Published on Oct 23, 1997
For Anthony Kiedis and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, tragedy turned
into the best medicine.
In 1988, the band’s guitarist Hillel Slovak died of a heroin
overdose. The band’s regrouping was too much for drummer Jack
Irons, who bolted and spent years in obscurity before joining Pearl
Jam. Kiedis, himself a heroin addict, cleaned up his act following
the death of his friend and bandmate.
But the Chili Peppers, who had wallowed away as an unknown
secret since their formation five years previous, used the
rebuilding time to craft what I considered to be their best lineup
ever. Besides Kiedis and bassist Flea, the band recruited guitarist
John Frusciante and drummer Chad Smith, honed their musical and
songwriting skills, and finally emerged in 1989 with
Mother’s Milk — a high-water mark I don’t think they’ve
ever achieved again.
The Chili Peppers brink out the funk early and often; the
opening number “Good Time Boys” is a tribute to the bands who laid
out the road before them and a sign that they were back and ready
to claim the funk-rock throne. But their next move was a risky one
— they took on Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground.” Skeptics could
have claimed the band’s cover version was a sign that they weren’t
competent enough songwriters to make it on their own.
Fortunately for the Chilis, not only do they stay close to the
bone of the original version, but they also add enough flavor to
make it their own — and it’s a great track as a result. (Wonder
should also be thankful that the Chili Peppers covered the song, as
it helped open new listeners’ ears to Wonder’s earlier works.) The
other cover on this album, a balls-out rendition of Jimi Hendrix’s
“Fire,” sounds like it was a one-off shot that was recorded for
fun.
The showpiece of
Mother’s Milk is “Knock Me Down,” a song which celebrates
Kiedis’s newfound sobriety and asks his fans to put him in his
place if they catch him getting wasted again: “If you see me
getting by, if you see me getting high / Knock me down / I’m not
bigger than life.” (Too bad some people didn’t take Kiedis
seriously; he admitted to using heroin again this year, but seemed
repentant about his relapse.)
For every cut which might be seen as a throwaway (“Magic
Johnson,” “Fire,” “Pretty Little Ditty”) there is a slab of funk
rock which is quite tasty (“Subway To Venus,” “Sexy Mexican Maid,”
“Nobody Weird Like Me”). In fact, only one or two songs on
Mother’s Milk fail to hit the target, most notably the
album’s closer “Johnny, Kick A Hole In The Sky” (despite some
impressive bass work by Flea).
Despite the power of this album,
Mother’s Milk still did not prove to be the big breakthrough
that the Red Hot Chili Peppers were looking for. (That would come
one album later with the smash hit “Under The Bridge.”) But Kiedis
and crew were able to overcome the shortfalls that had plagued them
on previous albums and produce an artistically solid album.