Blood Sugar Sex Magik - Music

Music

Blood Sugar Sex Magik was written at a more rapid pace than the band's previous album. Prior to the Chili Peppers relocation into the mansion, Frusciante and Kiedis collaborated at each other's homes, in order to arrange song structures and guitar riffs. They would then present ideas to Flea and Smith, and the band would, as a whole, decide what they would use for the bass, guitar, vocal and percussion ensembles.

Kiedis focused lyrically on sexual references and innuendos as they were frequently on his mind. Songs such as "Suck My Kiss," "If You Have to Ask," "Sir Psycho Sexy," "Give It Away" and "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" all contained various sexual links, with lyrics like "A state of sexual light / Kissing her virginity / My affinity" and "Glorious euphoria / Is my must / Erotic shock / Is a function of lust." The concept behind "The Greeting Song" was a request by Rubin, who asked Kiedis to write a song solely about girls and cars. Although Kiedis disliked the concept, he wrote the song as Rubin requested and ended up hating nearly every aspect of the lyrics. Kiedis also began to write about anguish, and the self mutilating thoughts he would experience as a result of his heroin and cocaine addiction; he believed his life had come to its lowest point under a bridge in downtown Los Angeles. Over a month later, Rubin stumbled upon a poem that would become the lyrics to "Under the Bridge", and suggested Kiedis show it to the rest of the band. Kiedis was, however, apprehensive because he believed the lyrics to be "too soft" and unlike the band's style. After singing the verse to Frusciante, they began structuring the song the next day. The two worked for several hours arranging chords and melodies until they both agreed it was complete. Frusciante ultimately chose the chords he played in the intro to balance out the depressing atmosphere of the song: "my brain interpreted it as being a really sad song so I thought if the lyrics are really sad like that I should write some chords that are happier."

Blood Sugar Sex Magik integrated the band's typical punk and funk style, but moved away from this with more melodically driven songs. Tracks like "The Righteous and the Wicked," "Suck My Kiss," "Blood Sugar Sex Magik," "Give it Away" and "Funky Monks" still incorporated use of heavy metal guitar riffs, but differed from Mother's Milk in that they contained less distortion. Flea, who had centered his bass playing around the slapping technique, downplayed on this in favor of more traditional and melodic bass lines. He also adopted a minimalist, "less is more" philosophy: "I was trying to play simply on Blood Sugar Sex Magik because I had been playing too much prior to that, so I thought, 'I've really got to chill out and play half as many notes'. When you play less, it's more exciting—there's more room for everything. If I do play something busy, it stands out, instead of the bass being a constant onslaught of notes. Space is good." Kiedis felt that the album would expand the Chili Peppers' musical horizons, and that it was a departure from their previous material. One of Blood Sugar Sex Magik's more melodic tracks, "Breaking the Girl," was written about Kiedis' constantly shifting relationships. He feared that he was following in his father's footsteps and simply becoming a womanizer, rather than establishing stable and long-term relationships: "...As exciting and temporarily fulfilling as this constant influx of interesting and beautiful girls can be, at the end of the day, that shit is lonely and you're left with nothing." The track also featured a bridge in the middle, consisting of percussion instruments salvaged from a garbage dump.

Although jams had always been an integral aspect of song creation for the Chili Peppers, Blood Sugar Sex Magik saw songs being created with more structure. One specific jam would lead to the breakout song on the album: Frusciante, Flea and Smith were all playing together—with Kiedis at another part of the room watching—when "...Flea started playing this insane bass line, and Chad cracked up and played along...I always had fragments of song ideas or even specific isolated phrases in my mind. I (Kiedis) took the mic and belted out 'Give it away, give it away, give it away, give it away now." The philosophy behind the lyrics originated from a conversation Kiedis had with Nina Hagen, regarding selflessness and how insignificant material possessions were in his life. It, thus, gave birth to the song "Give It Away." He'd also been reminiscing about late Chili Peppers guitarist Hillel Slovak, composing "My Lovely Man" in his tribute. Kiedis wrote "Sir Psycho Sexy" to be an over-zealous and overly exaggerated version of himself; a figure that could get any woman, and do anything he pleased to them. "The Power of Equality" confronted topics concerning racial equality, prejudice and sexism. Kiedis wrote "I Could Have Lied" to document the brief relationship he had with Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor.