RHCP perform Higher Ground on David Letterman Show
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- Опубликовано: 21 апр 2011
- This show aired Friday March 30,1990 featuring the Red Hot Chili Peppers high energy performance of the Stevie Wonder classic "Higher Ground" on Latenight with David Letterman. Promoting their new album (at the time) Mother's Milk.
I think Letterman had a rule that you could play but that his band had to play WITH you. This is why you see an out-of-place Will Lee singing backups etc.
During the Mother's Milk tour, which took place from September 1989 to August 1990, the Red Hot Chili Peppers lineup consisted of the following members:
Anthony Kiedis - Lead vocals
Flea (Michael Balzary) - Bass, backing vocals
Chad Smith - Drums, percussion
John Frusciante - Guitar, backing vocals
This lineup is notable as it marked the debut of John Frusciante as the band's guitarist, replacing Hillel Slovak, who tragically passed away from a heroin overdose in 1988. The Mother's Milk album, released in 1989, was the band's fourth studio album and the first to feature John Frusciante. 
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If these guys could only overcome their shyness onstage they can be a great act.
They really do need to loosen up.
yeah they really oughta lose their clothes, they got too much on theyre covering themselves
Yep,,,,,and louder
If they could branch out from Shoegaze they'd be epic
You say that but John seemed to have some deal of stage fright earlier on
Frusciante was 20 years old here. I need to do more with my life.
+Matt D Yup. I feel very shitty right now. 28 and have played it safe my whole life.
But he is a virtuoso so don't get too down on yourself. His talent is definitely comparable to that of Jimi Hendrix. One of those people you can say were born to their craft, John Frusciante was fucking born to play guitar.
+TehGrahmmerNahzi wrong.
alexcordina are you going to elaborate or do you usually just spout bullshit without providing a reason?
+TehGrahmmerNahzi I never saw the point in arguing
I’m so amazed that this whole band made it through and are still alive
they didnt..their guitarist Hillel Slovak OD'd on heroin
But they didn't, their original founding guitarist died of a heroin overdose.
@@DrummahMikethey wouldn’t be them if it didn’t happen
RIP Hillel Slovak. 🕊️
No lip-synch, no auto tune, just energy and sweat! a complete joy!
Given how the singer hardly ever hits the notes in key, auto-tune wold have been a good thing.
@@c.a.t.732 that’s the beauty innit?
They also meshed with Paul Shaffer and Worlds Most Dangerous Band beautifully. Gives it a wonderful full sound.
@@swampd1966 - I eat Limburger Cheese snadwiches on rye bread, with a thick slice of white onion, topped with salt and pepper. It's more enjoyable.
@@c.a.t.732 S.C.A.T.
Maybe some nice perfectly sterile music stitched together by the chatGTP bot would be more to your liking?
I swear to god, no one can wear Stuffed Animals as pants, and be as badass as Flea.
AAAAAMEN
I don't think anyone can really do anything as badass as Flea.
LordOfTheWatchmen wish I could cop a pair of those🤣
Young MC video Busta Move he's wearing those pants.
😂😂😂
Seeing them make me want to accomplish my biggest dream. Becoming a Automotive Collision Repair Tech. I know that has nothing to do with Red Hot Chili Peppers but damn can they give off some great energy.
Edit (2022): I am a Repair Tech! I didn't expect this comment to blow up. But I love the positivity and I hope you all achieve your goals.
Edit (October 15, 2022)
I just got my second raise and promotion! Next steps is getting certifications so I can move into management. Peace and love for everybody 💜
do it, nothing nor any person can stop you from that dream but yourself.
+Alex White Thanks man. I really needed that.
I see your point. Personally I want to be an awesome Art teacher.
Isaiah Johnson Good luck in whatever.
aMaNDa Rescues Thanks, it means a lot.
Flea is 100% musician - he jumps into War Pigs with the band on the fade out - awesome
As he should. Good music is good music.
My guess is that the song was Hendrix's If 6 Was 9
@@nickbalkissoon6311great catch!
Always loved letterman for greeting the whole band, not just the singer. Every single member every time. ❤
Experienced it also ..and appreciate it(I’ll oil slick)(Joe Theismann pencil sharpener)
26 years later and Anthony still can't find a shirt
At least he found pants !
mmmm he don't need a shirt!
Plenty of socks, yeah?
He don't need shirts. All he need is a sock.
I think it's the shirts who can't find him
There's definitely a huge difference between the way John acted when his first joined the band like in this vid, and how he was right after BSSM came out, and then after he rejoined the band he was like a completely different person all over again. Seriously, when I look at all the videos of John from 1989-2008 and compare it's like I'm looking at 3 or 4 different people depending on the time period. There was young wild John, mad depressed John, junkie John, & finally, happy Jesus looking John.
