Red Hot Chili Peppers - Mother's Milk

The Chili Peppers finally hit their stride with Mother's Milk, for the first time making their breakneck mix of funk, rap, and metal smooth enough to attract the masses, while keeping it raw enough not to alienate old fans. They've straddled that edge ever since. It didn't hurt that they offered a pretty mainstream cover of Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground" to introduce the album. That single though, and the rest of Mother's Milk (including "Knock Me Down" and the randy "Sexy Mexican Maid") is pure Pepper--from Anthony Kiedis's in-your-face vocals to Flea's chattering bass. Milk was also guitarist John Frusciante's debut with the group and he shines, especially on Jimi Hendrix's "Fire." --Michael Ruby Amazon.com essential recording

The Chili Peppers Get Muy Caliente.

Before the Red Hot Chili Peppers were synonymous with Californication (1999), By the Way (2002), and Stadium Arcadium (2006), they were best known for "The Rockin' Freakapotamus" sound of their fourth album, Mother's Milk (1989), which is a in-your-face fusion of guitar-driven rock, funk, metal, punk, rap, and southern California testosterone. Mother's Milk was the first RHCP album featuring John Frusciante (who rocks out with almost overpowering guitars) and drummer Chad Smith, and includes covers of Hendrix's "Fire," "Castles Made of Sand," and "Crosstown Traffic," and a cover of Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground." The remastered edition of Mother's Milk has never sounded better. Complete album setlist includes:

1. Good Time Boys (2003 Digital Remaster) 5:01
2. Higher Ground (2003 Digital Remaster) 3:22
3. Subway To Venus (2003 Digital Remaster) 4:25
4. Magic Johnson (2003 Digital Remaster) 2:57
5. Nobody Weird Like Me (2003 Digital Remaster) 3:50
6. Knock Me Down (2003 Digital Remaster) 3:43
7. Taste The Pain (2003 Digital Remaster) 4:31
8. Stone Cold Bush (2003 Digital Remaster) 3:05
9. Fire (2003 Digital Remaster) 2:03
10. Pretty Little Ditty (2003 Digital Remaster) 3:07
11. Punk Rock Classic (2003 Digital Remaster) 1:46
12. Sexy Mexican Maid (2003 Digital Remaster) 3:22
13. Johnny, Kick A Hole In The Sky (2003 Digital Remaster) 5:20
14. Song That Made Us What We Are Today (Demo) 12:56
15. Knock Me Down (Original Long Version) 4:44
16. Sexy Mexican Maid (Original Long Version) 3:59
17. Salute To Kareem (Demo) 3:24
18. Castles Made Of Sand (Live) 3:19
19. Crosstown Traffic (Live) 2:53

G. Merritt
May 15, 2008

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: 'Mother's Milk' is a really great cd, but you have to fix it and put it in order first!

This is what you have to do to make this a cohesive, listenable CD. First you have to edit out the sampling nonsense on "Good Time Boys". I first input the song into Sonic Stage Mastering, cut out the 11-second piece of annoying crap, burnt it onto a CD, then back into Windows Media Player.

After patching up "Good Time Boys" I found a clever method of ordering the songs. If you notice how RHCPs "Californication" is arranged, similarities between songs and their order can be derived. For example, order the first 8 songs this way:
1)6th (best) /1. Good Time Boys (a little like Around the World)
2)1st (best) /8. Stone Cold Bush (like "Get On Top")
3)10th(best) /6. Knock Me Down (like "Easily")
4)4th (best) /12.Sexy Mexican Maid (like "Emit Remmus")
5)8th (best) /7. Taste The Pain (like "Purple Stain")
6)9th (best) /5. Nobody Wierd Like Me(OK, there's nothing like this one!)
7)11nth(best) /11.Punk Rock Classic (like "Right On Time")
8)12th(best) /3. Subway To Venus (By default)

The next transition theme (9-13) is "cover songs and Hendrix".
9)2nd (best) /2. Higher Ground
10)3rd (best) /9. Fire
11)6th (best) / Castles Made of Sand [Live][*]
12)13th(best) / Crosstown Traffic [Live][#][*]
13)5th (best) /13.Johnny Kick A Hole In The Sky (This works at this point because the RHCPs "sing" a portion of the National Anthem as screwed up a Jimi "played" it once!)("Screwed up" in a good way!)

14)7th (best) /10. Pretty Little Ditty (like "Road Trippin", a song to unwind to as we come to the virtual end to this now GREAT cd!)

Plop these last ones here just in case you don't have the "Californication" CD handy!
15)14th (best) /Salute to Kareem [#][*][Demo Version]
16)15th (best) /4. Magic Johnson (This song sssooooo disrupts the rest of the CD unless you put it off on its own!)
17)16th (best) /Song That Made Us What We Are Today [#][*][Demo Version]

This wasn't so much a "review" as it was a "Public Service Announcement"! Now go on and buy it!!!
March 7, 2008

(3.5 stars) A breakthrough, but nowhere near future albums

And suddenly, magically, the Red Hot Chili Peppers became good. You know why? Four reasons: John Frusciante and Chad Smith joined the party; Flea's technique improved by leaps and bounds; and Anthony Keidis learned to actually sing rather than scream. All these elements come together on the group's first sizeable hit, the amazing antidrug funk-rocker "Knock Me Down", inspired by Slovak's recent death by overdose. Now, I'm sure not here to celebrate Slovak's death, since he was so young and had so much ahead of him at the time, and I always feel really bad inside when I learn about people dying. But he wasn't much of a guitarist, and Frusciante fits the group's style a lot better. I just wish that Slovak had left the band through less extreme measures than drug overdose, such as a firing. Regardless of that, this strikes me as the Chili Peppers' real debut album, where they really came into their own. It's true that most the funk rockers don't sound much different from your average track on, say, The Uplift Mofo Party Plan. But they're much more interesting. For instance, take "Subway to Venus". Pretty mediocre song, right? Yeah, until Flea picks up the trumpet. Or take "Good Time Boys". Again, kind of a boring, uneventful song, except for that little break where everything slows down for about ten seconds. Similarly, would the concluding "Johnny, Kick a Hole in the Sky" be as good as it is without Frusciante's guitar playing? I doubt it. Same for "Sexy Mexican Maid", though that song also has some sweet sax soloing going for it. "Stone Cold Bush" would be just a moronic sex-god funk-rocker with an irritating sex section if it weren't for Flea's quick bass solo. And there is no way the early group was capable of something as good as my favorite song on the album, "Taste the Pain", which rules for several reasons. Really, really catchy; fantastic guitar parts; and especially Flea's jazzy trumpet. Flea also does a fine job on their cover of "Higher Ground". Guess who that is playing what was originally the clavinet part? It's Flea! All Flea. Flea rules. Now the other cover (Jimi Hendrix's "Fire") is a sloppy rush job with none of the overwhelming power of Hendrix's version. I could do without it. And a couple of other songs also fall in the "suck bin", like the moronic basketball tribute "Magic Johnson"; "Punk Rock Classic", which sees the group reverting back to the Slovak sound (though the "Sweet Child o' Mine" quote is amusing); and the instrumental "Pretty Little Ditty", though at least that gives features the Frusciante Guitar Tone. On a whole, though, this is a huge leap over the early albums and is really worth checking out. February 10, 2008

"Alternative music" in its infancy was nourished by "Mother's Milk."

Being not far removed from obvious influences, "Mother's Milk" captured Red Hot Chili Peppers as a less mature band ...perhaps not quite toilet trained. But the album marked the start of a specific branch on the modern music family tree, one whose lineage can be traced all the way forward to uncontrollable bastard brats such as Crazy Town.

"Mother's Milk," though not quite as culpable as other 1989 releases like "Disintegration" or "Pretty Hate Machine" or "The Real Thing," helped nourish an infantile but burgeoning genre, "alternative music," into an unstoppable 1990's-consuming monster. Because of that, it should automatically show up on most people's required listening list. December 24, 2007

There's No Turning Back

Red Hot Chili Peppers hit their stride with this release. With John and Chad replaces their two former members, the Chili Peppers crafted the sound they are better known for today. This is the first of their great albums.

The opening of Good Time Boys to the closing of Johnny, Kick A Hole in the Sky, this CD is magical. Quite magical.

My favorites include Magic Johnson, Knock Me Down, Taste the Pain, Sexy Mexican Maid, Stone Cold Bush, and Pretty Little Ditty.

Highly recommended. October 7, 2007

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