''The Red Hot Chili Peppers'' is the debut studio album by American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Red Hot Chili Peppers Red Hot Chili Peppers are an American rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1983, comprising vocalist Anthony Kiedis, bassist Flea (musician), Flea, drummer Chad Smith, and guitarist John Frusciante. Their music incorporates element ...

, released on August 10, 1984, via

EMI America EMI America Records was started in 1978 by EMI as a second US label next to Capitol Records. It absorbed Liberty Records in 1984. In the late 1980s, EMI America was consolidated with Manhattan Records to form EMI Manhattan Records, which later ...

and

Enigma Records Enigma Records (also known as Enigma Entertainment Corporation) was a popular rock and alternative American record label in the 1980s. History Enigma Records launched as a division of Greenworld Distribution, an independent music importer/dis ...

. The album was produced by

Gang of Four The Gang of Four () was a Maoist political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and were later charged with a series of treasonous crimes. The gang ...

guitarist

Andy Gill Andrew James Dalrymple Gill (1 January 1956 – 1 February 2020) was a British musician and record producer. He was the lead guitarist for the rock band Gang of Four, which he co-founded in 1976. Gill was known for his angular, jagged style of gu ...

, and is the only Peppers album to feature

Jack Sherman Jack Morris Sherman (January 18, 1956 – August 18, 2020) was an American guitarist, best known as the second guitarist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, between Hillel Slovak's departure and return. He played on the band's debut album, and ...

on guitar. Sherman was in the band as a replacement for founding member

Hillel Slovak Hillel Slovak ( he, הלל סלובק; April 13, 1962 – June 25, 1988) was an Israeli-American musician best known as the founding guitarist of the Los Angeles rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, with whom he recorded two albums. His guitar wor ...

, who'd left the band along with founding drummer

Jack Irons Jack Steven Irons (born July 18, 1962) is an American drummer. He is the founding drummer of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers and is a former member of Pearl Jam and Eleven. Alongside his work with Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pearl Jam, Irons h ...

before the album was recorded. After the tour for this album, Sherman was fired and Slovak rejoined the band. The album also features founding members

Anthony Kiedis Anthony Kiedis ( ; born November 1, 1962) is an American singer and songwriter. He is a founding member and lead vocalist of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers. Kiedis and his fellow band members were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fa ...

on vocals and

Flea Flea, the common name for the order Siphonaptera, includes 2,500 species of small flightless insects that live as external parasites of mammals and birds. Fleas live by ingesting the blood of their hosts. Adult fleas grow to about long, a ...

on bass, as well as

Cliff Martinez Cliff Martinez (born February 5, 1954) is an American musician and composer. Early in his career, Martinez was known as a drummer notably with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Captain Beefheart. Since the 1990s, he has worked primarily as a film sc ...

on drums. "

Get Up and Jump ''The Red Hot Chili Peppers'' is the debut studio album by American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, released on August 10, 1984, via EMI America and Enigma Records. The album was produced by Gang of Four guitarist Andy Gill, and is the only Pepp ...

" was the only single released from the album, but a music video was made for the song "True Men Don't Kill Coyotes." The album has been credited as the first release from the

funk metal Funk metal (also known as thrash-funk or punk-funk) is a subgenre of funk rock and alternative metal that infuses heavy metal music (often thrash metal) with elements of funk and punk rock. Funk metal was part of the alternative metal movement, ...

genre.

Writing and recording

The band was often at odds with producer Andy Gill over the musical direction of the album. Anthony Kiedis was disappointed with the overall sound, thinking that it lacked the raw energy of the band's original 1983 demo tape. In his 2004 autobiography ''

Scar Tissue Scar tissue may refer to: Medicine * Scar, an area of fibrous tissue that replaces normal skin after injury * Granulation tissue, a product of healing in major wounds Film and television * ''Scar Tissue'' (1975 film), or ''Wanted: Babysitter'' ...

'', Kiedis recalled, "One day, I got a glimpse of Gill's notebook, and next to the song 'Police Helicopter', he'd written 'Shit.' I was demolished that he had dismissed that as shit. Police Helicopter was a jewel in our crown. It embodied the spirit of who we were, which was this kinetic, stabbing, angular, shocking assault force of sound and energy. Reading his notes probably sealed the deal in our minds that 'Okay, now we're working with the enemy', It became very much him against us, especially Flea and me. It became a real battle to make the record."

Reception

The album failed to chart on the ''Billboard'' 200, reaching 201 (meaning it "bubbled under" the main album chart for eight weeks in the autumn of 1984). The album received college airplay and MTV rotation, and built the band's fan base. The reviews that were published of the album were mixed, with the first issue of ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...

