Encore

This power ballad was originally a piece of music that the band used to play on stage, usually at the end of shows – hence the title. Guitarist Josh Klinghoffer explained in a track-by-track commentary: "It's just a beautiful, simple bassline that Flea would play backstage, on stage, everywhere. We were always hearing him play that and I don't remember the moment that I put the guitar part to it. I don't remember if it was actually on stage or if it was at a rehearsal, or whatever. But that's how it happened. It was just sort of a piece of music that we've been excited to turn into a song for a long time and finally did when we got together to write for this album."

It was only when producer Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton came on board that the band was able to come up with a chorus. Kinghoffer said: "The chorus to that song took a long time to really settle. We had the chords but for a while it was sort of an upbeat, disco-ey, poppy… it went up. Once Brian got involved and we were all voicing concerns about it, in one way or another, it became what it is now, just sort of this subdued, no real driving beat, strings. It kind of became a little more mature, maybe."

Anthony Kiedis sings here about enjoying the fine things in life, such as in the chorus driving down the highway listening to the radio with a girl beside him. Klinghoffer said: "I think the chorus is a combination of Flea and my chordal ideas. I came up with a bunch and then we shaved some off and then he added one here or there. It's been around for a while and I think the first version of it went rock as we might tend to do. So, it's taken a long time to get where it is now and I guess it's arrived at ballad but to me it's more of an atmospheric, almost sounds like something you'd hear on an old radio station and Anthony's singing about the radio. Where we arrived musically informed his vocal in the chorus because he had something else when the music was different. It's really the collaborative journey has been fun and long."