Red Hot Chili Peppers: Californication (Rock Classics)

In 1998, thefuture of the Red Hot Chili Peppers seemed extremely uncertain. Once consideredalternative rock’s hottest act on the back of their triumphant 1991 album,Blood Sugar Sex Magik, the LA quartet would spend the next few years somewhatlanguishing in the doldrums, with drug addiction and in-house tensionthreatening to undo all those previous years of hard work. To say thatCalifornication saved the Red Hot Chili Peppers is an understatement. ForAnthony Kiedis, Flea, Chad Smith, and the returning John Frusciante - longconsidered the band’s classic line-up by many - the 1999 album cemented the Chili’s as not only the poster boys foralternative rock but as one of rock’s greatest-ever artists. Musically, Californication still featured alethal dose of the band’s powerhouse funk, but the album was also more melodic,minimalistic, and structured. Combined with Kiedis’ often brutally honest andintrospective lyricism, songs such as the delicate and sombre ‘Scar Tissue’,the epiphanic ‘Otherside’, and the scathing title track, would usher in a newera of the band, where the promise they had previously shown was about to befully realised. In great detail,this book discusses album’s writing and recording processes, the stories behindevery song- including the B-sides and unreleased material, the ensuing worldtour, and the legacy the record has left behind.