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Anthony Kiedis: "I was driving away from the rehersal studio and thinking how i just wasn't making any connection to my friends or family. I didn't have a girlfriend, and Hillel wasn't there. The only think I could grasp was this city. I grew up here for the last twenty years, and it was L.A. - the hills, the buildings, the people in it as a while - that seemed to be looking out for me more than any human being. I just started singing this little song to myself: 'Sometimes I feel like I don't have a partner'....I was reminding myself , 'Okay, things might feel f**ked up right now, but I don't ever want to feel like I did two years ago. In the end it wasn't like I was writing in any sort of pop-song format. I just started writing about the bridge - and the things that occurred under the bridge." (Rolling Stone)

Anthony Kiedis: "Rick let us reveal our music's other sides. He would visit me at home where I did my lyric writing, sit with me on this old '50s couch and say, "Let's see what you have." That's where I first sang, "Under the Bridge." It was almost completely written - the arrangement, the verse, the chorus - as this poem. I had a little melody for each part. Rick convinced me to take "Under the Bridge" into rehearsal. I was so nervous that my voice cracked when I tried to sing it. The band listened to every last word with a very intense look on their faces. I was about to say, "We don't have to do this," when they walked over to their instruments and started finding what they wanted to do with that song. It opened a new avenue for us. Suddenly, even more than before, everything was okay under the Red Hot Chili Peppers' umbrella.

No one wants to admit they need help from the rest of the world, but in that song, I admit that I'm weak and lonely, but at the same time, optimistic. It's inspired by drug addiction, friendship and loneliness in relationship to the city. When you're using drugs, life is pretty lonely. I got clean, but the loneliness didn't go away. I was driving in my car, feeling that loneliness, and started singing the song to myself. I liked what I was singing, so when I got home I taped part of it and started finishing this poem." (2002:VH1)

Rick Rubin: "I was at Anthony's house looking through his book of lyrics and asking him. 'What is this on?' He sang it to me, and I thought it was great and we should record it. He said 'Really? Do you think it's okay?' It was just a matter of saying that anything you do that's good is okay. You don't have to think about whether it fits into the context of the Chili Peppers." (Rolling Stone)

Flea: "John and Anthony had a melody and Chad and me added what we could to it. John's mom came in with her church group and sang the background vocals at the end. It was trippy seeing all these women up there singing, "Under the bridge downtown." John and I were playing together at the end and had one of those great moments when you're looking at each other and the music's just flowing through you. We both made a little random fill like, "boo boo da loop" at exactly the same time. The odds of that happening were ten zillion to one. We were like, "How the f*ck did that happen?" We knew that was the take. So I never thought that would be a hit, but I knew that it was good." (2002:VH1)

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Anthony Kiedis: "By late June, we had completed twelve songs. Scar Tissue was another song where you open up the top of your head and it comes dusting down from outer space. Rick Rubin and I had been talking about sarcasm a lot. Rick had read a theory that it was an incredibly detrimental form of humor that depresses the spirit of its proponents. We had been such sarcastic dicks that we vowed to try to be funny without using sarcasm as a crutch. I guess I was also thinking of Dave Navarro, who was the king of sarcasm, faster and sharper than the average bear.

All of those ideas were in the air when John started playing this guitar riff, and I immediately knew what the song was about. It was a playful, happy-to-be-alive, phoenix-rising-from-the-ashes vibe. I ran outside with my handheld tape recorder and, with that music playing in the background, started singing the entire chorus to the song. I'll never forget looking up at the sky above that garage, out towards Griffith Park with the birds flying overhead and getting a dose of Jonathan Livingston Seagull. I really did have the point of view of those birds, feeling like an eternal outsider." (Scar Tissue autobiography)

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Anthony Kiedis: "It was a hot summer day in the rehearsal studio. Flea started hitting that big heavy slide bass line. I had been thinking about this concept Nina Hagen planted in my mind. She was my girlfriend when I was 20 years old and believed that the more she gave, the more she received. When I got sober, I realized that sobriety revolved around giving something away in order to maintain it. So this idea of "give it away" was tornado-ing in my head for a while. When Flea started hitting that bass line, that tornado just came out of my mouth." (2002:VH1)

