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Rating:
Undoubtedly the funkiest album by the Californian band, and in this it differs from the Peppers' first work, where crossover experimentation was more pronounced. Produced by George Clinton (Parliament, Funkadelic), "Freaky Styley" also benefits from the collaboration of important figures in the funky world.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers leave California, move to Clinton's personal studios in Detroit, and create the 14 tracks of the album. "Freaky Styley" is certainly played better than the previous work; the arrival of Hillel Slovak on guitar has given the Peppers' sound an unmistakable mark, and the creativity and guitar riffs make the album a good funky work even though the RHCP that would later become successful are different.
The album starts with "Jungle Man" and the band's intentions become clear, with a festive refrain, Kiedis accompanying the sound with a faint rap that goes hand in hand with Flea's bass lines, Slovak funking freely and including one of his riffs while Cliff Martinez hits hard on the drums. A very funky track is "Hollywood," Clinton's production is evident and the RHCP seem to learn well from the master of funk, a track that also gained some notoriety in Europe. In "American Ghost Dance," it's Flea’s bass that holds the piece together, while Slovak's guitar takes the lead in the driving refrain, with the usual Kiedis uniting everything with his rap. There's also time for a cover of Sly & The Family Stone, "If You Want Me To Stay," a very soul track, with a nice dialogue between guitar and bass and a versatile Kiedis who knows his stuff even in a field that certainly doesn't belong to him entirely. A return to the origins in "Nevermind," here come the peppers that drive me crazy, punk-funk with an appropriately angry Kiedis; with their intuitions, RHCP will make their fortune. Frankly, I didn't understand the title-track, certainly excellently played but the intro is too long, and at the first listen, I changed the song before the arrival of Kiedis's incomprehensible singing that seems to recite magic formulas. Spectacular "Blackeyed Blond," slapping bass and guitar unite in a very fast funk, also helped by the excellent charleston work signed by Martinez. Amidst all this, the fun-loving spirit of the L.A. guys doesn't go amiss, as they indulge in various shouts and hollers. A beautiful funk dialogue between bass and guitar in "The Brothers Cup," amidst various horns and winds in a track that shows what the Peppers wanted in that album. Back to punk-funk in "Battle Ship," with an unleashed Kiedis, an insistent rhythm from Martinez, while Slovak plays hard funk, Flea's usual bass virtuosity is not lacking. There's also room for a bland nursery rhyme "Lovin' And Touchin," which precedes one of the album's best moments "Catholic School Girls Rule," a perfect Red Hot crossover style, spiced with very explicit provocations about the virtues of Catholic schoolgirls (how can you forget the video?!). The sexual charge continues with "Sex Rap," with its very provocative lyrics, although RHCP should be taken with great irony, and Kiedis's voice emphasizes this. We've reached the end of the album, before the last track, we have "Thirty Dirty Birds," a rhyming poetry of a few seconds with questionable artistic quality. And to finish in style, "Yertle The Turtle," a live favorite of that era, with Martinez perfectly accompanying the track, Flea's bass is very funky, while Hillel Slovak is extraordinary, even simulating a turtle's sound with his guitar towards the end of the piece.
"Freaky Styley" is an excellent funky album though I prefer the crossover that characterized them initially with "The Red Hot Chili Peppers" and later with "Mother's Milk," the true masterpiece of the Californian peppers, I recommend the remastered version of the album since the sound of the old recording leaves a bit to be desired. I highly recommend RHCP retire from the scene!!! NOSTALGIA FOR WHAT WAS...
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
02 Hollywood (05:03)
Take me back
Hold my hand
All the way back
To the brotherland
Take me back
I want to go back
Take me back
And my funky ass band
All the way back
To the broherland
Take me back
I want to go
As fast as I can
Slidin' on back
To the brotherland
Now children
Hollywood...
I want to get up and go
With my funky ass jams
All the way back
To the broherland
Take me back
I want to go back
Hollywood...
Where the women
Is the women
And the man
Is the man
I want to go
As fast as I can
Slidin' on back
To the brotherland
Now children
03 American Ghost Dance (03:45)
Oh give me a home
Where the buffalo roam
And the death of a race is a game
Where seldom is heard
A peacable word
From the white trash
Who killed as they came
Though these words dig deep
They offer no relief
God save the queen
I am an indian chief
There is a secret I keep
It's called the talking leaf
And you better believe
That he speaks his beliefs
Like a rock that bleeds
A sea of grief
My talking leaf speaks of
A wounded knee creek
American ghost dance...
A new man who is with old ways
He walks the streets of life
But he's in chains
I'm alive he cried
I can feel the flame
Burning red inside
I am an indian brave
There is a memory
That lives in my blood
Of the brand you laid
On all you touched
But the burning flame
Turns to burning pain
Genuine genocide
And that's truly insane
So like a wild hurricane
I will dance on the grave
Of my race that died
When it should have been saved
American ghost dance...
