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Lyrics:
How long how long will I slide
Separate my side I don’t
I don’t believe it’s bad
Slit my throat
It’s all I ever
I heard your voice...
See the rest of these lyrics
Otherside Lyrics on KOvideo
 Top Rated Interpretation
anonymous
November 15th, 2006 05:31AM
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'otherside' as a single word is common slang for the afterlife. If it meant something else, it would have been spelled as two words. The voice is actually supposed to be slovak's as sung and written by anthony. The rhcp's intended this album to be in tribute of him. Slovak was a former band member who overdosed on heroin. The song describes slovak's personal struggle with drugs, at a point when it has just become a terminal crisis. Slovak realizes heroin now has complete and total control over him and that he is a helpless slave to it. Like other severe addicts to this drug who eventually overdose and die, it's gotten to the point where sub-lethal doses of the drug are no longer satiating his cravings, making a lethal overdose not question of 'if', but 'when': "how long can I slide?"
slovak is conveying that the only way to take back control is to end his life. To do this, he must come to terms with suicide. The repeated line, "I don't believe it's bad" is of great significance. It's essentially slovak finally taking back control from the drugs, and resolving in his mind that suicide isn't bad under the circumstances (drug overdose). It's interesting to note that at time index 3:59 anthony switches to saying "I don't believe it's sad."
when anthony (singing as slovak) says, "i've got to take it on the otherside," it means that he (slovak) is craving the drug, but that he'll have to take the drug in the afterlife, because he's putting an end to the chaos by killing himself. "burn me out, leave me on the otherside"... This specifies drug overdose as the method of suicide. In effect, in order to both satiate his craving for the drug and to bring an end to the suffering, he's going to take a megadose that will leave him both satisfied and dead.
Slovak explains that he's tried to fight the addiction, but it was futile: "I yell and tell it [drugs] that it's not my friend; I tear it down , and then it's born again." this refers to the inevitability of relapses. "once you know, you can never go back": this means that the addiction is never over. Once you've become hooked, you're craving it forever. It's permanent.
In a nutshell, the song is about getting people to understand slovak's state of mind and the hell he was going through. The lyrics aren't meant to be cryptic. The song is about getting the listener to empathize and understand the mind of someone who was suffering terribly. It's about getting people to understand the misery and why he took his own life.
The song "savior" is also in reference to slovak.
Everything about this song is ingenious: the music, the poetic lyrics, the whole production. One of the very best rock songs ever, imho. -ryan, lansing, mi
illumanati76
October 31st, 2005 08:56PM
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The Otherside as a lot to do with feeling powerless. "Slitting my Throat is all I ever had," is a line defining his musical talents as being his only expanse. It's more-or-less a suicidal-oriented song, explaining how empty he feels because everything important around him is in self-destruct mode.
"How long will I Slide?" focusing of Kiedis's drug addiction throughout the nineteens, and metaphorically, telling the listener that he's cheated death so many times, that his reprieve is running low. I honestly think, before suicide, it's a song of symbolism - seeing the "Otherside," as the only escape to avenge his sadness.
anonymous
May 27th, 2006 07:31PM
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I think its has everything to do with heroine. Relapsing. "I heard your voice through a photograph/I thought it up and brought up the past" could be relating to the former guitar player, which made him think of herione. I think all the "she"s are refering to the drug as a person. "I yell and tell it that,It's not a friend, I tear it down I tear it down, And then it's born again." just screams relapse.
anonymous
October 19th, 2006 06:29PM
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Push the trigger = shooting up
pull the thread = undoing the turnicate
robertellerbeck
November 9th, 2006 09:13AM
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I've always though this song was about how he can't stop taking drugs and how he believes he has to pay for it in the afterlife (otherside).