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Anthony Kiedis: “I showed "Californication” to John, and he loved the lyrics and started writing some music. But for some reason, even though there was a perfect song in there, we couldn’t find it. We tried ten different arrangements and ten different choruses, and nothing ever worked. All these other songs were pouring out of us. We’d been working for a few weeks when someone started playing an ultra-sparse riff that sounded like nothing we’d ever done before. As soon as I heard it, I knew it was our new song." (Scar Tissue autobiography)

This song is mainly about the dark side of Hollywood thatlays underneath the glossy surface. The band might love the city of Los Angeles, but they saw first hand the effects the Hollywood lifestyle has on its inhabitants and the rest of the world. ... The song, particularly John Frusciante’s guitar work, sounds different from the rest of the album. That is because the band originally planned to scrap the song because they couldn’t find the music to match Kiedis' lyrics, but Anthony encouraged Frusciante to get creative because he knew they could be dealing with a great song. (Genius)

(Anthony Kiedis, John Frusciante, Flea, Chad Smith)

Anthony Kiedis – lead vocals
John Frusciante – lead guitar, keyboard, backing vocals
Flea – bass, backing vocals
Chad Smith – drums
Greg Kurstin – keyboards

Produced: Rick Rubin
Engineered/Mixed: Jim Scott
Recorded at: Cello Studios, Los Angeles, California, USA

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Anthony Kiedis: (Dani character from "By the Way" & "Californication") "When this funky groove came up it struck me as a perfect place to actually tell a story. It sort of revealed itself to me that its been the same character, just kind of developing. At first I didn't realize that I was writing about the same girl."

Throughout the song, lyricist Anthony Kiedis laments the early death of Dani, a poor, young Southern girl who eventually lived in California, became a mother and lived a hard, fast, unsettled life. Kiedis has commented that the character of Dani is composite of all the women with whom he has had relationships. The song narrates much of Dani's life, starting with her birth in Mississippi and apparently culminating with her death in the badlands, by a man "gunnin'" from North Dakota, while en route to Minnesota. (Wikipedia)

(Flea, John Frusciante, Anthony Kiedis, Chad Smith)

Anthony Kiedis – lead vocals
John Frusciante – guitars, keyboards, backing vocals
Flea – bass, backing vocals, trumpet
Chad Smith – drums, percussion
Lenny Castro – percussion
Paulinho da Costa – percussion

Produced: Rick Rubin
Engineered: ??
Recorded at: The Mansion, Los Angeles, California, USA, 2005

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Much of the lyrics are simply fun wordplay by Anthony Kiedis, but it does talk about a girl named "Dani," who was the "Teenage bride with the baby inside" on the Red Hot Chili Peppers 1999 song "Californication," and also appeared in their 2006 song "Dani California" Kiedis says that "Dani" is a representation of every girl that he's come across in his life. (Songfacts)

(Flea, John Frusciante, Anthony Kiedis, Chad Smith)

Anthony Kiedis – lead vocals
John Frusciante – guitar, backing vocals, piano, keyboards, modular synthesizer
Michael "Flea" Balzary – bass, trumpet, harmonica, backing vocals
Chad Smith – drums, percussion

Produced: Rick Rubin
Engineered: Ryan Hewitt
Recorded at: Los Angeles, California, USA

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(Anthony Kiedis, Flea, Dave Navarro, Chad Smith)

Anthony Kiedis – lead vocals
Dave Navarro – guitars, backing vocals
Flea – bass, backing vocals
Chad Smith – drums
Lenny Castro – percussion
Jimmy Boyle – backing vocals

Produced: Rick Rubin
Engineered: Dave Schiffman
Recorded at: The Sound Factory, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

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This song refers to one of the band members, Hillel Slovak who died of a heroin overdose on June 25, 1988. This song talks about his struggles from this addiction. The name of the song, "Otherside" is also used to say "afterlife".

