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4:03 | 
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from Ani Difranco - Little Plastic Castles (1998)
in a coffee shop in a city
which is every coffee shop in every city on a day which is every day i pick up a magazine which is every magazine and read a story then forgot it right away they say goldfish got no memory i guess their lives are much like mine the little plastic castle is a surprise every time it's hard to say if they are happy when they don't seem much to mind from the shape of your shaved head i recognized your silhoutte as you stepped in out of the sun and sat down your sleepy smile eclipsed everyone else in the room as they paused to snear at the girls from out of town i said, "Baby, look at you this morning you are so way the fucking cutest be careful getting cofee i think these people want to shoot us i think there's some kind of competition here to see who can be the rudest people talk about my image like i come in two dimensions like lipstick is a sign of my decling mind like what i happen to be wearing the day that someone takes my picture is my new statement for all womankind i wish they could see us now in leather bras and rubber shorts like some ridiculous team uniform for some ridculous new sport quick someone call the girl police and file a report in a coffe shop in a city which is every coffee shop in every city on a day which is every day |
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4:00 |
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from Ani Difranco - Little Plastic Castles (1998)
they were digging a new foudation in Manhattan
and they discovered a slave cemetary there may their souls rest easy now that lynching is frowned upon and we've moved on to the electric chair and i wonder who's gonna be president, tweedle dum or tweedle dummer? and who's gonna have the big blockbuster box office this summer? howabout we put up a wall between houses and the highway and you can go your way , and i can go my may except all the radios agree with all the tvs and all the magazines agree with all the radios and i keep hearing that same damn song everywhere i go maybe i should put a bucket over my head and a marshmallow in each ear and stumble around for another dumb- dumb waiting for another hit song to appear people used to make records as in a record of an event the event of people playing music in a room now everything is cross-marketing its about sunglasses and shoes or guns and drugs you choose we got it rehashed we got it half-assed we're digging up all the graves and we're spitting on the past and you can choose between the colors of the lipstick on the whores cause we know the difference between the font of 20% more and the font of teriakiyi you tell me how does it...make you feel? you tell me what's ...real? and they say that alcoholics are always alcoholics even when they're as dry as my lips for years even when they're stranded on a small desert island with no place within 2,000 miles to buy beer and i wonder is he different? is he different? has he changed? what's he about?... or is he just a liar with nothing to lie about? Am i headed for the same brick wall is there anything i can do about anything at all? except go back to that corner in Manhattan and dig deeper, dig deeper this time down beneath the impossible pain of our history beneath unknown bones beneath the bedrock of the mystery beneath the sewage systems and the path drain beneath the cobblestones and the water mains beneath the traffic of friendships and street deals beneath the screeching of kamikaze cab wheels beneath everything i can think of to think about beneath it all, beneath all get out beneath the good and the kind and the stupid and the cruel there's a fire just waiting for fuel there's a fire just waiting for fuel there's a fire just waiting for fuel there's a fire just waiting for fuel there's a fire just waiting for fuel there's a fire just waiting for fuel there's a fire just waiting for fuel there's a fire just waiting for fuel there's a fire just waiting for fuel there's a fire just waiting for fuel there's a fire just waiting for fuel there's a fire just waiting for fuel there's a fire just waiting for fuel there's a fire just waiting for fuel |
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3:33 |
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from Ani Difranco - Little Plastic Castles (1998)
i heard the sound of your bike,
as your wheels hit the gravel, then your engine in the driveway cutting off and i pushed through the screen door and i stood out on the porch thinking figh, fight, fight at all costs, but instead i let you in, just like i've always done and i sat you down and offered you a beer and across the kitchen table i fired several rounds, but you were still sitting here when the smoke cleared. and you came crawling back to say that you wanna make good in the end and oh, oh, let me count the ways that i abhore you, and you were never a good lay and you were never a good friend but, oh, oh, what else can i say... i adore you all i need is my leather, one t-shirt and two socks, i'll keep my hands warm in your pockets and we can use the engine block, and we'll ride out to california with my arms around your chest, and i'll pretend that this is real 'cuz this is what i like best, and you've been juggling two women like a stupid circus clown telling us both we are the one and maybe you can keep me from ever being happy, but you're not gonna stop me from having fun. so let's go before i change my mind i'll leave the luggage of all your lives behind 'cuz i am bigger than everything that came before and you were never very kind, and you let me way down every time but oh, oh, oh what can i say... i adore you i heard the sound of your bike, as your wheels hit the gravel, then your engine in the driveway cutting off |
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4:06 |
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from Ani Difranco - Little Plastic Castles (1998)
you can't hide
behind social graces so don't try to be all touchy feely cuz you lie in my face of all places but i've got no problem with that really what bugs me is that you believe what you're saying what bothers me is that you don't know how you feel what scares me is that while you're telling me stories you actually believe that they are real and i've got no illusions about you and guess what? i never did and when i said when i said i'll take it i meant, i meant as is just give up and admit you're an asshole you would be in some good company i think you'd find that you friends would forgive you or maybe i am just speaking for me cuz when i look around i think this, this is good enough and i try to laugh at whatever life brings cuz when i look down i just miss all the good stuff when i look up i just trip over things and i've got no illusions about you... you can't hide behind social graces cuz i don't buy it like everyone else and you can lie in my face of all places just don't lie to yourself cuz i've got no illusions about you and guess what? i never did and when i say when i say i'll take it i mean, i mean as is... ...as is... |
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4:57 |
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from Ani Difranco - Little Plastic Castles (1998)
you were fresh off the boat from virginia
