Red Hot Chili Peppers: Under the Bridge Meaning

Song Released: 1991

Under the Bridge Lyrics

Sometimes I feel
Like I dont have a partner
Sometimes I feel
Like my only friend
Is the city I live in
The city of angels
Lonely as I am
Together we cry

I drive on her streets
cause shes my companion
I walk through her hills
cause...

1. anonymous

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   Jun 28th 2008 !⃝

   This song was a poem Anthony wrote and didn't show the rest of the band for quite some time.. when he eventually did, well you know what happened after that.
2. anonymous

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   Apr 2nd 2008 !⃝

   This song was a poem written by anthony arond 1990 when he bacame scared because his bestfriend and former chili pepper Hillel Slovak died because of an overdose. He was driving home after a rehearsle with the peppers when he noticed that John and flea were become close friends and he was sort of left out. on the drive home he started making under the bridge. He kept on singing "some times I feel like I don't have a partner" later his producer was stubling through his notebook and found his poem and told him it would be a great song. Anthony gave in and wrote it to the world even though it was so personal (I mean when I listen to it I get tears because of how much heart he puts into that song.) it was the #2 on the top 100 just under Tears in Heaven by Eric Clapton. Personaly I would say this is the best RHCP song ever writen and I have had many people agree with me but that is what the song is about. being lonley while your closest friends become closer and you start drifting away and going to do drugs under a bridge but scared for your life because of your friends Hillel Slovak who died in 1988.
   Hoped I was helpful
3. anonymous

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   Feb 11th 2008 !⃝

   Honestly, although the last line might make people think that he kills himself or dies or whatever, but I really think that the line "I gave my life away" doesn't mean dying, moreso it means that he "gave his life away", so to speak, to drugs.
4. Dudevill

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   Jan 21st 2008 !⃝

   I may be wrong, based on some other peoples factual interpretations on this but I believe that this song is about someone who is away from home and their feeling lonely and homesick.
5. anonymous

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   Jan 14th 2008 !⃝

   This is a great song and really sad. Everyone knows the it's about his drug addiction., but the bridge he refers to id the bridge where his father first introduced him to Heroin. :D
6. anonymous

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   Oct 8th 2007 !⃝

   "I realise I am in the wrong song but can someone in the face of this planet tell what the meaning of "mellowship slinky in b-major"is.
   i love this song so much that every time I hear it I can't help but strip naked and run outside with my hands on my penis yelling "popcorn peanuts lookings at big buts"."
   
   What a douchebag!
   
   Now that I have that out of the way, Under the Bridge is one of the more clear messages RHCP have put to song. Anyone can see how this song is related to addiction, loneliness, heartache, despair, desperation and everything that goes along with it. "Under the bridge downtown, is where I drew some blood" is clearly a reference to shooting up, and "I gave my life away" is an obvious cry of disappointment in one's self for succumbing to an addiction. Most people who have been addicts can attest to the love/hate relationship they have with their vice, and the guilt they feel after that high is over.
   
   I love this song when I'm feeling lonely because it lets me know that I'm not the only one that has felt that way and it is a reminder to not give in to the temptations that ultimately make things worse for me.
7. anonymous

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   Aug 16th 2007 !⃝

   This is clearly explained in a passage of Anthony Kiedis' bio "Scar Tissue". The song has to do with him throwing away his relationship with a girl to shoot speed balls under the bridge. His thought of this triggered the song when John and Flea started to smoke pot more often and he felt like an outcast because he wanted to be clean, so he felt lonely. So he wrote the song about his loneliness from John and Flea, and about his past life of usage.
8. anonymous

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   Aug 15th 2007 !⃝

   This is about someone committing suicide under a bridge in Los Angeles.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
9. Tlk2themaninchrj

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   Aug 10th 2007 !⃝

   He wrote this song when Flea and John (bassist and the guitarist) were becoming really good friends and Anthony was being left out "sometimes I feel like I don't have a partner" this and also the combination of how bad drugs were screwing his life up. Obviously "under the bridge" is where he got all the dope and used it.
10. anonymous

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    Aug 9th 2007 !⃝

    Alright I have read every single one of these interpretations and I LIKED all of them but not all of them were accurate. The one that was the most perscise was the entry I read about Anthony feeling lonely after the death of band member slovak. This is accurate. When Hillel Slovak died Anthony didn't want to "feel like I did that day" (the day of his friends death) when he died Kiedies turned to the one thing that he knew could never leave him, "the city of angels" Los Angeles that has been there and hasn't left him or hurt him, and in the end of the song he shoots the heroine to try to relieve some of the pain from his friends death.
    
    thank you
11. joe

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    Jul 27th 2007 !⃝

    He said on VH1 that the song was about his heroin addiction.
12. anonymous

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    Jul 11th 2007 !⃝

    Well if you have read his book scar tissue, the song is about drugs. When he wrote this song he was over drugs, well only for a period of time. He went back to drugs later.
13. anonymous

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    Mar 17th 2007 !⃝

    No he was going in and out of rehab for herion treatment and it's about the first tiem he had to get clean and he never wanted to feel like he did the day he had to quit.

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

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    Mar 7th 2007 !⃝

    Clearly about anthony kiedes' drug addiction. "Under the bridge downtown is where I drew some blood" " Under the bridge downtown I could not get enough" "Under the bridge downtown I gave my life away". Hes talking about all the pain he felt when using heroin and everything he lost
15. anonymous

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    Dec 24th 2006 !⃝

    ok this one is from the book..
    
    As John and Flea's relationship grew, anthony felt neglected in a way and basicailly lost John as a friend. While riding home on the 101 his sense of memory came back of when he was dating Ione. He had this beautiful loving and caring creature and instead of embracing that he went shooting speedballs and such under a bridge with gangsters. "I felt that I had thrown away so much in my life, but I also felt an unspoken bond between me and my city." so also he is kind of saying that regardless of who he might be loving or not his city will always be there for him.
    
    -timma

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