Two old bastards reassess the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Blood Sugar Sex Magik"
 

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Red Hot Chili Peppers—Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991)

For some reason I have this recurring theme on MB where I keep finding myself in conversations about the album Blood Sugar Sex Magik by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I don't know why I do this exactly since I've never been a fan of this album. But anyway during the most recent one of these discussions I started thinking, you know I haven't listened to this album in at least fifteen years and don't really know it all that well, maybe I should give it another chance, after all my tastes have changed a hell of a lot since it came out. So last night that's what I did, I downloaded the album and listened to it straight through, trying to keep an open mind about it. I'll save you the suspense and let you know right now that it didn't win me over but it was a fun experiment and I did find some gems along the way. Everything between the first and last paragraphs of this review is basically just my reactions as I listened to the album, it's not intended very seriously but hopefully it's somewhat entertaining. Here's what I wrote as I listened, cleaned up just a bit to be more readable:

The album starts off strong. "Power of Equality" is a pretty good song that could have worked well on Mother's Milk. I'm digging it. Unfortunately after that things immediately get very disappointing. The tempos slow way down, wanky guitar solos rear their ugly heads and Anthony Kiedis starts thinking he's a good singer a little too often. This pattern persists until "Suck My Kiss" which has more of a resemblance to their older material but frankly sounds like the kind of song they would've left on the cutting room floor on their previous albums. Next a godawful ballad in the form of "I Could Have Lied". Then we move on to "Mellowship in B Major" which isn't bad and has decent groove to it but would still only qualify as a middle-of-the-road song on one of their previous albums. I was happy to hear a little funk bleed it's way into "The Righteous and the Wicked" but let's face it, this song is filler.

Finally, after a long trip through a musical desert we arrive at a good song: "Give It Away". What's great about this song this it's actually fairly different from their older stuff but it's still a really good song. This is how you do it guys! This is how you change your sound without abandoning the things that made your music enjoyable in the first place. More of this please! And then, amazingly, they do deliver again. "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" sounds absolutely nothing like earlier Chili Peppers and is a good song for it. Maybe not the best thing they've ever done but I like the smoldering energy it has to it.

Ha-ha, but looks like I got my hopes up for nothing because here's "Under the Bridge", a cheesy-ass ballad that would fit in better on an Extreme album than a Chili Peppers album. "Naked in the Rain" should save the day though, right? I mean, on paper it has all the makings of a great Chili Peppers song: hardcore popping and slapping from Flea, driving beat, guitar that actually works with the groove instead of over it. Sadly it doesn't really work out because (a) Kiedis turns in one of the worst vocal performances of his career and (b) John Frusciante starts masturbating all over the song toward the end.

But Blood Sugar Sex Magik still has a few tricks up its sleeve and it employs them in rapid succession with the next three songs. The first of them, "Apache Rose Peacock", sounds kind of like a throwback to the Freaky Styley era. Not quite up to par with their best stuff but pretty fun and I dig the horns even though they're so inexplicably low in the mix. And, damn, "The Greeting Song" is really good too! Even the weak vocals and the guitar solo can't hold this one back. This is the level of energy I like to see these guys putting out. This trio of energetic songs is completed with "My Lovely Man", the weakest of the bunch. Not horrible, but not great either, it probably would've made a better B-side.

The album ends with two weirdish songs that seem a little bit tacked on. First is the long, boring "Sir Psycho Sexy". Yeah, it's funky with its juicy fart bass but it's a really dull kind of funky and Jesus how long can you draw out the ending of a song. The other song, the final song on the album, is a cover of a Robert Johnson song "They're Red Hot" and finds the band sounding almost like Squirrel Nut Zippers for a minute. It's really short but quite good so fortunately the album ends on an high note.

So like I said in my opening paragraph, Blood Sugar Sex Magik didn't exactly win me over but I'm glad I gave it a second chance after all these years. I discovered a couple songs I've been missing out on for one thing. Also, listening to it now I find that one thing I do appreciate about it is it's variety. There can be little doubt that at the time of it's release it was by far their most eclectic sounding album and even though it doesn't really work for me I appreciate the fact that they were trying to branch out with this one. I suppose it would be unrealistic to think they'd want or be able to keep going with the youthful style of their first four albums, it was pretty much inevitable that they'd either slow down or just break up.

