March 26, 2003

The generation of American bands that emerged in the early and mid '80s was relatively debt free when it came to shouldering the '60s, a weight that sandbagged punk's early years. Politics? Principles? Sure, maybe. But by 1984, when the Red Hot Chili Peppers released their self-titled first album, it was OK for a band to have fun – or something like it – without carrying a cross. Besides, Reagan's rules were in effect, and, well, Sly Stone put his own beliefs into his songs, and look what happened to him.

Not that the Chili Peppers hadn't listened to Sly – the driving, rapid-fire bass grooves laid down by bassist Michael "Flea" Balzary, which defined the band, owed about everything to the Family Stone's Larry Graham. But the Peppers' cause was to be anticause. They wanted the world to lighten up, and, along with other Cali bands like Fishbone and Limbomaniacs, they took it to heart. They were known for clothes-free stage fashion (save socks strategically placed to circumvent legal difficulties), for crash-and-burn performances that were as popular as they were difficult to re-create in the studio, and for the kind of epic drug use that would have made them killer in the '60s but, in the case of original guitarist Hillel Slovak, was just a killer.