John Frusciante’s former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitar tech Dave Lee discussed a member of a major pop group telling him what one of John’s current hobbies is in 2017 in a new Dave Mail on JFEffects.
Dave Lee went to watch the last of the three Chili Peppers shows at the Staples Center, in Los Angeles, on march 10. He told us how it was to see his old friends and colleagues, and reveals a conversation he had with John Frusciante about the writing of one the band’s biggest hits, “The Zephyr Song.”
“I went and saw The Peppers (3/10) in LA. Hearing those songs brought back a lot of great memories. Good times!”
“It was great to see everyone. So many old friends. Those songs brought back so many memories. “Zephyr Song” in particular. There were mostly two songs I would play when checking John’s rig to make sure the sound was right. I would play the beginning of the 1st verse of “Can’t Stop”, to hear the punchiness of the tone, hitting the strings real hard. And I would play the first few notes of “Zephyr Song” to hear if the cleaner, softer tones were right.
At one point while testing the rig, I noticed that the first three notes of “Zephyr Song” (which I had been playing slowly over and over) were the same as the first three notes of a song from the original movie “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”. A song called “Pure Imagination”. Gene Wilder sings “Come with me…” If you listen to it, you’ll see it’s the same three notes. Well, over time, while testing the rig, I would just play into the 1st few bars of “Pure Imagination” instead of “Zephyr Song”.
One day we were setting up to do some recording. I was testing John’s rig in the live room. I didn’t know John was in the recording booth listening in. He walked into the live room with a look of complete amazement on his face. He looked at me and said… “Dave… I wrote that song during a period that I was way into watching Willy Wonka! That song MUST’VE been in my mind when I wrote Zephyr Song. Wow! I never noticed that.”
It was kind of cool to stand in that crowd at Staples Center with all those people, rocking out to that song. With not one of those people knowing what I know about that song. It gave me a feeling that I wasn’t expecting. A feeling that I had been an inside part of something musically important. After the show I told Chad about that feeling I had. He said “Dave, you were a part of it. A big part of it.” That made me feel really good.
Also, Dave commented on a couple of fans meeting John Frusciante in a hiking trail at the Coldwater Canyon Park, on the outskirts of Los Angeles.
“I did hear about that fan meeting John. One of the Maroon 5 guys (Jesse Carmichael) lives near John and occasionally sees him jogging around the neighborhood. I keep telling Jesse to stop him and say hi. He never does. But I know he and John would really like each other.”
And completed:
“I know you’ll probably ask if you can share that story. Lol. Yes you can.”
“I’m glad people are interested in all this stuff.”
