The story behind RHCP's 'Under the Bridge'

"Under the Bridge" is one of the most hallowed songs to come out of the "Blood Sex Sugar Magik" album by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. And like most great rock songs, there is an interesting story behind it.

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The band was working on the album in Los Angeles. Vocalist Anthony Kiedis at the time was emotionally distraught. He had just finished battling his heroin and cocaine addiction during his relationship with Ione Skye. Even during recording sessions, Keidis felt isolated as band members Flea and Frusciante often smoked marijuana and ignored him. His loneliness triggered memories of Skye and left him musing for companionship.

Keidis would find that companionship in the City of Los Angeles. Ignored by his bandmates, he felt like the city was his only companion. He wandered through the streets of LA and hiked the Hollywood Hills on his own. It was then when the lyrics "Sometimes I feel like / My only friend / Is the city I live in / The City of Angels / Lonely as I am / Together we cry" came to him.

Some lyrics also pertained to Keidis’ former bandmate. The lines ""sometimes I feel like I don't have a partner" refers to Hillel Slovak, former guitar player who died of a drug overdose.

The song verses depicted Keidis’ harsh experiences while he was battling addiction. The verse in Under the Bridge depicted his efforts of purchasing drugs under a bridge in gang territory.

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Hello there! Steven Scansaroli here. I ’m currently pursuing a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the College of New Jersey, School of Engineering. I’m also a music enthusiast, and my favorite band is Red Hot Chili Peppers. For more reads on my interests, visit this blog.

Ranking the albums of the Red Hot Chili Peppers

The Red Hot Chili Peppers is easily one of the bastions of rock. Formed in 1983, Anthony Kiedis and company have maintained their touring ways and continued churning out singles and albums well into the late 2010s, proving the lasting power of their brand of music. On the occasion of the band’s 25th year, let’s rank three of RHCP’s most critically acclaimed and celebrated albums.

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Mother's Milk 

This is the first gathering of the band’s most enduring lineup of Kiedis, Flea, John Frusciante, and Chad Smith. The band’s fourth album doesn’t have as many hits as the rest on this list, but it’s where we can find the band’s infectious take on Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground,” which aided in the album reaching the top 20 of Billboard’s Modern Rock Chart. It is also RCHP’s first album under the Capitol label. 

Californication 

This 1999 album is easily the most popular for the sheer number of hits alone, from “Otherside” and “Scar Tissue” to “Around the World” and the title track. The band managed to reimagine their sound for the new millennium, with more haunting guitars riffs and steady backbeats without compromising the band’s funk roots. 

By the Way 

Just three years after the wild, unprecedented success of Californication, RHCP proved that they were not falling the way of complacency, releasing this super melodic yet gritty offering that can easily be labeled the go-to album of modern rock. The funk aspects are still there, but the experimentations with sound design and vocal harmonies are all over the place. This “new sound” is epitomized by “The Zephyr Song” and the album’s title track. 

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Hi, I’m Steven Scansaroli and I’m a sophomore engineering student at the College of New Jersey. I’m a huge fan of rock music, and my favorite is the Red Hot Chili Peppers. More of my writingshere.