i had a year in new york city under my belt we met in a dream we were both 19 i remember where we were standing i remember how it felt 2 little girls growing out of their training bras this little girl breaks furniture, this little girl breaks laws 2 girls together just a little less alone this little girl cries wee wee all the way home you were always half crazy, now look at you baby make about as much sense as a nursery rhyme love is a piano dropped out a four story window and you were in the wrong place at the wrong time i don't like your girlfriend, yeah i don't like her never seen one of your lovers do you so much harm i loved you first and you know i would prefer if she didn't empty her syringes into your arm here comes little naked me padding up to the bathroom door to find little naked you slumped on the bathroom floor so i guess i'll just stand here with my back against the wall while you distilled your whole life down to a 911 call [chorus] so now you bring me your bruises so i can oh and ah at the display maybe i'm supposed to make one of my famous jokes that makes everything ok maybe i'm supposed to be the handsome prince who rides up and unties your hands or maybe i'm supposed to be the furrow-browed friend who thinks she understands here comes little naked me......[etc] |
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3:38 |
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from Ani Difranco - Little Plastic Castles (1998)
cold and drizzly night in chicago's deep dish
fluorescent light of the bathroom shows my hands as they are see an eyelash on my cheek pick it off and make a wish and walk back out into the bar wind at the windows neon lights the patterned pane the waitress wields the weight of her tray around her palm the doorman cups his hand and lights his cigarette again and the rain marches on this is only a possibility in a world of possibilities there are obviously there are many possibilities ranging from small to large before long there will be short before short there was nothing when there was nothing tehere was always the possibility of something becoming what it is don't even bother trying to say something clever clever is as clever does no matter what it says i'm looking for a sign says you're for real this time but i don't trust what's in your head i walk up to the bar and point to the top shelf and then i throw my head back and laugh at myself i raise a toast to all our saviors each so badly behaved it's too bad that tehir world is the one that they saved there's a spider spinning cobwebs from your elbow to the table while my eyes ride the crowd in a secret rodeo i smile with my mouth lift my watch up to the light say oh, look, i have to go now you got to dance with me, now is when it's gotta be cuz i can't wait for the dance floor to fill in if you want to dance with me, i'll show you how it's gonna be cuz i can't wait for the bad to begin |
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2:51 |
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from Ani Difranco - Little Plastic Castles (1998)
you've always got those dark sunglasses
covering up your face but if you promise to take them off i promise i won't squander your gaze i will be picturesque i will be nice i won't do anything you can't tell your wife i will think before i act i will think twice just let me see your eyes each time we spoke you put in a token ran? the tilt-a-whirl when i was giggling and dizzy flirting like a 12 year old girl the carnival of you and me was coming to town watch how we spin and stop and then fall down now we just say hello and head for firmer ground you are the one-way glass that watches me standing in line at the bank i always looked into your glasses like a cat looks into a fish tank but all i could ever see was the specter of me reflected i'm on a monument of friendship that we never had erected i wanted to take up lots of room i wanted to loom you always got those dark sunglasses between us when we talk after the party is over if you wanna take a walk we could just look around not to nothing wrong just try to be at least as brave as our songs i will bring my heart i will bring my face you just name the time and place |
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4:25 |
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from Ani Difranco - Little Plastic Castles (1998)
i'm a pixie
i'm a paperdoll i'm a cartoon i'm a chipper cheerful free for all and i light up a room i'm the color me happy girl miss live and let live and when they're out for blood i always give the man behind the counter looks like he's got a half a dozen places he'd rather be and furthermore it looks like he's preparedd to take it all out on me buddy, i don't really care what your problem is just don't make it mine come on kids, let's all hold hands and pretend we're having a good time maybe you don't like your job maybe you didn't get enough sleep well, nobody likes their job nobody got enough sleep maybe you just had the worst day of your life but, you know, there's no escape and there's no excuse so just suck up and be nice all the privileged white kids on tv playing at death brandishing their cold cuts with their whostly makup and their heroin breath and all the little fishes are flapping wildly on their hooks while all the top critics find great meaning in the telephone book the little emperor he has no clothes so he can't come out to play and besides which life is suffering and he likes it that way and the little guy is not so friendly but you know life has been cruel so wipe that smile off your face baby and try to be cool maybe you don't like your job maybe you didn't get enough sleep well, nobody likes their job nobody got enough sleep maybe you just had the worst day of your life but, you know, there's no escape and there's no excuse so just suck up and be nice yeah, i would like to perfect the art of being studiously aloof like life is just a boring chore and i am living proof i could join forces with an army of ornery hipsters but then i guess i'd be out of a job so i guess that's out of the picture cuz i'm a pixie i'm a paperdoll i'm a cartoon i'm a chipper cheerful free for all and i light up a room i'm the color me happy girl miss live and let live and when they're out for blood i always give |
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6:30 |
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from Ani Difranco - Little Plastic Castles (1998)
sleep walking through the all-nite drug store
baptized in fluorescent light i found religion in the greeting card aisle now i know hallmark was right and every pop song on the radio is suddenly speaking to me art may imitate life but life imitates t.v. 'cuz you've been gone exactly two weeks two weeks and three days and let's just say that things look different now different in so many ways i used to be a superhero no one could touch me not even myself you are like a phone booth that i somehow stumbled into and now look at me i am just like everybody else if i was dressed in my best defenses would you agree to meet me for coffee if i did my tricks with smoke and mirrors would you still know which one was me if i was naked and screaming on your front lawn would you turn on the light and come down screaming, there's the asshole who did this to me stripped me of my power stripped me down i used to be a superhero no one could touch me not even myself you are like a phone booth that i somehow stumbled into and now look at me i am just like everybody else yeah you've been gone exactly two weeks two weeks and three days and now i'm a different person different in so many ways tell me what did you like about me and don't say my strength and daring 'cuz now i think i'm at your mercy and it's my first time for this kind of thing i used to be a superhero i would swoop down and save me from myself but you are like a phone booth that i somehow stumbled into and now look at me i am just like everybody else |
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5:20 |
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from Ani Difranco - Little Plastic Castles (1998)
sitting in my glasshouse