I know. The mind is a strange wonderful thing
I like to think that back in those days the band were making songs that they like, not mainstream songs.
Before mainstream songs they were they.
After mainstream songs they became what they are today. Californication was their higher ground but was also their decadence.
Thats Hillel.
@@jeremymartin7481 no it's not its john
Literally a different person. Even his guitar playing is a completely different style.
Who would imagine that 30 years later that young guitarist would turn out to be one of the greatest geniuses of all times.
Crazy world. God is good
Yes a guitarist and Albert Einstein are in the same category.
Agree! Sid McGinnis is an incredible guitarist!
I dont think so lol. Hes not a genius
He was already considered exceptional back then. At that young age.
Ahh the memories. When I was 19, I lived with my uncle and we both worked 2nd shift at a steel mill. Every night we'd grab some grub on the way home and watch letterman. I remember watching this episode the day it aired. Fuckin bad ass band!!
Damn, so much energy in these guys. This is how all rock should be.
And so much cocaine ...
Ben Bedwell Have you seen the video of their first ever tv appearance. They're bouncing off the fucking walls hahaha. Shits nuts..
cocaine my friend
"Cocaine's a powerful drug"-Rick James. Frusciante' almost didn't make it because of heroin addiction
What drug of choice do you think that NRG is coming from? After all, Anthony took them ALL!!!!
That amazing energy
+TheNirvanaConcerts ikr, they made their songs look so easy to play...Its not, requires so much energy! D: And focus
+TheNirvanaConcerts Yes, well...Red Bull gives you wings but Meth gives you warp speed : )
+BikeSwimLaugh greatest. Comment. Ever.
LOL, wow....thanks! : ) I've met Flea and I can tell you there are 31 flavors of crazy and he has 32 of them!
exactly:energy and too much focus
I was 22 when this album came out and 30+ years later, I still get goosebumps from this performance. So great!
and 30 years later this is the last good album the RHCP released. even BSSM was radio friendly saccharine pop with no soul.
Mè, too
Chili Peppers in their youth, priceless!! Impossible to repeat anything remotely close to this with what we are offered today.
You just haven't looked
How John's head did not fly off his body is beyond me. What a performance !!
Flea looks like a pinata.
+2D's Incarnate Dead on
+Logan Collier n:@
Flea is a pinata
Logan Collier Also Flea appears with that crazy look on the video of rapper *Young MC* " Bust a move, where he plays their funky bass ruclips.net/video/6qixMmcXh0E/видео.html
He is, a bass playing pinata
Probably only one here in 2020... but real fandoms never die 🤘🏽 long live
I feel ya bro. Classic LIVE performance.
I'm here bro, lockdown 2020. Always listening
🥂
Rock!
This is one of the best live music videos on earth .....long live
A perfect transition from the 80s to the 90s. This exact song on this exact album connects the two decades.
I love how John used to stand playing the guitar at that time, his style was so rock and funkyyyy
john always stood, i feel like youre confusing him with josh who sits
Nono, I mean his style while standing, laidback in a way.
***** You're probably a troll. I'll respond anyway. Mike is referring to lithiumissick42's comment, not to John Frusciante.
That is Hilel Slovak my friend
NinjaNugget that is johns funky rock alternative stance
You don't see new bands play like this with that much energy and with 4 musicians who are that talented. RHCP the best ever
correct they sing boring crap the your mum likes and your auntie. What happened to your parents hating everything about you and your tastes???
What a performance!
You can tell John is a HUGE Hendrix fan.
He was huge fan of Funkadelic and Frank Zappa.
@Chuck Buskee plenty of famous players don't like hendrix. lol. he's fine and all, but that comment is just....
Higher Ground...a Stevie Wonder song. Yes JF is a huge Hendrix fan, but how could you garner that from watching him in this performance?
Iconic performance. Bought the CD in 1990. Still one of my favorite RHCP songs.
One of you're favourite songs is a cover?
Well, it’s Stevie Wonder’s song… but I get what you’re saying.
Weird seeing john with a strat in such good condition xD
Let alone a post cbs
Yeah, the Strat looked pretty good too!
3:23 Anthony's mic stops working so he grabs Flea's hahaha.
God I would pay a lot of money to see a performance with this energy on letterman these days
He unplugged it at 3:08. It was only a matter of time, really, what with all of the running and jumping around.
why does flea even have one lmao
@@degrassi420 because of 1:57 and 3:10
I hate when people say Anthony’s a bad singer..he has one of the most beautiful natural voices I’ve ever heard. Very raw. Very emotional. Very talented.
No shit, for some reason people only talk about the undercut shirt budget, Chad and Flea or whoever guitar guy they ever had, but it's really hard to imagine Peppers without Anthony's power vocals.
