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Friday Funk #41 – ‘Aquatic Mouth Dance’ by Red Hot Chili Peppers
Friday Funk #41 – ‘Aquatic Mouth Dance’ by Red Hot Chili Peppers
Friday Funk #41 – ‘Aquatic Mouth Dance’ by Red Hot Chili Peppers
October is Bassist Month on Edge of the Line. We’re celebrating the birthdays of Flea (16 October) and Bootsy Collins (26 October).
‘Aquatic Mouth Dance’ is a song about Anthony Kiedis, Flea, and California; an ode to their early adventures discovering music and days as homeless free spirits. Kiedis sings of Flea, “The colour of your eyes was stolen from the sky”. The pair formed the Chili Peppers when they were 20, after meeting at 15, with high school friends Hillel Slovak and Jack Irons. The opening line shouts out Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five’s ‘The Message’, the song that inspired Kiedis to rap.
Producer Rick Rubin hosted Flea on the Broken Record podcast shortly after the release of Unlimited Love (2022). Flea spoke of his and Kiedis’s “street kid mentality” in the ’80s. Flea says at 17:45, “Record companies wanted to sign us and stuff, and it was kind of later on, and they’re taking us out to lunch and we’re still in the mindset of hustling a lunch, so it’s getting different guys to take us out to lunch, like, ‘Yeah, we’ll get this guy on Tuesday and that guy on Wednesday.’”
They had been “growing up in [their] own weird, misguided way, without real mature guidance” and still living, as Kiedis sings in ‘Aquatic Mouth Dance’, “Day to day”: “Well, I don’t know where / I’m gonna sleep tonight / Please tell me, can you spare / A pillow for my head and hair?”
‘Aquatic’ is one of the Unlimited Love-era songs to call back to the Chili Peppers’ purest funk album, Freaky Styley (1985), produced by George Clinton. Rather than the more urgent guitar and drums of Blood Sugar Sex Magik’s funk rock, the emphasis is very much on groove. Though Chad Smith's drumming does give certain bars bite – listen to the beats in the last, floaty line of the first chorus (1:01).
The latter half of the choruses features horns, making the mostly sparse song now feel lush and full. Flea jumps on trumpet, Josh Johnson plays saxophone, Vikram Devasthali plays trombone, and Nate Walcott also plays trumpet. The horn melodies add some ambiguity to the song, which is mostly driven by Flea’s boysterous bassline.
Frusciante has said he sees Flea’s bass as the lead instrument, which is very evident in ‘Aquatic’. In the choruses, Frusciante’s delicate guitar melodies come late in the measure and set up Flea’s bass and the horns to hit on the One. At other times, quick strums set up horn blows (3:19, 3:30).
Three decades after Blood Sugar, Rubin’s hip-hop method of essentially muting certain instruments for parts of the song is still in use. Following the second chorus, Frusciante’s guitar drops out for four bars, letting Flea’s bass shine, and in turn, meaning Frusciante’s part has more impact in the next verse. In that vocalless section, Mauro Refosco adds percussion in the left speaker, helping emphasise the One and the sixteenth note following it. Refosco first played on I’m With You (2011) and toured with the band during the Josh Klinghoffer era.
At 2:53, Frusciante adds synthesizer (as he does on much of Unlimited Love and Return of the Dream Canteen). He uses the synth pretty sparingly here, just adding a sci-fi-esque sound effect, giving Kiedis’ ambiguous lyrics more weight.
Late in the song the horn section has space for a free jazz freakout, with the four players blowing wildly. Their melodies sometimes cooperate (3:12), and sometimes compete (3:52); their dissonance and the fullness of the song, after the earlier, sparse verses, makes the outro stand out.
Even without the additional musicians (and Flea’s trumpet), ‘Aquatic Mouth Dance’ stands up at live shows, and has been one of the new songs performed more regularly on the Chilis’ mammoth world tour. Let’s boogie to the song’s live debut.
October is Bassist Month on Edge of the Line. We’re celebrating the birthdays of Flea (16 October) and Bootsy Collins (26 October).
‘Aquatic Mouth Dance’ is a song about Anthony Kiedis, Flea, and California; an ode to their early adventures discovering music and days as homeless free spirits. Kiedis sings of Flea, “The colour of your eyes was stolen from the sky”. The pair formed the Chili Peppers when they were 20, after meeting at 15, with high school friends Hillel Slovak and Jack Irons. The opening line shouts out Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five’s ‘The Message’, the song that inspired Kiedis to rap.
Producer Rick Rubin hosted Flea on the Broken Record podcast shortly after the release of Unlimited Love (2022). Flea spoke of his and Kiedis’s “street kid mentality” in the ’80s. Flea says at 17:45, “Record companies wanted to sign us and stuff, and it was kind of later on, and they’re taking us out to lunch and we’re still in the mindset of hustling a lunch, so it’s getting different guys to take us out to lunch, like, ‘Yeah, we’ll get this guy on Tuesday and that guy on Wednesday.’”
They had been “growing up in [their] own weird, misguided way, without real mature guidance” and still living, as Kiedis sings in ‘Aquatic Mouth Dance’, “Day to day”: “Well, I don’t know where / I’m gonna sleep tonight / Please tell me, can you spare / A pillow for my head and hair?”
‘Aquatic’ is one of the Unlimited Love-era songs to call back to the Chili Peppers’ purest funk album, Freaky Styley (1985), produced by George Clinton. Rather than the more urgent guitar and drums of Blood Sugar Sex Magik’s funk rock, the emphasis is very much on groove. Though Chad Smith's drumming does give certain bars bite – listen to the beats in the last, floaty line of the first chorus (1:01).
