Give It Away
Encyclopedia
"Give It Away" is a song by the American rock
band Red Hot Chili Peppers
. It was released in September 1991 as the lead single from the group's fifth studio album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik
. The music was written by guitarist John Frusciante
and bassist Flea
during a jam session
months prior to the album recording sessions. Vocalist Anthony Kiedis
wrote the song's most prevalent lyrical refrain in response to an experience he shared with former girlfriend Nina Hagen
regarding altruistic behavior and the value of selflessness.
While several radio stations originally refused to air the song because they felt it lacked melody, "Give It Away" went on to achieve international fame. It peaked at number one on the Billboard
Modern Rock Tracks
in late 1991 remaining there for 2 straight weeks and giving the band their first ever number one single, a record they would eventually break and hold twenty years later. In 1992 the single charted inside the top seventy-five of the U.S. Hot 100
in the wake of the huge success of the record's second single "Under the Bridge
". "Give It Away" also became the band's first top ten hit in the United Kingdom, where it peaked at number nine on the UK Singles Chart
.
The accompanying music video
, which was directed by French film-maker Stéphane Sednaoui
, was put into heavy rotation on music-television stations such as MTV
and added to the band's success. Since its release, "Give It Away" has gone on to receive numerous accolades, including a Grammy Award
for the Best Hard Rock Performance With Vocals in 1992. Steve Huey of Allmusic noted that while the single "didn't achieve the massive pop success of its follow-up, 'Under the Bridge
' [...] it did become one of the band's most instantly recognizable songs."
(1989), the duo spent time in a side project called H.A.T.E. with members of Fishbone
. During their tenure in the group, the guitarist and bassist created the main riff
and accompanying bassline for "Give It Away". The rhythm was played at several H.A.T.E. performances shortly thereafter, but when the side project disbanded Frusciante and Flea believed the track would be appropriate for the Chili Peppers' upcoming record. Vocalist Anthony Kiedis agreed, and upon hearing the rest of the Chili Peppers play the song he began chanting "give it away, give it away, give it away now". The phrase had been something the vocalist intended to incorporate into a song for the band's new record, but it was not until he heard the bassline that the lyrics fit. Kiedis said, "I was so struck by Flea's bass part, which covered the whole length of the instrument's neck, that I jumped up and marched over to the mic, my notebook in tow. I always had fragments of songs and ideas or even specific isolated phrases in mind."
The song was recorded between April and June 1991 at The Mansion in Los Angeles, California. Through the recording of "Give It Away" came a practice of crafting songs that the band would continue to use on every album following Blood Sugar Sex Magik. When the group encountered difficulty in composing a bridge for the song, it developed a tool the members colloquially termed "face-offs". Flea and Frusciante were unable to come to an agreement on guitar or bass progressions, but separately crafted part of the song. The band then reconvened at a later time and chose the most appropriate inclusion. With "Give It Away", a chorus and verse had already been written but a bridge was lacking, so thus they partook in a "face-off".
singer Nina Hagen
—in the early 1980s. Hagen was several years Kiedis' senior and became a role-model during his drug addiction to heroin: "she realized how young and inexperienced I was then, so she was always passing on gems to me, not in a preachy way, just by seizing on opportunities." When Kiedis was looking through her closet he came across a jacket he liked, and commented to Hagen that it was "really cool". Upon expressing this, Hagen immediately told him to keep it. Her reasoning behind this selflessness was due to an attempt to constantly make her life more enjoyable, and explained to Kiedis that "if you have a closet full of clothes and you try to keep them all, your life will get very small. But if you have a full closet and someone sees something they like, if you give it to them, the world is a better place."
The act was something that affected Kiedis significantly because he had never before experienced such an enlightening ideology on life. Growing up in Los Angeles he had always thought differently than Hagen; instead of giving material possessions away and being free thinking the vocalist believed one must take what they want as no one will provide for you. Instead, he now adopted Hagen's philosophy: "It was such an epiphany that someone would want to give me her favorite thing. That stuck with me forever. Every time I'd be thinking 'I have to keep,' I'd remember 'No, you gotta give away instead.' When I started going regularly to [drug and alcohol] meetings, one of the principles I had learned was that the way to maintain your own sobriety is to give it to another suffering alcoholic. Every time you empty your vessel of that energy, fresh new energy comes flooding in." Flea's bassline for the song allowed Kiedis to recall this incident and he believed the music paired perfectly with the lyrics. During the verses, Kiedis departs from the idea of unselfishness and sings about a variety of topics including long time friend River Phoenix
, musician Bob Marley
and various sexual themes including fertility
and lust
.
