Lock The Door & Cover Me – The Red Hot Chili Peppers

I was kind of a slow starter regarding The Red Hot Chili Peppers.  Today I love them, but that wasn’t always the case.   I would say around the mid 80′s I decided I absolutely loved “Behind The Sun” from their 1987 release The Uplift Mofo Party Plan.   To this day it’s one of my favorite RHCP tracks.   They had a couple of other songs being played on the radio like “Fight Like a Brave” and “Me and My Friends,” but I wasn’t totally sold until Mother’s Milk hit the streets in 1989 with the Stevie Wonder cover “Higher Ground” and their own “Knock Me Down.”   Mother’s Milk has a plethora of nice RHCP B cuts, but nobody could have predicted the explosion that followed.  It was pretty amazing.

We all heard the stories about the RHCP performing on stage with nothing but socks covering their johnsons.  While I might have been envious I always thought they were kind of clownish.   They seemed to be trying way to hard too be funky.  Sure they might have had one of the top five greatest bass players of all time in their midst, but it just really hadn’t translated for me.   When I think funk I think Sly & The Family Stone.  Honestly, is there a better funk song than “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)?”  I think George Clinton.   James Brown.   Even Rick James.  But up until the exquisite Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic was released in 1991 I didn’t really love the RHCPs.   That record is still one of the very best of the 1990′s in my book.

I have never been a total fan of the L.A. music scene give or take The Doors or Van Halen.   It always seemed to be so plastic.   Big hair, short shelf life.   The Peppers had their travails with the mighty heroin and lost a member and year or two in the process, but that stuff reads like stupidity in action in the modern world.  I love a good Behind The Music just like the next guy, but how many times do we have to go through the same thing?   Drugs might be fun, experimental and have even been credited with expanding the mental horizons of artists, but in the end you need to be a functional artist or you are in over your head.  After that, if they can’t see the forest for the trees, as a fan, I’ve got very little sympathy.   You don’t mess with heroin.  You can’t win can you?   Didn’t they listen to John Lennon’s Cold Turkey?  Didn’t they see Trainspotting?   Even though I’ve never touched the stuff I can guess at the addictive power.  I’m sure it’s the best (and worst) thing ever, but I don’t know…it sure seems like there is plenty of information on the topic nowadays.  I really don’t mean to judge here; I’m just disappointed as a fan I guess.   R.I.P. Hillel Slovak.

Today, The Red Hot Chili Peppers are mega superstars.  MEGA.  Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic didn’t happen in a vacuum.   Yeah sure, “Under The Bridge” and “Give It Away” were monster singles, but this record is wicked solid (as they say here in the Northeast).   They had a minor commercial misstep with 1995′s One Hot Minute though I really enjoyed a lot of music from this record.   It didn’t hit as hard as the 17 tracks on Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic.   In 1996, almost as a lark, though I have no proof of such thinking, they released a single of The Ohio Players “Love Rollercoaster” on the Beavis and Butt-Head Do America Soundtrack.   You may remember Beavis and Butt-Head as the creation of the brilliant Mike Judge (King of the Hill, Office Space) for MTV in 1993.   These two morons didn’t have the staying power of King of The Hill, The Simpsons or South Park, but at the time they were very funny.  Not many cartoon characters made movies back in those days, but Beavis and Butt-Head took their shtick as far as it could go and for three or four years there they had America by the short and curlies.  Hilarious.

The Ohio Players were a funk, R&B and soul outfit that, after years of toil, hit the big time in the mid 70′s by signing with Mercury Records and eventually releasing two singles that made them household names.  The first was called “Fire” from their 1974 album of the same name.   It might interest you to know that there was another song on that record called “Runnin’ From The Devil” that is rumored to have been used as the basis for Van Halen’s “Runnin’ With The Devil.”   Disco was just about to explode in those days and this band was right at the forefront.   “Love Rollercoaster” was included on the 1975 LP “Honey.”  In 1974 and 1975 everybody knew who The Ohio Players were.  They were even more famous for having sexually provocative album covers.  Urban legend, according to Wikipedia, has it that one of those models was stabbed and murdered by her manager during the recording of “Love Rollercoaster” and  can actually be heard screaming in pain on the single.   The story has been widely discredited, but it’s still an interesting story no?  I left you a copy so you can hear it for yourself what they are referring to.  It was great (sort of ) publicity at the time for selling records though.   The Ohio Players faded back into obscurity shortly thereafter seemingly only to be remembered by those they influenced.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are said to have taken a lot of inspiration from The Ohio Players initially.  I love this cover for sure, but The Peppers were hardly done.   1999′s Californication left no doubt whatsoever that the RHCPs were massively talented.  2002′s By The Way was a worthy followup to Californication and they were all over the radio during that time.   2006′s Stadium Arcadium had it’s moments, but I probably would have chopped this one down to a single LP rather than a double album.   I think the public was a bit overdosed by them at that point.   It was a lot to absorb as a fan and I thought it was kind of thin in places.   I’m still a huge fan though and I hope they triumphantly return in the next couple years with more magic.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers – Love Rollercoaster.mp3

The Ohio Players – Love Rollercoaster.mp3

The Ohio Players – Love Rollercoaster.mp3 YSI

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