while your ghost is sleeping down the hall watching the little birds fly kamikaze missions into the walls think i'm gonna stay in today sit on my couch and watch them fall [drums] life just keeps getting harder keeps getting harder to hide darker it is around me easier it is to see inside and outside the glass the whole world is magnified and its barely an inch from here to the other side [chorus] guess that push has come to this so i guess this must be shove but before you throw those stones at me tell me what's your house made of and before you'll know what i'm doing wrong you're going to have to get in line for the purposes of this song lets just say i'm doing fine sure, i'm doing fine trapped in my glasshouse crowd has been gathering since dawn make a pot of coffee while catastrophe awaits me out on the lawn think i'm going to stay in today pretend like i don't know what's going on seems that push has come to this so i guess this must be shove but before you throw those stones at me tell me what's your house made of and before you'll know what i'm doing wrong you're going to have to get in line so for the purposes of this song lets just say i'm doing fine sure, i'm doing fine sitting in my glass house sitting in my glass house |
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3:45 |
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from Ani Difranco - Little Plastic Castles (1998)
we drove the car to the top of the parking ramp
on the 4th of july we sat out on the hood with a couple of warm beers and watched the fireworks explode in the sky and there was an exodus of birds from the trees but they didnt know, we were only pretending and the people all looked up, and were pleased and the birds flew around like the whole world was ending and i don't think war is noble and i don't like to think that love is like war and i gotta big hot cherry bomb, and i want to slip it through the mail slot of your front door don't leave me here i've got your back now you'd better have mine cause you say the coast is clear but you say that all the time so many sheep i quit counting sleepless and embarrassed about the way that i feel trying to make mole hills out of mountains building base camp at the bottom of a really big deal and did i tell you how i stopped eating? when you stopped calling me and i was cramped up shitting rivers for weeks and pretending that i was finally free don't leave me here now that your back you'd better stay this time cause you say the coast is clear but you say that all the time we drove the car to the top of the parking ramp, on the 4th of july and i planted my dusty boots on the bumper and sat out on the hood, and looked up at the sky |
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14:15 |
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from Ani Difranco - Little Plastic Castles (1998)
you crawled into my bed that night
like some sort of giant insect and i found myself spellbound at the sight of you there cocooned in my room, beautiful and grotesque and all the rest of that bug stuff bluffing your way into my mouth behind my teeth, reaching for my scars that night we got kicked out of two bars and laughed our way home that night you leaned over and threw up into your hair and i thought i would offer you my pulse if i thought it would be useful i would give you my breath except the problem with death is that you have some hundred years and then they can build building on your only bones 100 years and then your grave is not your own we lie in out beds, and our graves unable to save ourselves from the quaint tragedies we invent and then undo from the stupid circumstances we slalomed through and i realized that night that the hall light which seemed so bright when you turned it on is nothing compared to the dawn which is nothing, compared to the light which seeps from me while you're sleeping cocooned in my room beautiful and grotesque resting that night we got kicked out of two bars and laughed our way home and i held you there thinking i would offer you my pulse i would give you my breath i would offer you my pulse |
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4:45 |
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from Ani Difranco - Little Plastic Castles (1998)
the heat is so great
it plays tricks with the eye it turns the road to water and then from water to sky and there's a crack in the concrete floor and it starts at the sink there's a bathroom in a gas station and i've locked myself in it to think and back in the city the sun bakes the trash on the curb the men are pissing in doorways and the rats run in herds i've got a dream of your face that scares me awake i put too much on my table and now i got too much a stake and i might let you off easy yeah i might lead you on i might wait for you to look for me and then i might be gone where i come from and where i'm going and i'm lost in between i might go up to that phone booth and leave a veiled invitation on you machine and you'll stop me, won't you if you've heard this one before the one where i surprise you by showing up at your front door saying 'let's not ask what's next, or how, or why' i am leaving in the morning so let's not be shy the door opens, the room winces the housekeeper comes in without a warning and i squint at the muscular motel lady says 'hey good morning' and she jumps, her keys jingle and she leaves as quick as she came in and i roll over and taste the pillow with my grin well, the sheets are twisted and tangled and the heat is so great and i swear i can feel the mattress sinking underneath your weight oh sleep is like a fever and I'm glad when it ends and the road flows like a river and pulls me around every bend and you'll stop me, won't you... the heat is so great it plays tricks with the eye it turns road to water and water to sky and there's a crack in the concrete floor and it starts at the sink there's a bathroom in a gas station and i've locked myself in it to think and you'll stop me, won't you... |
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4:38 |
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from Ani Difranco - Dilate (1996)
think i'm going for a walk now
i feel a little unsteady i don't want nobody to follow me 'cept maybe you i could make you happy you know if you weren't already i could do a lot of things and i do tell you the truth i prefer the worst of you too bad you had to have a better half she's not really my type but i think you two are forever and i hate to say it but you're perfect together so fuck you and your untouchable face and fuck you for existing in the first place and who am i that i should be vying for your touch and who am i i bet you can't even tell me that much two-thirty in the morning and my gas tank will be empty soon neon sign on the horizon rubbing elbows with the moon a safe haven of sleepless where the deep fryer's always on radio is counting down the top 20 country songs and out on the porch the fly strip is waving like a flag in the wind y'know, i don't look forward to seeing you again soon you'll look like a photograph of yourself taken from far far away and i won't know what to do and i won't know what to say except fuck you... i see you and i'm so perplexed what was i thinking what will i think of next where can i hide in the back room there's a lamp that hangs over the pool table and when the fan is on it swings gently side to side there's a changing constellation of balls as we are playing i see orion and say nothing the only thing i can think of saying is fuck you... |
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4:37 |
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from Ani Difranco - Dilate (1996)
no no no no no no no no no no no no
