Blood Sugar Sex Magik
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This page refers to the Red Hot Chili Peppers album. For the song by the same band, see Blood Sugar Sex Magik (song).
| Blood Sugar Sex Magik | ||
| ||
| Studio album by Red Hot Chili Peppers | ||
| Released | September 23, 1991 (EU) September 24, 1991 (U.S.) | |
| Recorded | May - June 1991 at The Mansion in Los Angeles, California | |
| Genre | Funk rock | |
| Length | 73:55 | |
| Label | Warner Bros. | |
| Producer(s) | Rick Rubin | |
| Professional reviews | ||
|---|---|---|
| Red Hot Chili Peppers chronology | ||
| Mother's Milk (1989) | Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991) | What Hits!? (1992)
|
Blood Sugar Sex Magik (sometimes written BloodSugarSexMagik) is the fifth album by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, released in September of 1991 and written and recorded at a mansion in Laurel Canyon, now owned by the album's producer Rick Rubin and known also as Damie Mathematique of Philosophical Sound Research. Rubin utilised his signature method of stripping down the sound on the album, resulting in dry, groove-laden funk tracks. This approach was a vast contrast to their previous album Mother's Milk, which emphasised epic power. Many of the lyrics in the album concern sex, a major focus of Anthony Kiedis at the time.
Blood Sugar Sex Magik entered the Red Hot Chili Peppers into the mainstream with hits such as "Give It Away" and "Under the Bridge" and at the time was the band's highest charting album at #3 though it did not reach that high until 1992, almost a year after its release. It was voted the 4th greatest album of all time by readers of Total Guitar magazine. In 1998 Q magazine readers voted it the 72nd greatest album of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 310 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2003, fans on MTV voted Blood Sugar Sex Magik as one of the ten greatest albums of all time. The album was dedicated to Mike Watt.
The album was re-released through the iTunes Store in 2006 featuring additional bonus tracks previously unreleased which are exclusive to the store. The original tracks, as with all the other re-released albums are not remastered, leaving only the bonus tracks remastered.
Contents |
[edit] Track listing
All tracks written by Anthony Kiedis, Flea, John Frusciante & Chad Smith unless otherwise stated.
- "The Power of Equality" – 4:03
- "If You Have to Ask" – 3:37
- "Breaking the Girl" – 4:55
- "Funky Monks" – 5:23
- "Suck My Kiss" – 3:37
- "I Could Have Lied" – 4:04
- "Mellowship Slinky in B Major" – 4:00
- "The Righteous & the Wicked" – 4:08
- "Give it Away" – 4:43
- "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" – 4:31
- "Under the Bridge" – 4:24
- "Naked in the Rain" – 4:26
- "Apache Rose Peacock" – 4:42
- "The Greeting Song" – 3:14
- "My Lovely Man" – 4:39
- "Sir Psycho Sexy" – 8:17
- "They're Red Hot" (Robert Johnson) – 1:11
- Some CD pressings contain incorrect track lengths on the back cover. For example, "If You Have To Ask" is listed as 4:11 and "They're Red Hot" is listed as 1:44.
[edit] B-Sides, Outtakes and Non-Album Tracks
- "Soul to Squeeze" – 4:50 (Appears on the Coneheads movie soundtrack)
- "Sikamikanico" – 3:23 (Appears on the Wayne's World movie soundtrack)
- "Little Miss Lover" (Hendrix) – 2:38 (iTunes exclusive bonus track)
- "Castles Made of Sand" (Hendrix) – 3:18 (iTunes exclusive bonus track)
- "Fela's Cock" – 5:10 (Appears on Live Rare Remix Box)
- "Search and Destroy" (Iggy Pop, James Williamson) – 3:34 (Appears on Live Rare Remix Box)
[edit] Credits
- Michael "Flea" Balzary - Bass/Trumpet/Background Vocals
- John Frusciante - Guitar/Background Vocals
- Anthony Kiedis - Vocals
- Chad Smith - Drums
- Brendan O'Brien - Keyboards, Engineer
- Gail Frusciante - Vocals (background)
- Peter Weiss - Juice Harp
- Rick Rubin - Producer
- Gus Van Sant - Photographer
[edit] Chart positions
Billboard Music Charts (North America) - album
- 1992 The Billboard 200 No. 3
Billboard (North America) - singles
- 1991 "Give It Away" Modern Rock Tracks No. 1
- 1992 "Give It Away" The Billboard Hot 100 No. 73
- 1992 "Under The Bridge" The Billboard Hot 100 No. 2
- 1992 "Breaking The Girl" Mainstream Rock Tracks No. 15
- 1992 "Under The Bridge" Mainstream Rock Tracks No. 2
- 1992 "Breaking The Girl" Modern Rock Tracks No. 19
- 1992 "Suck My Kiss" Modern Rock Tracks No. 15
- 1992 "Under The Bridge" Modern Rock Tracks No. 6
[edit] Global Sales
12 million units.