Anthony is a really bad singer...sorry.
@@cheebateamf off he’s the best for the RHCP onlu
I can see here how influenced klinghoffer was by early frusciante and frusciante by hillel. The momentum this band has had is incredible
Letterman to this day says it was the best aftershow party he has ever had.
Flea really kicks ass on the Bass. You can clearly see his true talent here.
Stevie. We love you. All of us.
3:31 love the way john and flea play together
The ultimate mashup MUST happen. Stevie Wonder...RHCP...THIS SONG!
I love how they high five each other !!
you know, young john is the coolest guy will ever live
The fact that we just hit the 33 year anniversary of this performance both pleases and horrifies me, as I remember watching it live, and it honestly doesn't feel like it was that long ago.
Yes @regornam I stayed up late to record this on my Dad's VCR. Glad I did.
Freaking amazing. How much harder can a band rock?
A lot harder.
yeah, a LOT
This doesn't even touch the tip of the iceberg of how hard a band can rock. And how is it freaking amazing? It's an average performance at best.
Three words. Faith No More. End of.
I’ve sent me the Rest and the RHCP are the best
Love John's energy and stage presence
This is the best chillis performance I've seen in ages
I love John’s facial expressions! He was and still is a god!
Totally legit passion.
Higher Ground was my introduction to the Chillis. At the time I thought it was the coolest thing on earth as 4 white cats from Hollywood were covering a Stevie Wonder tune.
Corey Cavalier I caught them a couple of albums earlier (Freaky Styley) on a skateboarding video performing black eyed blonde, performing in 2 foot high voodoo masks and wearing only socks over their privates. I thought they where amazing. I kinda thought they jumped the shark later and to be honest their older stuff hasn't aged well,but for a while in the late 80s as a skateboarder kid,, they where my favorite band around.
You were right
All four of them are just swag bombs. I bet just sitting on a couch with John,Flea,Chad, and Anthony smoking some joints and chilling is as good as it gets
I doubt it, Anthony would have you shooting dope before the night was over.
Aryan8Pride8 none of them do drugs any more
Harry Pearce
I wouldn´t be so sure about this. Hard drugs not, ok, but weed, I think from time to time
They don't, read Anthony Kiedis' autobiography
Harry Pearce Anthony autobiography!?!?!? my god, how many years had passed since this book, exaclty 10! and I red the book. You know, things can change every day/week/month, What do you think happens after 10 years!!?
why Anthony wears a shirt with a Marihuana leaf the last couple of years, death song, you know. Ok, maybe because he wants to Support the legalization campaign. but things are changing, in Anthonys life as well for sure.
Loved the early days they brought a whole new energy to the game
I miss that stuff so much. I saw them here back in nineteen eighty sit's at a club called the limelight here in honolulu. They were full on painted and rocking out with their socks out. Probably one of the best shows i've ever seen.
@@scottkinney7936 Awesome!
I shouldn’t have watched this before going to bed. I want to go outside and run now. So much energy
best thing that ever happend on David Letterman
Slick as fuck performance. Best to this day
I really love the way John moved his tongue while he was playing omg looks so different Now, you wont think he is the same person
Damn, this song is 32 years old! I was 23 back then, and now i'm only 4 years away from 60!!
It's actually older than that. It's a great cover of a Stevie Wonder song..
Frusciantes tone is just beast mode on this performance. Love this.
Its playback from the album version... Look how he stops playing and still can hear the guitar
@@xfbhhhhh The extra guitarist here?
@@koalafishmutantbird4682 what?
@@xfbhhhhh there are two guitarists on stage
And now John is back! ❤
JOHN AND ANTHONY ARE JUST SO BEAUTIFUL
Only saw this recently. Might be my favorite musical guest Letterman performance -WOW!
That fucking energy!!!!!!!!
3:34 gives me chills man
That segment rocks so hard. Never gets old.
John was so punk rock, badass!
Remember watching this when it aired.
Same🤘
When the red hot chili peppers had the most explosive energy live on stage !! Oh man the good old days
New York is not used the the West coast vibe....
At the hieght of their heroine and crack addiction. Love RHCP btw. People should know they were not in a good place at the time....
At the hieght of their heroine and crack addiction. Love RHCP btw. People should know they were not in a good place at the time....
Funk meets speed...and other assorted chemicals
CHEMICALSSSDDDDDD.....
