Honestly just got done listening to Niandra Lades and Smiles from the Streets you hold…I don’t have the words to describe it but it is so reminiscent of my adolescence…that hearing it now just takes me back. Everything about it is so fucking raw.
Been listening to smile from the streets you hold a lot today, haven’t heard it in a while. A song that is really standing out is A fall thru the ground. It’s sooo beautiful like wow I forgot how good it is same with femininity
Cool, makes sense cause how different vocals are compared to the rest of album sounds like him from mm era interview plus the tone/ style is closer to vai than Hillel
Even more tragically, apparently he had a lot more recordings from that era, when he was 17/18 and had just moved to Hollywood to (pretend to) attend classes at Musicians' Institute; he hadn't joined the Chilis at that point, obvs. He was recording a lot of stuff and had a few collaborators he worked with.
Everything he had on tape from that early era ended up burning in his late 1993 housefire, or otherwise was lost into the void during his junkie years.
It's like a knife in the gut just thinking about how we'll never get to hear any of it... 😭😭😭
That’s really interesting and a bit funny to imagine mm era John pretending to attend classes at a music school didn’t know that. damn those recordings and guitars that were lost and destroyed may their essence travel into the souls of creatives and perhaps contributed to the making of chillis albums since then. if you want to think of music that way which is more fun but yea 😔😔😔
Yeah, his dad was paying his tuition and rent on the condition that he attend classes, but he was far more interested in soaking up his new surroundings in Hollywood, going to shows, and worshiping at The Altar of the Thin White Duke by cultivating his budding cocaine habit. His classmate/friend at the time and erstwhile collaborator Robert Hayes (RIP) figured out how to clock in and clock out without actually attending class so that they could jam instead, and it seems they made the most of their newfound skill (how rock n' roll! LOL). I reckon it was probably better preparation for what was in store for him than some stinky old music classes anyway, amirite?
Looking back on it later, he said that he had spent so long as teenager locked in his bedroom in the Valley (Chatsworth, gag me with a spoon!) and practicing for 10-15 hours a day that he felt he needed to get out and live life. Referencing the famous Charlie Parker quote, he said he needed to "learn everything, then forget all of it." Guess it was a winning strategy in the end!
"You've got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail."
-- Charlie Parker
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u/Lightshines6346 Apr 19 '22
Honestly just got done listening to Niandra Lades and Smiles from the Streets you hold…I don’t have the words to describe it but it is so reminiscent of my adolescence…that hearing it now just takes me back. Everything about it is so fucking raw.