Understanding Under The Bridge

It's easy, in retrospect, to underestimate the importance of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but despite all the jokes about their fixation with California, the truth is their music is actually really good and nuanced, and they were one of the most influential acts in the alt rock movement that defined the '90s. They helped fundamentally change the world of rock music, and if we want to understand how, there's no better song to start with than their complex exploration of the struggles of addiction: Under The Bridge.

Huge thanks to our Elephant Club members:

Susan Jones
Jill Jones
Duck
Howard Levine
Brian Etheredge
Khristofor Saraga
Len Lanphar
Ken Arnold
Elaine Pratt
William (Bill) Boston
Chris Prentice
Jack Carlson
Christopher Lucas
Andrew Beals
Dov Zazkis
Hendrik P
Thomas Morley
Jacob Helwig
Warren Huart
Kevin Wilamowski
Davis Sprague
Grant Aldonas
Alex Knauth
Braum Meakes
Hendrik Stüwe
Dan Bonelli
Kevin Boyce
Kelly Christoffersen
Donal Botkin
Scott Howarth
Luke
Stephen Cook
David Bartz
Symmetry
Dhruv Monga
Ken Jones
Obadiah Wright
Kobalent
Carlos Rendon
Aleksandar Milojković
Kylie McInnes
Jody
Daniel Reaman
Tom
PhilRosas
Reiji Kobayashi
MISLS
Neil Moore

And thanks as well to Henry Reich, Gabi Ghita, Gene Lushtak, Owen Campbell-Moore, Eugene Bulkin, Logan Jones, Oliver, Anna Work, Adam Neely, Rick Lees, Dave Mayer, CodenaCrow, Nikolay Semyonov, Arnas, Caroline Simpson, Michael Alan Dorman, Blake Boyd, Luke Rihn, Charles Gaskell, Ian Seymour, Trevor Sullivan, Tom Evans, Lamadesbois, JH, David Conrad, Chris Chapin, Chris Borland, Todd Davidson, Elliot Burke, Tim S., Elias Simon, Jake Lizzio, Jerry D. Brown, Ohad Lutzky, Aaron Epstein, Chris Connett, Peter Leventis, Kenneth Kousen, James, h2g2guy, W. Dennis Sorrell, James A. Thornton, Brian Dinger, Professor Elliot, Stefan Strohmaier, Shadow Kat, Adam Wurstmann, Kelsey Freese, Angela Flierman, Richard T. Anderson, Andrew Engel, Kevin Johnson, Ryan, Rodrigo "rrc2soft" Roman, Jeremy Zolner, Patrick Callier, Danny, Francois LaPlante, Volker Wegert, Joshua Gleitze, Britt Ratliff, Darzzr, Joshua La Macchia, Peter Brinkmann, Alexey Fedotov, Alex Keeny, Valentin Lupachev, John Bejarano, Gary Butterfield, naomio, Alex Mole, Steve Brand, Rene Miklas, Red Uncle, Kaisai Morihito, Doug Nottingham, Nicholas Wolf, Betsy, Tonya Custis, Dave Shapiro, Jacopo Cascioli, Rafael Martinez Salas, Walther, Robert Beach, Jason Nebergall, Graeme Lewis, Jake Sand, Mathew Wolak, S, Lincoln Mendell, Aditya Baradwaj, Sam Rezek, Destros, Lucas Augusto, Juan Madrigal, Evan Satinsky, James Little, RaptorCat, Jim Hayes, Scott Albertine, Jigglypuffer, leftaroundabout ., Jens Schäfer, Mikely Whiplash, Austin Amberg, Francisco Rodrigues, Elizabeth, Michael Tsuk, רועי סיני, Conor Stuart Roe, ThoraSTooth, Brandon Legawiec, Dragix PL, Evgeni Kunev, Hikaru Katayamma, Alon Kellner, Rob Hardy, Gary Evesson, Kottolett, Dylan Vidas, Patrick Chieppe, Eric Stark, David Haughn, Gordon Dell, Byron DeLaBarre, Matty Crocker, anemamata, Brian Miller, Lee-orr Orbach, Eric Plume, Kevin Pierce, Jon Hancock, Jason Peterson, Peggy Youell, EJ Hambleton, Jos Mulder, Daryl Banttari, J.T. Vandenbree, Brian Davis, Pamela O'Neill, Thomas Morgan, Ludwick Kennedy, Wayne Robinson, Gabriel Totusek, Ridley Kemp, Mark James, SecretKittehs, Mnemosyne Music, AkselA, Philip Miller, Sam Plotkin, David MacDonald, Nellie Speirs Baron, Charles R., Joshua Lewis, Adam Ziegenhals, Mark, Amelia Lewis, Sam, DialMForManning, Wayne Weil, Michael Wehling, PatSandmann, Brandon Peckham, Kristofer Hill, William Merryman, Ryan Mayle, J Denton, James, David T Peterson, Bryan C. Mills, Justin St John-Brooks, Mark Lacey, Jaren Tilford, Catherine Berry, Watch Harder, XCompWiz, Michael Blaby, Bean, A Devoted Servant, Milan Brezovsky, Edmund Horner, Daria Gibbons, NinoDoko, Fernando Felix, Joseph Satin, Piush Dahal, Matthew Moore, Walt Seefeld, M. Bock, Daniel Joseph Moynihan, Andrew Wyld, Josh Witkowski, not a coincidence, Graham Orndorff, Michael Sacksteder, JD White, Jeffrey Mann, Jason McPherson, Chris Robson, A.J. Yates, Matt Moulder, Leander Tietjen, Joe Johnston, Jordan Friendshuh, Alex Tafur, Chris Davis, findRED, Howl’s one-handed, Gary Backaus, Eugen Lounkine, Fernando Gros, Geoffrey Barnett, OVB_2nd, Hakim C, Joe Molloy, gunnito, מתן אריאל-הברון, Claymore Alexander, Dixon Roberts, Jay Wilson, RoxyPop, Pär Nord, Paul Tanenholz, Chris Cresswell, Chris Breault, Julio D, Justin Zboyovski, Adam Poata-Smith, J.R. Hyde, and A! Your support helps make 12tone even better!

