I just read through the thread about "Stadium arcadium" and there's a lot of talk about the guitarists that the RHCP had in their ranks and so I figured it to be time to have a seperate thread about the guitarists that played in the Peppers. And by that I mean the ones who played on albums so Blackbird MacKnight, Jesse Tobias and Arik Marshall do not apply.
Jack Sherman
Played on "Red Hot Chili peppers" - 1984
Sherman was the kind of guy who could hear the difference between a straight guitar lead and a curly guitar lead, his lines and solos on that album are very Zappa like. Sherman eventually left the band because of the others bullying him about his nerdy nature and straight edge way of doing. Allthough nowadays Anthony Kiedis says that the RHCP probably never would have come off the ground without him, so in the long run they gave him the credit he deserved.
Sherman in "true men don't kill coyotes", note also the lack of tatoos on Flea and Anthony. Hillel Slovak
Played on "Freaky Styley", "The uplift Mofo Party plan" and several tracks of "Mother's milk"
With Jack Sherman out of the picture, Hillel came back into the fold (Sherman replaced Hillel because Hillel had a contract to fulfill with another band) Hillel had a very Jimi Hendrix inspired way of playing, less detailed than Sherman's but with added sincerity. Hillel also was the one who brought the punk element to the RHCP's sound spectrum. And yet he had only begun to blossom as a musician when he died from a drugs overdose.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers live during their "Freaky Styley" tour late 1985. John Frusciante
Played on "Mother's milk", "BloodSugarSexMagic", "Californication", "By the way" and "Stadium Arcadium"
You can say that there are two Frusciante era's with the RHCP: the youthfull abandon Frusciante who shredded like Steve Vai on "Mothers' milk" and "BSSM" and the mellowed out Frusciante on their more recent recordings. (although his solo on The Mars Volta "L Via, L viaques" shows that he's still capable of tearing it up)
The Peppers playing Pinkpop in 1990, note the then 18 year old frusciante rocking out Dave Navarro
Played on "One hot minute"
Anthony Kiedis discribes Navarro in his book as a second Jack Sherman, somebody who keeps on tinkerering with his gear and who's not used to jamming with the band in order to write material. Navarro was the most technical player of the RHCP, relying more on skill rather than emotion to craft his music.
The RHCP performing with Narro in 1996
Now my reason here is not to say "who was the best of them" but to name the things about all of them that caught our attention in both a positive and negative way. Let's talk about their different styles and what they added to the Peppers.
