A pivotal album for
the Red Hot Chili Peppers, 1989's
Mother's Milk turned the tide and transformed the band from underground funk-rocking rappers to mainstream bad boys with seemingly very little effort.
Mother's Milk brought them to
MTV, scored them a deal with
Warner Brothers, and let both frontman
Anthony Kiedis and the ubiquitous
Flea get back out into a good groove following the death of co-founding member
Hillel Slovak. With a new lineup coalescing around the remaining duo with new drummer
Chad Smith and guitarist
John Frusciante, and with producer
Michael Beinhorn again behind the boards, the band took everything that
The Uplift Mofo Party Plan hinted at, and brought it fully to bear for this new venture. If anyone doubted the pulsating power that leapt from the blistering opener,
"Good Time Boys," it took only a few bars of
the Red Hot Chili Peppers' outrageous, and brilliant, interpretation of the
Stevie Wonder classic
"Higher Ground" to prove that this new lineup was onto something special. Wrapping up with the aptly titled and truly punked-out
"Punk Rock Classic" and the band's own punched-up tribute to
"Magic Johnson," Mother's Milk was everything the band had hoped for, and a little more besides. Effortlessly going gold as
"Knock Me Down" and
"Taste the Pain" careened into the charts, the album not only set the stage for the band's
Blood Sugar Sex Magic domination, it also proved that
funk never died; it had just swapped skins. [The 2003 reissue of
Mother's Milk includes six bonus tracks, five of which are previously unreleased, including the
"Salute to Kareem" demo and a live version of
"Crosstown Traffic."] ~ Amy Hanson
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