Also, thanks to Jareth Arnold!

[tone]

Some additional thoughts/corrections:

1) One thing I should be clear about is that I'm not saying my experience with depression means I completely understand Kiedis's experience with addiction. They're not the same thing. I'm just drawing parallels in order to make the story of the song resonate with my own life experience, because that's how we as humans relate to stories.

2) I wrote down my transcription of the intro wrong, the note on the and of 2 in bar 1 should be an F#, not a D. It doesn't matter to literally anything I say at any point in the video, but still, whoops.

3) In order to avoid getting into an unnecessary tangent, I chose to focus the discussion on balanced voice-leading relationships only on major triads, but if we expand it to all consonant triads, then we see the same thing in minor triads a major 3rd apart as well.

4) One cool thing in the intro is that in the D chord he introduces the A fairly early, but for the F# chord he holds the A#, the note that most clearly spells out their disagreement, until later in the bar where it can be a bit more metrically emphasized. Didn't have anything to _say_ about that and it's a fairly logical consequence of the arpeggio shape he's playing anyway, but I think it's neat.

5) I called the move to the verse a key change, but I think it's reasonable to argue that the intro doesn't really _have_ a key, so it's less a change in key and more a change in our attitude toward tonality.

6) Also I said E is the furthest major triad to voice-lead from both D and F#, but the argument could be made that G# is further from D and C is further from F#: It's the same number of total half-steps, but you can't do tritone-based root motion without at least one note moving by an augmented 2nd. Whether that makes it further depends on how you define your parameters, but for those of you familiar with Douthett's Cube Dance, all three chords occupy the same distance there, so I think my description is fair, and having the same relationship to both the intro chords makes E feel like the most natural of the three to use here.

7) Musicians use "accompaniment" to mean lots of different things. Here, I'm using it to mean the texture and performance technique of the supporting orchestration.

8) I wish I knew more about drum production because when I talk about how the hi-hats give it a shimmering quality, that's definitely partly about the way they're mixed, and I can hear that, but I don't really have to vocabulary to turn that observation into anything meaningful so I had to leave it out.

[redrix]

"being sad takes effort and you don't have any to spare, you put on this thin veneer of existence just to get through the day but underneath it you just feel empty, there's nothing there" I've never heard a better summarization of depression, that hits really close to home.

[tennispromf]

I'd be absolutely fascinated if you decided to take 1991 or any other year you find especially crucial to music and broke down why those years matter so much

[IanDeRanieri]

True story: was listening to this the other day in the car, thought to myself, "I wonder if 12tone will do this song." Thanks!

[ikepigott]

As a lifelong Baltimore Orioles’ fan, your sketch for “defeat” is a chef’s kiss.