I've never listened to the album the entire way through, and lets be honest, I won't. But some of the songs here I'll certainly check out. Especially the ones you've given lackluster reviews to. (no one likes total agreement).

For a review that made me throw up in my mouth a little I enjoyed reading this stream of conciousness approach.

Dudeguy you should do it. And post your reactions here.

:laughing:

for the record, that was why. it had nothing to do with style.

Haha. Listen to the song though, that's really what the bass sounds like in parts of it, I swear.

good review, even though BSSM is one of my favorite albums, haha. and yes i've listened to/liked RHCP in their (quote) "infancy" (unquote)

It must have been difficult pretending that you hadn't heard Under the Bridge 80 Bazillion times before.

I enjoy I Could Have Lied. Basically don't listen to the album for the vocals, because as you pointed out there far from exceptional. The guitar though in this song, especially the slow solo is quite relaxing and not often replicated by other guitarists.

Secondly I have to fully disagree with your review of the Sir Psycho Sexy outro. The 2-3 minute outro in my eyes is plain pretty, why not end a song with it? Not to mention the chord progression is quite pleasant.

with all the recent BSSM talk i'm thinking i might have to copycat this whole thing. right off the bat i think 'righteous and the wicked' is a standout as opposed to filler :p:

while i've heard individual songs here and there over the years i don't remember the last time i sat and listened to the album from start to finish.

I wouldnt mind a Mr Dave review of BSSM.

i'm still fighting off the flu but i'll what i can do this weekend. gonna try to burn out the sickness with some fireball tomorrow haha

It was a challenge, yes. :laughing:

I'm listening to "I Could Have Lied" again as I type this but it just doesn't do it for me. The classic rock-ish guitar playing is probably the biggest turn off for me. As far the suggestion that I not listen to the album for the vocals goes: for better or worse Anthony Kiedis and Flea are the Chili Peppers, ignoring Kiedis is like ignoring half the band.

Well, if you like I can see why you'd be happy to listen to it. I don't like it though so I wasn't. :)

You should totally do your own take on it. I'd love to read it! Post it in this thread if you want. I'll change the thread title to "Two old bastards..." :D

I agree with absolutely everything said. I have never been a big fan of this album and still don't understand all the hype. There are some good passages of play here and there but fuck it. If I don't like it then i'm not going to say otherwise. I think Rick Rubin's production is one of the few failures in his career. His forte is making everything clean and streamlined. This album feels completely the opposite and as Janszoon said, it robbbed them of their youthful energy.

I've had been meaning to hear this album for a long time. This is supposed to be the RHCP album to own.

As for the later stuff, I still think By the Way has it's strong points, and Stadium Arcadium isn't terrible, but not great either. It's too long and gets rather boring through a good portion of it. I agree with jackhammer that the Rick Rubin produced stuff can be pretty bland.

The older, pre-BSSM stuff sounds interesting, but I've never really gave it a real listen though. It seemed like they did have more of a sense of humor back then. That could be very good or very bad, depending. I'll probably give BSSM my own fair shake eventually. I did enjoy the review though.

under the bridge is a good song. everybody knows it is a good song. anybody who denies the incontrovertible fact that it is a good song is a liar who ought to be banned from listening to music for all eternity.

No opinions on Breaking the Girl? That's the best song! It's not funky but i can't argue with the guitar and bass, they complement each other perfectly.

Ban me now please :D

Do I detect a hint of sarcasm?

I did post an opinion of it, it's one of the four songs I was referring to with this:

:)

Excellent review! being a huge Chili's fan i (nearly) totally agree, when the album came out i saw them a couple of times on tour and they were certainly not at their best. I went off listening to the Chili's for a couple of years, then came back in on the older albums again.
Under The Bridge is a very over-rated track for the Chili's, the album has some high points (Give it Away and Breaking The Girl) but compaired to the majority of their other albums its a miss.....but not as bad as One Hot Minute!

Yes but it's wrooong :D

meh, I disagree. Album's a beast. Maybe it's just nostalgia... but 'Breaking the Girl', I can lucidly say without a hint of sarcasm is one of, if not the, best songs they ever wrote. It prefigures the whole Californication sound in a way, but doesn't. Sure it's stupid hippy monkey sex music but when I hear the album I can't say much against the music itself, and the production is immense.

