Warped

"Warped" is a song by the Red Hot Chili Peppers from their 1995 album One Hot Minute. It was released as the first single from the album, alongside a music video which met controversy over frontman Anthony Kiedis' kiss with guitarist Dave Navarro at the end. "Warped" is a departure from the songs of preceding album Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Instead the song is closer to a heavy metal sound with psychedelic influences. Both lyrically and musically, it is one of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' darkest and hardest-sounding songs.

It is the first track on One Hot Minute, beginning with an unusually quiet intro, before suddenly kicking into a very heavy, crunching riff. The song notably ends with a mellow, melodic outro that seems to come out of nowhere. Kiedis' vocals are distorted and echoed throughout, and contrast dramatically with the rapping present on the band's previous material, especially on their more fast-paced songs such as this; short lines are stretched to fill an entire measure. The musical style is of an unpredictable and unsettling nature, which is generally maintained throughout the entire album. The lyrics describe Kiedis' confused feelings about drugs, starting already in the first lines with: "my tendency/for dependency/is offending me".

Despite being the album's first single, neither the song or the accompanying video were included on the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Greatest Hits compilation. The B-Side "Melancholy Mechanics" also appears on the soundrack to the 1996 movie "Twister".

During live performances of "Warped", the band sometimes played a sample of the song "Three Days" by Jane's Addiction (former band of Dave Navarro) at the end of the song.

Track listing

CD single (1995) "Warped" (Edit)
"Pea" (Album)
"Melancholy Mechanics" (Previously Unreleased)

Translation

The word "Warped" occurs as such in the following languages: English, Bulgarian, French, Polish.

Translation(s) in other languages: Spanish: Warped (canción), Italian: Warped (Red Hot Chili Peppers).