no more no no no no no no no no no no no no no more no no no no more it's gonna be sudden it's gonna be strange i'm gonna turn on a dime give you five cents change it's gonna be long overdue it's all gonna come out outta me, on to you outta me, onto you... one of these days you're gonna push too hard we'll go on like we've always done 'til you go too far yeah one of these days it's gonna reach the top then it's gonna start to spill and it's not gonna stop outta me, onto you... no more... some people wear their smile like a disguise those people who smile a lot watch the eyes i know it 'cuz i'm like that a lot you think everything's okay and it is 'til it's not outta me, onto you... no more some people wear their heart up on their sleeve i wear mine underneath my right pant leg strapped to my boot don't think cause i'm easy, i'm naive don't think i won't pull it out don't think i won't shoot outta me, onto you... most people like to talk a lot including you you know there isn't much i have to say that i wouldn't rather just shut up and do i'm gonna miss you when you're gone yeah i'm gonna be torn just remember that i love you just remember you were warned outta me, onto you... no more... no more |
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4:45 |
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from Ani Difranco - Dilate (1996)
sleepwalking through the all-nite drugstore
baptized in flourescent light i found religion in the greeting card aisle now i know hallmark was right and every pop song on the radio is suddenly speaking to me yeah, art may imitate life but life imitates t.v. 'cuz you've been gone exactly two weeks two weeks and three days and let's just say that things look different now different in so many ways i used to be a superhero no one could touch me not even myself you are like a phone booth i somehow stumbled into and now look at me i am just like everybody else if i was dressed in my best defenses would you agree to meet me for coffee if i did my tricks with smoke and mirrors would you still know which one was me if i was naked and screaming on your front lawn would you turn on the light and come down screaming, there's the asshole who did this to me stripped me of my power stripped me down i used to be a superhero no one could touch me not even myself you are like a phone booth i somehow stumbled into and now look at me i am just like everybody else yeah you've been gone exactly two weeks two weeks and three days and now i'm a different person different in so many ways tell me what did you like about me don't say my strength and daring 'cuz now i think i'm at your mercy and it's my first time for this kind of thing i used to be a superhero i would swoop down and save me from myself you are like a phone booth that i somehow stumbled into and now look at me i am just like everybody else i am worse than everybody else |
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4:50 |
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from Ani Difranco - Dilate (1996)
life used to be life-like
now it's more like showbiz i wake up in the night and i don't know where the bathroom is and i don't know what town i'm in or what sky i am under and i wake up in the darkness and i don't have the will anymore to wonder everyone has a skeleton and a closet to keep it in and your mine every song has a you a you that the singer sings to and you're it this time baby, you're it this time when i need to wipe my face i use the back of my hand and i like to take up space just because i can and i use my dress to wipe up my drink i care less and less what people think and you are so lame you always dissapoint me it's kind of like our running joke but it's really not funny and i just want you to live up to the image of you i create i see you and i'm so unsatisfied i see you and i dialate so i'll walk the plank and i'll jump with a smile if i'm gonna go down i'm gonna do it with style and you won't see me surrender you won't hear me confess 'cuz you've left me with nothing but i've worked with less and i learn every room long enough to make it to the door and then i hear it click shut behind me and every key works differently i forget everytime and forgetting defines me that's what defines me when i say you sucked my brain out the english translation is i am in love with you and it is no fun but i don't use words like love 'cuz works like that don't matter but don't look so offended you know, you should be flattered and i wake up in the night in some big hotel bed and my hands grope for the light and my hands grope for my head the world is my oyster the road is my home and i know that i'm better off alone |
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7:09 |
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from Ani Difranco - Dilate (1996)
amazing grace
how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me i once was lost but now i'm found was blind but now i see 'twas grace that taught my heart to fear and grace that fear relieved how precious did that grace appear the hour i first believed through many dangers toils and snares i have already come 'twas grace that brought me safely thus far and grace will lead me home and when this heart and flesh shall fail and mortal life shall cease i shall possess within the vail a life of joy and peace |
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6:25 |
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from Ani Difranco - Dilate (1996)
they told you your music
could reach millions that the choice was up to you you told me they always pay for lunch and they believe in what i do and i wonder if you miss your old friends once you've proven what you're worth yeah i wonder when you're a big star will you miss the earth and i know you would always want more i know you would never be done 'cuz everyone is a fucking napoleon yeah everyone is a fucking napoleon and the next time that i saw you you were larger than life you came and you conquered you were doing alright you had an army of suits behind you and all you had to be was willing and i said i still make a pretty good living you must make a killing a killing and i hope that you are happy i hope at least you are having fun 'cuz but everyone is a fucking napoleon yeah everyone is a fucking napoleon now you think, so that is the way it's gonna be that's what this is all about i think that that is the way it always was you chose not to notice until now yeah now that there's a problem you call me up to confide and you go on for over an hour 'bout each one that took you for a ride and i guess that you dialed my number 'cuz you thought for sure that i'd agree i said baby, you know i still love you but how dare you complain to me everyone is a fucking napoleon yeah everyone is a fucking napoleon |
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4:52 |
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from Ani Difranco - Dilate (1996)
i cannot name this
i cannot explain this and i really don't want to just call me shameless i can't even slow this down let alone stop this and i keep looking around but i cannot top this if i had any sense i guess i'd fear this i guess i'd keep it down so no one would hear this i guess i'd shut my mouth and rethink a minute but i can't shut it now 'cuz there's something in it we're in a room without a door and i am sure without a doubt they're gonna wanna know how we got in here and they're gonna wanna know how we plan to get out we better have a good explanation for all the fun that we had 'cuz they are coming for us, baby they are going to be mad they are going to be mad at us this is my skeleton this is the skin it's in that is, according to light and gravity i'll take off my disguise the mask you met me in 'cuz i got something for you to see just gimme your skeleton give me the skin it's in yeah baby, this is you according to me i never avert my eyes i never compromise so nevermind the poetry we're in a room without a door... i gotta cover my butt 'cuz i covet another man's wife i got to divide my emotions between wrong and right then i get to see how close i can get to it without giving in then i get to rub up against it till i break the skin rub up against it till i break the skin they're gonna be mad at us they're gonna be mad at me and you yeah, they're gonna be mad at us and all the things we wanna do they're gonna be mad at us they're gonna be mad at me and you they're gonna be mad at us and all the things we like do just please don't name this please don't explain this just blame it all on me say i was shameless say i couldn't slow it down let alone stop it and say you just hung around 'cuz you couldn't top it |
