‘Give It Away’ makes full use of Blood Sugar Sex Magik’s massive snare sound. Chad Smith’s gigantic smacks open the track before a strained, unresolved guitar line hints at something more.
The main guitar and bass riffs begin 11 seconds in. Flea’s bass is often ascending as John Frusciante’s guitar is descending, as observed by Rick Beato in a “What Makes This Song Great?” video, creating a weird push-pull tension. The instruments don’t exactly sound like they’re fighting each other, but dancing slightly out of step.
In his autobiography, Anthony Kiedis noted Flea’s bassline covers the whole neck of the bass. It’s an amazingly energetic line, full of unpredictable hops, but with enough space for the accents to be noticed. Its energy is reminiscent of early Chili Peppers songs like ‘Out In La’ and ‘Get Up And Jump’. But Flea isn’t trying to fill every single beat. By now he had learned a similar lesson to Frusciante: playing less can equal more. Producer Rick Rubin encouraged him to keep it simple, as seen in the Funky Monks documentary.
Kiedis wrote the lyrics for ‘Give It Away’ after an ex-girlfriend, musician Nina Hagen gave him a treasured leather jacket. Kiedis learned that by giving, you could gain. He raps, “Keep your more to receive your less”, a line from Bob Marley’s ‘Misty Morning’ (Kaya, 1980). Later in that verse Marley is named three times. In another verse Kiedis references his friend, the late actor River Phoenix: “There’s a River born to be a giver / Keep you warm won’t let you shiver / His heart is never gonna wither”.
But it’s the chorus that’s likely to stay in your head. Partly because Kiedis raps/sings “Give it away now” dozens of times in the song, but partly due to the syllables sounding great together. The hard ‘G’ contrasts with the more sustained “way”.
When Smith played the song for Drumeo, his drumming sounded great (of course), but the lack of the original’s snare sound was noticeable. Engineer Brendan O’Brien told Beato he “added very little” reverb on the album. “The ambient drum parts were, for me, specifically a product of where we were” (an LA mansion converted into a studio). There’s often a fair amount of natural reverb in live performances, which helps create some of that “size” – such as in the band’s Live @ Alcatraz set (during the era where the song opened with a mini-cover of Public Enemy’s ‘You’re Gonna Get Yours’).
Top image from the ‘Give It Away’ music video, directed by Stéphane Sednaoui.