Californication Scar Tissue Red Hot Chili Peppers

Californication Album: Californication (1999)
Scar Tissue Album: Californication (1999)
by Red Hot Chili Peppers

Californication is about the deterioration of society in how the world is becoming very superficial and plastic, much like California. The Red Hot Chili Peppers formed in Hollywood and are quite familiar.

As written in the dictionary, "fornication" refers disapprovingly to any sexual activity outside the confines of marriage.

The lyrics, "Cobain can you hear the spheres singing songs off station to station and Alderaan's not far away, it's Californication," get in a few pop-culture references: Kurt Cobain, David Bowie's album Station To Station, and Alderaan - the planet Princess Leia was from in Star Wars. Alderaan was destroyed by The Empire, implying that the world is being destroyed.

A 30-minute instrumental song by The Cure called "Carnage Visors" was a big influence on Californication. The Cure song is from 1981 and was written as a score for a movie.

When it was released, Flea called Californication "the best record the Chili Peppers have ever made."

The lyrics, "Celebrity skin is this your chin, or is that war you're waging," get in a reference to Celebrity Skin, the third and final album from the band Hole. Hole was formed by Courtney Love, Kurt Cobain's wife.

Many of the lyrics tell a story about the plastic unrealistic image that Hollywood sells to the world and yet how obsessed people are with attaining that fame and that forever young image. For example:

"Little girls from Sweden dream of silver screen quotations." - Becoming famous.

"Pay your surgeon very well to break the spell of aging" - The obsession with being forever young, the image that Hollywood sells.

"And buy me a star on the boulevard, It's Californication." - The dream of becoming famous.

"Space may be the final frontier but it's made in a Hollywood basement." - The image that Hollywood sells is manufactured.

Amazingly it appeared that writers for the Showtime comedy drama Californication did not negotiate with the Red Hot Chili Peppers before borrowing this song's title for their show. Consequently the rock group filed a lawsuit against Showtime on November 19, 2007 seeking damages and restitution and asking the court to issue a permanent injunction barring further use of the title. In addition, one of the characters in the program played by Rachel Miner was given the nickname Dani California, the title of a 2006 Chili Peppers song, and one episode featured a character describing California as "the edge of the world and all of western civilization," a line from "Californication."

The Californication video mixed live footage with a simulated video game where each band member is on a different virtual adventure. This wasn't easy to do in 1999, when computer modeling was still rudimentary. It looks very dated, but the concept was innovative, predating Ready Player One by 19 years.

In 2004, lead singer Anthony Kiedis released his autobiography, which was titled Scar Tissue. In the book, he explained some of the lyrics: "Sarcastic Mr. Know-it-all" is Dave Navarro, whom Anthony refers to as "the King of sarcasm." "With the birds I'll share this lonely view" was inspired by birds that Anthony saw while he was singing outside of Flea's house, and he also says that the line has to do with how he felt like an outsider, looking in. Anthony was introduced to pot when he was 12, but he first got high when he was 4. He was walking down the street with his dad, and his dad blew pot smoke in his face.

The Scar Tissue video shows the band driving through a desert. It was directed by French director Stephane Sednaoui, who also directed the videos for "Around the World" and "Give It Away." In the video, the band members are all battered and bruised and the neck of John Frusciante's guitar is broken. Also, John is seen driving; the irony being that he can't actually drive.

Scar Tissue won a Grammy for Best Rock Song.

Scar Tissue spent a record 16 weeks at #1 on the Billboard Modern Rock chart.

The line, "Close your eyes and I'll kiss you 'cause," Anthony Kiedis is referring to guitarist Dave Navarro, and how in the music video for "Warped" (off the One Hot Minute album), they both kiss at the end of the video.

A string quartet version (performed by the Vitamin String Quartet) was used in the 2020 movie The King of Staten Island.