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6:32 |
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from Ani Difranco - Dilate (1996)
the wind is ruthless
the trees shake angry fingers at the sky the people hunch their shoulders hold their collars over their earsand run by it's a cold rain it's a hard rain like the kind that you find in songs i guess that makes methe jerk with the heartache here to sing youabout how i've been done wrong and i am sitting, watching out the window of the coffee shop and i am waiting, waiting waiting for it to let up i am rocking like a cradle warming my hands with the cup in between i am leaning over the table holding my face over the steam and before it gets so cold that the rain turns to snow there's just a couple things i'd like to know like how could you do nothing and say, i'm doing my best how could you take almost everything and then come back for the rest how could you beg me to stay, reach out your hands and plead and then pack up your eyes and run away as soon as i agreed it just all slips away so slowly you don't even notice till you've lost a lot i've been like one of those zombies in vegas pouring quarters into a slot and now i'm tired and i am broke and i feel stupid and i feel used and i'm at the end of my little rope and i am swinging back and forth about you before it gets so cold that the rain turns to snow there's just a couple things i'd like to know like how could you do nothing and say, i'm doing my best how could you take almost everything and then come back for the rest how could you beg me to stay, reach out your hands and plead and then pack up your eyes and run away as soon as i agreed |
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4:50 |
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from Ani Difranco - Dilate (1996)
you can't get through it
you can't get over it you can't get around just like in a dream you'll open your mouth to scream and you won't make a sound you can't believe your eyes you can't believe your ears you can't believe your friends you can't believe you're here and you're not gonna get through it so you are going down i put a cup out on the window sill to catch the water as it fell now i got a glass half full of rain to measure the time between when you said you'd come and when you actually came little mister limp dick is up to his old tricks and thought he'd call me one last time but i'm just about done with the oh-woe-is-me shit and i want everything back that's mine |
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6:39 |
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from Ani Difranco - Dilate (1996)
tonight you stooped to my level
i am your mangy little whore you are trying to find your underwear and then your socks and then the door and you're trying to find a reason why you have to leave i know it's 'cuz you think you're adam and you think i'm eve you rhapsodize about beauty and my eyes glaze everything that i love is ugly i mean really, you would be amazed just do me a favor it's the least that you can do just don't treat me like i am something that happened to you i am truly sorry about all this you put a tiny pinprick in my big red balloon and as i slowly start to exhale that's when you leave the room i did not design this game i did not name the stakes i just happen to like apples and i am not afraid of snakes i am truly sorry about all this i envy your ignorance i hear that it's bliss so i let go of the ratio of things said to things heard and i leave you to your garden and the beauty you preferred and i wonder what of this will have meaning for you when you've left it all behind i guess i'll even wonder if you meant it at the time |
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from Ani Difranco - Dilate (1996)
i do it for the joy it brings
because i'm a joyful girl because the world owes me nothing and we owe each other the world i do it because it's the least i can do i do it because i learned it from you i do it just because i want to because I want to everything i do is judged and they mostly get it wrong but oh well 'cuz the bathroom mirror has not budged and the woman who lives there can tell the truth from the stuff that they say and she looks me in the eye and says would you prefer the easy way? no, well o.k. then don't cry and i wonder if everything i do i do instead of something i want to do more the question fills my head i know that there's no grand plan here this is just the way it goes and when everything else seems unclear i guess at least i know i do it for the joy it brings... |
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4:54 | 
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| from Ani Difranco - Dilate (1996) | |||||
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4:39 |
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| from Ani Difranco - Dilate (1996) | |||||
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from Ani Difranco - More Joy, Less Shame [ep] (1996)
I do it for the joy it brings
because I'm a joyful girl. Because the world owes me nothing and we owe each other the world. I do it because it's the least I can do. I do it because I learned it from you and I do it just because I want to Because I want to. Everything I do is judged And they mostly get it wrong But oh well. 'Cause the bathroom mirror has not budged and the woman who lives there can tell the truth from the stuff that they say. And, she looks me in the eye and says "would you prefer the easy way? No? Well, okay, then ... Don't cry." I wonder if everything I do I do instead of something I want to do more? The question fills my head. I know there's no grand plan here this is just the way it goes. When everything else seems unclear I guess at least I know I do it for the joy it brings because I'm a joyful girl because the world owes me nothing and we owe each other the world I do it because it's the least I can do I do it because I learned it from you and I do it just because I want to because I want to |
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from Ani Difranco - More Joy, Less Shame [ep] (1996)
I do it for the joy it brings
because I'm a joyful girl. Because the world owes me nothing and we owe each other the world. I do it because it's the least I can do. I do it because I learned it from you and I do it just because I want to Because I want to. Everything I do is judged And they mostly get it wrong But oh well. 'Cause the bathroom mirror has not budged and the woman who lives there can tell the truth from the stuff that they say. And, she looks me in the eye and says "would you prefer the easy way? No? Well, okay, then ... Don't cry." I wonder if everything I do I do instead of something I want to do more? The question fills my head. I know there's no grand plan here this is just the way it goes. When everything else seems unclear I guess at least I know I do it for the joy it brings because I'm a joyful girl because the world owes me nothing and we owe each other the world I do it because it's the least I can do I do it because I learned it from you and I do it just because I want to because I want to |
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from Ani Difranco - More Joy, Less Shame [ep] (1996)
i do it for the joy it brings
