Smile from the Streets You Hold

John Frusciante’s second solo album was released on August 26, 1997, during a long period of drug addiction which followed his first departure from the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1992. Many of the songs were recorded during Frusciante’s time with the band, and are from the same period as those on his solo debut, Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt.

The album contains two songs featuring actor and close friend River Phoenix – “Height Down” (originally “Soul Removal”) and “Well, I’ve Been” (originally "Bought Her Soul”) were initially planned to be released with Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt. The tracks were previously withdrawn following Phoenix’s death in 1993, at the request of his family.

Described as a raw, unnerving, and vulnerable stream-of-consciousness, Smile from the Streets You Hold is an ode to the demons and spirits that inhabit Frusciante, who claimed to have had contact with the spirit world during recording:

The title song was a very intense moment, because I was having verbal communication with the spirits while I was recording; and I started crying at the end of it. The spirits give you ideas for things, and what’s important to them is what’s important to me. I’m much more concerned with my fame in their world than with my fame in this one. That’s why it’s been difficult for me to adjust to being alive at all.

As he felt uncomfortable with the album being available to the public, Frusciante removed Smile from the Streets You Hold from record stores after rejoining the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1998.