It is kinda logical that the first track in our list is Out In LA, hardly noticeable on the debut album, but very important and almost ritual for the band's early concerts. It was Out In LA that became the very first song by The Red Hot Chili Peppers. On December 16, 1982, Los Angeles artist and designer Gary Allen presented his EP "In White America" at the "Grandia Room" club and, as support, invited his friends - members of What Is This band Hillel Slovak & Jack Irons, Fear's bass player (in the recent past - also a member of What Is This) Michael Balzary (Flea), as well as Anthony Kiedis, who at that time did not participate in any musical group. Shortly before this, the entertainer and party-goer Kiedis attended the Grandmaster Flash concert and, being very impressed, began to compose his own lyrics and read them rhythmically. He already had a little draft of the text about Los Angeles, and Hillel Slovak kept playing a riff under the influence of the song Defunkt - Defunkt. The text lay down on the riff, the band rehearsed a bit, and the new number was ready. In the lyrics, Anthony describes the exciting adventures of his friends in Los Angeles, mentioning Flea, Keith Barry (nicknamed Tree), himself and Hillel Slovak, and in the track you can hear a fragment of the composition "Fopp" by the Ohio Players (last night and the night before). According to some information, the first performance of the song, which took place on December 16, 1982, was longer than usual and lasted about 5 minutes, but, alas, no one can confirm this for sure, and, unfortunately, the recording hardly exists. But since the song of the newly minted band, which was then called The Flow, had only one song, the set lasted, according to eyewitnesses, from 5 to 7 minutes, and the track was completely raw and semi-improvised, the version that the first performance of Out In LA was significantly longer than the version we are used to, is quite plausible. In the future, the group opened almost all of their concerts until January 1991 with this particular song. Starting a concert with Out In LA has become a habit, a sort of ritual, a tribute to one's past. For the first time, the band began their concert not with Out In LA on January 26, 1991 - then the band decided instead of the usual number to present a completely new song at that time from their future fifth album "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" - The Power of Equality. Ironically, the idea almost ended in failure - John's guitar was completely out of tune, and in the very first minute of the premiere of the composition an enraged Frusciante threw the guitar onto the stage. The band had to play the song again. For almost the entire 1991, Red Hot Chili Peppers began their shows with Love Trilogy, and gradually everyone began to notice how the quality of the concerts was declining - John became more withdrawn and played worse with each show. At some point, Anthony and Flea even linked what was happening with the violation of a long-term ritual and in early 1992 returned Out In LA to the group's repertoire. It did not help - after 3 months, John completely left Red Hot Chili Peppers. Soon Arik Marshall joined RHCP as a guitarist, and the first festival performances with him opened with Give It Away. When it was time for full-fledged shows as part of the Lollapalooza tour, the band rehearsed with recruit Out In LA and played it on July 19, 1992. Apparently, the artists were not very pleased with the result, and since that time they have never performed the song in full (however RHCP played it at a private party on September 30, 2004, and then half of the song on February 13, 2017, after guitarist Josh Klinghoffer was told by a fan: "Today your band is exactly 34 years old, and on this very day you sang this song for the first time").
As for the studio history of the song, it is not so rich and exciting. A demo version of the song was recorded in May 1983 during the first studio session of The Red Hot Chili Peppers with producer Spit Stix, in one take. The group was very proud of this option, spreading the record among friends in every possible way. It is noteworthy that the demo does not yet have a solo drum part, although the idea of showing almost every instrument separately is already being traced. The next version was recorded a year later, either in January 1984 on a demo tape with new members Jack Sherman and Cliff Martinez (the tape does exist, but Out In LA is not proven on it), or already in April 1984 at Eldorado Studios (album version ). Producer Andy Gill made his own adjustments - for some reason, the final words of the text were re-added to the beginning (we're all a bunch of brothers...) and part of the text about the chase was thrown out (for you it's a chase, but I lose you in the haze, now you spend your days catching rain in your chase, go out). And while the additional Green Heaven lyrics discarded for the studio version were no longer played at RHCP concerts, until 2017 Out In LA was invariably performed with the original full lyrics from 1982, the album version has never been played live.
A separate headache for Kiedis was the constant personnel changes in the band - for each new guitarist, he had to rewrite part of the verse before the solo. The original text was about Slovak (can't leave you hangin' bout my man Baby B), then had to be redone about Sherman (I can't leave you hangin' but my man Shermzy). By the way, Jack Sherman himself liked the text as a whole, especially the fact that Anthony mentioned his passion for Eastern philosophy (he swings the yang, he bangs the yang), but he simply hated the phrase "you better be burning Sherman", until the end of his life Jack believed that with these words Kiedis showed him his dislike. Later, the task became even more difficult - the text had to be changed under McKnight (what exactly Anthony read is unknown), under John Frusciante (I can't leave you hangin' but my man named John, rocketly strong) and under Arik Marshall.
In the future, the format "ode to friendship" will be used again 4 years later - in the song "Me & My Friends". It will be performed much longer and more stable, up to the present day, during every tour.
Thanks to all.