"This album is their first, and one of their finest. This is a very different Red Hot Chili Peppers than their present day music, but every bit as good. Twenty years after its release, it holds up powerfully. If you have never heard "True Men Don't Kill Coyotes," you are missing one of the finest Hollywood/Southern California anthems ever written. Pop? Rap? Rock? I honestly think there is no way to properly classify this song, it's the perfect tune to announce the rival of the Chili Peppers, and pretty much personifies their offbeat charge into the music world. You can find the abovementioned song on one of their "Best Of" albums, but the rest of the songs on this CD are too good to pass off. The mightiest tracks are 1 through 6, with "Buckle Down" and the overdrive-paced "Get Up and Jump" stealing the show. The diversity of the songs on these first six tracks is impressive. The Chili Peppers were such a rush of fresh air when they hit the scene in 1984. I remember a plethora of heavy metal and new wave all over the airwaves & record stores; some good, lots bad. No new group, however, crashed the music scene that year quite like The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Pick up this CD and compare it to the playlists of the mid 1980s, and I bet the sheer contrast will show you what a cutting edge band The Red Hot Chili Peppers were when they hit the scene. Give this album a chance, and I think you will find that the Red Hot Chili Peppers didn't get better with time: they started out great, and since then have tinkered with their musical style, all the while keeping their unmistakable Funky spirits in full force. Yes, The Red Hots still have "Baby Appeal!""
Peppers Will Be Peppers
Dave Baw | Enfield, CT | 04/13/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"When I heard this album I was'nt suprised at all that the Chili Peppers started out so good and still remain the funkiest rock around. Songs like "Get up and Jump" will just want to make you...well, get up and jump. I certainly recomend it to a Red Hot Chili Peppers fan--"
Fop on
Dave Baw | 07/30/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This record is great considering that it was (orginally) released (almost) 20 years before today when the radio waves are cursed by these ultra corporate/unoriginal rap/metal bands (my local alt/hard rock station actually played songs from this bands original four albums, now all they play is junk like "P.O.D.(posers obviously darnit)".
But this little underatted gem is 95% excelent(I'm not too hot with the simplistic"Police helicopter"). The top tracks in my mind would be "Green Heaven", with the best bass/guitar riff I've ever heard. The fast paced "Out In L.A." The chilling instrumental "Grand pappy du plenty." "Baby appeal" which could have easily made it on Freaky Styley, and "Buckle down", which I like for no reason That I can currently think of.
If that was not enough, if you buy the remaster(which you probably will end up with anyway, since it's easier to find) you get 5 demos added as Bonus tracks. Which range from the "Get up and jump" demo which is so off it's hilarious. To the "Green heaven" demo, which I think is better, with the exception of the scratchy beggining( But it's cool, and somewhat eerie how the bass line slowly fades in at the end of it). It also includes the demo for "What it is" from Out In L.A.(the album, not the song) Which consists of lyrical bits from songs like "Green Heaven", And "The Brothers Cup"(off Freaky Styley). The remaster also has better sound quality (obviously).
So to wrap things up, I would have to say that although it is not thier best, it is by far not thier worst ( it is still better than One Hot Minute, and it is much better than thier last release. So buy it, and enjoy.
HOP OUT!"
Rock with a Sock on Your... uh.... it starts with a "C"
Brian Patrick | Chicago IL | 09/28/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"As a thirty-something Gen-X lad, I'm one of the few who has been listening to the Chili Peppers since the mid 1980s. I say this not because I'm one of those insufferable gits who thinks his devotion to a band is more authentic because he was a fan before they became popular. Rather, I mention it to provide the context for my review of this album.
Younger folks who find this album puzzling because it bears no relation to the Chili Peppers they started listening to in the mid to late 90s or even in the 2000s need to understand that this album is not an anomaly or a one-off. It is the essence of what the Chili Peppers sounded like for a decade before today's twenty-somethings started hearing them on the radio and college-bar juke boxes in the 90s. And fortunately for those twenty-somethings, they were not around to witness the unrelentingly bland music scene that obtained in the mid-80s. Even punk had lost its edge by then and morphed into new-wave (Go-Gos turning from punk girls into a mainstream chick-band, Johnny Rotten reverting to John Lydon and fronting PIL, Mick Jones fronting Big Audio Dynamite, etc.). In a radio landscape filled with cheesy synth-pop and poof-haired makeup-wearing metal bands, hearing this and the next three Chili Peppers albums was veritably mind-blowing. Those of us who heard the Chili Peppers in the mid-80s finally understood what our parents felt like when they heard the Beatles or Led Zepplin for the first time.