and rap rock
song and is performed in the time signature of 4/4 time
. The track begins with a distinctively "dry" guitar tone that is similar in style to the rest of the record. Producer Rick Rubin
had a considerable influence on the sound of Blood Sugar Sex Magik by removing much of the reverb
and guitar layering that epitomized the band's previous album Mother's Milk. This caused the record to contain simpler and dryer guitar and bass chords that were not filtered through guitar effects—those that did, however, were made with vintage electronics from the 1960s and 70s. For "Give It Away", along with the rest of the album, Rubin sought to achieve a sense of atmosphere that was similar to 60s records that were made without commercialism or viability in mind and to downplay on "big" sounds: "What you hear is what you get—there's not a lot of trickery. A lot of people want the biggest sound, with walls of guitar and huge drums. But I don't think those things matter." The song follows a traditional verse-chorus-verse structure; when Kiedis begins singing, Frusciante jumps into a funk-oriented riff
that is repeated throughout the verse while Flea plays a complex bass-line that makes use of virtually the entire fretboard
.
During the chorus, Kiedis sings "Give it away, give it away, give it away now" repeatedly over a more rapid guitar riff before Frusciante provides, according to Steve Huey of Allmusic, a "sudden contrast to Kiedis' hyperactivity in the form of a languid solo pre-recorded and dubbed backwards over the rhythm track." The solo was recorded in one take because Frusciante had developed a preference towards speedy execution and a raw feeling; according to Flea, "We did very little fix-up stuff. John's philosophy was that he would only play a solo twice. He'd play it once, and if he didn't like it or we didn't like it, he'd play it again—completely different. And that was it." "Give It Away" also makes use of other instruments like the jaw's harp, which was played by band friend Pete Weiss. The song continues through several verses and choruses before reaching a bridge that introduces the outro, which consists of "a hard-rocking riff" that, according to Huey, strongly resembles the main riff from Black Sabbath
's "Sweet Leaf
" from their 1971 record Master of Reality
. Kiedis repeats "Give it away now" for several measures before the guitar, bass and drums drop out.
, a Los Angeles based modern rock
station, began to place "Give It Away" on heavy rotation. According to Kiedis, "That was the beginning of the infusion of those songs into mass consciousness."
Critical reception to the song, much like the album, was highly positive. Jeff Vice of Deseret News noted "[this] dynamic first single that pays homage to Bob Marley, may start a new musical trend with its brilliant Rasta-funk." Patrick MacDonald of The Seattle Times
commented that "[Blood Sugar Sex Magik] includes one of the best songs the Peppers have done—'Give It Away', the first single. The hook is irresistible and the message, about 'material excess,' is delivered simply and straightforwardly." Steve Huey of Allmusic felt the song was enhanced by Kiedis' lyrics, which were "a free-associative mixture of positive vibes, tributes to musical heroes, and free love, and their literal meaning was often as difficult to understand as Kiedis' nasal, staccato enunciation. But that distinctive vocal style helped make the most comprehensible lines even catchier and more memorable, greatly enhancing the song's appeal." He continued by praising the track's music, "John Frusciante's guitar should not be underappreciated either; his noisy, scratchy funk-rock work add[s] depth and texture to the powerhouse rhythm section of Flea and Chad Smith." Jay Clarke of the Richmond Times-Dispatch
felt "Give It Away" was "a journey into the funky world of Kiedis and Flea. This song invigorates better than the heaviest metal or the most hard-core rap." Tom Moon of Rolling Stone
noted, "The pummeling 'Give It Away' [...] established a template for rock punctuated by the beatcentric relentlessness of hip-hop that would be appropriated by everyone."
Since the song's release, it has become a notable factor in the Red Hot Chili Peppers' success and has won a variety of accolades. "Give It Away" won a Grammy award
at the 35th Ceremony in 1993
for the "Best Hard Rock Performance
". In 1994 "Give It Away" was included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
's unordered list of the "500 Songs That Shaped Rock"; in 2002 Kerrang!
placed the song at number sixty-seven in their list of the "100 Greatest Singles of All Time"; in 2004 Q
included it in their unordered list of the "1001 Songs You Must Own!"; and VH1
awarded the song the fiftieth spot in its 2009 compilation of the "100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs". The song was also selected as one of many songs to hear and download in the musical reference book, 1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die: And 10,001 You Must Download.
The song has been peformed over 500 times in the twenty years since it's release making it the band's most performed song. During Stadium Arcadium tour
, the band decided for the first time to not perform "Give It Away" and "Under the Bridge" at every performance. This was sometimes met with negative reactions from auidence members who were not please with the band dropping two of their biggest songs from the setlist.