'' magazine giving, according to Anthony Kiedis in his autobiography ''Scar Tissue'', a positive review.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, occ ...

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

later wrote that "their first effort didn't quite gel into a cohesive album". As of 2007, it had sold about 300,000 copies worldwide. Kiedis and Flea have said over the years that they prefer the demo versions of most of the songs, which were recorded with the original lineup featuring Hillel Slovak and

; however, the band acknowledged in various books that

's contributions to the band, particularly his knowledge of funk music and music theory, were instrumental in the band's development that were not present with Slovak.

Gwen Dickey Gwen Dickey (born December 1, 1953) is an American-born British singer best known as the front-woman of the R&B band Rose Royce, where she performed under the name Rose Norwalt. Her most recognized songs include "Car Wash" and "Wishing on a Star ...

, better known by her stage name, Rose Norwalt, provides backing vocals on "Mommy Where's Daddy?" Dickey was the singer for the 1970s group

Rose Royce Rose Royce is an American soul and R&B group. They are best known for several hit singles during the 1970s including "Car Wash", " I Wanna Get Next to You", " I'm Going Down", "Wishing on a Star", and "Love Don't Live Here Anymore". Career Th ...

. On live performances of the song, her lines are performed by

Track listing

Personnel

Red Hot Chili Peppers *

– lead vocals *

– guitar, backing vocals *

–

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

, backing vocals *

– drums

2003 edition bonus tracks (tracks 12–16)

– vocals *

– guitar,

talk box A talk box (also spelled talkbox and talk-box) is an effects unit that allows musicians to modify the sound of a musical instrument by shaping the frequency content of the sound and to apply speech sounds (in the same way as singing) onto the sou ...

– bass *

– drums ;Additional musicians *

Keith Barry Keith Patrick Barry (born 2 October 1976) is an Irish mentalist, hypnotist, magician and activist for the elderly. Early life Born in Williamstown, Waterford, Ireland, Keith's interest in magic began at the age of 5 with a Paul Daniel's mag ...

– horn arrangements and

viola The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...

*Cliff Brooks –

timbales Timbales () or pailas are shallow single-headed drums with metal casing. They are shallower than single-headed tom-toms and usually tuned much higher, especially for their size.Orovio, Helio 1981. ''Diccionario de la música cubana: biográfico ...

and

conga The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), and tumba or salidor (lowest). ...

s *

–

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...

(tracks 1 & 7) *Patrick English –

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

*Kenny Flood –

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while th ...

Phil Ranelin Phil Ranelin (born May 25, 1939) is an American jazz and experimental music trombonist. Career Ranelin was born in Indianapolis and lived in New York City before moving to Detroit in the 1960s. He played as a session musician on many Motown rec ...

–

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...

;Recording personnel *

–

producer Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

Spit Stix Tim Leitch (a.k.a. Spit Stix, born December 29, 1955) is a Los Angeles-born drummer, producer and songwriter. He gained prominence as drummer for American punk rock band Fear and producer of the first Red Hot Chili Peppers demo tape. Early lif ...

– producer (demos) *

Dave Jerden Dave Jerden is an American record producer, engineer, and mixer who has worked with artists in various genres including alternative rock, punk rock and metal. However, Jerden has stated that he dislikes the term "producer", preferring to refer ...

–

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

*Carolyn Collins – assistant engineer *Rob Stevens – mixing *Barry Conley – mixing assistant *

Greg Fulginiti Gregory Fulginiti (born February 13, 1951 in Cape May Court House section of Middle Township, New Jersey) is an American recording and mastering engineer. Fulginiti grew up in Wildwood, New Jersey and graduated from Wildwood High School in 1969 ...

– mastering ;Artwork *

Gary Panter Gary Panter (born December 1, 1950) is an American cartoonist, illustrator, painter, designer and part-time musician. Panter's work is representative of the post-Underground comix, underground, new wave comics movement that began with the end of ...

– cover art *Edward Colver – photography *Howard Rosenberg – photography *Henry Marquez – art direction

2003 remastered version personnel

*Kevin Flaherty – producer for reissue *Ron McMaster – remastering *Kenny Nemes – project manager *Michelle Azzopardi – art direction *Kristine L. Barnard – design *John Dinser – photo imaging and additional design *Edward Colver – photography *Howard Rosenberg – photography *EMI Archives – photography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Red Hot Chili Peppers, The 1984 debut albums Albums produced by Andy Gill Albums with cover art by Gary Panter EMI America Records albums Enigma Records albums Funk rock albums by American artists Funk metal albums Red Hot Chili Peppers albums