Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Snow (Hey Oh)

I’m going to try and limit my geeking out about John Frusciante’s ability on the guitar for this article, by which I mean “I’m lying and I am totally going to geek out about John Frusciante at some point”. So strap in for that!

I think at this point, the Bed Cot Filly Papers… sorry, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, need very little in the way of an introduction. They’re one of the best-selling rock acts of all time and they’ve been on the scene in one form or another for nearly forty years now. They’ve done it all, or at least pieces of it all – rock, funk, punk, reggae, psychedelic, the list goes on – and show little to no sign of stopping, having just announced another world tour and with a new album on the way. Their current line-up is certainly their most well known, though it hasn’t always been – unfortunate deaths, pressures of fame and focus on solo work have changed and shaped the band as they’ve gone on, having had this line-up three times separately as a result.

Alright, geek out time – John Frusciante is a wizard and I’m not sure I can be convinced otherwise. It feels strange that someone can be so clever with a guitar, if that makes sense. This song is both a great example of that and of his technical proficiency, which is just absurd, too – he’s playing eight notes a second at the start of this song, in arpeggios, with alternate picking. I literally don’t think I could do anything eight times in a second, unless it was related to eating biscuits or falling asleep when I’m supposed to be working. And that’s without having to worry about accidentally cramming too many biscuits in my mouth at once, or falling asleep while I’m already asleep and Inception-ing myself.

So here’s Snow (Hey Oh), your song of the week to go. Enjoy every second of this one, even if you have heard it before, because it’s a doozy every time.