"Parallel Universe" is a promotional single by the Red Hot Chili Peppers and second track from their 1999 album, Californication. Although it never was released as a tangible CD single, it charted on the US Modern Rock Tracks at number 37 during the week of March 24, 2001, and appeared on Greatest Hits.
Although being one of the album's loudest songs in terms of distortion, it does not contain any of the Chili's signature funk-orientated bass lines which they had been primarily known for in the past. Anthony Kiedis' vocals are subdued during the verses, reflecting an approach towards melodic balladry, whilst similarly the song lyrically tackles darker, more introspective themes than those that the band generally had a reputation for.
Despite only being a promotional single, "Parallel Universe" remains a live favorite in the band's setlists and has been performed over 230 times since its release making it one of the band's most performed songs since its first performance in 1998. No music video was made for the single.
Famous quotes containing the words parallel and/or universe:
“If from the earth we came, it was an earth
That bore us as a part of all the things
It breeds and that was lewder than it is.
Our nature is her nature. Hence it comes,
Since by our nature we grow old, earth grows
The same. We parallel the mother’s death.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“It sometimes strikes me that the whole of science is a piece of impudence; that nature can afford to ignore our impertinent interference. If our monkey mischief should ever reach the point of blowing up the earth by decomposing an atom, and even annihilated the sun himself, I cannot really suppose that the universe would turn a hair.”
—Aleister Crowley (1875–1947)