[powerstation]

As someone who's struggled with substance addiction all their life, I always took the chorus as him being in withdrawal. And when he says "take me to the place I love", it could be interpreted as him wanting to get high again and take away the withdrawal symptoms, but then when he says "take me all the way", you realize he's talking about wanting to go back to normal; the way he was before his addiction began. Anyone who's struggled with addiction knows the weight you carry knowing that there's no longevity in that way of life. You'll either get sober, or die. No in between. And when he says "take me all the way", he's saying he wants to go back to a way of living that's sustainable, that's stable.

[vegaomega]

I think the reason for the climax to be so dark has one major reason: juxtapositions are powerful. The act of having such a beautiful orchestral part juxtaposed with lyrics of attempting suicide i think shows how someone like Kiedis, completely consumed by depression and addiction, can view suicide as something beautiful in a really dark, twisted way. Depression warps your view on everything. Thats my interpretation at least, which lines up with my own experiences with depression pretty well.

[yamomwasthebomb]

13:44 I know very little music theory, but that shift from A to Amin in the 'outro, ' especially under the lyrics, "Oh, *nooo*, " always hit me so goddamn hard.

[FalconicofPern]

The ending being a full choir coming together with new lyrics and harmony is a perfect metaphor to my mind: The only way out is ultimately to have support from your community, however large you need that to be, and to try something new, even if only a little different. And on top of that, look who leads that section.❤

[TheBakafoot]

holy cow this hits hard. my thoughts on the ending as a recovering addict are that we remember our darkest times because they are what brought us into the light. the more space we have to reflect on them, the more we learn from them. they are there to remind us that we have come so far. they can be painful beyond belief in early recovery, but we draw strength as we grow away from the trajectory we were on. please do not belittle your comparisons between depression and addiction for they are two sides of the same coin. Thank you for talking so candidly about something that so many speak of as taboo, and thank you for sharing your love of music and art in such a beautiful way. Stay Awesome friend!

[jessejones]

This video found me on a day I didn't know I needed it.

I attempted suicide a few months ago, and it took me a few days of wandering around on the street before I decided to call someone and come back home alive. I even slept under a bridge.

That feeling of moving, but staying where you are; sometimes spiraling down before coming back to a numb neutral place, sometimes taking a few steps up and away, before stumbling back down. It's such an impactful rhythm when you feel that way for months or years at a time. I never considered how the notes of this song told that story just like the lyrics did, and it resonates deeper now

I'm currently listening to this on my lunch break. Even getting this job puts me in a weird place because part of my brain "knows" this forward progress will eventually be erased. It can't let go of that rhythm. As poignant as the song is, it IS uplifting to know the real-life story of the artist's addiction surpasses that. Even our best art doesn't define us

[SpookyGhostpeppers]

Even if I don't understand anything about music theory it's still interesting learning about how music structure can be just as impactful to a songs meaning as the lyrics. Keep up the great work

[ptr_does_music]

Some thoughts I had about the final climax was that it symbolizes this jarring rush of joy, the first trip that the lyrics talk about, under that bridge. It comes to end the "blandness" of life (symbolized by the slower beat and more idle instrumentation of the rest of the song), but fades as quickly as it started, leaving you with the same chords/feelings, yet with little of the texture and layers they had before. In my mind, writer's intent aside, this whole song structurally feels like an addict's struggle. Prolonged numbness and desperation, resort in a quick high, repeat.

[bumblebee]

Love the ending. Pain is loud. Trauma screams.

[joeybatmania]

The Orioles logo as a symbol for failure was an absolute haymaker. 10/10 just for that

[Timmie]

Wow, the fact that the choir is led by Frusciante's mother feels really intense. It must've been awful for her to see what the band, but more importantly, her son, was going through, and I can only imagine how this collaboration came to be...

[llwonder]

12tone: here’s my complicated analysis
Frusciante: I just thought it sounded cool

[whong]

Catharsis, is a pleasurable almost euphoric feeling that comes from integrating trauma. The more traumatic the scar, the more euphoric the catharsis. It's after the trauma happens and you're some safe distance away that catharsis can happen. I think that's what's behind the triumphant outro. Music is, often made for the purpose of expressing identity, of what we are and what we're not. I think the song is about identity of no longer being a junkie, of being a survivor.

[FireballFlareblitz]

6:25
12tone: "this gives the melody almost a sense of defeat"
12tone: _draws the logo for the Baltimore Orioles_


I came here to learn about a Red Hot Chili Peppers song, not have my favorite baseball team get shit on

[yetanotherbassdude]

Thank you for opening up about some of your own experiences with depression in this. I think people's knowledge about it is better than it was, but that idea that for some people with depression the feeling of complete emptiness can actually be a lower and more depressed state than actually feeling sad is so important and still needs to be talked about more.