Balarama Music

Frusciante Friday Kick-Off

Feb 27

Doug2000s frusciante friday, john frusciante, red hot chili peppers 1 Comment

Woo, it’s here! The first Frusciante Friday! It’s pathetic how exciting I am. So what exactly is it and why am I so excited?

Well, every Friday I’ll be putting up a song by or featuring John Frusciante. Go figure! Frusciante is the current guitarist and back-up singer for Red Hot Chili Peppers and has been since 1998 and was in the band also from 1988 to 1992. He has been consistently pointed to as one of the major factors of RHCP’s success and perseverance since the 80s which can also be more or less proven in the commercial and critical decline that One Hot Minute faced, the album that directly followed Frusciante’s leaving the band in 1992 (Dave Navarro replaced him – there’s a weird choice). John Frusciante has also been avid solo musician as well having released ten solo albums since 1994. He also has a sporadic side band called Ataxia which has released two albums. Even more, John Frusciante has also become an extremely sought after studio musician as he has made regular guest appearances on Mars Volta albums as well as members of and Wu-Tang Clan itself and Johnny Cash. He has also been featured on songs by Macy Gray, George Clinton, David Bowie, Tricky, Perry Farrell, Bob Forrest, and so many more that I could name. Suffice it to say, he does a lot more than just work with RHCP and the man keeps himself busy.

In my opinion, not only is John Frusciante easily and I do mean easily the best guitarist going today, I would also say he is one of the best singers and musicians going around today in the music scene. His guitar playing to me is amazingly diverse and emotional which is more different than 90% of guitarists out there. In fact, many guitar schools and the like show his solos (such as I Could Have Lied) to teach their students to play solos in relation to the feeling and tone of the song, rather than just trying to impress people. Utilizing his “less is more” guitar approach (see songs like Scar Tissue), it doesn’t exactly make people think, “Wow, that is a great guitarist,” but definitely makes for better songs overall and more focus on the tone and melody of said songs which makes the songs ultimately better. His singing is something I can’t even begin to explain.

His first foray into actual singing would be heard on his first two albums, released at the height of his drug addiction. This singing…is not pretty. I know a lot of people love those albums and while I don’t dislike them, I definitely would not call that singing good and it’s very apparent the man was doing horrendous amounts of drugs.

However, he eventual became an amazing singer which you can see on his later solo albums Shadows Collide With People and especially his latest one The Empyrean. Have you ever listened to the Chili Peppers and heard some really pretty backing vocals? They’re him. Have you ever heard some very high pitched backing vocals? That would also be him. The man has an incredible voice range that is unremarkable at times and adds so much depth to Chili Peppers songs. His musicianship can just be pointed to most, if not all, of the By The Way album which all members of RHCP have gone on record saying he laid out all in his head for the rest of the band to play. When you listen to his solo records, his musicianship stands out all the more.

Suffice it to say, I love John Frusciante. Listening to his music in the car with the volume turned all the way out, I literally get goose bumps especially when he’s hitting the climax of his songs. It gets to the point sometimes that I judge music as Frusciante Music and Everything Else. His music just puts me in another place. On a side note though, I actually do think John Frusciante is crazy to a certain degree. He is a very intelligent man when it comes to music (in the same vein as Pete Townshend I believe); however, outside of that, he is quite loony on the subject of other dimensions, spirits, ghosts, et cetera. If that’s what it takes to make good music though, I’ll gladly put up with. We soon forget that John Lennon released and fawned over Revolution 9. Frusciante still stands out to me in music though. Hopefully with each of these Frusciante Fridays, I’ll be able to at least make you a simple fan of his. Not a super-fan like I am who hounds John Frusciante websites for the latest news (Invisible-Movement.net rocks), but hopefully someone who would download a few tracks and enjoy them.

Fuck, I’m long-winded. I’ll try and hurry this up. It took me a while to figure out what song to do of his since I will be including RHCP. I wanted to go with She’s Only 18 since it has an amazing guitar solo that bends time, but then I thought I’d go with Going Inside which always is my introduction to John Frusciante. I ultimately figured that this is my blog so why not put my favorite John Frusciante song? Simple idea; don’t know why it took me so long to get there. Oh, I’m retarded; that’s right. Anywho, that song is “Look On” from his album Inside Of Emptiness (my favorite album of his as well). Inside Of Emptiness is the fourth of his six albums released through Record Collection between June 2004 and January 2005 (about six albums in six months) and is mostly centered around basic rock with him letting the synthesizer take a back seat for a change. When the album was released, he said this song was his attempt at making a long guitar-centered 1970s rock song which I think he did and then some. This song also contains one of my all-time favorite guitar solos and is just kind of awe-inspiring. I’ll shut up now and just let you guys listen to the track. I’ll try not to be so long-winded next Friday.

Title: Look On
Artist: John Frusciante
Album: Inside Of Emptiness
Year: 2004

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