Stéphane Sednaoui
. Kiedis wanted the video to be visually distinct and readily identifiable but disliked much of the material Warner Bros. sent for him to choose from: "I started viewing reels and reels and reels of video directors but nothing looked good to me. Everything was the same, boring, homogenized, contrived shit." Upon finding Sednaoui's reel, however, Kiedis noticed it was "like nothing else. It was slower and poetic, shot in black and white. It seemed like authentic art, not something shot for MTV." He and Flea met with Sednaoui to talk about the video, for which the director proposed a "very desolated [and] very graphic landscape," while heavily focusing on the band members with little to no outside influence. It was decided that the video would be filmed in black and white while Sednaoui took the idea of painting the band members with silver acrylic
from previous photo shoots he had done. Sednaoui recalls that he was "amazed by what [the band] gave me because they went far far far beyond what I was expecting and I think that's one of my best experiences in that regard". The overall mood of the video was intended to be a personification of the song, which is upbeat and lively.
Sednaoui experimented with a variety of cinematography
techniques including wide-angle lenses
, shots from below the subjects, superimposition
, vertically cut screens displaying different angles of the same shot, reverse film effects, multiple lighting situations and flashy clothing to convey his concept. Frusciante noted the feeling of the video to be extremely vibrant and over the top: "When it was us just painting ourselves silver and wearing these big silver boots and stuff, I mean it felt like glam rock
or something." The video begins with a wide-angle shot of Flea in a desert
setting wearing pants with several gold colored horns
protruding from each leg. The bassist is standing in a meditative stance and brings his arms together above his head when the music begins to play. The video then transitions between a variety of shots edited together that consist of the four band members standing with their eyes closed; the band dancing around in a dimly lit setting; a ground view of Frusciante playing a reflective silver Fender Stratocaster
in between his legs while wearing pants made up entire of small pieces of mirror; the band members moving around with full makeup on; and the band members dancing frenziedly. Kiedis adopted a deliberately outlandish wardrobe which incorporated gold lipstick, thinly braided hair, revealing meshed shorts and bright silver boots.
During the backwards guitar solo, Frusciante was filmed waving a large aluminum ribbon; Kiedis was initially apprehensive about Sednaoui's desire for the guitarist to do so, believing he would tell the director "'Fuck you and take that dancing ribbon and shove it up your French ass, buddy' but [Frusciante] gladly went off and made love to the air with this dancing ribbon. He would have danced around for hours with that thing." The footage was edited in reverse to complement the solo. While some of the scenes in the video were planned with a storyboard
, much of it was improvised or made up on the spot over the two-day shoot. During a particular scene Kiedis began to move his tongue flamboyantly to dramatically accentuate the lyrics, which Sednaoui believed was extremely beneficial to the exuberant nature of the video. Where the video begins in what appears to be the daytime, it concludes at dusk with silhouettes of the band members running into the setting sun.
The video—which cost an estimated $
140,000 to produce—was completed while Kiedis and Frusciante were on a promotional trip through Europe in support of Blood Sugar Sex Magik. When the vocalist first saw it, he was "more hysterically ecstatic about that piece of visual footage than anything [the band had] ever done." Warner Bros. executives, however, were worried that the content would be "too weird" or "too artsy" for the general public and favored a more traditional premise in contrast to the experimental approach Sednaoui took. The video was ultimately released without being edited by the record label; since then it has been widely credited as being a considerable factor in the Red Hot Chili Peppers' success and greatly increased their international popularity. Journalist Jeff Apter noted the video's "funky brew of goofy looks, a subtle invasive hook, Flea's spindly fingered baseline and Kiedis' crotch-hugging shorts made the clip essential viewing across MTV throughout the last few months of 1991." Steve Huey of Allmusic commented in his review of the song that "MTV jumped all over the visually distinctive video." It was nominated for three awards—"Best Alternative Video", "Breakthrough Video", and "Best Art Direction"—at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards
, for which it won the latter two.
12" single (1991)
CD single (1991)
CD single 2 (1991)
CD single 3 (1991)
CD single 4 (1991)
Cassette single (1991)
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers is an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1983. The group's musical style primarily consists of rock with an emphasis on funk, as well as elements from other genres such as punk, hip hop and psychedelic rock...
. It was released in September 1991 as the lead single from the group's fifth studio album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Blood Sugar Sex Magik is the fifth studio album by American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, released on September 24, 1991. Produced by Rick Rubin, it was the band's first record released on Warner Bros. Records...
. The music was written by guitarist John Frusciante
John Frusciante
John Anthony Frusciante is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, record and film producer. He is best known as the former lead guitarist of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, with whom he had been for a number of years and recorded five studio albums...
and bassist Flea
Flea (musician)
Michael Peter Balzary , better known by his stage name Flea, is an Australian-American musician and occasional actor. He is best known as the bassist, co-founding member, and one of the composers of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers...
during a jam session
Jam session
Jam sessions are often used by musicians to develop new material, find suitable arrangements, or simply as a social gathering and communal practice session. Jam sessions may be based upon existing songs or forms, may be loosely based on an agreed chord progression or chart suggested by one...
months prior to the album recording sessions. Vocalist Anthony Kiedis
Anthony Kiedis
Anthony Kiedis is an American vocalist/lyricist, and occasional actor best known as the lead vocalist of the Grammy-winning American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers. Kiedis spent his youth in Grand Rapids, Michigan with his mother before moving, shortly before his 12th birthday, to Hollywood,...
wrote the song's most prevalent lyrical refrain in response to an experience he shared with former girlfriend Nina Hagen
Nina Hagen
Nina Hagen is a German singer and actress.-Early years:Hagen was born as Catharina Hagen in the former East Berlin, East Germany, the daughter of Hans Hagen , a scriptwriter, and Eva-Maria Hagen, an actress and singer...
regarding altruistic behavior and the value of selflessness.
