![]() ![]() I had listened to the song “Give it Away” countless times before reading Scar Tissue so I figured I would have picked up on meaningful lyrics if they were there. Learning the high-minded meaning behind a very simple three words, ‘give it away’, led me to analyze the rest of the song to see if I could have figured out this virtuous meaning without having it told to me in a book. This event was Kiedis’ direct inspiration for the song “Give it Away.” What this quote means is by keeping a prized possession to yourself, you hamper the full happiness that the world as a whole could potentially experience from it if you don’t give away any of the things that make you happy, you will eventually get swamped up in them which ultimately ends up eating away at your personal happiness. But if you have a full closet and someone sees something they like, if you give it to them, the world is a better place” (Kiedis 273). He, and myself as the reader, didn’t understand how or why this woman was just giving away this gorgeous jacket to him but then the friend explained, “If you have a closet full of clothes and you try to keep them all, your life will get very small. He complimented Nina on her clearly unique and expensive article of clothing and to Anthony’s surprise, she told him to keep it. In his biography, Anthony Kiedis, the lead singer of the band, relays that he was visiting his old friend Nina Hagen when he came across a jacket of hers that he found to be astonishing. I recalled from the book that the title and most repetitive three-word line in the song, ‘give it away’ which I had always thought was just a meaningless catchy couple of words, actually had a whole story and philosophy behind it. ![]() I selected the Chili Peppers’ hit song “Give it Away” due to its recent increased recognition after the band performed it at the 2014 Super Bowl Halftime Show this February. ![]() My research began with selecting a song to analyze the lyrics to. This led me to do further research and find more sources that further backed up what I had discovered through the book. ![]() I am not bringing up the book to give a synopsis of the New York Times bestseller rather, it is important for you to understand that even as a fan, I was not always a believer in the band, but after hearing the band’s story I knew they were an upstanding group. Even lyrics that seemed so simple I discovered had such complex meaning behind them. Through the book, I learned that all of their seemingly meaningless, in-your-face-songs actually have very deep meanings behind them based on real life experiences that the band members have gone through in their crazy lives. I myself am a Red Hot Chili Peppers fan but even I was not entirely convinced that the band cared or thought about anything besides getting drunk or drugged up and making money however, after reading Scar Tissue, a biography of the lead singer of the band Anthony Kiedis, I gained an entirely new perspective on the band and now have much respect for them not only as a band as a whole but also as individuals. With this ethos, the band members show there’s much more to them than their surface appearance of self-proclaimed “Hollywood knuckleheads.” By analyzing the meaning behind the lyrics to an old song by the band and comparing it to a letter from the band addressing a controversy over a recent performance of the same song, one can see the paralleling ethos demonstrated. Some view the band as just a bunch of careless and thoughtless guys, while the band’s true fans know that they are a righteous, thoughtful, and caring band, always trying to be true to their fans who have put the band where it is today by standing by their side. From their early days in the 1980s where the band would perform wearing only a sock over their private parts, up until today playing gigs as big as the Super Bowl, the band has always pushed their performances to the limit and has gotten all kinds of reactions from all kinds of people. The Red Hot Chili Peppers have been around for over 30 years and throughout their long run and still-going career, they have been the center of many controversies and debates. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |