In all seriousness, I talk about John Frusciante a lot here in this blog. Quite honestly, he’s my favorite musician, but he’s also right up there with the best guitarists of all time, was part of one of the biggest bands ever (the best parts too), and is probably one of the most musically diverse artists out there. The man is a great musician – there’s no doubt about it – and with anything great, there’s always a peak period in their career/life. Athletes have it, television shows have it; hell, even some people’s relationship’s have them. Just like Shaq had his best run during the three-peat with the Lakers & Seinfeld shined bright popping Bubble Boy, John Frusciante had a peak period as well. Writing that though is a little cryptic; almost like I’m writing it as if he stopped making music or is making bad music now. No, he hasn’t “jumped the shark” by far and hopefully he has another peak period, but with his sporadic career thus far, Frusciante has really had one truly great peak period and obviously that’s what I’d like to talk about today.

From the recording of By The Way starting in November of 2001 until the tour for that album ended in June of 2004, there was not a better musician alive in the world than John Anthony Frusciante. Dead serious here. Now, let’s look at that time period and single out some stuff to signify his work. Obviously it started with the recording of By The Way and that album’s a testament to his peak period. The laid-back guitar work that proves that less is truly more (hear “Universally Speaking“), the serene background vocals that are more fun to sing too than the main vocals (hear “Dosed“), the intriguing compositional work that Flea said took artistry to a whole new level (hear “Midnight“); all some of the best traits of Frusciante are present on this record more than any others. With just a guitar and a few oohs and aahs, he became the true star of the band in the most unselfish way possible as everything he did was designed to enhance something else. The tour that followed was undisputable fact as to the skill level John was performing at. The album Live In Hyde Park, the DVD Live At Slane Castle, or any YouTube video of the band performing all show John at the height of his career. Elongating popular hits into unrecognizable jam sessions, delivering some of the best solos of all time (you have to hear this one), and belting out pristine vocals no longer hiding behind a sound collage. This work alone proves my point.

But of course, like any good argument, there’s more to back-up my point. Let’s look at his solo career. We have Shadows Collide With People, The Brown Bunny Soundtrack, The Will To Death, DC EP, Inside Of Emptiness, & Curtains. Hell, all of those were released in the time span of just a year. A year! Let that one sink in after you realize that some bands only release a new album every four years. You might think that with all that released in such a short time frame that it was just rushed and a little watered down. Erroneous! Erroneous on both counts! It easily contains some his best solo work ever. My favorite Frusciante song, and one of my favorite songs ever, comes from this period (read about it here). The music doesn’t even connect in actuality. Shadows Collide With People is his attempt at sonic perfections (hear “Carvel“), The Brown Bunny is lo-fi divinity (hear “Dying Song“), The Will To Death was a minimalist’s love affair (hear “Unchanging“), DC EP stripped him of his beloved synthesizer (hear “A Corner“), Inside Of Emptiness was his tribute to true rock and roll (hear “Look On“), and Curtains was his acoustic album (hear “The Past Recedes“). All of it different, yet still great.

And we’re not done yet! Collaborations? He had them in spades with all different genres. He had his side-band Ataxia formed with current-RHCP guitarist Josh Klinghoffer and Fugazi’s bassist Joe Lally which merged experimental, progressive, & jam rock into a forty minute trance (hear “The Sides“). He had an electronic album release with Klinghoffer that would ignite the techno world on fire if released to radios (hear “The Afterglow“). Oh, both of those albums were released in the same time frame as the six above pushing the count to eight releases in a year. He laid blues & country guitar-work down for Johnny Cash on his amazing covers of Heart Of Gold” & “Personal Jesus.” He joined in on the epic soundscape remix of David Bowie’s “Bring Me The Disco King.” He played on perhaps the best Mars Volta song ever in “Cicatriz ESP.” Mars Voltan Omar Rodriguez-Lopez even recorded some work with him. Finally, Ziggy Marley, Ekkehard Ehlers, and more boasted his help during this period too. Not one to sit still, huh?

Phew, lot of typing. I supplied a lot of links in the paragraphs above. Check them out – trust me, they’re great and only back up my argument more. John was just on fire in this time period and I can’t stress the musical greatness of it all. Had John wanted more of a commercial return on the music, I could easily predict a wave of musicians being influenced by his work. However, seeing as how Captain Beefhart received no mainstream attention and influenced hundreds of artists; hopefully we’ll see the weight of Frusciante’s work pushing into decades to come. Check out those links above or allow me to tell you about one his greatest songs from this period.