The latter half of the choruses features horns, making the mostly sparse song now feel lush and full. Flea jumps on trumpet, Josh Johnson plays saxophone, Vikram Devasthali plays trombone, and Nate Walcott also plays trumpet. The horn melodies add some ambiguity to the song, which is mostly driven by Flea’s boysterous bassline.
Frusciante has said he sees Flea’s bass as the lead instrument, which is very evident in ‘Aquatic’. In the choruses, Frusciante’s delicate guitar melodies come late in the measure and set up Flea’s bass and the horns to hit on the One. At other times, quick strums set up horn blows (3:19, 3:30).
Three decades after Blood Sugar, Rubin’s hip-hop method of essentially muting certain instruments for parts of the song is still in use. Following the second chorus, Frusciante’s guitar drops out for four bars, letting Flea’s bass shine, and in turn, meaning Frusciante’s part has more impact in the next verse. In that vocalless section, Mauro Refosco adds percussion in the left speaker, helping emphasise the One and the sixteenth note following it. Refosco first played on I’m With You (2011) and toured with the band during the Josh Klinghoffer era.
At 2:53, Frusciante adds synthesizer (as he does on much of Unlimited Love and Return of the Dream Canteen). He uses the synth pretty sparingly here, just adding a sci-fi-esque sound effect, giving Kiedis’ ambiguous lyrics more weight.
Late in the song the horn section has space for a free jazz freakout, with the four players blowing wildly. Their melodies sometimes cooperate (3:12), and sometimes compete (3:52); their dissonance and the fullness of the song, after the earlier, sparse verses, makes the outro stand out.
Even without the additional musicians (and Flea’s trumpet), ‘Aquatic Mouth Dance’ stands up at live shows, and has been one of the new songs performed more regularly on the Chilis’ mammoth world tour. Let’s boogie to the song’s live debut.
October is Bassist Month on Edge of the Line. We’re celebrating the birthdays of Flea (16 October) and Bootsy Collins (26 October).
‘Aquatic Mouth Dance’ is a song about Anthony Kiedis, Flea, and California; an ode to their early adventures discovering music and days as homeless free spirits. Kiedis sings of Flea, “The colour of your eyes was stolen from the sky”. The pair formed the Chili Peppers when they were 20, after meeting at 15, with high school friends Hillel Slovak and Jack Irons. The opening line shouts out Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five’s ‘The Message’, the song that inspired Kiedis to rap.
Producer Rick Rubin hosted Flea on the Broken Record podcast shortly after the release of Unlimited Love (2022). Flea spoke of his and Kiedis’s “street kid mentality” in the ’80s. Flea says at 17:45, “Record companies wanted to sign us and stuff, and it was kind of later on, and they’re taking us out to lunch and we’re still in the mindset of hustling a lunch, so it’s getting different guys to take us out to lunch, like, ‘Yeah, we’ll get this guy on Tuesday and that guy on Wednesday.’”
They had been “growing up in [their] own weird, misguided way, without real mature guidance” and still living, as Kiedis sings in ‘Aquatic Mouth Dance’, “Day to day”: “Well, I don’t know where / I’m gonna sleep tonight / Please tell me, can you spare / A pillow for my head and hair?”
‘Aquatic’ is one of the Unlimited Love-era songs to call back to the Chili Peppers’ purest funk album, Freaky Styley (1985), produced by George Clinton. Rather than the more urgent guitar and drums of Blood Sugar Sex Magik’s funk rock, the emphasis is very much on groove. Though Chad Smith's drumming does give certain bars bite – listen to the beats in the last, floaty line of the first chorus (1:01).
The latter half of the choruses features horns, making the mostly sparse song now feel lush and full. Flea jumps on trumpet, Josh Johnson plays saxophone, Vikram Devasthali plays trombone, and Nate Walcott also plays trumpet. The horn melodies add some ambiguity to the song, which is mostly driven by Flea’s boysterous bassline.
Frusciante has said he sees Flea’s bass as the lead instrument, which is very evident in ‘Aquatic’. In the choruses, Frusciante’s delicate guitar melodies come late in the measure and set up Flea’s bass and the horns to hit on the One. At other times, quick strums set up horn blows (3:19, 3:30).
Three decades after Blood Sugar, Rubin’s hip-hop method of essentially muting certain instruments for parts of the song is still in use. Following the second chorus, Frusciante’s guitar drops out for four bars, letting Flea’s bass shine, and in turn, meaning Frusciante’s part has more impact in the next verse. In that vocalless section, Mauro Refosco adds percussion in the left speaker, helping emphasise the One and the sixteenth note following it. Refosco first played on I’m With You (2011) and toured with the band during the Josh Klinghoffer era.
At 2:53, Frusciante adds synthesizer (as he does on much of Unlimited Love and Return of the Dream Canteen). He uses the synth pretty sparingly here, just adding a sci-fi-esque sound effect, giving Kiedis’ ambiguous lyrics more weight.
Late in the song the horn section has space for a free jazz freakout, with the four players blowing wildly. Their melodies sometimes cooperate (3:12), and sometimes compete (3:52); their dissonance and the fullness of the song, after the earlier, sparse verses, makes the outro stand out.
Even without the additional musicians (and Flea’s trumpet), ‘Aquatic Mouth Dance’ stands up at live shows, and has been one of the new songs performed more regularly on the Chilis’ mammoth world tour. Let’s boogie to the song’s live debut.