Give It Away (Red Hot Chili Peppers song)

Guitarist John Frusciante and bassist Flea wrote much of "Give It Away" during jam sessions in the early 1990s. Following the Chili Peppers' tour in support of ''Mother's Milk'' (1989), the duo spent time in a side project called H.A.T.E. with members of Fishbone. During their tenure in the group, the guitarist and bassist created the main riff and accompanying bassline for "Give It Away". The rhythm was played at several H.A.T.E. performances shortly thereafter, but when the side project disbanded Frusciante and Flea believed the track would be appropriate for the Chili Peppers' upcoming record. The song was recorded between April and June 1991 at The Mansion in Los Angeles, California. Through the recording of "Give It Away" came a practice of crafting songs that the band would continue to use on every album following Blood Sugar Sex Magik. When the group encountered difficulty in composing a bridge for the song, it developed a tool the members colloquially termed "face-offs". Flea and Frusciante were unable to come to an agreement on guitar or bass progressions, but separately crafted part of the song. The band then reconvened at a later time and chose the most appropriate inclusion. With "Give It Away", a chorus and verse had already been written but a bridge was lacking, so thus they partook in a "face-off". ==Lyrics and meaning==

The lyrical meaning behind "Give It Away" is centered on the philosophy of selflessness and altruistic behavior. ==Music and composition==

"Give It Away" is performed in the time signature of time. The track begins with a distinctively "dry" guitar tone that is similar in style to the rest of the record. Producer Rick Rubin had a considerable influence on the sound of Blood Sugar Sex Magik by removing much of the reverb and guitar layering that epitomized the band's previous album ''Mother's Milk''. This caused the record to contain simpler and dryer guitar and bass chords that were not filtered through guitar effects—those that did, however, were made with vintage electronics from the 1960s and 70s. For "Give It Away", along with the rest of the album, Rubin sought to achieve a sense of atmosphere that was similar to 60s records that were made without commercialism or viability in mind and to downplay on "big" sounds: "What you hear is what you get—there's not a lot of trickery. A lot of people want the biggest sound, with walls of guitar and huge drums. But I don't think those things matter." The song follows a traditional verse-chorus-verse structure; when Kiedis begins singing, Frusciante jumps into a funk-oriented riff that is repeated throughout the verse while Flea plays a bass line that uses virtually the entire length of the fretboard. During the chorus, Kiedis sings "Give it away, give it away, give it away now" repeatedly over a more rapid guitar riff before Frusciante provides, according to Steve Huey of Allmusic, a "sudden contrast to Kiedis's hyperactivity in the form of a languid solo pre-recorded and dubbed backwards over the rhythm track." The solo was recorded in one take because Frusciante had developed a preference towards speedy execution and a raw feeling; according to Flea, "We did very little fix-up stuff. John's philosophy was that he would only play a solo twice. He'd play it once, and if he didn't like it or we didn't like it, he'd play it again—completely different. And that was it." "Give It Away" also makes use of other instruments like the jew's harp, which was played by band friend Pete Weiss. The song continues through several verses and choruses before reaching a bridge that introduces the outro, which consists of "a hard-rocking riff" that, according to Huey, strongly resembles the main riff from Black Sabbath's "Sweet Leaf" from their 1971 record Master of Reality. Kiedis repeats "Give it away now" for several measures before the guitar, bass and drums drop out. ==Release and reception==

"Give It Away" was released as the lead single from Blood Sugar Sex Magik in early September 1991, shortly before the record went on sale. Warner Bros. sought to premiere the song on a popular rock radio station in Texas, but were turned down when the format refused to air the track—they told employees at the label to "come back to us when you have a melody in your song". The band then embarked on a short press tour through Europe in order to promote the record; it was during this time that KROQ-FM, a Los Angeles-based modern rock station, began to place "Give It Away" on heavy rotation. According to Kiedis, "That was the beginning of the infusion of those songs into mass consciousness." Critical reception to the song, much like the album, was highly positive. Jeff Vice of Deseret News noted "[this] dynamic first single that pays homage to Bob Marley, may start a new musical trend with its brilliant Rasta-funk." Patrick MacDonald of The Seattle Times commented that "[Blood Sugar Sex Magik] includes one of the best songs the Peppers have done—'Give It Away', the first single. The hook is irresistible and the message, about 'material excess,' is delivered simply and straightforwardly." Steve Huey of AllMusic felt the song was enhanced by Kiedis's lyrics, which were "a free-associative mixture of positive vibes, tributes to musical heroes, and free love, and their literal meaning was often as difficult to understand as Kiedis's nasal, staccato enunciation. But that distinctive vocal style helped make the most comprehensible lines even catchier and more memorable, greatly enhancing the song's appeal." Another editor, Terry Staunton, opined, "A tad sluggish compared to usual Chili Peppers fare, this has been a big hit in America but will not be here. Anthony Kiedis sounds horribly like Aerosmith's Steve Tyler". Jay Clarke of the Richmond Times-Dispatch felt "Give It Away" was "a journey into the funky world of Kiedis and Flea. This song invigorates better than the heaviest metal or the most hard-core rap." Tom Moon of Rolling Stone noted, "The pummeling 'Give It Away' [...] established a template for rock punctuated by the beatcentric relentlessness of hip-hop that would be appropriated by everyone." Mark Sutherland from UK magazine Smash Hits gave it four out of five, declaring it as "an almighty funky beast of a rock stomper that will have entire nations dancing like constipated chickens and might just make them as hay-uge here as they are in the States." Since the song's release, it has become a notable factor in the Red Hot Chili Peppers' success and has won a variety of accolades. "Give It Away" won a Grammy Award at the 35th Ceremony in 1993 for the "Best Hard Rock Performance". In 1994 "Give It Away" was included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's unordered list of the "500 Songs That Shaped Rock"; in 2002 Kerrang! placed the song at number 67 in their list of the "100 Greatest Singles of All Time"; in 2004 Q included it in their unordered list of the "1001 Songs You Must Own!"; and VH1 awarded the song the 50th spot in its 2009 compilation of the "100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs". Kerrang! and Rolling Stone both named "Give It Away" as the Red Hot Chili Peppers' fourth-best song. ==Music video==