"Hyperbole," one might be tempted to retort. "If the sound was so fresh, great and mind-blowing, then why did it not achieve the sort of commercial success that the Beatles and Led Zepplin did?" Quite simply, this album was a bit TOO far ahead of its time. Younger folks who complain this album is "dated" don't appreciate how completely ahead of itself this album was nor just how much the sound that was introduced by this album -- and subsequently perfected by the Chili Peppers by the end of the 80s -- influenced the music of the 90s and beyond. (Contemporary acts like Hoobastank and Linkin Park owe a huge debt to the legacy left by the Chili Peppers and many of the Seattle-grunge bands.)
Nonetheless, musical tastes eventually caught up with the Chili Peppers when their 4th album "Mother's Milk" garnered solid commercial success. And in true Chili Peppers' fashion, by the time their sound finally "caught on," they had already turned in a rather different direction. With the 1991 release of "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" the Chili Peppers were again one step ahead of the game and were helping to define future musical tastes, just as they are doing again in this decade and just as they had done in the 80s -- starting with this album.
Is the quality of the music on this album outstanding? Not really, no. It lacks polish, its production quality leaves vast room for improvement (I still have the original CD release -- haven't heard the remastered version yet) and it even falls flat on its face on a couple of tracks. Yet most tracks rock hard with fresh, raw, angst-free energy, and a couple might still fit right in on today's alternative-format radio stations. But most importantly, it's crucial not to lose sight of the context of the dreadfully dull music scene into which this truly groundbreaking yet underrated (at the time) album was thrust. It's also worth keeping in mind that these guys were about 20 years old when this album was recorded, so they weren't exactly the veteran musicians of today's polished and practiced RHCP.
Bottom line: this album is essential for anyone who wishes to understand the Chili Peppers' full body of work and the band's lofty place in musical history."
Not your mother's RHCP, but a worthy album
Brian Patrick | 08/08/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Before their songs topped the charts, and became radio and music video classics, before they released Platnum-selling masterpieces like Californication and Blood Sugar Sex Magik, before they sold out arenas the world over, before 50-year-old housewives could hear their songs on the radio and say "isn't this those Red Hot guys?", the Red Hot Chili Peppers were four wild California youths who played in dingy nightclubs, appearing on stage wearing only a sock (over a choice body part...). The Chilis first became known in LA for their unique fusion of funk, rap, and rock (which was unheard-of in the mid-80's). As luck would have it, they were able to secure a record deal, and created their first album in 1984. The album itself was a commercial bust, but was undeniably ahead of its time, and defiantly different then everything else on the airwaves in 1984. Buckle Down, and prepare yourself for the following review
1. True Men Don't Kill Coyotes: Opening the album with a jangly guitar riff, and kicking into a rumbling, gritty hard-rock tune with Anthony Kiedis' snarled vocals. This song has a very gritty, sweaty, garage-band feel to it, which is present throught the album.
2. Baby Appeal: Loosly based on a true story, this song combines energetic, freewheeling rapping with rocking insturmentals, creating a very fun yarn with a memorable chorus. You also can't help but think, "how many other bands sounded like this in 1984?"
3. Buckle Down: Beginning with synthesized noise, the song is a hard rocking tune that has some very interesting insturmentals and strange lyrics.
4. Get Up And Jump: One of Chili's first songs, and one of the finest party songs you'll hear. A very funky, energetic song that opens with a funky salvo, and kicks into a pumping bassline and Anthony's funny nonsense lyrics. Will have you jumping around like a deranged frog.
5. Why Don't You Love Me: This Hank Williams cover feels very much like a song the Chilis would write themselves, with rap-style vocals and very jazzy insturmentals. A dazzling cover, to say the least.
6. Green Heaven: Anthony's political themed lyrics steal the show, which unlike many other so-called "political" songs, are actually thought-provoking. Not what you'd expect from the Peppers, hey? Flea's bass is in top form here, with an amazing bassline that brings life to this song.
7. Mommy Where's Daddy: A very weird number. Features "female" vocals by Flea, and also smooth, jazz style insturmentals. The strangest song you're likely to find.
8. Out In LA: The Chili's first song. This song is a rip-roaring combination of funky and self-refrential lyrics and wildy funky insturmentals. Also features an explosive guitar solo.
9. Police Helicopter: A short song, but a simple one with berzerk insturmentals and only a few vocal lines. Odd but fun.
10. You Always Sing: Even shorter and weirder. Simply consists of Anthony singing "you always sing the same" over and over again with stuff going on in the background.
11. Grand Pappy Du Plenty: A very different kind of way to close an album. It's an all-insturmental track, and feels eerie, gloomy and experimental. A fine ending to the album.
Now that you've heard a little something about the Flea, a little something about the Tree, and something about me, why won't you just buy the album?
Track Listings (16) - Disc #1
