When the Red Hot Chili Peppers started, the use of drugs was very apparent in their music. In fact, during their early years, they were given a $5,000 budget to make a demo and two of the leading members decided to put $2,000 of it towards heroin and cocaine (I find it kind of funny that it led to an argument among the band members over how much of their budget should go towards drugs). Just about every song on their early albums referenced drugs. One song on this album where the drug reference is apparent is “Snow (Hey Oh).” The song kind of hints at two themes. The first, and more obvious, is that snow is a clear reference to cocaine as the lyrics make obvious drug allusions. The second theme of snow is a more philosophical theme that plays off the idea of drug use. The song talks about the purity of snow and how another layer of snow falls and brings a fresh new start. Particularly, it's talking about overcoming drug addiction which much of the band had dealt with and turning away from those drugs. In previous albums, the references towards drugs were more about using them to party (the idea of sex, drugs, and rock n' roll), but in this album there is a more positive message about getting clean. "Snow" starts out with a really cool guitar riff that plays over and over throughout the entire song with a steady bass strum played on top. In the first verse, its just him alone with the guitar as he contemplates his past drug use. Then in the second verse on top of the guitar comes in a drum beat and an high pitch electric piano that almost sounds like a flute. That change in instrumentation from the first to second verse is shift from seeing how drugs have messed him up to seeing that he can have a fresh start. This album, and particularly this song, is basically a coming of age of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. In society, the older generations always think of the youth as being wild and out of control. I like to think of it with the classic Scooby Doo line saying, "those meddling kids are up to know good." In their previous album, The Red Hot Chili Peppers were "those meddling kids," but now they've grown up and matured. It's representative of culture how every generation will grow up and mature and eventually run the world, but every generation goes through that wild youth phase.
The song, “Dani California,” which is one of their staple songs, is centered around a girl named Dani. In an interview, Anthony Kiedis said that Dani is the embodiment of every girl who he has ever had a relationship with. He actually sings about Dani in a few other previous songs like "Californication" and "By The Way." Aside from just telling the story of a girl's life, "Dani California" also speaks to a movement of nonconformity and individualism. In the first verse of the he says, “in Alabama she was swinging hammer, price you gotta pay when you break the panorama.” In this situation the elusive Dani is in a prison in Alabama for going against the status quo. This is a direct reference to an incident in the Alabama prison system in 1995. The newly appointed state prison commissioner brought back the chain gang as a punishment for inmates. Critics called it inhumane and were even more appalled when he made the criminals wear the classic black and white striped prison garb as a way to humiliate them and break their spirits. The sound of "Dani California" is definitely an interesting one and it definitely adds to its message. It starts with a pretty basic steady drum beat and then an electric guitar and bass come in and mimic the beat of the drum. You can definitely hear the funk roots of The Red Hot Chili Peppers through the guitar sound. Later in the first verse you start to hear these strange electric sounds that sound kind of like a laser gun in a space movie but they don't take away from the dong because they're not overdone. Those weird sounds do a lot to contribute to the nonconformity theme of the song just by adding in something extra that isn't really a normal sound for an alternative rock song. This song reminds me a lot of the hipster movement in today's culture. A lot of young teens consider themselves to be hipster and I think that they could identify with Dani because she is just going through life trying to do her thing without being confined to the social norms of culture.With 2 discs, 28 songs, and 2 hours and 2 minutes of audio, this album is a little two long for me to be able to talk about even half the songs in detail but there are a few others that I particularly like and want to at least talk about those too. "Hard To Concentrate" and "Death Of A Martian" are two songs off the album that didn't really make it big like the two songs I previously discussed (possibly because they're on the second disc which didn't receive nearly as much attention as the first disc) but I still like them nonetheless. "Hard To Concentrate" has really cool sound that revolves around the bongos with a little guitar but just as an accent to the bongos. This song in particulars shows the growth and maturity of the Red Hot Chili Peppers seeing as they used to sing about wild parties with tons of girls and in this he sings about settling down and starting a family. "Death Of A Martian" is the last song on the album and at first listen it might seem a little strange. Initially it just sounds like they're singing about an alien which if makes sense because they're talking about Martian but that's actually not what its about. The bassist of the band had a dog named Martian who all of the members loved so it was a tough loss when she died. Kiedis' dog also died during the recording of this album and his dog had helped him a lot when he was trying to get over his addiction so there is a lot of emotion in this song. Towards the end of the song there's a pretty cool part towards the end where the band is just rocking out in the background while he is basically just speaking the verse but it actually sounds really cool.
