Oh, there was LOTS of interesting music in the late '80s. Alt country was coming on strong, Mudhoney and grunge were emerging, Neil Young was having a good run, Sonic Youth was on it, REM was still putting out great stuff, De La Soul and the whole Native Tongues thing was happening, Prince was still killing it,…

Eh. I've always found them to be punishingly bland, which is odd, given Dave's impressive punk-rock pedigree.

Their grandma was dynamite. She taught them everything that they needed to know about life. She bought them that guitar, insisted that they play it, learn them rhythm and solos, rock the house in 4/4, and get off the streets—right now.

I think part of it, too, is whether you were actually listening to it in the mid-'80s, or went back to it as a kid growing up in the '90s, or '00s. The context helps, especially when you were suffering through the soul-crushing omnipresence of unironic hair metal and four Michael Jackson songs an hour on MTV.

Bingo! Yeah, I mentioned that in an earlier post. It's hard to imagine in today's hip-hop saturated world, but funk was essentially unknown to most of 1980s teenage white America.

Yes, only exactly the opposite.

It's the song that ruined the RHCPs, no question.

You can hate the RHCPs all you want, but they had absolutely nothing in common with hair metal bands—especially during the hair metal era—other than being from L.A. Nothing.

That would be the "Judgement Night" soundtrack. The absolute Rosetta Stone for nu-metal.

Gah! That would be my RHCP Hatesong for sure. Musically "Give it Away" is catchy, but it's the poster child for Keidis' inane rap seizures. "Gibbit away gibbit away gibbit away nah! Flah boh beh hukkaberry flabba ding dong!"

Blixa Bargeld? Good luck going through life with a name that sounds like someone choking on an ice cube.

Please, please, PLEASE A.V. Club, copyedit your content. This is ridiculous.

You know what didn't bother me about the farmer scene? Chelsey Crisp. That girl is HAWT.

Oh. That DOES make sense.

Semi-Pro was awesome. That is all.

God, that was an awful single. "And his name was Camo-FLAAAAAAAAAAGE!"

Uh… what?

From our good friends at Wikipedia: "Shakur and his family moved to Marin City, California, a residential community located 5 miles (8.0 km) north of San Francisco, where he attended Tamalpais High School in nearby Mill Valley. Shakur contributed to the school's drama department by performing in several productions.…

Yeah, Ginger Baker's another one. He's supposed to be great—and god knows HE thinks he's great—but where is it?

I think people turned on him because he doesn't suck—he's just as lazy as hell.