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Pepper's front man, Anthony Kiedis
Have you ever loved a song to the point of ridiculousness but no matter how hard you try, you just can’t understand the lyrics? What was the artist thinking when writing your favorite tune? Let’s delve a little deeper…
I Could Have Lied - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Blood Sugar Sex Magik – (Warner Brothers - 1991)
It may surprise Peppers fans to know that Anthony Kiedis wrote I Could Have Lied after a short and rather tumultuous affair with none other than sultry 80s pop icon, Sinead O’Connor. According to Kiedis, who met O’Connor at a European music festival in 1989, he was already a huge fan…and had a thing for bald girls. I Could Have Lied was born when O’Connor dumped Kiedis via voice message on his answering machine. In his memoir, ‘Scar Tissue’, Kiedis reflects on the message that shattered him at the time. “Hey, Anthony, this is Sinead. I’m moving out of Los Angeles tomorrow and I don’t want you to call me or come by before I leave. Good-bye.” “It had gone overnight from ‘can’t wait to see you again’, to don’t call and don’t come by,” he recalls. The lyrics of the song, particularly “I could have lied, I’m such a fool” imply that Kiedis was cheated out of expressing his true feelings. He opened up, then, in true rock star fashion - was shot down. The music was inspired by Jimi Hendrix’s All Along the Watchtower.
Comments
So True, I'm glad the examiner has FINALLY found someone who can truly convey the true aspect of music and the culture it brings forth. Props for Sarah, I'll be looking enthusiastically forward to reading more of Sarah's work in the future, and am sure not hesitating to tell my friends about this new, fresh and uprising talented writer that undoubtedly sarah is. the writing styles in which sarah describes her idea are not biased nor wrong but somewhat inspiring and automatically captures the readers attention by the very first glance of her words. Good job Sarah! I'm taggin this site and this writer. Good luck!
haha i get the lyrics thing all the time, but i just end up mumbling the words. I'm surprised that I have a real reason to come back to this site now xP nice job!
-Cassie ?
Anthony Kiedis! I never knew what he was saying but loved it anyways lol
That's a great article!
I always try to listen to song's lyrics and to analyze them in order to understand the songs better.Now I understand that sometimes you cannot really tell the story behind the words.
Thank you Sarah-Jayne :)
Nice Piece! I never knew about that little love affair! I love that song and thought it was about some type of relationship but definitely never figured out exactly what Kiedis was referring to. Thanks Sarah!
Thanks so much for this post. Big love to you for telling the backstory that we all wanted to know. Nice to have you around, Sarah-Jayne! :)
nicely done, the lyrics were always confusing when it came to the peppers, i've just recently found out about this site and I'm glad someone came to work today!
the lyrics made no sense, but the pepps were awesome anyway. LEGEND!`
Thanks for all the support! I'll be making 'More Than Words' a regular weekly feature so keep checking in! SJC
Hey SJ,
This analysis rocks!! I'm going to check out All Along the Watchtower because I love Hendrix, but cant place the song. Any chance you could uncover what is meant in "I am the Walrus" by the Beatles? That is one trippy song that needs to be deciphered! Understand if you're too busy - great column!
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