to 'Otherside' remind me of 'Time Waits For No One' by The Rolling Stones. I think it's the ticking clock percussion and the chord progression.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Knock Me Down should be on this!

Did JinC really just compare Aerosmith's Last Child to RHCP cuz cmon now

I'll never get over how "By the Way" (probably inadvertently) nicked the chords from dEUS' "For the Roses."

That song is a beast, RHCP never swung like that

Xp

As far as the By The Way-era singles go, I still quite like 'Can't Stop' even though I've heard it so many times that it oughta be irritating by now. I remember the chorus to 'The Zephyr Song' being quite lovely, but I haven't heard it in a long while.

'By The Way' (the song) I can't stand at this point. Just thinking about the chorus threatens to bring me out in a rash. It's one of those songs that got hammered into the ground when it came out, and the track couldn't withstand the level of airplay it got. It got tiresome really fucking fast.

I've made my choice. Breaking the Girl since Aeroplane is not in this.

Hang on...

'My Friends' is on here, but not 'Aeroplane'
'Universally Speaking' is on here, but not 'Can't Stop'
'Parallel Universe' is on here, but not 'Around The World'

Who the fuck put this comp together!?

"can't stop" has great harmonies. but that's true of every by the way song

No love for "Suck My Kiss"? I dig many of their melancholy songs, but SMK is a monster

Soul To Squeeze imo

Really love Zephyr Song, not that it was a huge hit or anything but it would fill a compilation slot a lot more nicely than one of the other also-rans itt :/

I played a lot of bass in high school so I should have a lot of respect for these guys but honestly I don't feel much attachment to any of these songs. Love Rollercoaster is my favourite but that's not here. Went with Under the Bridge, it's one of the only songs that plays regularly on rock radio that i don't immediately skip in the car

xpost I totally think that Lost Child sounds like mid-tempo RHCP, and check out these photo-Kiedis lyrics:

Take me back to a south Tallahassee
Down cross the bridge to my sweet sassafrassy
Can't stand up on my feet in the city
Gotta get back to the real nitty gritty

Yes sir, no sir
Don't come close to my
Home sweet home
Can't catch no dose
Of my hot tail poon tang sweetheart
Sweathog ready to make a silk purse
From a J Paul Getty and his ear
With her face in her beer

Was thinking specifically of something like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwxeLqAoThw

Last Child, that is. (Sorry, I like Aerosmith about as much as Peppers).

Take me back to a south Tallahassee
Down cross the bridge to my sweet sassafrassy
Can't stand up on my feet in the city
Gotta get back to the real nitty gritty

Yes sir, no sir
Don't come close to my
Home sweet home
Can't catch no dose
Of my hot tail poon tang sweetheart
Sweathog ready to make a silk purse
From a J Paul Getty and his ear
With her face in her beer

Thank you for reminding me in one single post of everything I hate about Aerosmith

"Sweet sassafrassy." Jesus christ.

Doesn't this idiot also sing something about "sassafrass" in "Love In An Elevator?"

sorry to derail but those lyrics ugh ugh ugh

that song rules and aerosmith were 100 percent great and wayyy better than the chili peppers ok thank you

<3

Ha, yeah, I love "Last Child". Have we ever polled Aerosmith's Greatest Hits?

Aerosmith's Greatest Hits (1980)

All of this love for "Aeroplane" is distressing to me because that song sucks soooooooooo much

RHCP are a little weird to me in that they are a big, big, big band who have a ton of successful singles but most of them don't seem like that big a deal? Like, Give It Away and Under the Bridge are longterm airplay monsters, but most of the rest here kinda faded away pretty quick I think, and don't have too much you can point to in the way of amazing hooks or riiffs or anything. I guess they're just not for me but usually I can see *why* a band that's this successful made it so far. Especially post-Aeroplane, their songs all sound kinda similar, one long beigey rock blah on the radio. The exception would be 'Scar Tissue,' which I found very pretty, and gets my vote here.

"Breaking The Girl" and "Knock Me Down" are their 2 best songs.

"Aeroplane" is kinda not that great.

'My Friends' is on here, but not 'Aeroplane'

"My Friends" was a big hit tho.

Just fyi "Knock Me Down" has now been mentioned in this thread 8 times.

that song rules and aerosmith were 100 percent great and wayyy better than the chili peppers ok thank you

― who is extremely unqualified to review this pop album (BradNelson), Sunday, December 11, 2016 11:05 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

One at a time:

that song rules

that song is garbage

and aerosmith were 100 percent great

100% would include Honkin' On Bobo. I will concede that Gems, Toys In The Attic, etc have moments of greatness but if ever there was a band that has coasted for most of their career on goodwill alone, it's this one

and wayyy better than the chili peppers ok thank you

no dog in this fight; six of one afaic. But between Mother's Milk and Pump, I'll take Mother's Milk every time

Because these are the things I do to myself, here's the best of post 80 Aerosmith

https://open.spotify.com/user/matthelgeson/playlist/0H6qzU5E0Sg6g1WWytVKna

nothing from LISTEN TO THIS BRAD, smdh

All of this love for "Aeroplane" is distressing to me because that song sucks soooooooooo much

seriously that song sucks balls

'Aeroplane' is one of their ten greatest songs, more like.

I'm not sure I've ever heard that song all the way through, and I sure haven't paid attention to the lyrics, but is music his Aeroplane because it gets him high and takes him places?

The song is about him listening to Mazzy Star in his kitchen while high as a kite and hating himself because he's relapsed.

I like Aeroplane as a song, but maybe something about the arrangement has never grabbed me? I checked out a bunch of live performances in addition to the album version and it never sounds like it's quite there for some reason. Here's Flea's take on it:

Actually, “Aeroplane” was the only song I was worried about-I thought it sounded like another stupid white boy trying to be funky! [Laughs.] I put it out anyway, but it’s the one thing I’d go back and fix. When I played it live in the studio with the band, the bass didn’t record right for some reason, so it was one of the few things I had to overdub. The part kept feeling stiff to me, as if it wasn’t my day; I wasn’t flowing with the drums. I wanted to redo it, but Rick said, “It’s cool.”

I think I voted for By The Way, but I had it mixed up with Otherside, so bear that in mind when reviewing the totals.

Flea would think that, if he's used to tracking his bass live. I love that bass part, actually... slap-tastic in the verses and then melodic, almost McCartney-esque in the choruses. He's locked in with Chad's drumming superbly.

I love the middle 8 as well, some superb Chad Smith drumming and love that "ringing out" guitar part Navarro does.

ah jesus you're making me want to hear these songs again, damn you

i mean when i say "aerosmith were 100 percent great" the "were" is doing a lot of work in that sentence

can't believe someone thinks "last child" is garbage tho

The Mazzy Star reference on Aeroplane is so obvious if you read the lyrics but I never made the connection before, partly because I didn't expect RHCP to reference Mazzy star of all bands.

Though hell it's not unlikely they all knew each other from going to old LA punk shows

can't believe someone thinks "last child" is garbage tho

I haven't tried to list my all-time top ten tracks in a long while but I'd guess this is still in there

"Aeroplane" could be about the thrilling sexual prowess of DJP and I would still be like "I'm very flattered but seriously, never play this terrible-ass song for anyone, ever"

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

lotta 90's bros itt obv

I wasn't expecting it to have the lead by that much!

"Aeroplane" could be about the thrilling sexual prowess of DJP and I would still be like "I'm very flattered but seriously, never play this terrible-ass song for anyone, ever"

dying irl

if you had a swansong, that would surely be it DJP
loool

-I thought it sounded like another stupid white boy trying to be funky! [Laughs.]

This was the one song where this thought occurred to him?

"Give It Away" is a song I'd love to be able to hear again for the first time. By the time I was old enough and enough of a rock listener to appreciate it, it was sort of part of the wallpaper. There have been moments, while driving, that it's managed to sneak up on me and surprise me with the wildness of the opening or the insistence of the rhythm section but usually my brain just starts going "Made from brontosaurus, baby - not MOO COW!" and it's hard to be impressed.

landslide! gutted that the Breaking The Girl clip from Beavis And Butthead isn't online. "Flea! Flea! Flea!" etc..
video was great too, very odd but beautiful.

