One of the great mysteries of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' career is why "Soul to Squeeze" was left off the 1991 album Blood Sugar Sex Magik, and instead dumped on the Coneheads soundtrack a couple years later. Now, guitarist John Frusciante has spoken about the decision to cut that song from the album.
Speaking with Rick Rubin on the producer's podcast Broken Record, Frusciante revealed that the band were hesitant to put too many mellow songs on Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Since "Under the Bridge" and "I Could Have Lied" were already on the tracklist, they decided to axe "Soul to Squeeze."
Frusciante now regrets the decision. He recently went back and listened to all of his RHCP albums, and said, "When I listened to Blood Sugar, particularly — as great as it is and everything — I was just like, 'We were insane for not putting "Soul to Squeeze" on that album.' I remember clearly Flea's and my thinking. I remember us both particularly being like, 'No. Too much. As it is, we've got three songs like this, and that's already way more than enough,' or something like that."
Laughing, he echoed Rubin's assessment: "It's such a good song."
He acknowledged that Rubin tried to talk them into including it on the album. He told the producer, "You really did your best to convince us to put it on there. You were like, 'I think it's one of the best songs.'"
Listen to the conversation in the Spotify player embedded below; the discussion about "Soul to Squeeze" begins around the 37:30 mark.
"Soul to Squeeze" recently appeared on Exclaim!'s list of the 20 best Red Hot Chili Peppers songs. The band released the new album Return of the Dream Canteen this past week.
Speaking with Rick Rubin on the producer's podcast Broken Record, Frusciante revealed that the band were hesitant to put too many mellow songs on Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Since "Under the Bridge" and "I Could Have Lied" were already on the tracklist, they decided to axe "Soul to Squeeze."
Frusciante now regrets the decision. He recently went back and listened to all of his RHCP albums, and said, "When I listened to Blood Sugar, particularly — as great as it is and everything — I was just like, 'We were insane for not putting "Soul to Squeeze" on that album.' I remember clearly Flea's and my thinking. I remember us both particularly being like, 'No. Too much. As it is, we've got three songs like this, and that's already way more than enough,' or something like that."
Laughing, he echoed Rubin's assessment: "It's such a good song."
He acknowledged that Rubin tried to talk them into including it on the album. He told the producer, "You really did your best to convince us to put it on there. You were like, 'I think it's one of the best songs.'"
Listen to the conversation in the Spotify player embedded below; the discussion about "Soul to Squeeze" begins around the 37:30 mark.
"Soul to Squeeze" recently appeared on Exclaim!'s list of the 20 best Red Hot Chili Peppers songs. The band released the new album Return of the Dream Canteen this past week.
