Anne

I think all you people cant see it... but its so obvious to me. In this song John speaks of his past drug addiction and you all have to know that John was in a very late stage of addiction and survived just miraculously. Well, careless angels are the the people that where feeding him with drugs.I say that becoz angels are the ones that drive us from earth to heaven so careless angels are the ones that drove him to a fake heaven. "I never got the weight off the ground I just forgot what's up and what's down" Here he speaks of his dillusions during his addiction. There's so many careless angels responsible for me They give me disease They give me a pain in my neck to feed off me Saying pay us the cost and we'll be gone Now they shut my eyes and I can't see now.. Now here john wants to say that once the drug deallers(careless angels) sold him drugs he had the need to buy again and again(disease) and he couldnt stop till the latest stage of it..(neck is the latest stage of herion when you have no more pure vains on your body except from your neck and its realy painful). And where he says "Saying pay us the cost and we'll be gone"... He means that he has to buy more and more drugs to stop feeling the pain and cold that addicts feel. The last lines:These are the times I was scared of These are the fares I pushed out of my way Now they've come back here to haunt me It's plain to see who the winner and loser will be
Those lines mean that he managed to get away from his addiction but now it seems like he has the need to take drugs again...And I think he means that in the end the drugs will beat him, coz previously he said :"Anne you can't hide You know we'll find you"...Well Anne is obviously John and he has that feeling that "drugs" seek for him and will finally get him whatever he does..And the most important part according to my opinion is:There wasn't anything for me I always faked my smile...this means that during his addiction he didnt feel that great, he only faked it.I also remember an interview of his where he said that when he was still in the early part of his addiction and was in need of cocaine and he didnt have any, he just faked to be drugged and walked around pretanding to be really high.I never understood why would he do something like that, seems like everything in his world was so miserable to him that he tried to avoid it in that way.
Well these were my comments on the song, hope you like it...And sorry for my mediocre English,Im a Greek FRUSCIANTE fan!!

Fruscy hit the nail on the fucking head Jeeze. Thats fantastic :]

Beautiful song. I think it's about Frusciante taking his work seriously, he feels that he has a responsibility to make music. he has spoken many times about being guided by spirits. i think the careless angels keep him on track when he wants to wander off. "pay us the cost and we'll be gone" - the cost is the music he produces. I could well be wrong though.

i think the first verse is his enactment of the spirits talking to him. to have said, "john you can't hide, you know we'll find you..." would have been too obvious so i think he used the name anne instead. i think the second verse that starts, "the gods of the city have called my name" is through john's perspective.

Like johnny and 2world said, I think this is definately a song about the spirits that speak to John. If you just read the lyrics as their own sentences it really makes sense. 'I always faked my smile' his unhappy time before the addiction, then 'There's so many careless angels responsible for me' the people/spirits that got him back to where he is today? Dunno. Just random thoughts. Absolutely beautiful song though. Love love love the way he sings 'These are the fares I pushed out of my way.'

for me this song has shown me new direstions. int he part where it says "there's so many calreless angels res....... to the end has a got alot of meaning for me. It helps me understand that if somethign is bringing you down then you can always get back up because it's just this certain thing bringing you down and you can control it to make it stop hurting you.

I love this song... But it is these are the 'fates' I pushed out of the way. I think the first part of the song is about him being confused, until the gods of the city... part.

"I left my body, I left my fate. But it is so hard to keep away now"... About to have left things behind and to want it that way, but still missing it.

"There wasn't anything for me, I always faked my smile" part I think is about being unhappy but don't want to let others know, or having nobady to tell it.

The "careless angels" bit to "I can't see now" is about pain, people hurting him, people that is no good to him. It also could be as jonny17 says, but in that case I don't understand "give me disease" "pain in my neck to feed of me" "shut my eyes and I can't see" parts...

"These are the times I was scared of These are the fares I pushed out of my way Now they've come back here to haunt me It's plain to see who the winner and loser will be", ha plays a game that he knows how it will end, the things he's got rid of comes back to him. This doesn't have to be bad... This is just my thougts of the song. Great, great son, I love John!!!

I think the main part of the song is about Anne Frank, but it sort of drifts off to what I think is about drugs.

The first line is definitely about Anne Frank though.

I believe this is one of those particular songs when the words just came out. The words don't even have to be in order for you to understand this song. I think the feeling of the guitar and the solo at the end are something only a limited number could understand.

also, yeh he compares himself to anne frank