If you watch the 'Give It Away' video with the sound off, you could be forgiven for thinking Kiedis is Alanis Morrissette!

wtf... breaking the girl???

Quick transcript:

"Is this VH1?"

"Shut up, dill hole! This isn't VH1, this is the Chili Peppers."

"This isn't the Chili Peppers, this is all wimpy and stuff.

"Shut up, Beavis, this is cool!

"This is cool?"

"Sometimes cool bands have to do, like, really wimpy songs, so that they can get chicks. Sometimes chicks like it when you get all, like, sensitive and stuff."

"How come you know so much about chicks, but never get any chicks?"

"Well, I wasn't born in a barn, but I can choke my chicken."

"Oh yeah."

"Some things just come natural. It's, like, taking a dump is natural, but you have to learn how to take a dump in a toilet."

"I'm going to learn how to do that."

"That would be cool."

'Breaking The Girl' is a deserved winner, IMO. It hasn't been killed to death from overplay like a lot of Warners-era RHCP singles, so it still sounds relatively fresh to me... I love the percussion in the middle eight too, particularly after seeing the footage of 'em recording it.

Granted, it's no 'Aeroplane', but one can't have everything.

ha yeah i've seen that clip, it's in their VH1 Behind The Music. they had some lousy luck bitd.

weirdly iirc this album introduced me to ilx - i think i was for some reason trying to find the pitchfork review of it (which had mysteriously disappeared from the site) and oddly some thread on ilm was one of the first google results.

i've mostly reconciled myself with my teenage music tastes but i still can't get over the retrospective embarrassment i feel whenever i hear the funky rhcp tracks i once liked. breaking the girl is a nice tune tho.

xpost:

I can't think of many bands that didn't manage to get around to making a record with their original line-up, and the only record with their original line-up, until their THIRD album.

Granted, they dealt with the original line-up falling apart by putting together their most commercially successful and most "recognised" line-up, who then managed to have a second wind with Californication, which I don't think anyone expected. I certainly comsidered RHCP a spent force by 1998, as much as I like One Hot Minute.

xp "Breaking The Girl" on Beavis & Butthead was the reason I bought that CD.

...and as a consequence, also the reason why I finally caved to Columbia House and filled out the "8 CDs for a penny" card.

There's a real irony in the wife of Chad Smith getting into a fight with Scott Baio over Scott Baio's support of Trump, because of Trump's past mistreatment of women.

Like, does she not know her husband's band recorded a song called "Party on Your Pussy," and that her husband was arrested for assaulting a woman in the crowd at MTV spring break?

She probably knows that her husbands band recorded that song before he was in the band, yeah.

"Aeroplane" could be about the thrilling sexual prowess of DJP and I would still be like "I'm very flattered but seriously, never play this terrible-ass song for anyone, ever"

― ¶ (DJP), Sunday, December 11, 2016 6:50 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lmao

Like, does she not know her husband's band recorded a song called "Party on Your Pussy,"

actually it's called "Special Secret Song Inside" or some such

on most of Blood Sugar Sex Magic Kiedis was going BLEH BLEH BLEHA ALDJFALSUREAPU over bass slaps.

It was stupendously unsexy music.

I don't know, when I first met my wife I took her hand, looked deeply into her eyes and said "BLEH BLEH BLEHA ALDJFALSUREAPU" and she responded with "if only you'd done that over bass slaps, you could take me right here"

parallel universe

so Dan, did you tell her you were quoting "Aeroplane"?

I had to look up "Sikamikanico" on urban dictionary and apparently this is a real word.

My next door neighbour played Californication on a loop for an entire summer. Fuck Californication and everything on it.

Well at least this thread brought some lolz

doo de doo doo doo
doo de doo doo doo doo

OMMANOMMANOM ANOMANOMANOM ANOMANOMANOM

YEH.