While several radio stations originally refused to air the song because they felt it lacked melody, "Give It Away" went on to achieve international fame. It peaked at number one on the Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
Modern Rock Tracks
Modern Rock Tracks
Alternative Songs is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in Billboard magazine since September 10, 1988. It lists the 40 most-played songs on modern rock radio stations, most of which are alternative rock songs...
in late 1991 remaining there for 2 straight weeks and giving the band their first ever number one single, a record they would eventually break and hold twenty years later. In 1992 the single charted inside the top seventy-five of the U.S. Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
in the wake of the huge success of the record's second single "Under the Bridge
Under the Bridge
"Under the Bridge" is a song by American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, released on March 10, 1992 as the second single from the group's fifth studio album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Vocalist Anthony Kiedis wrote the lyrics to express a feeling of loneliness and despondency, and to reflect on...
". "Give It Away" also became the band's first top ten hit in the United Kingdom, where it peaked at number nine on the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
.
The accompanying music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
, which was directed by French film-maker Stéphane Sednaoui
Stéphane Sednaoui
Stéphane Sednaoui is a French-American photographer, director and producer whose work includes music videos, art projects, photographic essays, portrait photography, fashion photography and photojournalism....
, was put into heavy rotation on music-television stations such as MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
and added to the band's success. Since its release, "Give It Away" has gone on to receive numerous accolades, including a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
for the Best Hard Rock Performance With Vocals in 1992. Steve Huey of Allmusic noted that while the single "didn't achieve the massive pop success of its follow-up, 'Under the Bridge
Under the Bridge
"Under the Bridge" is a song by American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, released on March 10, 1992 as the second single from the group's fifth studio album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Vocalist Anthony Kiedis wrote the lyrics to express a feeling of loneliness and despondency, and to reflect on...
' [...] it did become one of the band's most instantly recognizable songs."
Origins and recording
Guitarist John Frusciante and bassist Flea wrote much of "Give It Away" during jam sessions in the early 1990s. Following the Chili Peppers' tour in support of Mother's MilkMother's Milk
Mother's Milk is the fourth studio album by American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, released on August 16, 1989, on EMI America Records. It was the first album to feature the band's most well-known lineup...
(1989), the duo spent time in a side project called H.A.T.E. with members of Fishbone
Fishbone
Fishbone is a U.S. alternative rock band formed in 1979 in Los Angeles, California, which plays a fusion of ska, punk rock, funk, hard rock and soul. Critics have noted of the band: "Fishbone was one of the most distinctive and eclectic alternative rock bands of the late '80s...
. During their tenure in the group, the guitarist and bassist created the main riff
RIFF
The Resource Interchange File Format is a generic file container format for storing data in tagged chunks. It is primarily used to store multimedia such as sound and video, though it may also be used to store any arbitrary data....
and accompanying bassline for "Give It Away". The rhythm was played at several H.A.T.E. performances shortly thereafter, but when the side project disbanded Frusciante and Flea believed the track would be appropriate for the Chili Peppers' upcoming record. Vocalist Anthony Kiedis agreed, and upon hearing the rest of the Chili Peppers play the song he began chanting "give it away, give it away, give it away now". The phrase had been something the vocalist intended to incorporate into a song for the band's new record, but it was not until he heard the bassline that the lyrics fit. Kiedis said, "I was so struck by Flea's bass part, which covered the whole length of the instrument's neck, that I jumped up and marched over to the mic, my notebook in tow. I always had fragments of songs and ideas or even specific isolated phrases in mind."
The song was recorded between April and June 1991 at The Mansion in Los Angeles, California. Through the recording of "Give It Away" came a practice of crafting songs that the band would continue to use on every album following Blood Sugar Sex Magik. When the group encountered difficulty in composing a bridge for the song, it developed a tool the members colloquially termed "face-offs". Flea and Frusciante were unable to come to an agreement on guitar or bass progressions, but separately crafted part of the song. The band then reconvened at a later time and chose the most appropriate inclusion. With "Give It Away", a chorus and verse had already been written but a bridge was lacking, so thus they partook in a "face-off".
