John Frusciante returns to RHCP

[Coma16]

Prices are wack but I couldn't resist seeing them at the Amphitheater in Toronto. Might get Lawns for the 2nd show....

[EvanG]

I was listening to The Getaway the other day. There's some good stuff on it. I still think it's a shame they ignore the two records they did without John.

[Cosmo]

On 12/8/2023 at 4:59 AM, EvanG said:

I was listening to The Getaway the other day. There's some good stuff on it. I still think it's a shame they ignore the two records they did without John.

IMO, it’s way better than the two reunion records so far.

[rocknroll41]

1 minute ago, Cosmo said:

IMO, it’s way better than the two reunion records so far.

Yeah for me it goes TG > UL > RotDC > IWY.

[EvanG]

45 minutes ago, Cosmo said:

IMO, it’s way better than the two reunion records so far.

I think so too, although I like them too. But I am curious how the third record with Josh would have sounded like, since he talked in interviews about how great it sounded. I doubt we will ever hear it, though.

[rocknroll41]

1 hour ago, EvanG said:

I think so too, although I like them too. But I am curious how the third record with Josh would have sounded like, since he talked in interviews about how great it sounded. I doubt we will ever hear it, though.

RHCP have three albums they demo’d that never got released (2003, 2015, 2019). Hopefully they all leak someday.

[username]

2 hours ago, rocknroll41 said:

RHCP have three albums they demo’d that never got released (2003, 2015, 2019). Hopefully they all leak someday.

Is there any info available on what should be on them? 2003 should be a followup to By The Way with John, right? The others are both Josh albums. Why were they shelved? I imagine the last one was because John would soon return, but the others don't make a lot of sense. 

Edited December 10, 2023 by username

[rocknroll41]

1 hour ago, username said:

Is there any info available on what should be on them? 2003 should be a followup to By The Way with John, right? The others are both Josh albums. Why were they shelved? I imagine the last one was because John would soon return, but the others don't make a lot of sense. 

2003

The record label asked them to write and record two new songs for a Greatest Hits release. The band ended up writing 16, and planned to finish the other 14 after a hiatus. When the band regrouped in late 2004, John decided he didn’t like those 14 songs anymore except for Hump de Bump and Desecration Smile, so the band threw the rest away. The played a few of them live during a brief 2004 tour, though (Rolling Sly Stone and Mini-Epic in particular).

2015

The band wrote a bunch of songs and were about to start recording with Rick Rubin, but then Flea broke his arm in a skiing accident and needed time to heal. When they regrouped later that year, they decided to fire Rubin in exchange for Danger Mouse, who told the band that the songs they had were shit except for Encore and a few others, and that he wanted to directly help the band write a bunch of new songs from scratch, so they did that.

2019

John wanted to come back, so everything they were doing with Josh up until that point got scrapped, but Josh did say that some of those ideas became songs for Plural One (his solo project).

[Rovim]

shit, Frusciante broke a finger, they won't be able to play for at least a little while. Hopefully he recovers quickly and won't play before making a full recovery.

[EvanG]

Was listening to I’m With You… really like a lot of the songs on this record. And I know Josh is no John but his vocals on this one are great.

[ZoSoRose]

I bought Im With You when it came out and I remember not being really grabbed by it. I didn't listen or remember most of The Getaway, but I do like Dark Necessities. I thought it was because they were missing John, but the two reunion albums have been kind of meh for me, too. I think Eddie is a great song, though. 

 

[DK6]

I really think that thye could have made an Ok album out of the 2 they released this year if they condensed it in to 1.

Way too much filler.

I quite liked a lot of UL but not much on ROTDC grabs me to be honest.

I thought the getaway was a much better album than both of the new John albums.

Also saw them live with Josh and he was fantastic.

[EvanG]

After Stadium Arcadium Flea enrolled into music school and learned to play piano during their two year hiatus and some of the songs on I'm With You and The Getaway are more piano driven and have a sombre sound and that's not for everyone, but I liked it and wish they would have explored that direction more. I feel that with John back in the band they're also back to the funk/pop/rock thing more again, and they do that very well obviously, but I wish they would have continued exploring that other direction more.

[Rovim]

16 minutes ago, EvanG said:

After Stadium Arcadium Flea enrolled into music school and learned to play piano during their two year hiatus and some of the songs on I'm With You and The Getaway are more piano driven and have a sombre sound and that's not for everyone, but I liked it and wish they would have explored that direction more. I feel that with John back in the band they're also back to the funk/pop/rock thing more again, and they do that very well obviously, but I wish they would have continued exploring that other direction more.

can't they still explore that direction with John if they wanted to? I guess it seems obvious, but it seems like a band that don't really force it, they just do what feels cool to do when they make an album.

I think that it's not surprising that once they had John back in the band, the style just reverted back to how it was when John was a part of the band the last time cause he's more of a center to their sound compared to what Josh brought to the table so when Josh was in the band, maybe it left more space to experiment more kinda like a compensation for the absence of John, but it was aslo other factors like Flea naturally wanting to express the cool new shit he learned and incorporate it into their music, but once he did and John was back, I can see how it's possible that they just wanted to jam and write songs together and what came out which felt cool and organic to them is pretty much what the final product is.

this is just an observation, I happen to want them to also explore the other direction you were talking about btw.