People grit on Flea a lot because of all the slappin and poppin, but he's had his more subtle moments too. I don't hate him as a bass player or anything. However, I was just listening to John Frusciante's Empyrean, where Flea guests on a few tracks. My favorite bass line on the album is from Dark/Light, which I had thought of as a great example of Flea reining it in and tastefully riding the groove of the song. But then I checked the album credits and that one was actually Frusciante on a Bass VI.

I've been going through Spotify making my own Chilis Greatest Hits as a result of this thread. For Uplift Mofo, it had been so long that I legitimately couldn't remember most of the tracks, even though I listened to it a lot when I was a kid. So I went back and listened to the whole thing the other morning on the way to work to give everything a fair shake and there was almost nothing I could agree with. So much thumpy testostofunk. I'm not even sure I'm going to keep the two tracks I picked off it.

Me And My Friends and Behind The Sun? (or too much slap tasting bass thunder on Friends?)

*slaptastic, fu autocorrect

Behind the Sun and Love Trilogy, actually, which is of course pretty slaptastic but it's dynamic enough for me.

I don't mind Flea in slaptastic mode at all, but it's definitely not his only approach to bass playing. He doesn't play the same way on Mars Volta or Atoms For Peace stuff as he does with RHCP. Even his approach with RHCP has varied over the years.

http://i.imgur.com/klXH62l.gif

Is there a thread about why people hate slap bass so much? So far all I can find is SLAP BASS! Top 100

Like anything, I like slap bass plenty in the right context, but at some point it turns into this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3xpZwZd5oU

I have a lot of time for slap bass, although it depends on how it's used and who is using it. I like how Flea does it, I like how Mike Mills does it on the end of R.E.M.'s 'Finest Worksong', I love the way it's used on Steely Dan's 'Peg' ... I fucking hate Level 42.

I recall playing the Minutemen for a friend who didn't grow up listening to punk and she was all "you really like this?," specifically cringing about the bass playing, and I remember saying "I can't tell you why it's OK here, but...it just is"

see also: Jane's Addiction sometimes, and yeah, Mike Mills, "Peg," probably a lot of others

I think Seinfeld has a lot to do with people's aversion to slap bass the same way The Big Lebowski has contributed massively to the somewhat irrational way people of a certain age hate the Eagles

I blame Psychefunkapus. Not the band, just the name.

Anyway, nah, I like slap bass, especially when it's this good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34OLWhfrjW8

But Fishbone>>>RHCP, because Fishbone never resorted to power ballads to boost sales. Was talking Chili Peppers with a friend this past weekend, and he had heard something through the grapevine about Flea and Anthony wanting to go back to their punk roots, and their managers being all noooooooooooo, I think we're just fine where we are, thanks.

when you get to a level where the manager has a say in decisions like that, all hope is lost

To be honest, the RHCP audience as it stands now probably expects them to be the RHCP of Californication rather than the RHCP of Freaky Styley ... Also, I know that Klinghoffer is a Frusciante protege, but he still feels like a weird fit for this band.

Black jack dope dick Pawn shop quick pick Kiss that dyke I know you want to hold one Not on strike But I'm about to bowl on

I saw a millennial wearing a BSSM t shirt today and thought man, you’re 25 years too late with that shit

They're still crazy popular, though. Them and Green Day.

I still have a weakness for this band - I've never been able to fully part with any band I liked when I was 13, and Frusciante really had some tunes - but your take is fucking hilarious and dead-on, Alfred.

Boo. Early Chili Peppers suck, yes. 'By the Way' is expertly crafted.

RHCP are obviously ridiculous but I still have plenty of time for them - By the Way is the last album of theirs I'll go anywhere near, though.

Had to google “zebra-covered chocolate all up in my scro-TUM/Drinkin’ iced tea ecstasy like you know you never TOLD’EM” to be sure that wasn't real.

Made me think of

Riding down the path
On the back of a giraffe
Me and the giraffe laughed
Because I passed some gas