"how long will I slide, separate my side, slitting my throat"
when will he stop killing himself
"I yell and tell it that its not a friend, I tear I down I tear it down and then its born again"
he can't stop
"pour my life into a paper cup"
his life is in a delicate state
"the astrays full and I'm spilling my guts"
he doesn't think his body can handle much more drug abuse
"still her slut"
slave to the drugs
He feels the addiction is destroying his body and soul but I think he also feels guilty about something, something to do with "push the trigger and pull the thread" which are both metaphors, the gun being a syringe and the thread part being about the addiction process and how once it starts sometimes it doesn't stop
anonymous
February 14th, 2007 06:57PM
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No, Most of you guys are completely off
This is about AK struggle with his heroin use
Hence the "Otherside"
the otherside is his sobriety
and AK is saying that if he didn't have his voice
He Would be dead now, because his voice is all that he has ever had
He says it all in Scar Tissue
anonymous
February 15th, 2007 07:48PM
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I think that this song is about drug abuse, but there is a deeper meaning for anthony.
I think that this song is about a promise he made to his friend, hillel(sorry about spelling) who died of a drug overdose, and anthony promised hillel by his grave side that he will never do drugs again, and that is the reason why anthony went to rehab for the first time, he was clean for like 5 years but then slipped one night. I think this song is a way for anthony to apologise to hillel for breaking his promise.
The Drug reference is there, and the communicating with the dead is there, seeing hillels picture and realising what he did wrong, and wanting to kill himself (suicide motive)
anonymous
May 18th, 2007 02:16AM
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For the last FUCKIN time Flea is not gay!! What the hell is wrong with you flea is happily married 2 kids and is not gay!! What the hell is wring with you seriously it's obviously about suicide or drug addiction p.s did I mention flea is not fuckin gay
michael369
December 5th, 2007 01:23AM
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I think the song is about a drug addiction because at the beginning it says "how long how long will I slide," he's wondering about how long will he keep going to rehab then getting right back on drugs. The part "slitting my throat is all I ever " is talking about that's his only way away from drugs. Then "I don't believe it's far" is talking about he doesn't think it's fair that he can't quit drugs. "Yell and tell it that/it's not my friend i tear it down i tear it down/and then it’s born again" is talking about he tries to quit but he just can't.
anonymous
December 11th, 2007 03:47PM
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It's about him using drugs and basically he's talking about hillels death and how its made him think about his re-using and him trying not to continue with it
Marieisfree
May 10th, 2008 04:24AM
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The song is about the Shadow-Self, the subconscious dark side of each of us that needs to be faced and reconciled with the conscious good selves that we have. The only way to keep the dark shadow self from destroying our lives is to move through the barrier between the conscious and the unconscious -- to the OTHER SIDE. Look at how he fights his shadow in the video and fails to vanquish it. Look at him fight the dragon. He slips and slides further and further away from coming to terms with the dark side by trying to escape on those wings that take him on another false flight. The wings are the drugs, the ladder he climbs to get away from the dragon are the drugs, and they both take him nowhere. He's got to face the dragon and the shadow again and again because he never really conquers them. The dragon and the shadow are those wounds from the past in himself that make him want to do the drugs in the first place. He knows that the shadow compels him, from the other side of his consciousness, to do what hurts him, and what ultimately caused him to lose the friend that he loved. The shadow overtook the light in his life. He also knows that the only way to conquer the shadow is to travel to the other side and deal with it.
Check out Jung and the shadow self.
anonymous
May 12th, 2008 10:45PM
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I thought it was about how he had a fuckload of problems in his life and he needs to atone for it on the "otherside"
drug addiction seems to simple
anonymous
September 14th, 2008 06:59PM
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It's about Anthony's drug addiction.
anonymous
October 7th, 2008 11:08AM
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I liked an earlier interpretation I read here.
It's a song made up as an apologize for breaking the promise to not drugging himself that Anthony did to his friend, who died of an overdose.
It's clear. He feels guilty for it and remembers his friend and the cause of his death; at the beginning of the song, he says it's not sad. But after "hearing voices of the photograph and retaking the past", he even may think of suicide...
I think that's it, sure of it.
foolish
January 12th, 2009 11:27PM
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Means how long will I slide down a ween
separating his side from partners
and obviously doesn't believe its bad
anonymous
November 17th, 2009 09:47PM
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slit my throat is all i ever had- it means he know he is doomed for death when using his addictive drug which could be heroin, but is definately a drug shot up.
I dont believe its fair- means its not fair because he has no control over banging his drug up with an intense addiction.
wi
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