Red Hot Chili Peppers has always been one of those bands that I can take or leave. They have a couple songs I like (Soul To Squeeze, Under the Bridge, My Friends), and everything else ranges from meh it’s fine to it’s not fine but I’m not close enough to change it so whatever.
Because radio has been very good to them through the years, I’ve heard a lot of their songs a whole lot of times. Enough that you’d think that by now I’d have perhaps grasped the meanings of a few of them. But over and over again I hear a Peppers song and am left with the same question. What in the hell is this guy talking about? It’s not just me, either. I can’t count how many times I’ve been in a car with someone, especially someone a little older who still enjoys rock music up to a point, and that person has said some variation of that same thing.
All of that to say that this video here isn’t just what they sound like to people who don’t like them. It’s what they sound like to everyone, perhaps even themselves.
By the way, the transcript offered with this video is essentially useless. It catches a few lines, but for a lot of it it just says “music” and moves on with life. It’s a bit like me hearing a Peppers song, I suppose.