"Universally Speaking" is a song by the Red Hot Chili Peppers from their 2002 album By the Way. It was the fifth and final single from the album and was released solely in the UK. The track was also included on their live album Live in Hyde Park and their Greatest Hits album.
The video for the song features Dave Sheridan, who plays a deranged concertgoer who attempts to return a book to vocalist Anthony Kiedis, who left the book in his taxi in the video to "By the Way". The book he is returning to Kiedis is "Lexicon Devil: The Fast Times and Short Life of Darby Crash and the Germs", which is the biography of Darby Crash, the late frontman for the late 70's punk band The Germs and was written by Brendan Mullen. The music video was directed by longtime friend Dick Rude who also directed the video for "Catholic School Girls Rule" and the live DVD Off the Map.
The cover for the single is the same as the cover of the By the Way album, except the colours were reverted back to normal, as they had been originally inverted on the cover of By the Way.
Contrary to popular belief, the B-Side "Slowly Deeply" was originally recorded in the Californication era sessions in 1998, it was not recorded for By the Way.
XFM online said it was a "fairly upbeat rock ode" and Rolling Stone said it was "Beatlesque psychedelia".
Read more about Universally Speaking: Chart Performance
Famous quotes containing the words universally and/or speaking:
“Everybody hates me because I’m so universally liked.”
—Peter De Vries (b. 1910)
“My speaking is irregular. Sometimes quite good, sometimes not, but generally will do.... I am too far along in experience and years both for this business. I do not go into [it] with the zest of old times. Races, baseball, and politics are for the youngsters.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)