OMG... you called 'righteous and the wicked' filler!? Lies make baby Jesus cry, Janszoon.

alright so this band and the flu isn't a good combo but whatever. first off i'll be clear with my bias, this album was HUGE for me. it's one of the pillars of my youth, it's not hyperbole when i say i wore out the cassette then did the same to the cd, it's fact. my original copies don't play anymore, that's right, i physically wore out a cd. hell, i even went to a haloween party where my costume was my strat and a sock.

having said that i haven't listened to the band much in the last decade until a few months ago. it took all of about 6 seconds of 'power of equality' to feel 17 again. that tune still rocks my ears as hard as the first time i heard it. it definitely follows in the vein of their more thought provoking political tunes like 'johnny kick a hole in the sky', 'american ghost dance', or 'green heaven'

'if you have to ask' definitely feels like it's moving at half speed but it's a personal favourite, i absolutely love playing this song on guitar, the breakdown just before the solo is just TOO MUCH fun to play hehe. i've got a live version of this tune from 2003 or something where they jam out the last half a bunch. i quite prefer it over this studio version.

that's one thing i've noticed with this album, a lot of these songs still feel like jams. there's still lots of room to stretch things out, it's apparent in the way a lot of the songs are structured, it allows for the tunes to flow into and out of each other with ease in a live setting. the only problem is that sometimes the live tricks are better saved for the stage.

...breaking the girl. yes, it's a well written song. it shows that keidis is capable of writing poignant prose. thing is, back in 1991 this was the dude who used to rap about all the dirty things he wanted to do to his sexy mexican maid. yes it shows maturity but it also sounds like it could have been put out by REM. musically it's one of the tracks that's aged the best to my ears, especially near the end.

funky monks, i've always liked, again it's the fact that it's an obvious jam. problem is it's the 2nd time in 4 tracks this same pattern happens. guitar intro, thumping bass a few bars later, verse chorus verse, peek a boo solo, 'jam' out. probably incredible live.

'suck my kiss' - it's the first song i ever learned on guitar start to finish, solo and all. while it's simple to play, it's also one of the few leads on the album that isn't a very generic blues lead. i remember my mom misinterpreting the lyrics one time and asking me to listen to something with 'nicer' vocals, she kept think he was screaming 'suck my ****' haha.

'i could have lied'. well i could do the same and say it's not that bad, but how the fvck did they choose this for the album when they released 'soul to squeeze' as a b-side?

'mellowship slinky in B major' - another perennial favourite of mine. it's got all sorts of old school and new school styles and i find it works really well. the fingerstyle is a departure for the bass but it's still way funky, same with the plucked guitar, the rap is subtle but still dirty enough to be right. hell, anthony's singing on this track was alright.

'righteous & the wicked' - filler? really? i'm not following. it's like the only other track on the disc that tries to touch grey matter over pink flesh besides 'power of equality'. again another non-jam tune where the instrumental bit doesn't sound tacked on. i always thought it was badass when i was young but i just realized it's like a slightly altered version of the instrumental break from the last tune. only this one is hammer-ons instead of slides.

'give it away' - all i have to say about this song is SABBATH RIPOFF :laughing:. it's true though, frusciante admitted it in a guitar magazine interview back in the day. basically flea came in to jam one day and started with a 'throwaway' riff, technically it's pretty plain, just 4-5 notes for the most part, not very flea-esque at all. frusciante initially started jamming over it with sabbath's 'sweet leaf' riff, upon which keidis started rapping and it was on. they actually had to fight with flea to keep the riff that simple. frusciante actually starts playing the sabbath riff over the last 30 seconds of the tune hehehe.

'blood sugar sex magik' - the title track and it lives up to its position on the album. like janzoon says, it doesn't really sound like anything else they've ever done but it most definitely sounds like the peppers. chad smith really shows his restraint on this track especially during the verses, any other drummer would be filling the gaps with endless paradiddles and rolls over the weird sliding bass motif and the droning guitar but smith doesn't just sit in the pocket he leans back into it even deeper.

under the bridge - i honestly don't remember the last time i heard this song. maybe on the radio in 2004. i remember my old man telling me he thought it was some new band that was writing some touchy-feely cash-in song about LA in light of the rodney king riots. he'd heard their old stuff and couldn't believe it was them. he totally called out anthony's out of tune vocals, i never noticed them at the time... :( hahaha

'naked in the rain' sounds like a leftover from the mother's milk sessions. it's like they're trying to channel 'behind the sun' but the delorean just isn't hitting 88mph.

'apache rose pea****' is another favourite, i agree the trumpet could be louder. my friends unknowingly jammed to the outro riff to this tune in the drummer's parent's basement quite often in 2002-3 hahaha. speaking of honah-lee, Achewood § April 13, 2009

'greeting song' yeah i know i called it filler in the last thread, it's that chorus, too much cheese. i've always loved the solo in this song, especially the backing melody. thing is, the band also recorded 'sikamikaniko' around this time and that only showed up on the 'wayne's world' soundtrack. if only one of the tracks could fit i prefer the latter. both would have been way cooler than 'naked in the rain'.

'my lovely man' - it's proper a tribute to hillel slovak, the original guitarist who passed away in 1988. this is one of the best tracks on the disc in my opinion. it's not half hearted or contrived, the emotions are all true.

the album closes off with 'sir psycho sexy'. i LIKE juicy fart bass thank you very much hahahahahaha. this one always reminded me of how 'yertle the turtle' finished off freakey styley. it's long, it's different, doesn't match up with anything else on the disc. it's like a total neo p-funk tune, with a bit of a nicer g-rap feel. kind of reminds me of ezy-e at times on this track. then they kind of go all paranoid android prototype around the 4 minute mark before coming back to finish up the song so the 'ending' can start. it's kind of like layla, another 2 minutes of nice melody that doesn't really go anywhere or have anything to do with the preceding but i always love hearing it regardless.

i never cared for 'they're red hot'. to me it felt like it ruined the end of the album. all it's missing is a slide whistle or some other piece of crap.



this was definitely a transformational album for the band. it was apparent from the 3rd track. i have to say this album is still effing awesome. oddly enough it's the first few songs that i liked the most back in the day that i enjoyed the least now. i think a lot of it has to do with my personal development as a musician.

i noticed early on that a lot of frusciante's leads on this disc end the same way - with a very fast strum over the high strings while sliding up the neck. it's not that it's bad but it makes it apparent that the solos are tacked on, it's like ....and we're done. most of those are generic classic rock style leads too. again not bad, but not really as cool as the tracks where he either felt like he had more input at the time or was sober enough to come up with something aside from just winging it.

overall, as an old bastard reassessing a classic. i still like it, not as much as i did then, but would still totally recommend it to anyone. there are a few tracks i could do without, i'm surprised by how much 'funky monks' turned into a let down as time went on. it was the first tune i looked up when i finally got the tab book haha.

highlights
power of equality
righteous & the wicked
blood sugar sex magik
my lovely man
sir psycho sexy

lowlights
naked in the rain
funky monks
i could have lied
they're red hot


*fake edit* holy crap this is a lot longer than i thought.

It's probably my favourite Peppers album, although that isn't saying a whole lot because I don't own any of their earlier stuff which is probably more up my alley than their later more pop orientated stuff.

A little tangent, but Achewood has been a little flat lately, generally too drawn out. Although I have to appreciate the massive Darlene throwback, I had totally forgotten about it until now.

The last few strips have been good, the public wine and Vlad and Teodor discussing pritt stick dicks got lols from me. I'm reading back right now, the Badass Games :D

Mr Dave: I wore my BSSM CD out too, well, not so much wore it out as sratched the hell out of it. I was wreckless with CD's back then.

I didn't like the Teodor and Vlad combo, but the the public wine definitely got a laugh from me, or more specifically.

"Who wants to see why my cookies taste sooo bad?"

Thanks for writing that kick ass review Mr Dave. I was actually a little surprised that you were so enthusiastic about the album because I was under the impression that you felt the same way about it that I do. Nevertheless it was great to read and works as a great counterbalance to mine.

One particular comment of yours stood out for me:

I think you've just hit upon my number one complaint about Blood Sugar Sex Magik: Frusciante. If you read up about the recording sessions for Mother's Milk, you hear a lot about how unhappy Frusciante is with the guitar style on that album because the producer kept forcing him to play heavier. You know what? The producer was right. He played so much better on a tighter leash and the second he had more freedom he started in with this cheeseball classic rock stuff that seems to be a driving force behind much of BSSM. It's weird, I remember reading an interview with Flea when One Hot Minute came out about how Dave Navarro had such a big influence on their sound on that album because he brought in a bunch of classic rock influence that until then they had thought of as super-cheesy, but really it seems like it was Frusciante who did that.