I said it all started with By The Way and I’m not kidding. There are so many key tracks on that album not only for Frusciante himself, but for the band itself. Perhaps the stand-out track on the album for Frusciante’s greatness comes at the very end with the two-part masterpiece “Venice Queen.” Anthony Kiedis wrote the lyrics to the song about his former drug counselor Gloria Scott after she passed away from cancer. For all her help & guidance, Kieids always remained close friends with her and even bought her a house at Venice Beach. Despite the touching memorial to a fallen friend (in some of his best lyrical work too), Frusciante shines bright in the song. The opening melody plays out so straightforward yet is quickly made haunting by the wrapping synthesizer work in the background. As Anthony comes in with the lyrics, it’s the soothing background vocals that even out the eerie serenity of the music. Part one wraps up and part two breaks down: Frusciante’s intricate work spans multiple guitar parts (two, three, or maybe even four?) that do so only for the sake of adding to the atmosphere. While it’s not at the forefront, it builds up perfectly as Kiedis comes right back in. But after his first verse, the true star shines again as Frusciante’s mournful vocalizations in the background steal the show at least for this listener. Every time I listen to the song, I always begin to sing a long to Kiedis’ part by default, but after maybe thirty seconds, I’m pulled into the reverie of Frusciante’s vocals and I’m enjoying myself far more. God, I could really go on and on about this song for another page, but I’ve talked you guys up enough. Check out this song – believe you me, it’s worth the time.

Song: Venice Queen
Artist: Red Hot Chili Peppers
Album: By The Way
Year: 2002

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Appearing on To Record Water For Only Ten Days, the genesis of “Going Inside” is a long-ride that I’ll try to briefly sum up here. Key word there: try. After the Peppers hit it big with Blood Sugar Sex Magik in the early 90s, the sudden success proved to be too much for Frusciante. He would later recall a conversation he had with the original guitarist for the Chili Peppers Hillel Slovak that would weigh on his mind in this time. Slovak asked: “Would you still like the Chilis if they got so popular they played the Forum?” Frusciante responded with: “No. It would ruin the whole thing. That’s great about the band, the audience feels no different from the band at all.” Hard to think about when playing to sold-out arenas in Japan. While recording the album, the band holed themselves up in the famed LA Mansion for the duration of the recording process, isolating Frusciante from the real world. What was waiting for him when he came out wasn’t the same world he left either. No, he came out to find the Peppers played on virtually every radio and selling out arenas worldwide. Interviews, television appearances, constant traveling; it’s a lot to expect of a guy who as a teenager spent his days just playing guitar in his house by himself virtually all day. So he quit and retreated to a life of quiet isolation that was haunted by drugs while bordering on becoming a recluse.

It was during this time that he released his first two solo albums: the double album Niandra Lades And Usually Just A T-Shirt in 1994 and Smile from the Streets You Hold in 1997. The recordings were a sharp turn from the music he made with the Peppers. Lo-fi recordings with cryptic lyrics, eerie guitar riffs, and devilish screeches, the music (even though some was not recorded while on drugs) represents the life that he was leading at the time. Extremely avant-garde, some fans find beauty in it while others (like myself) appreciate the music, but can see the potential yearning to break through out of most songs like “Head (Beach Arab).” A few years later, he had truly hit rock bottom and entered rehab at the behest of his friends. He came out of it a new man; not defined by his past life, but guided by it. As he joined the Chili Peppers and recorded the monumental Californication album, the world could see that not only was John Frusciante back, but he was better than ever. Now it was time for his new solo album.

Recorded during the tour for Californication, To Record Water For Only Ten Days was also a departure from his previous sound, but in my opinion, for the better. His album kept much of the same home-recording feel as his previous albums, but the avant-garde style & stream-of-consciousness lyrics seemed to be dropped from most of his work. Drawing influences from New Wave & electronica bands (such as New Order), Frusciante crafted an album that described who the newly re-born man was. Now known for his amazing singing voice, this album was the one to start him down that road. While not his best vocal work, it’s a sharp increase from his previous two works and the improvements he made here would continue on with his next album Shadows Collide With People, but that’s for another day. Here we have some haunting tracks and some amazingly beautiful, yet the album comes together to show a man who has survived the knock on death’s door and doesn’t regret it. Frusciante was much more in tune with what he calls “the spiritual plane” during the making of the album. He actually got the title of the album while being visited by one of these “spirits.” Suffice it to say, this was a bold album for Frusciante and one that really stood out at the time compared to his work with the Peppers & his previous albums.

