The Red Hot Chili Peppers is the debut studio album by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, released on August 10, 1984, via EMI America and Enigma Records. The album was produced by Gang of Four guitarist Andy Gill, and is the only Peppers album to feature Jack Sherman on guitar.
Sherman was in the band as a replacement for founding member Hillel Slovak, who’d left the band along with founding drummer Jack Irons before the album was recorded.
After the tour for this album, Sherman was fired and Slovak rejoined the band. The album also features founding members Anthony Kiedis on vocals and Flea on bass, as well as Cliff Martinez on drums. The band was often at odds with producer Andy Gill over the musical direction of the album. Anthony Kiedis was disappointed with the overall sound, thinking that it lacked the raw energy of the band’s original 1983 demo tape.
In his 2004 autobiography Scar Tissue, Kiedis recalled:
“One day, I got a glimpse of Gill’s notebook, and next to the song ‘Police Helicopter’, he’d written ‘Shit.’ I was demolished that he had dismissed that as shit. Police Helicopter was a jewel in our crown. It embodied the spirit of who we were, which was this kinetic, stabbing, angular, shocking assault force of sound and energy. Reading his notes probably sealed the deal in our minds that ‘Okay, now we’re working with the enemy’, It became very much him against us, especially Flea and me. It became a real battle to make the record.”
The album failed to chart on the Billboard 200, reaching No. 201 (meaning it “bubbled under” the main album chart for eight weeks in the autumn of 1984). The album received college airplay and MTV rotation, and built the band’s fan base.
Tracklist:
- True Men Don’t Kill Coyotes (Kiedis, Flea, Martinez, Sherman)
- Baby Appeal (Kiedis, Flea, Hillel Slovak, Martinez, Sherman)
- Buckle Down (Kiedis, Flea, Martinez, Sherman)
- Get Up and Jump (Kiedis, Flea, Slovak, Jack Irons)
- Why Don’t You Love Me (Hank Williams)
- Green Heaven (Kiedis, Flea, Slovak, Irons)
- Mommy Where’s Daddy (Kiedis, Flea, Martinez, Sherman)
- Out in L.A. (Kiedis, Flea, Slovak, Irons)
- Police Helicopter (Kiedis, Flea, Slovak, Irons)
- You Always Sing the Same (Kiedis, Flea)
- Grand Pappy Du Plenty (instrumental) (Kiedis, Flea, Martinez)
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Anthony Kiedis: lead vocals
Jack Sherman: guitar, backing vocals
Flea: bass, backing vocals
Cliff Martinez: drums
Additional musicians
Keith Barry: horn arrangements and viola
Cliff Brooks: timbales and congas
Gwen Dickey: backing vocals (tracks 1 & 7)
Patrick English: trumpet
Kenny Flood: tenor saxophone
Phil Ranelin: trombone
Recording personnel
Andy Gill: producer
Spit Stix: producer (demos)
Dave Jerden: engineer
Carolyn Collins: assistant engineer
Rob Stevens: mixing
Barry Conley: mixing assistant
Greg Fulginiti: mastering
Artwork
Gary Panter: cover art
Edward Colver: photography
Howard Rosenberg: photography
Henry Marquez: art direction
Jack Morris Sherman (January 18, 1956 – August 18, 2020)
Hillel Slovak (April 13, 1962 – June 25, 1988)
