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John Frusciante left the RHCPs?

When I said he was the glue that held them together I meant musically speaking. Frusciante took the Peppers into territory they would have never ventured into without his vision. Navarro, Slovak, Sherman, they never had the depth to push the envelope.

Then again I know plenty of people that like the stuff they did before Frusciante joined. I like nearly everything (except song Battle Ship from them) so I can't really say yay or nay for that matter. Band though sounds really different depending on the guitarist, but I think that guitar has always been the cream on top of the cake that makes it look different, Flea and Anthony being the only originals or as I would call the core. Oh well, that's my opinion :smug:

Oh and I too love Frusciantes solo albums, even the ones made in his heroin addiction days.
 
While I've always liked John's Hendrix-infused style, I really didn't like what he did on their latest album, too many distorted power chords and guitar overdubs, he was really starting to sound like any other guitarist and making the band sound closer to your average radio rock band in the process. I preferred his more minimalist style that left a lot of space on the albums before that.

Seeing them team up with Navarro again would be interesting (One Hot Minute struck me as pretty damn awesome and complex) although he didn't really seem that great at the funky guitar playing thing and made the band sound more like some kind of grunge band.

I agree that I liked the minimalist style tiny bit more, made them sound different from other bands. Though he himself has said if I remember correctly that on every album he tries some new sort of stuff, which I think is pretty noticeable too.

About Navarro, well I liked it too, but as it came clear in Anthony's book, there was also this "problem" that it wasn't their usual style of doing music. What I mean by "usual" is jamming and stuff. Anthony said that Navarro couldn't just go in and jam or something. I can't really anymore remember that well but I hope I didn't mix up the reality too much, don't take me too literally.
 
I once (late 80s) read an interview with Anthony and Flea where they talked about the brief pre-Frusciante period when they had DH Peligro (Dead Kennedys) on drums and Blackbyrd McKnight (Headhunters, P-Funk) on guitar. They said it didn't work out because as much as they liked those guys, "they just couldn't keep up with the funk" HAHAHAHA
 
As much as I love the RHCP, as I get older those older albums are just really starting to sound very juvenile to me. It's like here's the kitchen sink with some funk in it, eat it.

The stuff that they've done with John over the last 8 or 9 years has been much more song oriented. As much as we all love Flea, you've got to admit it was John who has really brought the song writting to the fore ground of the band. Without him.....I don't know.
 
John leaving is the worst thing that could possibly happen to them right now. I thought stadium arcadium was one of their most mature greatest albums. The backup vocals and guitar riffs that frusciante brings to the band are key. Yes flea will still rock the bass, but the thing about frusciante is that he pushed flea and the other band members. Anthony and flea have even said in interviews that writing with anyone else has never been as easy as writing with john.

On Frusciante's solo work, its fantastic. He may not be the most fantastic singer at times but it works great and every thing is so emotional. That being said hes put out like 10 solo albums and managed to make his last one in the time off that they had. If they would just take more time in between albums he could be a solo artist and play with the chilli peppers. I think this is a big mistake on his part, but hes always marched to the beat of his own drum.
 
As much as I like JF, I think they have the potential to work well with another guitarist. I would love to see someone like Buckethead or the guitarist from Thrice; who is a great minimalist guitarist and has some amazing song writing abilities. Tom Morello would be an interesting fit with the Peppers as well. IMO John is the only one in the band that could be replaced. They would be hard pressed to find a drummer that locks with Flea like Chad does, Fleas funk and energy can't be replaced and it simply would be the Peppers without Anthony.

lowsound
 
I always felt like the backbone of the chili peppers was the rhythm section...the more control they gave to JF the less I liked it. Having said that I don't like when bands stay in their comfort zone and try to make the same album over and over so I'll give them credit for that.

I've been wanting to see flea do something else for a while but maybe working w/ a different guitarist will be cool also if the rhcp choose to do so.
 
RHCP shoul've called it quits years ago, I mean frusciante and flea are amazing musicians and when they engage in more experimental and original stuff they are really good.

RHCP is nothing more than a brand nowadays, chewing and spitting the same old formula again and again for the last 15 years...

I would love to ear new stuff that sound more actual and original from theses two guys. So Frusciante leaving to do his own stuff is a good thing. I'm sure that nowadays, money isn't really a problem for him anyway.
 
Sorry to all the Frusc Fans, but I see this as a great chance for RHCP to FINALLY get a really GOOD guitarist! Yeah, yeah, flame away, but I personally thought JF was an okay guitarist at best. Listen to that "solo" on "Californication"... Holy crap, guys, my wife could play that solo blindfolded, and she knows less about guitar than our ten-month-old son.

There are SO many great players out there looking for gigs — I mean big name players — who could lift RHCP to new greatness. I'd LOVE LOVE LOVE to see Richie Kotzen get that call!!!
 
John leaving is the worst thing that could possibly happen to them right now. I thought stadium arcadium was one of their most mature greatest albums. The backup vocals and guitar riffs that frusciante brings to the band are key. Yes flea will still rock the bass, but the thing about frusciante is that he pushed flea and the other band members. Anthony and flea have even said in interviews that writing with anyone else has never been as easy as writing with john.

I partially agree, but how do we know how they're going to manage with some other guitarist? As much as I love Fruciantes playing, I'm still interested to see how this will end up. If it really is Josh that is replacing Fruciante, I wouldn't be surprised if they'd get along well. I mean Josh has helped out Frusciante on his solo albums and they've have it work so why wouldn't there be a chance that Josh would be good with peppers too. And hasn't Josh been actually touring guitarist with peppers before too?

Not saying this will be the case but am interested to see what happens.
 
IMHO, the best of the RHCPs was pre-John anyway. What a idiot though, what else is he going to do -- I would have never gotten off of that gravy train... Drugs, alcohol and dumbassity... a deadly combination!

yeah. john was really just an attempt to replace hillel (is that his first name? its been a while..) and IMO john frucante is awful. i do love blood sugar sex magic, but the rest of the stuff with him is junk to me.

i might be interested in hearing a new guitarist with them.. but if its an attempt to replace john, ill pass..