The opening track on the album, “Going Inside,” is a strong declaration for Frusciante and perhaps one of the best opening tracks on an album ever. I can only think of a couple that are on the same level (one we will encounter in the Beatles countdown) and even this song might be better. It opens with what Frusciante does best: blare his guitar. A psychedelic-flavored song, it has a distinct guitar riff built around before each of the verses as well as an extremely memorable guitar solo. Like I’ve mentioned in the blog before, Frusciante is the master of crafting the tone of the lyrics into his solos and this is no exception. It’s almost as if he let out all the pain of his reclusion into a short burst of noise. The lyrics, as I’ve alluded to, actually don’t renounce his previous time, but show how strong they can make you as the opening lyrics say “You don’t throw your life away, Going inside.” It’s open to interpretation, but to me, that just seems to be a plea that it’s never wasting time by yourself discovering yourself. Later on, he delivers some of his best lyrical work in summing up his feelings as he states: “Where you go doesn’t matter cause there will come a time when time goes out the window. And you’ll learn to drive out of focus: I’m you. And if anything unfolds, it’s supposed to.” The song goes on in the same fashion delivering deep lyrics & great guitar works before wrapping up in an outro that really points you toward the mirror so you can look inside at yourself to see how you measure up.

I can talk all day about this song. It’s an amazing piece of rock music and one of the first songs I always play for people who ask me who John Frusciante is. Do yourself a favor and check out the song.

Song: Going Inside
Artist: John Frusciante
Album: To Record Water For Only Ten Days
Year: 2001

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The beginning of Frusciante working with Cash actually starts with Cash’s American albums with Rick Rubin. An already legendary producer, Rubin began to branch out of the rap & hard rock genres he was famous for in the mid-90s. What he got was Johnny Cash looking to go a new direction in his career and the two helped each other out immensely. Rubin got his smaller record label a lot of notice and Johnny Cash got another fresh breath for a career that was winding down. From 1994 on to his death, Cash would record with Rubin ultimately releasing six albums with him that churned out immense classics like “The Man Comes Around” and his legendary cover of “Hurt.” That’s saying a lot for Rubin too as Cash had a long history of despising his producers, most notably Jack Clement who tried to add a barbershop quartet to some of his songs. Knowing Rubin’s lengthy history with the Chili Peppers, it’s no surprise that Rubin enlisted John Frusciante’s help in collaborating with Cash to re-work some famous songs for his new albums.

The pair first got together to record “Personal Jesus” as Frusciante re-worked the Depeche Mode song into a well-done country rhythm. That song appeared on 2002′s American IV: The Man Comes Around along with the other two songs I mentioned up there. Interesting side note: that guitar riff was the first I ever learned on guitar. While that song is a great testament to Frusciante’s ability, I actually wanted to talk about their song together on Cash’s next work – his box-set Unearthed. Here, they unearthed (pun intended) arguably one of the best Neil Young songs out there and gave it a new feel. “Heart Of Gold” was a classic song by this point and a career-defining song for the Canadian rocker. Clad with harmonica solos, a rocking rhythm, and great lyrics, it’s easy to see why it still remains popular today. While it’s definitely my favorite song by Young, I have to say that Cash’s version of the song totally kicks its ass. Neil Young’s version is a quieter, more introspective take while Johnny Cash makes it grandiose like a search for a heart of gold should be in my opinion. His singing matches just that as well and totally captures the passion of the song to my ear. On Frusciante himself, well, he replaces all the harmonica solos with guitar ones and out-does Young again. Sure, it’s hard to compare the two instruments, but when it comes down to it, his are the better solos. Frusciante has always been able to capture the mood of a song well with his solos whether it is on his own or with the Peppers so naturally this song is no exception. With Frusciante making it a guitar must-listen & Cash turning it into an epic quest for that heart, it’s definitely a song you should be listening to right this second.

