![\"Flea](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Flea-Red-Hot-Chilli-Peppers-Bassist-RHCP-Bass-Far-Out-Magazine-F-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ Spotify)<\/p>\n
Thu 11 December 2025 19:15, UK <\/p>\n
It can\u2019t be overstated just how essential Flea<\/a>\u2019s aggressively funky bass is to the Red Hot Chili Peppers\u2019 high-octane groove attack.<\/p>\n They\u2019ve traversed an eclectic, genre-hopping throughout their 40-odd years together. Since burnished in Los Angeles\u2019 hedonistic clash of party punk and funk metal, Red Hot Chili Peppers have charted a course of psychedelic soft rock, hip-hop<\/a> leaning pop detours, and the occasional acoustic ballad, growing across the decades from a fiercely underground alternative crew to a stadium-selling behemoth well into the 2000s.<\/p>\n Through such stylistic fancies and from one Billboard monster to another was Flea\u2019s malleable but unerringly robust bass attack. Veering between incendiary rhythm and melodic jaggedness, Flea\u2019s driving basslines and novel slap technique bounce feverishly along with his hyper-animated live performance style. Many would-be bassists have taken notes on his bass style, but his flourish always remains burningly inimitable.<\/p>\n The Red Hot Chili Peppers\u2019 chequered musical mosaic is reflected in the songs Flea\u2019s namechecked over the years as a foundational influence. When quizzed on the basslines that opened his eyes to the power of those four strings in a 2023 X post, Flea opted for Alice Coltrane\u2019s spiritual jazz piece \u2018Journey To Satchidananda\u2019, and the cosmic conjurings of Parliament<\/a>\u2019s squelchy \u2018Flashlight\u2019, likely taken by Bernie Worrell\u2019s hefty Minimoog groove rather than the traditional bass parts.<\/p>\n For his third selection, Flea reached into classic rock\u2019s canonical core and selected Led Zeppelin\u2019s \u2018Ramble On\u2019. One of the essential cuts from 1969\u2019s Led Zeppelin II, the Tolkien-inspired strut between rock swagger and contemplative folk whimsy sees all the band firing on all cylinders as they always did during their peak.<\/p>\n But, as is often the case with Led Zeppelin, John Paul Jones\u2019 dextrous and creative eccentricity is what anchors \u2018Ramble On\u2019, his bass both subtle but bristling with a guarded power affording the various showboating around him.<\/p>\n Similar to Flea\u2019s previous bassline mentions, \u2018Ramble On\u2019 flexes a heady brew of sonic character, all marvellously twirling together in Led Zeppelin\u2019s unique alchemy, another string in the bow that touched on escapism without ever feeling like prog warlock silliness.<\/p>\n Despite such a jewel amid their holy album run, \u2018Ramble On\u2019 was never played during their classic run up to 1980, save flashing the odd tease during their many shows. Fans were eventually treated to the live debut in full for their 2007 O2 Arena reunion get together, rounding off their fantasy number with a bridge of the same album\u2019s \u2018What Is and What Should Never Be\u2019.<\/p>\n \u2018Ramble On\u2019 would sit in Led Zeppelin\u2019s legacy as just one piece of the eternal standard Flea would spend his career trying to pole-vault over. \u201cI knew we were going to make a good record,\u201d he reflected on 2010\u2019s The Red Hot Chili Peppers: An Oral\/Visual History, looking back on the band\u2019s LP that broke them into the mainstream. <\/p>\n