04 If You Want Me to Stay (04:07)
If you want me to stay
I'll be around today
To be available for you to see
I'm about to go there
Then you'll know
For me to stay here
I've got to be me
You'll never be in doubt
That's what it's all about
You can't take me for granted and smile
Count the days I'm gone
Forget reachin' me by phone
Cause I promise
I'll be gone for a while
And when you see me again
I hope that you have been
The kind of person
That you really are now
You got to get it straight
How could I ever be late
When you're my woman
Taking up my time
Oh how could I ever allow
I guess I wonder how
I could get out a pocket for fun
When you know that
You're never number two
Number one's gonna be number one
I'll be good
I wish I could
Get this message over to you now
When you see me again
I hope that you have been
The kind of person
That you really are now
I'll be so good
I wish I could
Get this message over to you now
Get this message over to you now
I'll be so good
I wish I could
05 Nevermind (02:48)
Nevermind the Pac Jam
Nevermind the Gap Band
Nevermind the Zap Band
Nevermind the Funk Scam
Cause we're
The Red Hot Chili Peppers
Nevermind the English bands
Nevermind the Synth Funk bands
Nevermind the Wham Wham band
Nevermind Duran Duran
Cause we're
The Red Hot Chili Peppers
Nevermind the Soft Cell shit
That's strictly for the twits
Nevermind the Men At Work
Those tunes are for the jerks
Cause we're
The Red Hot Chili Peppers
Nevermind Hall and Oates
Those guys are a couple of goats
Nevermind the Culture Club
That jive's just one big flub
Cause we're
The Red Hot Chili Peppers
07 Blackeyed Blonde (02:40)
Pumpin' the blood through the heart of New Orleans
She's the mystic heat of the Bourbon street dream
She's just made out of flesh and bones
But let me tell you little boy
You better leave her alone
Leroy Brown thought he was bad too
Till she left him floatin' in the old bayou
She's the kind of girl
She's built like a bomb
She's the blackeyed blackeyed
Blackeyed blonde, get down!
That blackeyed beauty with the golden crotch
French electric sex a cock shocking swamp fox
Heaten queen of sleeze she's hot to box
But let me tell you little boy
She'll clean your clock
A slick and sly spy
Stuck in the muck of the moat
Blew his mind to find a diamond in the boat
Double-o-dooms day for Mr James Bond
She's the blackeyed blackeyed
Blackeyed blonde, get down!
09 Battle Ship (01:53)
Three miles off the coast of Beirut
New Jersey's guns get ready to shoot
Take a walk down the firing room
Fire one it's shakedown cruise
Battleship, Battleship
See the sailor boys dressed in blue
Cheer the chance to make the news
Send the shell down the spiral groove
Bombs away it's a shakedown cruise Yeah
Battleship, Battleship
10 Lovin' and Touchin' (00:36)
Loving and touching and
Laughing and Squeezing and
Walking and Joking and
Smiling and Teasing
Loving and kissing and
Rubbing and scrubbing and
Styling and slumming and
Rolling and cumming
I'll hold you a lifetime
I'll love you forever
I'll make you my wife and
I'll never forget you
I'll give you my smile
On the face of your child
I will give you my love
I will give you my love
Loving and touching and
Loving and touching and
Loving and touching and
Loving and touching and
love.
13 Thirty Dirty Birds (00:14)
Thirty dirty birds
Sitting on a curb
Chirping and Burping
And eating
Dirty earthworms
Along comes Herbie
From thirty-third
And third
Saw the thirty
Dirty birds
Sitting on a curb
Chirping and Burping
And eating
Dirty earthworms
Boy he was
Disturbed
14 Yertle the Turtle (03:37)
On a far away island
of Salamasond
Yertle the turtle
Was king of the pond
A nice little pond
It was clean it was neat
The water was warm
There was plenty to eat
Until one day
The king of them all
Decided the kingdom
He ruled was too small
I'm a ruler of all that I see
But I don't see enough
And that's the trouble with me
With this stone for a throne
I am too low down
I cannot look down
Upon the places beyond
So Yertle the turtle king
Lifted his hand
And Yertle the turtle king
Lifted his hand
He ordered all the turtles
Onto one another's back
He piled them high
Into a ten turtle stack
I'm Yertle the turtle
The things I now rule
I'm king of a cow
I'm king of a mule
Then down from below
In the great turtle stack
Came a burp from a plain
Little turtle named Mack
Just part of the throne
This burpin' little turtle
Looked up and said "I beg
Your pardon king Yertle"
I've pains in my back
My shoulders and my knees
How long must we stand
Here your majesty
"Silence !" the king of the
Turtles barked back
To the bad burpin'
Little turtle named Mack
I'm Yertle the turtle
Oh marvelous me for
I am ruler of all that I see
Yertle, Yertle the turtle...
Yertle, Yertle the turtle...
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Other reviews
By fippo
"It’s not a funky album in the strict sense, it’s something that goes beyond narrow classifications, because freedom reigns in this record."
"This album strikes for the variety of genres offered... characterized by an indelible stamp of oddity that is due, one must admit, largely to the use of drugs."