Since a couple people seemed so shocked that I'd describe "The Righteous and the Wicked" as filler I figure I'll address your comments about it specifically. So this listen was the first time you noticed its similarity to "Mellowship Slinky in B Major"? That's kind of surprising to me because it was the first thing that jumped out at me when I listened to it. And I have to disagree with your description of it as a non-jam tune. I have no idea what the writing process what like for the song but it sounds very much like a half-assed jam to me. That, in a nutshell, is what I don't like about it. Can someone explain to me what exactly it is that they like about this song? Because when I listen to it I hear a weak performance from everyone, and I find Chad Smith's drumming especially bland.

Who is the second old bastard then?

Mr. Dave. But if you want to write a review too we can make it three old bastards. :D

It would be very similar to yours I.E me not likey!

Still shit

Make that 4 old bastards

Succinct review. :laughing:

It comes right from the heart man

good review Mr. Dave, especially how you went in depth with each song

you and me both :laughing:. i was actually quite hesitant to fire up the disc again after so long. my written views on the album 'had' changed over the last few years but i was basing it on what i remembered as compared to what they were in the moment. i kept thinking that after being turned off by Californication that those influences coming up on BSSM would in turn seem far more negative to my ears. in actuality the growth and change towards Californication style pop were still apparent but it wasn't nearly as bad as i had convinced myself over the last few years - it's no black album haha.

overall i'm really happy to have gone back and surprised myself with what i heard. i knew we would be coming from different directions on this album based on your initial views from back in the day but i can't call this album anything less than really good. it IS a departure from their old happy go lucky dirty funk days but very few of those departures seem forced. if anything it's when they try to hold onto their past the most that they sounded the worse.

yes an no. if anything i find mother's milk has MORE of a classic rock kind of feel than BSSM, especially on the rhythm side of things. there's very little on MM that sounds like they just recorded a jam, or an unpolished song. there's more metal edge to his tone on MM as well, half the time the guitar sounds forced.

keep in mind frusciante was still very much a kid in those days. i don't think many (if any) of us can really grasp the overwhelming pressure he must have felt. he was like 21 and playing with his idols and touring the world... intense.

while his improvised lead style at the time was still relatively generic and very much drawn from hendrix. his first solo album recorded around the same time shows that he was really into thick lush arrangements of sound. whether it's a matter of him being too shy to bring it up to the band, or the rest of the band being too full of themselves to listen to the kid is really impossible to say. a track like 'breaking the girl' does showcase his overall influence though, it's true that it doesn't sound like a chili peppers tune, and doesn't at all fit with anything they've done prior but it's still a very well crafted song.

personally i find frusciante's rhythm work on this album is where his style really comes through. as for the whole classic rock thing, i remember a similar interview with flea (was it from the magazine that he and navarro were kissing on the cover?). either way, it's not that one is more classic rock than the other so much as hendrix vs led zep.


yeah i don't know how many times i played along to both songs and never noticed the similarities haha. then again i always had a hard time figuring out what to play in the R&tW break as it was multi-tracked and the tab had high and low lines printed but no easy way to make it sound right by yourself haha.

the reason i don't think it's a half assed tune is the coherency in the vocals, there's no random wordplay, musically it might be a little on the rough side but the chorus is also very well constructed. i really like the long drawn out backing vocals under keidis' delivery of the track's hook. for me this track is not just a highlight of the album but a highlight from the often overlooked socio-political side of the peppers early career.

thanks man, i just popped it on last night and started typing. i never noticed those 72 minutes going by when i was growing up and i didn't notice the time going by last night either haha. mind you this time around i did take a smoke break during 'naked in the rain' haha

yeah, that's how i do my album reviews, which you can see in my album review thread :thumb:(shameless self promotion much?)

the Chilis should just stop kidding themselves and re-record 'Skinny Sweaty Man' as the lead single and title track for their next album

Janszoon, have you heard any of the b-sides for BSSM?

nah dude, 30 dirty birds.... TOTALLY 30 dirty birds hahaha

I'd have to go with green haven era. Violent and Funky has the idea with the self titled. Kudos man.