"Under the Bridge"

Red Hot Chili Peppers
(Warner Bros., 1991)

Anthony Keidis's delivery is too cute at first, but then the psychedelic choir vocals (the Chilis' most skillful Funkadelic cop ever, and that's counting the entire record they made with George Clinton) rise up behind him. He drips blood on the pavement for his dead homies and the needle and the damage done, and it turns out that unlike, say, Randy Newman, he loves LA mostly because at the last second it decided not to kill him. John Frusciante's guitar is heartbreaking throughout, as are Anthony's love handles in the video.

-- Alex Pappademas