Lyrics and meaning
The lyrical meaning behind "Give It Away" is centered around the philosophy of selflessness and altruistic behavior. The song is titled after its most prevalent lyrical phrase "give it away", which is taken from an experience Kiedis had with his former girlfriend—punk rockPunk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
singer Nina Hagen
Nina Hagen
Nina Hagen is a German singer and actress.-Early years:Hagen was born as Catharina Hagen in the former East Berlin, East Germany, the daughter of Hans Hagen , a scriptwriter, and Eva-Maria Hagen, an actress and singer...
—in the early 1980s. Hagen was several years Kiedis' senior and became a role-model during his drug addiction to heroin: "she realized how young and inexperienced I was then, so she was always passing on gems to me, not in a preachy way, just by seizing on opportunities." When Kiedis was looking through her closet he came across a jacket he liked, and commented to Hagen that it was "really cool". Upon expressing this, Hagen immediately told him to keep it. Her reasoning behind this selflessness was due to an attempt to constantly make her life more enjoyable, and explained to Kiedis that "if you have a closet full of clothes and you try to keep them all, your life will get very small. But if you have a full closet and someone sees something they like, if you give it to them, the world is a better place."
The act was something that affected Kiedis significantly because he had never before experienced such an enlightening ideology on life. Growing up in Los Angeles he had always thought differently than Hagen; instead of giving material possessions away and being free thinking the vocalist believed one must take what they want as no one will provide for you. Instead, he now adopted Hagen's philosophy: "It was such an epiphany that someone would want to give me her favorite thing. That stuck with me forever. Every time I'd be thinking 'I have to keep,' I'd remember 'No, you gotta give away instead.' When I started going regularly to [drug and alcohol] meetings, one of the principles I had learned was that the way to maintain your own sobriety is to give it to another suffering alcoholic. Every time you empty your vessel of that energy, fresh new energy comes flooding in." Flea's bassline for the song allowed Kiedis to recall this incident and he believed the music paired perfectly with the lyrics. During the verses, Kiedis departs from the idea of unselfishness and sings about a variety of topics including long time friend River Phoenix
River Phoenix
River Jude Phoenix was an American film actor, musician, and teen icon. He was the oldest brother of fellow actors Rain, Joaquin, Liberty, and Summer Phoenix.Phoenix began acting at age 10 in television commercials...
, musician Bob Marley
Bob Marley
Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley, OM was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician. He was the rhythm guitarist and lead singer for the ska, rocksteady and reggae band Bob Marley & The Wailers...
and various sexual themes including fertility
Fertility
Fertility is the natural capability of producing offsprings. As a measure, "fertility rate" is the number of children born per couple, person or population. Fertility differs from fecundity, which is defined as the potential for reproduction...
and lust
Lust
Lust is an emotional force that is directly associated with the thinking or fantasizing about one's desire, usually in a sexual way.-Etymology:The word lust is phonetically similar to the ancient Roman lustrum, which literally meant "purification"...
.
Music and composition
"Give It Away" is a funk rockFunk rock
Funk rock is a music genre that fuses funk and rock elements. Its earliest incarnation was heard in the late 1960s through the mid-1970s by acts such as the Jimi Hendrix Experience , Eric Burdon and War, Trapeze, Parliament-Funkadelic, Betty Davis and Mother's Finest. The 1990s were known for acts...
and rap rock
Rap rock
Rap rock is a cross-genre fusing vocal and instrumental elements of hip hop with various forms of rock. Rap rock is often confused with rap metal and rapcore, subgenres that include heavy metal-oriented and hardcore punk-oriented bands, respectively....
song and is performed in the time signature of 4/4 time
Time signature
The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....
. The track begins with a distinctively "dry" guitar tone that is similar in style to the rest of the record. Producer Rick Rubin
Rick Rubin
Frederick Jay "Rick" Rubin is an American record producer and the co-president of Columbia Records. Along with Russell Simmons, Rubin was the co-founder of Def Jam Records and also established American Recordings...
had a considerable influence on the sound of Blood Sugar Sex Magik by removing much of the reverb
Reverberation
Reverberation is the persistence of sound in a particular space after the original sound is removed. A reverberation, or reverb, is created when a sound is produced in an enclosed space causing a large number of echoes to build up and then slowly decay as the sound is absorbed by the walls and air...
and guitar layering that epitomized the band's previous album Mother's Milk. This caused the record to contain simpler and dryer guitar and bass chords that were not filtered through guitar effects—those that did, however, were made with vintage electronics from the 1960s and 70s. For "Give It Away", along with the rest of the album, Rubin sought to achieve a sense of atmosphere that was similar to 60s records that were made without commercialism or viability in mind and to downplay on "big" sounds: "What you hear is what you get—there's not a lot of trickery. A lot of people want the biggest sound, with walls of guitar and huge drums. But I don't think those things matter." The song follows a traditional verse-chorus-verse structure; when Kiedis begins singing, Frusciante jumps into a funk-oriented riff
RIFF
The Resource Interchange File Format is a generic file container format for storing data in tagged chunks. It is primarily used to store multimedia such as sound and video, though it may also be used to store any arbitrary data....
that is repeated throughout the verse while Flea plays a complex bass-line that makes use of virtually the entire fretboard
Fingerboard
The fingerboard is a part of most stringed instruments. It is a thin, long strip of material, usually wood, that is laminated to the front of the neck of an instrument and above which the strings run...
.
During the chorus, Kiedis sings "Give it away, give it away, give it away now" repeatedly over a more rapid guitar riff before Frusciante provides, according to Steve Huey of Allmusic, a "sudden contrast to Kiedis' hyperactivity in the form of a languid solo pre-recorded and dubbed backwards over the rhythm track." The solo was recorded in one take because Frusciante had developed a preference towards speedy execution and a raw feeling; according to Flea, "We did very little fix-up stuff. John's philosophy was that he would only play a solo twice. He'd play it once, and if he didn't like it or we didn't like it, he'd play it again—completely different. And that was it." "Give It Away" also makes use of other instruments like the jaw's harp, which was played by band friend Pete Weiss. The song continues through several verses and choruses before reaching a bridge that introduces the outro, which consists of "a hard-rocking riff" that, according to Huey, strongly resembles the main riff from Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath are an English heavy metal band, formed in Aston, Birmingham in 1969 by Ozzy Osbourne , Tony Iommi , Geezer Butler , and Bill Ward . The band has since experienced multiple line-up changes, with Tony Iommi the only constant presence in the band through the years. A total of 22...
's "Sweet Leaf
Sweet Leaf
"Sweet Leaf" is a song by Black Sabbath from their 1971 album Master of Reality. The song, a hymn to recreational cannabis use, got its title from a packet of cigarettes bassist Geezer Butler bought in Dublin that claimed the tobacco was "the sweet leaf." The song begins with a tape loop of...
" from their 1971 record Master of Reality
Master of Reality
Master of Reality is the third album by the British heavy metal band Black Sabbath, released in July 1971. It is sometimes noted as the first stoner rock album...
. Kiedis repeats "Give it away now" for several measures before the guitar, bass and drums drop out.
Release and reception
"Give It Away" was released as the lead single from Blood Sugar Sex Magik in early September 1991, shortly before the record went on sale. Warner Bros. sought to premiere the song on a popular rock radio station in Texas, but were turned down when the format refused to air the track—they told employees at the label to "come back to us when you have a melody in your song". The band then embarked on a short press tour through Europe in order to promote the record; it was during this time that K-RockKROQ-FM
KROQ-FM — branded 106.7 KROQ — is a commercial modern rock radio station licensed to Pasadena, California serving the Greater Los Angeles. The call sign is pronounced "kay rock." It is the flagship station of Loveline hosted by Dr...
, a Los Angeles based modern rock
Modern rock
Modern rock is a rock format commonly found on commercial radio; the format consists primarily of the alternative rock genre...
station, began to place "Give It Away" on heavy rotation. According to Kiedis, "That was the beginning of the infusion of those songs into mass consciousness."
Critical reception to the song, much like the album, was highly positive. Jeff Vice of Deseret News noted "[this] dynamic first single that pays homage to Bob Marley, may start a new musical trend with its brilliant Rasta-funk." Patrick MacDonald of The Seattle Times
The Seattle Times
The Seattle Times is a newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, US. It is the largest daily newspaper in the state of Washington. It has been, since the demise in 2009 of the printed version of the rival Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle's only major daily print newspaper.-History:The Seattle Times...
commented that "[Blood Sugar Sex Magik] includes one of the best songs the Peppers have done—'Give It Away', the first single. The hook is irresistible and the message, about 'material excess,' is delivered simply and straightforwardly." Steve Huey of Allmusic felt the song was enhanced by Kiedis' lyrics, which were "a free-associative mixture of positive vibes, tributes to musical heroes, and free love, and their literal meaning was often as difficult to understand as Kiedis' nasal, staccato enunciation. But that distinctive vocal style helped make the most comprehensible lines even catchier and more memorable, greatly enhancing the song's appeal." He continued by praising the track's music, "John Frusciante's guitar should not be underappreciated either; his noisy, scratchy funk-rock work add[s] depth and texture to the powerhouse rhythm section of Flea and Chad Smith." Jay Clarke of the Richmond Times-Dispatch
Richmond Times-Dispatch
The Richmond Times-Dispatch is the primary daily newspaper in Richmond the capital of Virginia, United States, and is commonly considered the "newspaper of record" for events occurring in much of the state...
felt "Give It Away" was "a journey into the funky world of Kiedis and Flea. This song invigorates better than the heaviest metal or the most hard-core rap." Tom Moon of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
noted, "The pummeling 'Give It Away' [...] established a template for rock punctuated by the beatcentric relentlessness of hip-hop that would be appropriated by everyone."