and wearing sequined pants in the music video for "Give It Away". The music video for "Give It Away" was made by French fashion photographer and director Stéphane Sednaoui. Kiedis wanted the video to be visually distinct and readily identifiable but disliked much of the material Warner Bros. sent for him to choose from: "I started viewing reels and reels and reels of video directors but nothing looked good to me. Everything was the same, boring, homogenized, contrived shit." Upon finding Sednaoui's reel, however, the singer said it was "like nothing else. It was slower and poetic, shot in black and white. It seemed like authentic art, not something shot for MTV." It was decided that the video would be filmed in black and white while Sednaoui took the idea of painting the band members with silver acrylic from previous photo shoots he had done. The photographer recalls that he was "amazed by what [the band] gave me because they went far far far beyond what I was expecting and I think that's one of my best experiences in that regard". When the vocalist first saw it, he was "more hysterically ecstatic about that piece of visual footage than anything [the band had] ever done." without being edited by the record label; since then it has been widely credited as being a considerable factor in the Red Hot Chili Peppers' success and greatly increased their international popularity. Journalist Jeff Apter noted the video's "funky brew of goofy looks, a subtle invasive hook, Flea's spindly fingered baseline and Kiedis's crotch-hugging shorts made the clip essential viewing across MTV throughout the last few months of 1991." Steve Huey of AllMusic wrote in his review of the song that "MTV jumped all over the visually distinctive video." Nominated for three awards—"Best Alternative Video", "Breakthrough Video", and "Best Art Direction"—at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards, it won the latter two. ==Live performances==

"Give It Away" has been performed live by the band over 1,000 times, the most out of any of the band's songs and 32 years after its first performance; it remains a staple in the band's setlists, often closing the show’s main set or encore. The band has performed the song on various talk shows and other events, including Saturday Night Live on March 6, 2006; as well as during the Super Bowl XLVIII halftime show on February 2, 2014. The Los Angeles Rams (of which the band members are fans) play the song prior to the start of the fourth quarter during home games at SoFi Stadium. ==Formats and track listing==

• US cassette single (1991) • "Give It Away"  – 4:43 • "Search and Destroy"  – 3:34 • European cassette single (1991) • "Give It Away"  – 4:43 • "Soul to Squeeze"  – 4:52 • 7-inch single 1 (1991) • "Give It Away"  – 4:43 • "Give It Away" (12-inch Mix)  – 6:02 • 7-inch single 2 (1991) • "Give It Away"  – 4:43 • "Search and Destroy  – 3:34 • 12-inch single (1991) • "Give It Away" (12-inch Mix)  – 6:02 • "Give It Away" (Rasta Mix)  – 6:47 • "Give It Away" (Single Mix)  – 4:46 • "Search and Destroy"  – 3:34 • "Give It Away"  – 4:43 • CD single 1 (1991) • "Give It Away"  – 4:43 • "Search and Destroy"  – 3:34 • "Soul to Squeeze"  – 4:52 • CD single 2 (1991) • "Give It Away" (Single Mix)  – 4:46 • "Give It Away" (12-inch Mix)  – 6:02 • "Search and Destroy"  – 3:34 • "Give It Away" (Rasta Mix)  – 6:47 • "Give It Away"  – 4:43 • CD single 3 (1992) • "Give It Away" (Single Mix)  – 4:46 • "Give It Away" (12-inch Mix)  – 6:02 • "Search and Destroy"  – 3:34 • "Give It Away" (Rasta Mix)  – 6:47 • "Give It Away"  – 4:43 • "Soul to Squeeze"  – 4:52 • European 12-inch (1993) • "Give It Away" (12-inch Mix)  – 6:02 • "Give It Away" (Rasta Mix)  – 6:47 • "If You Have to Ask" (Disco-Krisco Mix)  – 7:12 • CD single 4 (1994 CD1 re-release) • "Give It Away" (Single Mix)  – 4:46 • "Give It Away" (12-inch Mix)  – 6:02 • "Give It Away" (Rasta Mix)  – 6:47 • "Soul to Squeeze"  – 4:52 • CD single 5 (1994 CD2 re-release) • "Give It Away" (Edit)  – 3:46 • "If You Have to Ask" (Friday Night Fever Blister Mix)  – 6:34 • "If You Have to Ask" (Scott & Garth Mix)  – 7:12 • "Nobody Weird Like Me" (Live)  – 5:03 ==Personnel==

Red Hot Chili Peppers • Anthony Kiedis – vocals • John Frusciante – guitar • Flea – bass • Chad Smith – drums, tambourine Additional musicians • Brendan O'Brien – Hammond B3 organ • Pete Weiss – Juice harp ==Charts==

Weekly charts Year-end charts ==Certifications==

• A double-parody of "Give It Away" and "Under the Bridge" titled "Bedrock Anthem" was recorded by "Weird Al" Yankovic in his 1993 album Alapalooza. • Mr. Bungle performed a mock version of the song in 1999, as part of a halloween concert parodying Red Hot Chili Peppers. • Busta Rhymes used the "Give it away, give it away, give it away now" lyrics in his 2001 song Break Ya Neck. The members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers are listed in the songwriting credits. • Idina Menzel performed a few bars of the song as part of her exit music on her 2015 World Tour. ==References==