Although it is sung by Anthony Kiedis, it is supposed to be Slovak’s voice and his perspective towards the situation. This song talks about how Slovak knows how much the drug has affected him and how he must kill himself to end his addiction. This song also shows his struggles to end this addiction by saying, “I yell and tell it (drugs) that it’s not my friend; I tear it down tear it down, and then it’s born again.” His constant struggle is also shown in the music video which shows a man waking up and then finding himself in the same position at the end of the video which means that it is a cycle that never changes and that never will change. The video also shows his struggles by having a scene where the man (Slovak) is fighting against his shadow which shows that he was initially fighting with himself due to the addiction. (Wikipedia)

(Anthony Kiedis, John Frusciante, Flea, Chad Smith)

Anthony Kiedis – lead vocals
John Frusciante – lead guitar, keyboard, backing vocals
Flea – bass, backing vocals
Chad Smith – drums
Greg Kurstin – keyboards

Produced: Rick Rubin
Engineered/Mixed: Jim Scott
Recorded at: Cello Studios, Los Angeles, California, USA

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Anthony Kiedis: "about surviving, starting fresh. I've made a mess of everything, but I have a blank slate—a canvas of snow—and I get to start over."

(Anthony Kiedis, John Frusciante, Flea, Chad Smith)

Anthony Kiedis – lead vocals
John Frusciante – guitars, keyboards, backing vocals
Flea – bass, backing vocals, trumpet
Chad Smith – drums, percussion
Lenny Castro – percussion
Paulinho da Costa – percussion

Produced: Rick Rubin
Engineered: ??
Recorded at: The Mansion, Los Angeles, California, USA, 2005

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Anthony Kiedis: “When I first heard [’Maggie’], I didn’t know it would be a single. [But] I knew that I loved the jam. My first recording of that, I don’t think it had many vocals on it. It was kind of mostly instrumental, about an hour long. Flea brought it in as a very specific exercise to write a classic bass line. He woke up, had his tea, sat down: ’I’m going to write a classic bass line. You can’t stop me.’ Played his bass line until he felt it was cooked into a classic, brought it to us and said, ’This is Classic Number One.’ On a good day, you just know if there’s music to wrestle with and get with, and it was one of those moments.”

I took it home and it felt so fun to listen to at length that I literally left it on in my driveway, opened the door and danced with the tree next to me for quite a while. I had no idea that it would even be a song, I just thought, ’Oh, this is a great dance track. Let’s put it on as a B-side, [an] hour long.’ And then, as fate would have it, people heard it, and they were like, ’Oh, that’s your best thing right there. That’s your best thing.’

It’s just a collection of memories and people along the way that had maybe left my consciousness until I heard that music, and then they kind of came dancing back into my consciousness, and out the old pen onto the paper,” he smiled. “Names have been changed to protect the innocent. Although there is a Maggie, I realized later. There’s two Maggies, actually.” (2011:MTV) [P]

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The lyrics describe Kiedis' confused feelings about drugs, starting already in the first lines. (Wikipedia)

(Anthony Kiedis, Flea, Dave Navarro, Chad Smith)

Anthony Kiedis – lead vocals
Dave Navarro – guitars, backing vocals
Flea – bass, backing vocals
Chad Smith – drums
Jimmy Boyle – backing vocals

Produced: Rick Rubin
Engineered: Dave Schiffman
Recorded at: The Sound Factory, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

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Depicts a negativity towards the stereotypically egotistic lifestyle of a typical rock-star and was considered to be disavowing of drugs. (Wikipedia)

(Anthony Kiedis, John Frusciante, Flea, Chad Smith)

Anthony Kiedis - lead vocals
John Frusciante - guitar, co-lead vocals
Flea - bass
Chad Smith - drums
Vicki Calhoun – backing vocals

Produced: Michael Beinhorn
Engineered: ??
Recorded at: Hollywood, California, USA

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Anthony Kiedis: "'Tell Me Baby is kind of about that river of humans that flow into Hollywood."

(Anthony Kiedis, John Frusciante, Flea, Chad Smith)

Anthony Kiedis – lead vocals
John Frusciante – guitars, keyboards, backing vocals
Flea – bass, backing vocals, trumpet
Chad Smith – drums, percussion
Lenny Castro – percussion
Paulinho da Costa – percussion

Produced: Rick Rubin
Engineered: ??
Recorded at: The Mansion, Los Angeles, California, USA, 2005

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Lyrically, "Can't Stop" is a prime example of the band's occasional use of writing lyrics to an established rhythm, rather than rhythms to established lyrics.[8] Kiedis writes in his typical circumlocutory style. Nonetheless, the predominant theme of cultivating an inner, personal energy (evidenced in the title and the final line: "This life is more than just a read-through.") can be understood in almost every line. The verses are addressed to the listener (or perhaps to himself), in an instructional tone, with references to Kiedis's own life, as well as citing the inspiration of Defunkt and Julia Butterfly Hill. The bridge marks a slight departure, as Kiedis suggests he had temporarily forgotten this philosophy, and looks to a new girlfriend to help himself back on his feet. (Wikipedia)

(Flea, John Frusciante, Anthony Kiedis, Chad Smith)

Anthony Kiedis – lead vocals
John Frusciante – guitar, backing vocals, piano, keyboards, modular synthesizer
Michael "Flea" Balzary – bass, trumpet, harmonica, backing vocals
Chad Smith – drums, percussion

Produced: Rick Rubin
Engineered: Ryan Hewitt
Recorded at: Los Angeles, California, USA

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(Anthony Kiedis, Flea, Dave Navarro, Chad Smith)

Anthony Kiedis – lead vocals
Dave Navarro – guitars, backing vocals
Flea – bass, backing vocals
Chad Smith – drums
Jimmy Boyle – backing vocals

Produced: Rick Rubin
Engineered: Dave Schiffman
Recorded at: The Sound Factory, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

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(Flea, Jack Irons, Anthony Kiedis, Hillel Slovak)

Anthony Kiedis – lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Hillel Slovak – guitar, sitar, vocoder, backing vocals
Flea - bass, backing vocals
Jack Irons – drums, backing vocals
Additional musicians
Michael Beinhorn – background vocals
John Norwood Fisher – background vocals
David Kendly – background vocals
Angelo Moore – background vocals
Annie Newman – background vocals

Produced: Michael Beinhorn
Engineered: Judy Clapp
Recorded at: Capitol Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Cal., USA, May 1987

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Flea: “I called up Josh and asked him if he wanted to be in the band and he wasn’t sure because he had a lot going on and wasn’t motivated by fame and power. He just wants to follow his muse. He thought about it and then started thinking he wanted to do it, so I said ‘Well, come over. Let’s jam.’ We sad down in my little basement and played, just the two of us. We started playing the beginning, the Sabbath-y, heavy part. We kind of looked at each other like, ‘This is good.’” (2010:Q Pime)

Josh Klinghoffer: "We had a decade-plus history together, knowing each other and playing with each other and playing with friends. It did seem more seamless to me than you would think, but I just think that’s because there was a lot of love for each other in the room from day one and before.” (2010:Q Pime)

The song, which Kiedis says is about the “monarchy of friendships” in the community that continues to nurture the Peppers, mixes funk and hard rock (the working title at one point was “Disco Sabbath”) as only the Peppers can. And that kick-off introduces Klinghoffer loud and clear – no surprise to his band mates. (2010:Q Pime)

(Anthony Kiedis, Flea, Chad Smith, Josh Klinghoffer)

Anthony Kiedis – lead vocals
Josh Klinghoffer – guitar, backing vocals
Flea – bass
Chad Smith – drums
Mauro Refosco – percussion

Produced: Rick Rubin
Engineered: Ryan Hewitt
Recorded at: California, USA

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(Anthony Kiedis, John Frusciante, Flea, Chad Smith)

Anthony Kiedis - lead vocal
John Frusciante - guitar
Flea - bass
Chad Smith - drums

Produced: Rick Rubin
Engineered: ??
Recorded at: The Mansion in Los Angeles, California, USA, 2003