This week’s Sunday Sounds pays homage to The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ self-titled debut album, which came out 35 years ago. Jack Irons was the original drummer in the band, though it was Cliff Martinez playing on the album, as Irons (and original RHCP guitarist Hillel Slovak) had just inked a record with the band What Is This? (Both later returned to RHCP when What Is This? didn’t pan out. And Irons also later drummed with Pearl Jam.)
RHCP originally performed under the name Tony Flow And The Miraculously Majestic Masters Of Mayhem. Shockingly, they did not keep this name for long.
The only single released from their eponymous debut was “Get Up And Jump,” (above) and their first music video was for the song “True Men Don’t Kill Coyotes” (below).
RHCP clashed with producer Andy Gill over the recording process, and in Anthony Kiedis’ book, Scar Tissue, he recounts seeing Gill had written the word “shit” next to the song “Police Helicopter.” (Featured below.)
This led to bassist Flea apparently leaving his actual feces on the recording console for Gill, as Flea would later reveal in the liner notes for the album.
Scatalogical revenge stories aside, please enjoy the reckless, punk-funk energy and the confidence that comes from youth (and likely drugs) with the following songs.