Since the song's release, it has become a notable factor in the Red Hot Chili Peppers' success and has won a variety of accolades. "Give It Away" won a Grammy award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
at the 35th Ceremony in 1993
Grammy Awards of 1993
The 35th Grammy Awards were held in 1993. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year. Eric Clapton was the night's big winner, winning 6 awards including Album of the Year.-Award winners:*Record of the Year...
for the "Best Hard Rock Performance
Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance
The Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance was an award presented to recording artists at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, for works containing quality performances in the hard rock music genre...
". In 1994 "Give It Away" was included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
's unordered list of the "500 Songs That Shaped Rock"; in 2002 Kerrang!
Kerrang!
Kerrang! is a UK-based magazine devoted to rock music published by Bauer Media Group. It was first published on June 6, 1981 as a one-off supplement in the Sounds newspaper...
placed the song at number sixty-seven in their list of the "100 Greatest Singles of All Time"; in 2004 Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
included it in their unordered list of the "1001 Songs You Must Own!"; and VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
awarded the song the fiftieth spot in its 2009 compilation of the "100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs". The song was also selected as one of many songs to hear and download in the musical reference book, 1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die: And 10,001 You Must Download.
The song has been peformed over 500 times in the twenty years since it's release making it the band's most performed song. During Stadium Arcadium tour
Stadium Arcadium Tour
The Stadium Arcadium tour was a 2006-2007 concert tour by the band Red Hot Chili Peppers in support of their album Stadium Arcadium. It was composed of seven legs, one for promotional shows around the world, three in Europe, one in Australia, New Zealand and Asia, and the other two in the US and...
, the band decided for the first time to not perform "Give It Away" and "Under the Bridge" at every performance. This was sometimes met with negative reactions from auidence members who were not please with the band dropping two of their biggest songs from the setlist.
Music video
The music video for "Give It Away" was made by French fashion photographer and directorMusic video director
A music video director is driven by a given music track. These are called music videos and are then used as promotional tools for popular music singles...
Stéphane Sednaoui
Stéphane Sednaoui
Stéphane Sednaoui is a French-American photographer, director and producer whose work includes music videos, art projects, photographic essays, portrait photography, fashion photography and photojournalism....
. Kiedis wanted the video to be visually distinct and readily identifiable but disliked much of the material Warner Bros. sent for him to choose from: "I started viewing reels and reels and reels of video directors but nothing looked good to me. Everything was the same, boring, homogenized, contrived shit." Upon finding Sednaoui's reel, however, Kiedis noticed it was "like nothing else. It was slower and poetic, shot in black and white. It seemed like authentic art, not something shot for MTV." He and Flea met with Sednaoui to talk about the video, for which the director proposed a "very desolated [and] very graphic landscape," while heavily focusing on the band members with little to no outside influence. It was decided that the video would be filmed in black and white while Sednaoui took the idea of painting the band members with silver acrylic
Acrylic paint
Acrylic paint is fast drying paint containing pigment suspension in acrylic polymer emulsion. Acrylic paints can be diluted with water, but become water-resistant when dry...
from previous photo shoots he had done. Sednaoui recalls that he was "amazed by what [the band] gave me because they went far far far beyond what I was expecting and I think that's one of my best experiences in that regard". The overall mood of the video was intended to be a personification of the song, which is upbeat and lively.
Sednaoui experimented with a variety of cinematography
Cinematography
Cinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...
techniques including wide-angle lenses
Wide-angle lens
From a design perspective, a wide angle lens is one that projects a substantially larger image circle than would be typical for a standard design lens of the same focal length; this enables either large tilt & shift movements with a view camera, or lenses with wide fields of view.More informally,...
, shots from below the subjects, superimposition
Superimposition
In graphics, superimposition is the placement of an image or video on top of an already-existing image or video, usually to add to the overall image effect, but also sometimes to conceal something .This technique is used in cartography to produce photomaps by superimposing grid lines, contour lines...
, vertically cut screens displaying different angles of the same shot, reverse film effects, multiple lighting situations and flashy clothing to convey his concept. Frusciante noted the feeling of the video to be extremely vibrant and over the top: "When it was us just painting ourselves silver and wearing these big silver boots and stuff, I mean it felt like glam rock
Glam rock
Glam rock is a style of rock and pop music that developed in the UK in the early 1970s, which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles, particularly platform-soled boots and glitter...
or something." The video begins with a wide-angle shot of Flea in a desert
Desert
A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...
setting wearing pants with several gold colored horns
Horn (anatomy)
A horn is a pointed projection of the skin on the head of various animals, consisting of a covering of horn surrounding a core of living bone. True horns are found mainly among the ruminant artiodactyls, in the families Antilocapridae and Bovidae...
