Red Hot Chili Peppers isn’t the first group to have a B-side become one of its most popular songs. In a way, “Soul To Squeeze” could be a metaphor for how tragedy might have ended the iconic band on multiple occasions. Yet “Soul To Squeeze” survived the cutting-room floor. Quietly enduring as one of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ most beloved tracks.
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About “Soul To Squeeze”
Anthony Kiedis details his struggle with addiction in the opening verse. A struggle that took the life of the band’s founding guitarist, Hillel Slovak. And nearly did the same to Slovak’s replacement, John Frusciante.
I got a bad disease
Out from my brain is where I bleed.
Insanity it seems
Has got me by my soul to squeeze.
Kiedis infuses the dark realities of “Californication” with beatnik poetry and the cleansing effects of the natural world. Apart from Frusciante’s legendary guitar playing, Kiedis’s vocal scatting during the bridge remains the most memorable part of “Soul To Squeeze”. A technique he’d repeat on the comeback single “Around The World”.
Oh, so polite indeed
Well, I got everything I need.
I’ll make my days a breeze
And take away my self-destruction.
‘Coneheads’ and a Missing Guitarist
“Soul To Squeeze” was recorded during sessions for Blood Sugar Sex Magik. However, it didn’t make the final track listing and later appeared as a B-side on two singles, “Give It Away” and “Under The Bridge”.
Red Hot Chili Peppers eventually released it as a single in 1993, to coincide with its addition to the Coneheads soundtrack. There’s a visual reference to Coneheads in the Kevin Kerslake-directed music video and a cameo by Chris Farley, who also appeared in the film along with fellow Saturday Night Live alumni Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin. Frusciante does not appear in the clip, which was filmed after he quit, following the commercial explosion of Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Isolated in his Hollywood Hills home, he descended into addiction, depression, and squalor before returning to the group in 1998.
With Frusciante back in the band, the Red Hot Chili Peppers recorded Californication, continuing the survival theme of “Soul To Squeeze”. So the guitarist picked up where he left off, leading his band in a more melodic direction, as he’d done on “Under The Bridge” and “Breaking The Girl”.
Though the Red Hot Chili Peppers haven’t completely abandoned their funk and punk roots, “Soul To Squeeze” is one of many melodic confessionals to define the most California-centric group since The Beach Boys.
“Soul To Squeeze”, like Frusciante, became a crucial part of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ ongoing survival story.
Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/FilmMagic
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