Red Hot Chili Peppers: Otherside Meaning

Song Released: 2000

Otherside 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 through a photograph
I thought it up it brought up the past
Once you know you can never go back
I’ve got to...

1. midnitegreen

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   Apr 9th 2007 !⃝

   ...but he doesn't necessarily want to think about committing suicide at the end he says "..i don't belive it's FAIR.."

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
2. anonymous

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   Feb 15th 2007 !⃝

   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)
3. anonymous

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   Feb 14th 2007 !⃝

   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
4. anonymous

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   Jan 15th 2007 !⃝

   Exactly one guy said, "the singer knows Flea inside out." It about accepting Flea's homosexually. He's a redneck come on.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
5. anonymous

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   Jan 12th 2007 !⃝

   I'm just gonna say a small bit. Slit my throat its all I ever had is not being literal its that the only thing he felt at the time of writing this song that he had was his singing voice and it just didn't even matter. POUR my life into a papercup means that he feels he hasn't done anything amazing or accomplished anything that he's wasted so much time of his life on drugs (have you read scar tissue? his biography his dad taught him to smoke crack at such a young age and he was sleeping around as a kid)

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
6. anonymous

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   Dec 3rd 2006 !⃝

   by the way anyone here who said that this is about being gay is jsut borderline retarded. My buddy has his book Keidis that is, Scar Tissue. its a biography and I read the part in the book about his songs and what they mean. Otherside is partly about suicide but its mostly about death and dealings with drug addictions. Relapse, withdrawal etc.
7. anonymous

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   Oct 29th 2006 !⃝

   It is about Anthony accepting someones gayness...In otherside otherside means the other side of the normal from straight to gay

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
8. anonymous

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   Oct 19th 2006 !⃝

   Push the trigger = shooting up
   pull the thread = undoing the turnicate
9. anonymous

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   Oct 12th 2006 !⃝

   I always joke with my friends about this song be about the signer/the band being gay. "separate my sides" being his umm..Behind, and repeatedly saying he wants to "take it on the other side"...Again referring to his behind. "am I still a slut" reinforces the sexual innuendos again. Also talking about her being in his bed then he pushes on a trigger metaphorically killing her, literally just getting her out of his life. "pull the thread" also sounds like he is unraveling or destroying a relationship with a girl, again because he wants to take it on (or in) the other side. This is, if nothing else, an interesting and funny way to interperate the song
10. anonymous

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    Jul 2nd 2006 !⃝

    I think this song is about suicide. I thought I could really relate to this song when I spent 59 days in a mental hospital for being intensly suicidal. Many times depressed people are said to slide downhill, and my preferred method of suicide was slitting my throat. Drinking bleach and overdosing failed. This song really relates to my depression. I could be wrong but I just thought I'd throw that out there.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
11. charkxl

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    Jun 30th 2006 !⃝

    OMG!! Flea is not gay!!
    
    I don't know where you get this crap from, if you had known anything about the band you will know that Flea is happily married and has a kid and that the only border-line gay relationship Flea has is most likely the deep friendship he has with Anthony. These two guys grew up together and did practically anything together..so even if it did happen, there would be no need for Anthony to go through 'the dealing of Flea's homosexuality' because Anthony pretty much knows Flea inside-out.
    
    Anyway, I reckon this song is about drug addiction, and the melancholy that comes with it. In case you didn't know, Anthony Kiedis has struggled with drug addiction his entire life.
    
    Hillel Slovak, one of the first guitarists for RHCP died of an overdose. He was a very close friend of Anthony's and this song references these experiences of loss and how it has effected him deeply, yet he can't dig himself out of the hole he's dug for himself, he's come to accept that he is an addict and he wil be for the rest of his life 'Once you know you can never go back
    I’ve got to take it on the otherside '. 'Otherside' aka death.
12. anonymous

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    Jun 21st 2006 !⃝

    Alright, all I was gonna say, at first, was whoever said Otherside was about Anthony's exception of Flea's homosexuality has something seriously wrong with their brain. First of all, Flea isn't gay! And even if he was, how could it be about that? But now I'll say something about the song, it's how Anthony is feeling he needs to stop what's going on with his problems by either ending his life or going cold turkey.
13. anonymous

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    Jun 21st 2006 !⃝

    You're all wrong. This song is about Anthony's acceptance of Flea's homosexuality.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
14. anonymous

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    May 27th 2006 !⃝

    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.
15. anonymous

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    Mar 28th 2006 !⃝

    What I have heard was that it was about how even though his drug addiction was the most miserable part of his life, it was completely worth it and he would never trade anything for that experience. It was a very influential part of his life.

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