thats it


Mistakes, wrong assumptions, bad info   May 24, 2004
LJK (Los Angles CA, USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

Basically the musical context of the 70's and 80's, and how it influenced a lot the young soon-to-become RHCP founding members, is well described, as well as some facts and anecdotes from their youth, but otherwise the author made a lot of not so forgiveable mistakes, advancing relatively contestable interpretations, and sometimes just inventing things because he didn't have the right information. Recurrent mistakes with dates (only a half of all the dates he's quoting in the book are totally correct), confusing album names (at one point he's quoting Mother's Milk as their "imminent album" in 1991, instead of Blood Sugar Sex Magik), mispelling proper names (unable to spell Miles Davis' song "Jean-Pierre", Fishbone's bassist Norwood Fisher that he calls Norwood Fishbone, Keith Levine instead of Levene, and so on...).
The "almost positive" point for that book would be the band's discography at the end, which is quite complete and accurate, except for the "appearances elsewhere" which contains again a few mistakes that would easily have been avoided by getting the records and looking at them for the exact info...
If you want to learn about the basic story of the band, it's ok, but don't believe everything you're gonna read in there. If you want to know the detailed truth, i suggest you to wait for Anthony Kiedis' upcoming book.


Very Informative   March 30, 2000
Tyler Deis (Canada)
4 out of 6 found this review helpful

i found that this book did an extreemy good job of what i hoped it would, and that is tell me everything i wanted to know about my favorite band, but it does more then that, the book shows what was happening in music and what different influences they had. it follows them from the very begining and ends around the time they are looking at dave navarro to replace the vacuncey that john left. A MUST FOR EVERY TRUE FAN


Good band, poorly written book.   January 7, 2000
Huge RHCP fan (America)
7 out of 10 found this review helpful

I read this book wanting to know more about my idols, and got alot of info I wasn't looking for. The story jumped from RHCP to stuff that I totally wasn't interested in, having nothing to do with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, sometimes going on and on about other bands. Anthony Kiedis(lead singer) even said once in an interview that he's atleast looked at basically every book that's come out on the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and most of it's a bunch of lies to make them look good and interesting (though they are, but that's beside the point), writen without permission. I recommend this for any collector and fan, but just don't expect Hemingway quality reading. The book's included pictures are neat, though, showing most of the band members in their highschool days... You make the decision.


Good book for the uninitiated, but....   December 8, 1999
9 out of 10 found this review helpful

This is a good book if you have just come upon the chili peppers and want to get an understanding of where they come from, but if you are a rabid fan, you won't be interested in this book because the author creates a distance with himself and the chili peppers, which makes them out to be these "famous people", without getting into who they are, and what they are about. Its basically like watching their behind the music story, with a few more trade secrets. Not worth it if you are a diehard Chilis fan, but good if you are just getting into them.