Song: Heart Of Gold
Artist: Johnny Cash
Album: Unearthed
Year: 2003

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The Red Hot Chili Peppers originally consisted of Anthony Kiedis, Flea, Jack Irons, & Hillel Slovak. However, due to contractual obligations to another band, Slovak and Irons were not around for the first album and only Slovak was around for the second. However, the Chili Pepper’s third album The Uplift Mofo Party Plan (featured “Fight Like A Brave“) is where the original line-up was finally together on an album. What resulted was a clearly better representation of their funk-punk fusion than their first low-rent punk album and they’re second mostly funk album (it was produced by George Clinton: what are you going to do?). Their third album did miles better than the second as it got to 148 on the Billboard 200 as opposed to…not charting before…so there was definite cause for celebration. However, that celebration was short-lived as Kiedis & Slovak both developed horrendous heroin addictions and tragically, it took Slovak’s life. Adding a smaller, but still substantial blow to the Peppers after this was the announcement that Irons would be leaving as he thought the band would keep killing his friends and didn’t want to be part of it. So what to do, what to do? Well, by this point in 1988, Kiedis & Flea had barely scratched their musical potential and with Kiedis clean, they both decided to keep the band going. They quickly snagged up DH Peligro & DeWayne McKnight to play the guitar and drums respectively, but chemistry is very vital in bands & ultimately the lack of it here lead to their departure. As luck would have it though, Peligro knew someone who had not only passed a class on RHCP Chemistry, but was now ready to teach it.

John Frusciante was one of those crazy guitar kids. You know, the ones you see on YouTube these days. Well, he was that kid in the 80s playing guitar from the moment he woke up to the moment he fell asleep. He played so much that he got his parents’ permission to drop out of school, passed his equivalence test, and moved to LA to continue his guitar learning. And of course, when he got to LA, he ended up seeing a RHCP concert and quickly fell in love with them. He went to all their concerts, learned all the guitar & bass parts, and even stayed late after shows to talk to Slovak. Frusciante was an undiscovered guitar god at this point simply by spending every waking minute in music, probably half of which were the Chili Peppers’. By the time ’88 rolled around, Frusciante just needed a band to be apart of so he could show off his skill and believe it or not too, he was dangerously close to two other bands besides the Chili Peppers. He almost auditioned for Frank Zappa’s band (one of his guitar heroes), but decided against it as he could not live the rock lifestyle (the one that killed his idol, you know). He also almost signed a contract with a band called Thelonious Monster (Bob Forrest was the leader of the band – remember him, he’ll come up later in the blog) and had been playing gigs with them for two weeks. But also during that time, Peligro had introduced Frusciante & Flea to each other and they began to jam. It wasn’t long before the switch went off in Flea’s head that this guy was born to be a Chili Pepper and Kiedis & he quickly snagged him up from their old friend Bob Forrest (who jokes about it to this day). After that, Chad Smith soon auditioned and nailed the part (albeit a hiccup with a hat incident at the actual audition) & RHCP was back as a quartet. They would go on to make their biggest album yet, Mother’s Milk, which contained their biggest hit yet, “Higher Ground.”

All right, back story out of the way, let’s talk about the song. When I mentioned the jams that Flea & Frusciante did, I actually understated them as they proved to be pretty beneficial to the band’s setlist for the next album. The bass riff for “Nobody Weird Like Me” was made up in these jams by Flea and the very initial jam between the two musical legends was actually remembered and re-done in the studio as the song “Pretty Little Ditty” as a throaway instrumental between odes to Hendrix & punk rock. The song, in my opinion, is pretty amazing especially for the initial session between the two, but it was obviously never released as a single and like most songs on album, most people never gave it much mind or even heard it.

Thirteen years later, nu metal (which many artists pay tribute to RHCP for) was taking the musical scene by storm with bands like Linkin Park & Limp Bizkit dominating the laughable things that people listen to in the car. In 2001, one nu metal band became a complete one-hit wonder with a song when their frontman wrote a song about his ex-girlfriend. Despite being a nu metal band, the band, named Crazy Town, recorded an unmistakable pop song called “Butterfly” and scored a crossover hit at the beginning of this decade. Butterfly dominated Cuba Gooding Jr’s mentally-challenged character and enjoyed much success. But the catch is that that memorable hook that everyone remembers to this day from the song…wasn’t theirs. Lifted right from that initial jam between Frusciante & Flea in 1988. To even grab more from RHCP, the band reportedly told their producer to make the song mellow sounding like “Under The Bridge.”

A crossover hit all thanks to the guitar prodigy John Frusciante and you know what’s funny? Well yeah, radios, but you know what else is? That jam that nobody paid any mind to…it was never ranked as one of the worst songs ever. In fact, it’s been on many best guitar tracks of all time lists. Funny, huh?

Song: Pretty Little Ditty
Artist: Red Hot Chili Peppers
Album: Mother’s Milk
Year: 1989

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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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