By the Way (Red Hot Chili Peppers song)

"By the Way"
Song
B-side	"Time ; Teenager in Love"

"By the Way" is a song by the Red Hot Chili Peppers from their eighth studio album, By the Way. It was released as the album's foremost single and, eventually, a climactic music video was made as an accompaniment. It is one of the few tracks on its identically named recording which has successfully safeguarded the once quintessential Chili Peppers style of agro-base lines and rhythmic, rap-driven verses. However more melodic works are at play in the chorus as a preview of the subsequent tracks to come. It is, in essence, the beginning of a new chapter in their extensive and ever changing song catalogue.

The track is a popular and energetic number when played in concert, and always included in a live act albeit circumstances when they include only a small amount of songs (such as special performances) in their repertoire. Most recently, it has established itself among the final songs to be engaged at a concert whereas two years previously, it may perhaps have been the show’s introduction.

Music video

The fanatical video was directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, a couple who has collaborated with the band to create music videos on numerous other occasions. It is not a visual verbatim demonstration of the lyrical denotations, but rather a story all its own.

A wild cabdriver who is, apparently, a Chili Pepper enthusiast, "kidnaps" Anthony Kiedis upon realization of who he is. Kiedis, who appears apprehensive when the cabbie begins to lock the car door, and drive fervently and ardently throughout the city (all the while swerving between countless other vehicles and visiting various places), pages fellow band member John Frusciante who is with Flea. At first, they are skeptical as to whether or not Kiedis is playing tricks or his message is indeed accurate; they ultimately dismiss it as a hoax. A subsequent page causes the two, who are passively eating lunch, to hastily embark on a wild voyage to retrieve their comrade.

Eventually, Frusciante and Flea's vibrant orange Ford Bronco advances on the taxi cab and, when side by side, Kieids shatters the back-seat window, scrambles hurriedly out and soars, undamaged, into the back of the Bronco where the now reunited three-some turn precariously into another street before the cabdriver can pursue them to any further extent. Chad Smith (the only band member not yet shown in the video) is nearby, also beckoning for a taxi. He, ironically, gets into the same one; the cabdriver realizes his good fortune and speeds off.

It’s Kidnapping… A cab driver kidnaps me and just goes haywire through the town; he’s a fan, but he’s kind of a (pause) obsessive, compulsive, psychologically misarranged fan, and he sees me and starts enjoying himself a little too much and my friends have to come and rescue me.

Anthony Kiedis – The Making of: By the Way; Greatest Hits

Lyrical Depiction

In reality, contrary to the music video, the song tells an ambiguous story of a girl named Dani. It is unfeasible to wholly decipher the misleading expressions articulated throughout the song, but the core message is within fruition. The story had been gradually developing throughout a 7 year time period,

File:Btw2003.jpg

By the Way live at Slane Castle

starting with Californication, in which the lyrics refer to an unnamed "Teenage-Bride with a baby inside". This minute proposition of a tale was carried on to a greater degree in By the Way, and an appropriate finale for the mounting character, who has hitherto been featured on three albums, was given when the song Dani California shed light on the otherwise indistinct saga.

The short phrases found during the musical interludes may, on the other hand, suggest a completely contrary theme. These idioms are abstract at best, and don’t appear to be relevant to the overall anecdote, but are rather in attendance for musical transition between choruses, verses and bridges.

Trivia

• In the beginning of the video, Kiedis flags down the cab with a book entitled "Lexicon Devil", which is a biography of The Germs lead singer Darby Crash.
• Doug Wilson, obsessive, compulsive and psychologically misarranged, returns in the music video of Universally Speaking.

Track listing

CD single (2002)

1. "By The Way (Album)" – 3:35
2. "Time (Unreleased)" – 3:47
3. "Teenager In Love (Unreleased)" – 3:01

CD version 2 (2002)

1. "By The Way (Album)" – 3:35
2. "Search And Destroy (Live)" – 12:13
3. "What Is Soul? (Live)" – 3:58

CD version 3 (2002)

1. "By The Way (Album)"
2. "Time (Unreleased)"
3. "Search And Destroy (Live)"

7" single (2002)

1. "By The Way (Album)"
2. "Time (Unreleased)"

DVD single (2002)

1. "By the Way" (Music Video)
2. Obsessive, Compulsive, Psychologically, Misarranged Cabdriver/Fan (aka the making of "By The Way")
3. "By the Way" (Live Performane)