Funk meet punk
Anthony for sure mixed it up
Yes! This is definitely a ‘fueled’ performance. ✌🏼
Speedball … ;-)
FRUSCIANTE AND CHAD were vital to the band going meteoric
john here was very young, he started playing guitar when he was 5, i started year ago and now im 14, in may next year i'll be 15... i just wish i could get the success and play like john there, sadly my parents won't let me fully dedicate to my passion and make me doing school and useless stuff i'll forgot when i'll be adult, he is virtuoso but still, i'd give away my soul to be as good and creative as john... well only thing i can do is practice as much as i can and pray for miracle to happen, a thing to click between me and my guitar
Crazy how long they’ve been doing it and still are this energetic
Mothers Milk. Their best album to date. Period.
Dirts there best album or maybe angel dust
I'm one of there biggest fans hands down
OMG chad smith in this video
3:28. Lol
Honestly I didn't think that was him lol
darkangel13915 yeah he had long hair
darkangel13915 It's Chad
That's actually Will Ferrell...
This was the song that made me a fan. I remember it being released when I was a teenager and was hooked!
I smiled the whole time I was watching this. Over the top freaks! My generation! (I was 22 in 1990)
the eye goes to John everytime
Wow the energy! And they continued through a succession of super song writings and established themselves as one of the great bands of all times
love watching this old stuff and seeing how they have evolved over the years. I love them all so much
This seemed so impossible when it was happening. What an exciting time.
wow
such funk
so swing
Much speed
Great cover of a Stevie Wonder song.
they rock so fucking hard man
4:01
This feeling of "Guys we did it"
Makes me happy :D
WOW!!! How Crazy was that!! I just read Scar Tissue by Anthony K. Thanks for sharing.
Pure talent and energy!
They did more with a 10' X 10' stage than any band did with their big stage setups!
0TruckMafk ☢TM™"... The BigMean CommentSection BadAss its all for just show I think. Anyband could easily perform their songs witg the 3 piece guitars and drums with some extra performers.
John was my hero in the 90s
EPIC!
2:41 John's reaction to that dudes backing vocals XD
+Billy Bob LOL!!!! Tongue Out of Cheek!!!
+Billy Bob I'm going to make a gif of that, it's too perfect not to
hahahaha he wss doing like the guitar with his tongue
lmfao...
It didn't look like that to me, I think he was just making faces, it was part of his stage behavior, he did stuff like that all the time.
Holy shit John.
1980's Red Hot Chili Peppers are awesome. Very recommended to anyone who wants to be bassist to learn from their 1980's albums, regardless what your genre is.
That was awesome
Killing that slap bass!!!!!! Good stuff 👍
Pure energy!!!!!
Plus some cocaine 😂
still one of my favorite songs. Awesome!
A hail storm of groove! Even now I couldn’t stop watching.
Jesus christ what an amazing performance. It took me the whole video to realize that Chad was standing at the drums though :D Once i saw it, that was the only thing I could focus on xD
John, brincando com a guitarra.
Nesse tempo o coro comia.
Melhor tempo da banda.
Perfeição.
Verdade, energia pura.
Man, what I wouldn't give to have been old enough to see them live back in those days. Mother's Milk is easily my favorite RHCP record, and the end of the first (and my favorite) period in their career, and the energy they had onstage back then is close to unmatched in musical history.
Babe fruuuuu
I adore the RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS! THEY DO NO WRONG! MOST AWSOME SPIRITS ON OUR PLANET! PRESTON JOHNSTONE, HOUSTON TEXAS.
Chad on timbales lololol wtf hes smashing the shit out of those things. Will Lee the house bassist singing backup. pretty cool moment.
There was a rule with the bands playing on the show. Since Late Night was produced by Carson, he didn't want to compete having full bands on his show and on Letterman's so you'll notice all the Late Night shows they pretty much never had the full band. That's why Chad is playing percussion lol and Anton playing drums. Will could obviously play this song on bass but not with the energy Flea has.
Paul Shaffer on the KEYS, from THUNDER BAY BABY!!!
@@Redhotlugnut your 4 yo comment gave me all the answer I needed watching this video on 10/08/2021. Thanks bro!
Ils sont tellement à fond sur ce morceau ! Excellent ! Big Love from France
Love how Flea calmly shakes Dave's hand at the end.
This was a much more spirited version then what they played at the Rock HOF induction w/ Slash! John was on fire here. I always liked his stage presence during this era of the band..even though he apparently thought it was too "macho". This is badass, thx for posting.
4:21 John's face confronting Letterman is awesome :)
I'd say that fsce was more from Anthony's groping
its not John Frusciante, fucking moron
@@yyguuyg It's an alien
wow their powerful energy... speechless... Awesome
Great higher ground
2019 and Stevie still Approves 🤘🏾
Johns such a madman on this
Legendary cover of a legendary song.
SON ÚNICOS Y ESPECTACULARES, POR ESO IRE A VERLOS EL 2023 COMO SEAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
Envidia de la buena, ojalá venga algún día a mi país República Dominicana 🇩🇴 😊