[EvanG]

1 hour ago, Rovim said:

can't they still explore that direction with John if they wanted to? I guess it seems obvious, but it seems like a band that don't really force it, they just do what feels cool to do when they make an album.

I think that it's not surprising that once they had John back in the band, the style just reverted back to how it was when John was a part of the band the last time cause he's more of a center to their sound compared to what Josh brought to the table so when Josh was in the band, maybe it left more space to experiment more kinda like a compensation for the absence of John, but it was aslo other factors like Flea naturally wanting to express the cool new shit he learned and incorporate it into their music, but once he did and John was back, I can see how it's possible that they just wanted to jam and write songs together and what came out which felt cool and organic to them is pretty much what the final product is.

this is just an observation, I happen to want them to also explore the other direction you were talking about btw.

I agree with all.
I think I've probably said this before in this thread, but I hope the next record with John is a bit different. I know they can do it, look at By The Way. 
And I do like the funk/pop thing, but I've heard it before and Anthony's rap/singing lines are becoming too recycled now for my taste, so I hope that they try something else or else I don't think I will be very interested. I already wasn't too interested anymore in the ROTDC record.

[Nicklord]

Regarding their 1998-2004 studio work. There are a lot of demos out there for unreleased songs. It's not all great but it's fascinating to listen to to see the evolution of songs, etc. Also sometimes Anthony struggled so much that it just becomes funny lol

1998 demo CD playlist including several songs of Californication that sound different than released versions, then a few demos of songs called Tellin' A Lie, Mommasan, Andaman & Nicobar, Sugar Sugar, Trouble In The Pub, Boatman, Plate of Brown

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLH8ngoq9NHlk1HWEfMwQnakuY6Z8-8f-L

2001 demo CD playlist from BTW sessions that includes a few unreleased song demos like Fall Water, Goldmine, Rock & Roll, 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCUF07vBEvg&list=PLH8ngoq9NHlmPWD9eduVDavxGmWexqYTO&ab_channel=ManuelEtchart

From 2003 there are demos as well including 2 unreleased songs like Starlight and 50fifty

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxscvwCVEwQ&ab_channel=jhap1982

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmZOwDvEjDQ&ab_channel=RHCPLive

 

The last song they did with Dave Navarro in 1997/98 before John's return:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tS9NTmjnpDo&ab_channel=RHCPmaniaTV

 

[EvanG]

Always loved Circle Of The Noose. I know Flea never spoke too fondly about their work with Navarro, but they made some good songs with him.

[Nicklord]

2 hours ago, EvanG said:

Always loved Circle Of The Noose. I know Flea never spoke too fondly about their work with Navarro, but they made some good songs with him.

I always felt Flea and John associated music in general with their feelings during recording/listening to it. It seems as if they felt great while writing songs or just listening to them they think very highly of it regardless of quality. I'm basing on a few podcasts they did and Flea's book mainly

I feel like if Flea listened to OHM and it wasn't by RHCP, he would think it's great

[rocknroll41]

Had the band picked the best songs from UL and RotDC and done just one album, it woulda been one of their best. My tracklist keeps changing slightly, but currently it’s this:

1.The Shape I’m Takin’, 2.Tippa My Tongue, 3.Here Ever After, 4.Peace and Love, 5.Eddie, 6.Black Summer, 7.It’s Only Natural, 8.The Great Apes, 9.She’s a Lover, 10.Nerve Flip, 11.Watchu Thinkin’, 12.Reach Out, 13.Bella, 14.Roulette, 15.White Braids & Pillow Chair, 16.The Drummer, 17.The Heavy Wing, 18.Veronica

And then these coulda been the b-sides:

Poster Child (Black Summer)

Not the One (Eddie)

Aquatic Mouth Dance (Tippa My Tongue)

These Are the Ways (The Drummer)

Edited December 30, 2023 by rocknroll41

[Gordon Comstock]

6 minutes ago, rocknroll41 said:

Had the band picked the best songs from UL and RotDC and done just one album, it woulda been one of their best. My tracklist keeps changing slightly, but currently it’s this:

1.The Shape I’m Takin’, 2.Tippa My Tongue, 3.Here Ever After, 4.Peace and Love, 5.Eddie, 6.Black Summer, 7.It’s Only Natural, 8.The Great Apes, 9.She’s a Lover, 10.Nerve Flip, 11.Watchu Thinkin’, 12.Bella, 13.Reach Out, 14.Roulette, 15.White Braids & Pillow Chair, 16.The Drummer, 17.The Heavy Wing, 18.Veronica

 

People love to do the 'best of' thing, but there's never really a consensus on what should or shouldn't be included. Your playlist is good, but no Carry Me Home, Bag Of Grins or Tangelo? There's filler on every RHCP album, I'd rather get 2 full albums than whatever they might consider the strongest single album to be.

ROTDC has held up, imo. It's arguably one of their top 5 albums. UL has more radio-friendly songs, and I can see why they released it first, it's a good album... but DC feels like John's real comeback album.

[Rovim]

I like both of the new albums but they both feel like a first pancake. Not really a homerun. Maybe next time it would be more inspired. You never know with the Peppers, but I'm glad we got so much new material from them, even if I prefer the 2 released albums with Josh and the unreleased one with him to the 2 latest releases.

[rocknroll41]

I forgot to mention when I was listing their unfinished albums earlier that there’s also 12 still-unreleased songs that were recorded/mixed/mastered during the UL/RotDC sessions in 2021.