because i'm a joyful girl because the world owes me nothing and we owe each other the world i do it because it's the least i can do i do it because i learned it from you i do it just because i want to because I want to everything i do is judged and they mostly get it wrong but oh well 'cuz the bathroom mirror has not budged and the woman who lives there can tell the truth from the stuff that they say and she looks me in the eye and says would you prefer the easy way? no, well o.k. then don't cry and i wonder if everything i do i do instead of something i want to do more the question fills my head i know that there's no grand plan here this is just the way it goes and when everything else seems unclear i guess at least i know i do it for the joy it brings... |
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from Ani Difranco - More Joy, Less Shame [ep] (1996)
i do it for the joy it brings
because i'm a joyful girl because the world owes me nothing and we owe each other the world i do it because it's the least i can do i do it because i learned it from you i do it just because i want to because I want to everything i do is judged and they mostly get it wrong but oh well 'cuz the bathroom mirror has not budged and the woman who lives there can tell the truth from the stuff that they say and she looks me in the eye and says would you prefer the easy way? no, well o.k. then don't cry and i wonder if everything i do i do instead of something i want to do more the question fills my head i know that there's no grand plan here this is just the way it goes and when everything else seems unclear i guess at least i know i do it for the joy it brings... |
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from Ani Difranco - More Joy, Less Shame [ep] (1996)
i cannot name this
i cannot explain this and i really don't want to just call me shameless i can't even slow this down let alone stop this and i keep looking around but i cannot top this if i had any sense i guess i'd fear this i guess i'd keep it down so no one would hear this i guess i'd shut my mouth and rethink a minute but i can't shut it now 'cuz there's something in it we're in a room without a door and i am sure without a doubt they're gonna wanna know how we got in here and they're gonna wanna know how we plan to get out we better have a good explanation for all the fun that we had 'cuz they are coming for us, baby they are going to be mad they are going to be mad at us this is my skeleton this is the skin it's in that is, according to light and gravity i'll take off my disguise the mask you met me in 'cuz i got something for you to see just gimme your skeleton give me the skin it's in yeah baby, this is you according to me i never avert my eyes i never compromise so nevermind the poetry we're in a room without a door... i gotta cover my butt 'cuz i covet another man's wife i got to divide my emotions between wrong and right then i get to see how close i can get to it without giving in then i get to rub up against it till i break the skin rub up against it till i break the skin they're gonna be mad at us they're gonna be mad at me and you yeah, they're gonna be mad at us and all the things we wanna do they're gonna be mad at us they're gonna be mad at me and you they're gonna be mad at us and all the things we like do just please don't name this please don't explain this just blame it all on me say i was shameless say i couldn't slow it down let alone stop it and say you just hung around 'cuz you couldn't top it |
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from Ani Difranco - More Joy, Less Shame [ep] (1996)
I am walking
out in the rain and I am listening to the low moan of the dial tone again and I am getting nowhere with you and I can't let it go and I can't get through... the old woman behind the pink curtains and the closed door on the first floor she's listening through the air shaft to see how long our swan song can last and both hands now use both hands oh, no don't close your eyes I am writing graffitti on your body I am drawing the story of how hard we tried I am watching your chest rise and fall like the tides of my life, and the rest of it all and your bones have been my bedframe and your flesh has been my pillow I am waiting for sleep to offer up the deep with both hands in eachother's shadows we grew less and less tall and eventually our theories couldn't explain it all and I'm recording our history now on the bedroom wall and eventually the landlord will come and paint over it all and I am walking out in the rain and I am listening to the low moan of the dial tone again and I am getting nowhere with you and I can't let it go and I can't get though So now use both hands please use both hands oh, no don't close your eyes I am writing graffitti on your body I am drawing the story of how hard we tried hard we tried how hard we tried |
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| from Steal This Movie (이 영화를 훔쳐라) by Mader [ost] (2000) | |||||
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from Steal This Movie (이 영화를 훔쳐라) by Mader [ost] (2000)
there's no place in this world where i'll belong when i'm gone.
and i won't know the right from the wrong when i'm gone. and you won't find me singin' on this song when i'm gone, so i guess i'll have to do it while i'm here. and i won't feel the flowing of the time when i'm gone. all the pleasures of love will not be mine when i'm gone. my pen won't pour out a lyric line when i'm gone, so i guess i'll have to do it while i'm here. and i won't breathe the bracing air when i'm gone. and i can't even worry 'bout my cares when i'm gone. won't be asked to do my share when i'm gone. so i guess i'll have to do it while i'm here. and i won't be running from the rain when i'm gone. and i can't even suffer from the pain when i'm gone. can't say who's to praise and who's to blame when i'm gone, so i guess i'll have to do it while i'm here. won't see the golden of the sun when i'm gone. and the evenings and the mornings will be one when i'm gone. can't be singing louder than the guns when i'm gone. so i guess i'll have to do it while i'm here. all my days won't be dances of delight when i'm gone. and the sands will be shifting from my sight when i'm gone. can't add my name into the fight while i'm gone, so i guess i'll have to do it while i'm here. and i won't be laughing at the lies when i'm gone. and i can't question how or when or why when i'm gone. can't live proud enough to die when i'm gone, so i guess i'll have to do it while i'm here. |
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| from Badlands : A Tribute To Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska [tribute] (2000) | |||||
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from My Best Friend's Wedding (내 남자 친구의 결혼식) by James Newton Howard [omnibus, ost] (1997)
Wishin', and hopin', and thinkin', and prayin',
Plannin' and dreamin' each night of his charms, That won't get you into his arms. So if your're looking for love, you can share, All you gotta to is hold him, and kiss him, and love him, And show him that you care. Show him that you care, just for him. Do the things that he likes to do. Wear your hair just for him, 'Cause you won't get him Thinkin' and a prayin', Wishin' and a hopin', Just wishin', and hopin', and thinkin', and prayin', Planning and dreamin' His kisses will start. That won't get you into his heart. So if you're thinking how great true love is, All you gotta do is hold him, And kiss him, And squeeze him, And love him, Just do it, And after you do, You will be his. Show him that you care just for him. Do the things that he likes to do. Wear your hair just for him, 'Cause, you won't get him, Thinkin' and a prayin', Wishin' and a hopin'. Just wishin', And hopin', And thinkin', And prayin', Planning And dreamin' His kisses will start. That won't get you into his heart. So if you're thinking how great true love is, All you gotta do is hold him, And kiss him, And squeeze him, And love him, Just do it, And after you do, You will be his. You...will...be...his. you will be his! |
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from Cyndi Lauper - The Body Acoustic (2006)
Felt someone calling me into the howling of the wind.