[edit] Miscellanea
- The hit "Under The Bridge" nearly didn't make it onto the album since Anthony originally stashed the lyrics away.
- The 1993 hit "Soul To Squeeze" was originally recorded for BSSM and was subsequently left off. Other songs that were part of the original 25 songs recorded for the album were "Sikamikanico", found on the "Wayne's World" soundtrack; a cover of Iggy and the Stooges' "Search and Destroy"; and an instrumental entitled "Fela's Cock".
- "They're Red Hot", the Robert Johnson cover, was recorded on a hill outside the house at two in the morning. It features Chad Smith copying John Bonham's "Moby Dick" technique of drumming without sticks.
- On "Breaking The Girl", an old Cliff Martinez trick was used by Chad Smith. He went to the junkyard and grabbed random items for himself, Anthony and Flea to utilize for percussion purposes.
- On "Funky Monks", "If You Have To Ask", and "The Righteous & The Wicked", John sings the high vocal parts.
- Anthony, Flea, and John were the only three that lived inside the house the entire time of the recording; Chad refused to because he believed the house was haunted.
- The production of BSSM was not high dollar; all the tracks were recorded live and you can hear Rick Rubin's voice before Suck My Kiss and the traffic going by the house on "They're Red Hot", although this is due to the drums being recorded in the unusual location explained earlier.
- There is a trumpet on "Apache Rose Peacock" and a piano in "Mellowship Slinky In B Major", both played by Flea.
- The inside of the original album is rumored to include an orb (a type of ghost).
- At the end of "If You Have To Ask" there is clapping and cheering for John, in amazement for his improvised solo.
- There is a DVD called Funky Monks that shows their time at the mansion.
- Rick Rubin, who produced the album, also produced Licensed To Ill by the Beastie Boys, some of the full-lengths by Run DMC and Slayer, and all of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' subsequent albums (One Hot Minute, Californication, By The Way, and Stadium Arcadium).
- Whilst recording the album, John believed he felt the presence of ghosts in the house, including a woman in the room where he slept. He also claims to have had an erection all through the recording of the album as a result of the ghosts, claiming "a strong sexual vibe" in the house.
- "Give it Away"'s drum track was recorded on an old Ludwig drum kit in the 'conservatory' room of the mansion. According to Chad Smith, there were only 4 microphones used.
- The album was so long, at 73:55, that there are only 5 seconds spare on the disc.
- The First track off this album is feutured on the video game Tony Hawk's Underground 2 (THUG 2).
[edit] Sample clips
- clip from "Suck My Kiss"
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- clip from "Give It Away"
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- clip from "Under the Bridge"
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[edit] Trivia
Red Hot Chili Pepper's "Give It Away" intro used some of Public Enemy's "You're Gonna Get Yours" which is the first track of Public Enemy's first studio album, Yo! Bum Rush the Show.
[edit] External links
cs:Blood Sugar Sex Magikda:Blood Sugar Sex Magik de:Blood Sugar Sex Magik es:Blood Sugar Sex Magik fr:Blood Sugar Sex Magik it:Blood Sugar Sex Magik he:Blood Sugar Sex Magik lt:Blood Sugar Sex Magik nl:Blood Sugar Sex Magik ja:ブラッド・シュガー・セックス・マジック pl:Blood Sugar Sex Magik pt:Blood Sugar Sex Magik ru:Blood Sugar Sex Magik fi:Blood Sugar Sex Magik sv:Blood Sugar Sex Magik