protruding from each leg. The bassist is standing in a meditative stance and brings his arms together above his head when the music begins to play. The video then transitions between a variety of shots edited together that consist of the four band members standing with their eyes closed; the band dancing around in a dimly lit setting; a ground view of Frusciante playing a reflective silver Fender Stratocaster
Fender Stratocaster
The Fender Stratocaster, often referred to as "Strat", is a model of electric guitar designed by Leo Fender, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares in 1954, and manufactured continuously by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation to the present. It is a double-cutaway guitar, with an extended top...
in between his legs while wearing pants made up entire of small pieces of mirror; the band members moving around with full makeup on; and the band members dancing frenziedly. Kiedis adopted a deliberately outlandish wardrobe which incorporated gold lipstick, thinly braided hair, revealing meshed shorts and bright silver boots.
During the backwards guitar solo, Frusciante was filmed waving a large aluminum ribbon; Kiedis was initially apprehensive about Sednaoui's desire for the guitarist to do so, believing he would tell the director "'Fuck you and take that dancing ribbon and shove it up your French ass, buddy' but [Frusciante] gladly went off and made love to the air with this dancing ribbon. He would have danced around for hours with that thing." The footage was edited in reverse to complement the solo. While some of the scenes in the video were planned with a storyboard
Storyboard
Storyboards are graphic organizers in the form of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence....
, much of it was improvised or made up on the spot over the two-day shoot. During a particular scene Kiedis began to move his tongue flamboyantly to dramatically accentuate the lyrics, which Sednaoui believed was extremely beneficial to the exuberant nature of the video. Where the video begins in what appears to be the daytime, it concludes at dusk with silhouettes of the band members running into the setting sun.
The video—which cost an estimated $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
140,000 to produce—was completed while Kiedis and Frusciante were on a promotional trip through Europe in support of Blood Sugar Sex Magik. When the vocalist first saw it, he was "more hysterically ecstatic about that piece of visual footage than anything [the band had] ever done." Warner Bros. executives, however, were worried that the content would be "too weird" or "too artsy" for the general public and favored a more traditional premise in contrast to the experimental approach Sednaoui took. The video was ultimately released without being edited by the record label; since then it has been widely credited as being a considerable factor in the Red Hot Chili Peppers' success and greatly increased their international popularity. Journalist Jeff Apter noted the video's "funky brew of goofy looks, a subtle invasive hook, Flea's spindly fingered baseline and Kiedis' crotch-hugging shorts made the clip essential viewing across MTV throughout the last few months of 1991." Steve Huey of Allmusic commented in his review of the song that "MTV jumped all over the visually distinctive video." It was nominated for three awards—"Best Alternative Video", "Breakthrough Video", and "Best Art Direction"—at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards
MTV Video Music Awards
An MTV Video Music Award , is an award presented by the cable channel MTV to honor the best in music videos...
, for which it won the latter two.
Formats and track listing
7" single (1991)- "Give It Away" (Album) - 4:43
- "Give It Away" (12" Mix) - 6:02
12" single (1991)
- "Give It Away" (12" Mix) - 6:02
- "Give It Away" (Rasta Mix) - 6:47
- "Give It Away" (Single Mix) - 4:46
- "Search and Destroy" - 3:34
- "Give It Away" (Album) - 4:43
CD single (1991)
- "Give It Away" (Single Mix) - 4:46
- "Give It Away" (12" Mix) - 6:02
- "Search and Destroy" - 3:34
- "Give It Away" (Rasta Mix) - 6:47
- "Give It Away" (Album) - 4:43
CD single 2 (1991)
- "Give It Away" (Single Mix) - 4:46
- "Give It Away" (12" Mix) - 6:02
- "Give It Away" (Rasta Mix) - 6:47
- "Give It Away" (Album) - 4:43
- "Search and Destroy" - 3:34
- "Soul to SqueezeSoul to Squeeze"Soul to Squeeze" is a song by the American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers that was originally recorded during the production of their fifth studio album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik...
" - 4:50
CD single 3 (1991)
- "Give It Away" (Album) - 4:43
- "Search and Destroy" - 3:34
- "Soul to Squeeze" - 4:50
CD single 4 (1991)
- "Give It Away" (Single Mix) - 4:46
- "Give It Away" (12" Mix) - 6:02
- "Give It Away" (Rasta Mix) - 6:47
- "Soul to Squeeze" - 4:50
Cassette single (1991)
- "Give It Away" (Album) - 4:43
- "Search and Destroy" - 3:34
Charts
| Chart (1991) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian ARIA Singles Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
41 |
| French Singles Chart | 49 |
| Irish Singles Chart | 19 |
| UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
9 |
| US Billboard Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
73 |
| US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks Modern Rock Tracks Alternative Songs is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in Billboard magazine since September 10, 1988. It lists the 40 most-played songs on modern rock radio stations, most of which are alternative rock songs... |
1 |