I heard the reflection of a sound echoing through my skin ... And a distant drum rumbling under ground gently guides me on ... Through my wild heart ... Whispering to me the Sisters Of Avalon... Sisters Of Avalon... Sisters Of Avalon... She is awakening in dark swells and mystery. Unbridled night mares powerful and running free. You could still hear her cries reverberating through the trees... For the trampled flowers, the daughters of Eve, the Sisters of Avalon... Sisters Of Avalon... Sisters Of Avalon... They brought her in in a new white dress... But the stain left an ache on her mother's breast... Now all that's left are the ghostly steps from a distant corridor... And a distant drum rumbling under ground gently guides me on ... Through my wild heart ... Whispering to me the Sisters Of Avalon... Sisters Of Avalon... Come on sisters... Come on sister... |
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from Ani Difranco - To The Teeth (2001)
the sun is setting on the century
and we armed to the teeth we're all working together now to make our lives mercifully brief schoolkids keep trying to teach us what guns are all about confuse liberty with weaponry and watch your kids act it out every year now like christmas some boy gets the milkfed suburban blues reaches for the available arsenal and saunters off to make the news and the women in the middle arelearning what poor women have always known that the edge is closer than you think whe your men bring the guns home look at where the profits are that's how you'll find the source of the big lie that you and i both know so well in the time it take this cultural death wish to run its course they're gonna make a pretty penny and then they're all going to hell he said the chickens all come home to roost yeah malcolm forecasted this flood are we really gonna sleep through another century while the rich profit off our blood? true it may take some doing to see this undoing through but in my humble opinion here's what i suggest we do open fire on hollywood open fire on MTV open fire on NBC and CBS and ABC open fire on the NRA and all the lies they told us along the way open fire on each weapons manufacturer while he's giving head to some republican senator and if i hear one more time about a fool's right to his tools of rage i'm gonna take all my friends and i'm gonna move to canada and we're gonna die of old age |
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from Ani Difranco - To The Teeth (2001)
i don't keep much stuff around
i value my portability but i will say that i have saved every letter you ever wrote to me the one you left on my windshield outside of that little motel is in the pocket of my old gig bag from back when life was more soft shell letters littered with little lewd pictures drawn by the ghost of woody guthrie who would use you big thick hand just to draw one or two for me i think of your letters as love letters which is how i think of songs in that it is the writing of them that tends to carry us along and i danced to one of your old tunes with my true love on our wedding day and you voice sang the way my heart would sing if it finally knew just what to say two people pulled over on the same night to look up at the same stars they both found their wheels were spinning in a soft shoulder when they both got back into their cars and they missed fates appointed rendezvous and then a whole lotta time wnet by and then one day they were done worshipping the landscape and they just put down their hands and moved into the sky they had barely said hello and it was time to say goodbye |
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from Ani Difranco - To The Teeth (2001)
i am losing my love for adventure
i'm losing all respect for me and myself tonight i wonder what happens if i get to the end of this tunnel and there isn't a light i've worn down the treads on all of my tires i've worn through the elbows and the knees of my clothing i am stumbling down the gravel driveway of desire trying not to wake up my sleeping self-loathing do you ever have that dream where you open your mouth and you try to scream but you can't make a sound that's every day starting now that's every day starting now don't tell me it's gonna be alright you can't sell me on your optimism tonight it's stiff competition to see who can stay up later the stars or the street lights all they really want is to be alone with the darkness no more wish i may no more wish i might it takes a stiff upper lip just to hold up my face i got to suck it up and savor the taste of my own behavior i am spinning with longing faster than a roulette wheel this is not who i meant to be this is not how i meant to feel i don't think i am strong enough to do this much longer god i wish i was stronger this song could never be long enough to express every longing god i wish it was longer |
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from Ani Difranco - To The Teeth (2001)
life in the circus ain't easy
but the folks on the outside don't know the tent goes up and the tent comes down and all that they see is the show and the laides on the horses look so pretty and the lions are looking real mad and some of the clowns are happy and some of the clowns are sad but underneath there's another expression that the makeup isn't making life under the big top it's about freedom it's about faking there's an art to the laughter there's a science and there's a lot of love and compliance welcome to the freakshow here we go... we live to hear the slack-jawed gasping we live under a halo of held breath and when the children raise up a giant shield of laughter, it's like they're fending of death oh and we can make something bigger than any of us alone and then the clowns will take of their makeup and the people will go home but life on the outside ain't easy no sequins, no elephants no parading around yeah, the circus comes and the circus goes and they're stuck in this fucking town you need a lot of love and compliance welcome to the freakshow here we go... |
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from Ani Difranco - To The Teeth (2001)
going once, going twice
sold to the girl who ignored all the advice of all the people who knew better she just stood there on the front porch waiting for her will to come and get her she was packed she had a suitcase full of noble intentions she had a map packed and a straight face hell bent on reinvention and she was ready for the lonely she was in it for it only going once, going twice down the road less taken with her diary and her WD40 and her swiss army knife and her beer and there was always someone there to say why don't you just stay and hang your hat here but she was packed she had a suitcase full of bumbles and near misses and she was swinging through a jungle of last calls and first kisses and she was learning about please and huge humilities then one day she looked around here and everything up till then was showing and she wondered how did i get here without even knowing where i was going? now there's no getting out of this and there is no going back and it all seems so odd sometimes and the odds all seem stacked going once, going twice sold to the girl who ignored all the advice of all the people who knew better she just stood there on the front porch waiting for her will to come and get her she was packed she had a suitcase she had a map packed and a straight face she was ready for the lonely she was in it for it only |
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from Ani Difranco - To The Teeth (2001)
Hold me down
I am floating away Into the overcast skies Over my home town On election day What is it about Birmingham? What is it about buffalo? Did the hate filled wanna build bunkers In your beautiful red earth They want to build them In our shiny white snow Now I've drawn closed the curtain In this little booth where the truth has no place to stand And I am feeling oh so powerless In this stupid booth with this useless Little lever in my hand And outside my city is bracing For the next killing thing Standing by the bridge and praying For the next doctor Martin Luther King It was just one shot Through the kitchen window It was just two miles from here If you fly like a crow A bullet came to visit a doctor In his one safe place A bullet ensuring the right to life Whizzed past his kid and his wife And knocked his glasses Right off of his face And the blood poured off the pulpit Yeah the blood poured down the picket lines Yeah, the hatred was immediate And the vengence was divine So they went and stuffed god Down the barrel of a gun And after him They stuffed his only son Hello birmingham It's buffalo I heard you had some trouble Down there again And I'm just calling to let to know That someone understands I was once escorted Through the doors of a clinic By a man in a bulletproof vest And no bombs went off that day So I am still here to say Birmingham I'm wishing you all of my best Oh Birmingham I'm wishing you all of my best Oh Birmingham I'm wishing you all of my best on this election day |
