On one of my almost daily trips to Barnes & Noble on my lunchbreak, I was perusing the books in the music section. It was there I first stumbled across Scar Tissue, which is the autobiography of Anthony Kiedis and the story his involvement with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I'll admit that although I liked the Chili Peppers, I was never really a huge fan. While their sound has always been fresh and exciting, I've always felt their lyrics somewhat nonsensical and a little hard to relate to since they were so out there. I picked it up and started skimming through and was blown away. I couldn't put it down, so I bought it and stopped the other book I was reading.
That was a couple weeks ago and I've nearly finished it. It's honestly one of the best books I've read in a long time. His story is great on so many levels, from the formation of the band, to the relationships between him and his friends, to his battles with drug addiction, to the women in his life who inspired his music.
Earlier I said that while I enjoyed their sound, the Chili Peppers lyrics seemed foreign to me, but what has struck me most about this book is the context it placed on their lyrics. Throughout the book, interspersed with Kiedis's outstanding prose, are lyrics to Chili Peppers songs that he wrote and how they apply to where he was in his life and where we, as the reader, are in his story. Seeing the lyrics in that context helps them make a little more sense.
This has been an outstanding read so far and I can't recommend this highly enough.
3 comments:
Cool. I've wanted to read this for a while. I coul' borrow dat?
Sure thing.
There's so much to personally relate to here. Especially the battle with drugs and the influences and close relationships with girls.
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