360 Degrees: "Strip My Mind"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7j-6N6gnIc

Out of all the songs I know by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, this is the one song that, simultaneously, I love and don't understand at all. I decided to try and dissect it as to MAYBE come to terms with what Anthony Kiedis is singing about.

My two favorite parts of this song are the guitar solo and the chorus. "Please don't strip my mind." What exactly does this mean? Who is he even talking to? Is Kiedis talking to God and telling him not to let his memories fade away? Or maybe he doesn't want to be stripped of a certain person that he loves? Is he asking the person he loves to come back to him? When someone refers to "stripping the mind," the first thing that comes to mind is removing all memories away. Maybe he loved this one girl, and he knows that he will never get her back. All he has is the memory of her.

Kiedis also makes a reference to his past. He sings, "Hot as Hades early eighties, sing another song and make me feel like I'm in love again." Something that was once great back in the day has passed in his life. Even after his relationship is all said and done, and years have passed, he is still hung up over this one girl. Why do people find it so hard to move on sometimes? I am curious about what makes a person difficult to get over.

The music working with the lyrics is really what makes this a great song. At some points, quiet in the background, the guitar is whiny. It's like his heart is crying out through the guitar. I especially like the beginning part. He just lets the chords ring out, instead of stopping them. He actually does this throughout the whole song. It creates this effect that we are almost floating. At other times, like during the solo, it's both scratchy, dragged out, and whiny at the same time. Even when the Kiedis isn't singing, there is something else showing us the pain he is going through. Why can't he get over this? Was this girl his first love?

I think it is absolutely amazing when a band can put together lyrics and music and have them mesh perfectly. Every time I listen to this song I hear something new and interesting. Is there ever a limit on different ways to see things? I am curious as to how a person actually creates a song. Which comes first, the lyrics or the music? Can it be both? Which way did this song come?