Don't Forget Me is the fifth track from the band's eighth studio album, By the Way.
The song is built around four chords played repeatedly on bass throughout the song. The guitar is played entirely on the high e and B strings. Anthony Kiedis has described the lyrics as being about a "universal love" that embraces everyone despite their flaws. It was first played at Canfield-Moreno Estate, Los Angeles, CA, USA on December 14th, 2001.
Lyrics[]
I’m an ocean in your bedroom
Make you feel warm
Make you want to re-assume
Now we know it all for sure
I’m a dancehall dirty breakbeat
Make the snow fall
Up from underneath your feet
Not alone, I’ll be there
Tell me when you want to go
I’m a meth lab first rehab
Take it all off
And step inside the running cab
There’s a love that knows the way
I’m the rainbow in your jail cell
All the memories of
Everything you’ve ever smelled
Not alone, I’ll be there
Tell me when you want to go
Sideways falling More will be revealed my friend
Don’t forget me I can’t hide it
Come again get me excited
I’m an inbred and a pothead
Two legs that you spread
Inside the tool shed
Now we know it all for sure
I could show you
To the free field
Overcome and more
Will always be revealed
Not alone, I’ll be there
Tell me when you want to go
Sideways falling
More will be revealed my friend
Don’t forget me I can’t hide it
Come again get me excited
Don’t forget me I can’t hide it
There's a match now let me light it
I’m the bloodstain
On your shirtsleeve
Coming down and more are coming to believe
Now we know it all for sure
Make the hair stand
Up on your arm
Teach you how to dance
Inside the funny farm
Not alone, I’ll be there
Tell me when you wanna go
I’ll be there and tell me when you wanna go
Come again and tell me when you wanna go
More will revealed my friend...
Quotes[]
- “There’s a song (on the new album) called ‘Don’t Forget Me’. It’s a painfully simple song. It starts off with just bass strumming chords, which has a beautiful vibration to it. It’s definitely an original sound for us and to me it’s going to be a corner stone of this record, just because no one’s ever heard us play anything like this. This song is just simple and powerful. It’s kind of my idea what God is and what life is, and what this whole picture is all about, how it’s just everything everywhere – the good, the bad, the in between and the experiences of a lifetime.”
- —UCLA interview, March 4th, 2002
- “One song that Kiedis is particularly proud of off the new album is “Don’t Forget Me”, which he describes as a “painfully simple song.”
“It’s a cornerstone of our record, because no one’s ever heard us play anything like this,” he said. “This song is my ideal of what God is, and what life is, and what this whole picture’s all about, and how it’s just everything and everywhere, and the good and bad and the in between, and the experiences of a lifetime. ... I think it will be our opening song for the next three years or so because it puts us in such a good mood...”
- — Daily Bruin, March 10th, 2002
- “The song "Don't Forget Me" deals with a kind of universal, mystical love that Kiedis says sustained him through the darkest hours of his drug addiction. "It's about that spirit of universal love and the spirit of God. Whatever that might be to you. I don't mean it in a religious sense at all. Let's just call it an energy, or beauty. That energy is everywhere. It doesn't turn it's back on people because they're fuckups, losers and dope fiends. For me, that beauty has always been there, even when I was dying. It's infinite. It's in the jail cells. It's in the ocean. It's in all of us. It's there when you're born and it's there waiting for you when you die..”
- — Guitar World (USA), July 2002
- ““…and Anthony dedicated “Don’t Forget Me” to me. He had written the poignant ballad for his now ex-love Yohanna, but I loved this song...”
- — ‘Lords of the Sunset Strip: An Autobiography’ by Blackie Dammett; page 361
- -“It’s a treat to hear you stretch out on “Don’t Forget Me”.
-“I played a simple pick part all the way through except for the fuzz solo in the chorus, which I improvised over several takes. On one take, I did a run that John liked, but when he asked me to do it again a week later, I couldn’t remember it. The funny thing is, he could play it note for note. So there’s one bitchin’ bass fill on there that’s John.”- — Bass Player, August 2002
Personnel[]
- Anthony Kiedis - vocals
- John Frusciante - vocals, guitars, synthesizer, bass
- Flea - bass
- Chad Smith - drums, tambourine