The masterful album "Californication", the seventh of "Red Hot Chili Peppers", was released on June 8, 1999.
Let's find out, what the connection between this album and David Bowie, Kurt Cobain and
Princess Leia from "Star Wars", With 22 interesting facts about the album:
1. This is the band's most successful and best-selling album with sales of over 16 million copies worldwide.
2. 6 of the album's 15 songs were released as successful singles and topped the charts for over two years, the first single was released in May 1999, and the last single in March 2001.
3. This is the album that marked the return of guitarist John Frusciante to the band. Frusciante left RHCP in 1992, immediately after the release of the album "Blood Sex Sugar Magik".
4. Frusciante's return brought with it a fundamental change in the band's sound and musical style, with elements of soft rock and more melodic compositions, which came at the expense of the band's rooted funk-punk rock that had shrunk compared to previous albums.
5. The band wanted David Bowie to produce the album, but he was not available.
6. On A David Bowie album, Kurt Cobain and the star "Alderaan" (from whom Princess Leia came), received a homage on a line from the theme song "Californication": "Cobain can you hear the spheres singing songs off station to station And Alderaan's not far away, it's Californication".
7. "Californication" was influenced by a 30-minute instrumental piece by "The Cure" called "Carnage Visors", taken from the mythological album "Faith".
8. In 2007, the comedy series "Californication" aired in the United States. The creators of the series did not receive prior approval to use the name, which led to a lawsuit by the "Chili Peppers" against them.
9. One of the characters in the series played by Rachel Miner is called "Dani California" - as the band's song from 2006.
10. The theme song "Californication" won first place in the Decade chart of the 21st Century By "Galgalatz" radio station.
11. Towards the end of the mighty opening song "Around the World" Anthony Kiedis rattles something instead of words. He searched for words for this piece in the studio and when he could not find them, he just sang gibberish. After finding the words, the song was recorded again, but Flea's daughter who heard the recording urged the band to return to the original version. Incidentally, the bass in the opening of the song is reminiscent of that in the song "Breadfan" by the band "Budgie", which was later revised by "Metallica".
12. "Emit Remmus" is actually "summer time" spelled backward. The song was written by Anthony Kiedis under the influence of his brief relationship with Melanie C of the "Spice Girls".
13. "Porcelain" and "This Velvet Glove" were influenced by Kiedis' relationship with fashion designer Yohanna Logan.
14. The massive use of Frusciante with the wah pedal in the song "Get on Top" was born after he listened to "Public Enemy". His solo in the song was influenced by the playing of Steve Howe from "Yes" in the song "Siberian Khatru" from the album "Close To The Edge".
15. Frusciante's guitar sound in the song "Savior" includes massive use of effects including Micro Synth with a 16-second delay. This sound was influenced by that of Eric Clapton in "Cream".
16. "Scar Tissue" won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song in 2000.
17. The song was written by Anthony Kiedis concerning the sarcasm of guitarist Dave Navarro known as the "King of Sarcasm". The line "Close your eyes and I'll kiss you 'cause," refers to a scene in which Kiedis kisses Navarro in a clip for the song from the album "One Hot Minute".
18. Frusciante wrote the iconic guitar section of the song in an attempt to recreate a technique he used on his first solo album - "Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt", in which he created a groovy rhythm while playing two notes far apart.
19. "Otherside" was written by Anthony Kiedis about his drug addiction.
20. The album was supposed to be released on the exact same day as "Mr. Bungle's" "California" album. This was due to the rivalry between Kiedis and Mike Patton. In the end "Mr. Bungle" was forced by the record company to postpone the release of their album, just because the names were similar.
21. The album is ranked 399th on "Rolling Stone" magazine's "500 Best Albums of All Time" list.
22. It also appears on the Rock n' Roll "Hall of Fame's "The Definitive 200: Top 200 Albums of All-Time" and "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die" list.
For Listening: Spotify, Apple Music
1. When they performed in Israel, Kiedis dedicated the song "Otherside" ... to Haifa .... I clearly remember the sign, which the representatives of the fan club held in their hands, in the front row, and which was dedicated to the late Hillel Slovak ...
2. 1999 was my year of glory ... I worked as a Security Officer in a pompous health estate, and at night thoughts come to me, of how I took this album, put it in the hotel's audio system, and made the night tours between the garden & the pool area ... wishing a pleasant morning to the guests.
3. I gave a signed copy of this album, as a gift to Shuki Weiss, on the day Kiedis decide not to perform in Israel due to a brutal terrorist attack ... I sat in his office with Aviv Geffen, the three of us with our faces in our hands ... Shuki was very moved by my gesture, Took a sheet of paper, and gave me the only copy, which a graphic artist had prepared for the stage design, according to the band's requirements.
Years later, I spoke with US President Bill Clinton, who worked hard to keep the show going, and put a lot of pressure on Kiedis and his father, but to no avail ... The band's staff was the ones who really vetoed against the arrival to Israel.