Universally Speaking

This song is most likely about heroin use, as you can suss from lines like: Cut up from the chase Nothing better, the feeling is so fine Delicate and wild Dying to get high Love stream flow Lead singer Anthony Kiedis has a long history of drug use that he's been very open about. He kicked the habit in 2000, two years before this song was released on the RHCP album By The Way.

The music video features the cab driver from "By The Way" (David Sheridan reprising his character of Doug Wilson from Ghost World), going through a long way and reaching a Chili Peppers show, just to give Anthony Kiedis a book he forgot in his cab after Kiedis escaped. The book, the biography of Darby Crash, the late frontman of punk band the Germs, can be seen at the very beginning of the "By The Way" music video and at the very end of this one.

The video was directed by Dick Rude, a longtime friend of the band. He also directed the video for "Catholic School Girls Rule" and the live DVD Off the Map.