Album: Stadium Arcadium (2006)
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Songfacts®:

  • Lead singer Anthony Kiedis (from Rolling Stone, June 15, 2006): "That has a lot of stuff going on. The third part is straight love song: 'My heart, your skin, this love I'm in.' It's also about the power of not having to be right all the time. If you want to get along with somebody, let them be right, and it will last longer."
  • This one of the band's favorite songs on the album. When the song was not released as a single, the Chilis took matters into their own hands. They held a contest on YouTube in which they asked their fans to produce their very own music video for the song and the winning video would be made the official video. The winning video was directed by Omri Cohen. It shows child versions of the band members driving in a van, picking up a Native American, and ending up at Venice Beach. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Alec Thorp - Yorktown Heights, NY
  • This funky track finds Kiedis stretching his vocal abilities - which have come along way from his early days as a shouter. "When you're trying so hard to get the ears of the world, it's really easy to be super-extroverted, to the point of obnoxiousness," he told Spin in 2006. "And it worked quite well, being the loud, brash, crass, aggressive guy. But instead of losing my voice or becoming a caricature, I found a way to make a transition into something new and different. And that would have been more difficult if I had been born a singer."
  • What started out as being a song about Kiedis' own creative muse turned into a tribute to all sorts of inspirational sources. "It began to mean more than just one thing, which I actually preferred," he explained in the album commentary. "I didn't want it just to [be about] your imagination. I wanted it to mean as many things as possible. It could be your girl, it could be your drug, or whatever - just kind of an all-purpose thing. But to me, it started off meaning your imagination."
  • RHCP guitarist John Frusciante was particularly happy when he came up with the guitar part, which is in a different time signature than the bass and drums. Kiedis was so taken with the groove, he used to drive up to cafes and blast unsuspecting patrons with the instrumental. "When I heard that groove it was a deeper and blacker kind of a funk feel, and it was probably my favorite instrumental track - that and 'Hey' were my favorite to things to listen to with no lyrics at all. It rocked me so hard. I would actually pull up next to people in cafes and crank it up, with no vocals on it, just the groove."
  • Stadium Arcadium is the band's ninth studio album and their first to hit #1 in the US. With 2.5 million copies sold, it's not, however, their best-selling release. That honor goes to their 1991 breakthrough, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, which sold 7.7 million copies in America by 2001 (nearly 14.5 million worldwide).

Comments: 18

  • Charlie The SongI'm a song about drugs, my music video has underaged children in it.
  • AnonymousIt’s about pot.
  • Junior from Dallas, Txholy crap as soon as i started looking at this page the song played on my music player
  • Scotty from Tokyo, Japanwhen i hear this i think of charlie bit me video on youtube
  • Bobbilyn from Jacksonville, FlCHARLIE was the name of one of his ex-girlfriends when he was using drugs. He was really into her and she was really into dope and he was trying to get clean. He used to shoot coke and then use heroin, one to up him the other to bring him down. Then he got clean and when he started using again he smoked crack cause he couldn't get coke. He's clean now. He's into "ozone" Read his book Scar Tissue, please because it explains all of his bizarre lyrics.
  • Nicole from Chicago, IlEveryone keeps referencing Cocaine, despite Anthony Kiedis denying it, and saying the song's about inspiration and creativity. But if you notice, he says "When I pick up on that smell, I double up and run like hell," as in, he could be running away from cocaine because it hinders his creativity.
  • Davy from Hammonton, NjSome great comments but I still think of Charlie Manson whenever I hear it.
  • Mariah from Colorado Springs, CoThis is realy a great song. For people who might be wondering what its about...it could realy be anything. Anthony intened "charlie" to be your imagination, your muse, something that gets ideas going in your head. Charlie could be refering to drugs if you think about it. I dont think that the actualy name "Charlie" is drugs...but like i said...its something that gets ideas going in your head. And that could lead to so many different things. When he was batteling his addiction...there would always be this little voice in the back of his head telling him to go get high. So that could very well be "charlie" whos "making me smile"
    The great thing about this song though, is that charlie could be anything to anyone...its up to you to find out what it is to you.
  • Madalyn from Greensburg, Pai think the meaning is clear...but i think music, lies in the eye of the beholder...so we should make it what we want...a memorie...a story...whatever...all the while tring to figure out what he meant by it
  • Dylan from Charlotte, Vt"Charlie" is in fact a reference to cocaine, but Anthony Kiedis has stated in interviews that the song is about a person's imaginative spark or inspiration.
  • Tricia from Edinburgh, ScotlandCharlie is also a slang term for cocaine ,Charlie was also a slang term toward Vietcong soldiers in the Vietnam war, being over 40 both I understand but I think coke is the correct one
  • Angela from Naples, FlAlso mentioned in the Rolling Stone article was John Frusciante explaining that he wanted every song on the Stadium Arcadium to feel like it was "constantly evolving". This concept is particularly evident on this song. (And really, with that in mind, you can pick that out on the rest of the album, too.)
  • Sanja from Zabok, Croatialove the song a lot. it reminds me on our last summer when we smoked pot every day. we were listening to Stadium, and that's when our 'dealer' got a nickname-Charlie :)
    you know, 'Charlie's making me smile...'
  • Handah Jane from Grafton, United Statesi love the third 'love' bit in this song
    its one of my fav songs
    and the meaning is so right
    love red hot chili peppers
    u guys rock
  • Krysten from Odessa, TxI love this song. It's quite bittersweet and reminds me of swimming in my pool in the summertime.
  • Chris from Ithaca, NyCharlie is also a slang term for cocaine which would make sense for the chorus:

    So much more than
    Charlie's wakin' me
    To my core and
    Charlie's shakin' me
    And tell my story
    And Charlie's makin' me
    And Charlie's makin' me smile
  • Brian from Winchester, MaCharlie was also a slang term toward Vietcong soldiers in the Vietnam war.
    e.g "Look, there's Charlie in the bushes!"
  • Shelly from Loserville, Nclove this song.its reall clever of him to still keep that old bi rumour going by calling it charlie.but cmon we all know his not
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