Scar Tissue

I consider the song Scar Tissue  by the Red Hot Chili Peppers to be poetry. This song is from the album Californication and was written by the band's lead singer, Anthony Kiedis, who used to have a heroin addiction. Kiedis wrote this song about himself and how lonely he felt during his time of addiction. Scar Tissue expresses how agonizing it is to live with a drug addiction and how it also hurts the people in your life. It gives listeners the experience of an addict, that many of them couldn't imagine on their own.

The line that makes Kiedis' loneliness most apparent is, "With the bird I'll share--this lonely view." This gives an image of Kiedis physically having no one to turn to. He is alone with only nature surrounding him. However, it also shows that he felt like he was outside looking in on everyone's lives. Heroin kept him from feeling emotions, so he could only watch other people's experiences, just as a bird might do. A later verse in the song goes, "Fallin' all over myself--to lick your heart and taste your health." This lyric shows how Kiedis' addiction is present in his relationship too. He can't help but cling on to this girl and become obsessed with her and her abstinence from drugs. The words "lick" and "taste" make it seem like he can't get enough of her, or heroin. At the end of the song Kiedis sings, "I'll make it to the moon if I have to crawl." This hyperbole shows how heroin addicts will do anything they can to get their fix. They are constantly thinking about and fighting for the drug, which makes truly living impossible. 

These lyrics, along with every other one in the song create an intense emotional experience for the listener, whether or not they've lived through drug addiction or not. I think it's a beautiful song to describe an incredibly painful way to live.