10 Perfect Rock Songs That Were Inspired From Another Band

From day one, the Red Hot Chili Peppers have never been shy about wearing their influences on their sleeve. Whether it's the signature funk rock of a band like Parliament Funkadelic or the massive intensity of punk rock, every song in the Chili Peppers' catalog feels more like a salute to the glory days of rock music. Once they started to unveil the first single for their double album Stadium Arcadium, we actually got two homages for the price of one.

Just listening to the opening groove, it sounds like a typical Peppers track with a bit of a traditional rock slant, which isn't surprising considering the chords are straight-up Tom Petty. It's not exactly subtle either, with the exact accents of each chord evoking the heartland rocker's classic Mary Jane's Last Dance. That's just the verses though... wait until you hear the solo.

As if to veer your attention away from the first lift, John Frusciante explodes into a guitar solo with a different melodic motif to start off every measure. This trick isn't unheard of in rock music, and neither are the actual notes, which have the same rhythmic flow to the signature riff to Purple Haze, albeit with Frusciante's more funky sensibilities brought into the mix. Then again, if the video itself is all about paying tribute to the kind of artists who inspired the Peppers in the first place, you can at least see that they had a little sense of humor about the whole thing.