Red Hot Chili Peppers Mother’s Milk Anniversary: Their Best ’80s Effort
The Mother’s Milk anniversary is the perfect time to revisit the strongest Red Hot Chili Peppers release of their early years.
The date was August 16, 1989. That’s when the Cali funk-rockers turned tragedy into triumph and really put themselves on the map. Mother’s Milk was their fourth studio album, but it many ways it felt like their first. A new beginning, of sorts.
You would’ve forgiven the band if they’d packed it in instead of packing into the studio. With the death of founding guitarist Hillel Slovak in June of 1988 and the departure of founding drummer Jack Irons soon after that, the Red Hot Chili Peppers had hit a low point.
Mother’s Milk Anniversary: The Process
Instead of calling it quits, the band hit the studio, with new recruits John Frusciante on guitar and Chad Smith on drums. From the jump, the process was rushed, with the new members trying to acclimate themselves to their roles in the band, all while while fine-tuning and recording new songs.
That led to the sessions for Mother’s Milk to be frenetic and fraught with friction. Frusicante, just 19 years old, clashed regularly with producer Michael Beinhorn, favoring funkier, slinkier guitar sounds over Beinhorn’s preference for heavy riffs.
Mother’s Milk Anniversary: The Legacy
The result, however, was so very together. If Blood Sugar Sex Magik was the Chili Peppers’ career-sparking grand slam, Mother’s Milk was the album that put the runners on base. Decades later, the album sounds fresher and more energetic than a lot of the band’s later fare.
As you probably saw above, “Knock Me Down” charted new, introspective territory lyrically. Their covers of Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground” (also shared above) and Jimi Hendrix’s “Fire” are, well, fire. Get that one, as well as more Tony Flow, below.