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from Ani Difranco - To The Teeth (2001)
back back back in the back of your mind
are you learning an angry language, tell me boy boy boy are you tending to your joy or are you just letting it vanquish back back back in the dark of your mind where the eyes of your demons are gleamin are you mad mad mad about the life you never had even when you are dreaming. who are these old old people in these nursing homes scowling away at nothing like big rag dolls just cursing at the walls and pulling out all of their stuffing every day is a door leading back to the core yes, old age will distill you and if you're this this this full of bitterness now some day it will just fill you when you sit right down in the middle of yourself you're gonna wanna have a comfortable chair so renovate your soul before you get too old cuz you'r egonna be housebound there when you're old you fold up like an envelope and you mail yourself right inside and there's nowhere to go except out real slow are you ready, boy, for that ride? your arrogance is gaining on you and so is eternity you better practice happiness you better practice humility you took the air, you took the time you were fed and you were free now you'd better put some beauty back while you got the energy you'd better put some beauty back, boy while you got the energy |
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from Ani Difranco - To The Teeth (2001)
are you weary as water
in a faucet left dripping with an incessant sadness like a sad record skipping and an ugly and ornery and shadowy dread lurking like a troll under the bridge between your heart and your head she came to and her whole life was how she remembered it she had a mouth full of fur and she was laughing she parked her hearse across three spaces posted "motorcycles only" and jumped out shouting what the cus could make a nice girl like us feel so lonely? are you weary as water in a faucet left dripping with an incessant sadness like a sad record skipping and an ugly and ornery and shadowy dread lurking like a troll under the bridge between your heart and your head please dumb blind kind sir lend little miss listless just a little bit of christmas she's been a real good girl but now she's stuck here the world is so little and still mysterious and ominous as ever before like an unmarked bottle full of pills on the shelf right next to the thing you were reaching for are you weary as water in a faucet left dripping with an incessant sadness like a sad record skipping and an ugly and ornery and shadowy dread lurking like a troll under the bridge between your heart and your head swing the groove 'round here where i can reach it when i get my ass back on track i'm gonna need it swing shift til i get the money to buy me and my baby a moon full of honey then i'm gonna turn off the nagging voices inside my head that follow me to bed and say (you suck) are you weary as water (what'd you do that for?) in a faucet left dripping with an incessant sadness like a sad record skipping and an ugly and ornery and shadowy dread lurking like a troll under the bridge between your heart and your head (end of radio version rest is only on To the Teeth) if you diggin on the sound (break it down down) no walls up break it down (break it down down) happiness spread it all around (break it down down) racist stomp it in the ground (break it down down) so if you diggin on the sound (break it down down) no walls up break it down (break it down down) ignorance stomp it in the ground (break it down down) then happiness spread it all around (break it down down) tcha who said funk and hip hop can't match put us together on a stage and like a match KABOOM guess who stepped in the room sweepin ya off ya feel like we had a broom with ani difranco and Maceo. add a little freestyle flow and who knows put a little scratchin into the mix and its enough to get you high if you need a fixin if you diggin on the sound (break it down down) no walls up break it down (break it down down) ignorance stomp it in the ground (break it down down) happiness spread it all around (break it down down) if you diggin on the sound (break it down down) no walls up break it down (break it down down) happiness spread it all around (break it down down) racist stomp it in the ground (break it down down) break it down down down down (fades out) |
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from Ani Difranco - To The Teeth (2001)
how pleased can one
sun setting make you if you humble yourself to it? how grateful can you relay say that you are just to be here and live through it? and when beauty asks a question how often do you reply? how often do you wonder about life on the other side? on the other side of sorrow on the other side of rage on the other side of ok ok at all in any way imagine what loneliness will drive someone to do now multiply that times me and multiply that times you now imagine what it would take to make this all happen again and just when you think you're gonna cry multiply that times ten you are distracting me from all other activities and i know the fact of your presence will dominate my memory of this restaurant this table this day and this town cuz i carry you, baby i carry you around |
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from Ani Difranco - To The Teeth (2001)
i've been wondering what you meant when you asked
do you have a light? i've been wondering where you went when you left that party that night cloud blood smudge smeared on the sky it's dawn's roadkill i've been driving since midnight and i'm driving still stop on the top of the ridge just to feel the wind on my rand mcnally then i feel the air go cold as i drift in to the first blue of the valley you're wondering how far down you are on my call back list but you don't realize everytime i find i'm by a phone the landscape shifts every other song someone's trying to write angels into the wrold every grace, every ace every near miss every decent kiss by a pretty girl she was an angel she looked like an angel and all of the angels did sing the angels were watching and the angels were listening and the angels were on hand to stand in for everything you can call it magic when a man pulls a rabbit out of a hat but the reason i don't call is cuz i wonder if there isn't a better word than that and you can call me crazy but i think you're as lazy as white paint on a wall and i know you'll only speak to me in dial tones if i call it's been way too long since i've been behind the wheel headlights guiding me through the dark i feel dry eyed trying hard to resist sleep's first kill everytime i have time to think i think of this |
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| from Ani Difranco - To The Teeth (2001) | |||||
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from Ani Difranco - To The Teeth (2001)
who knew
at this party that i would walk in and i'd see you i guess now we could just get drunk yeah, and that could be our excuse you could slip and outta nowhere i could be there to catch your fall and we could laugh at ourselves and the writing that's on the wall it's a narrow margin just room enough for regret in the inch and a half between hey, how ya been? and can i kiss you yet? so we talk like nervous neighbors over a tall fence true love but for the lack of providence but i just got one more thing to tell you cuz words are vitamins and life is short and i know when we get up to the front office we're gonna have to fill out a full report the first question will be what were you thinking? and the next question will be what did you say? and then they're gonna check to see if the answers to one and two matched up much along the way in the interest of poetry and the cowboy movie that's you and me i'm back on the horse now and i am riding i am striding so effortlessly what i mean is it's late much too late for us and i'm fixing to go home with just my conscience and a bitter sense of irony as my chaperone |
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from Ani Difranco - To The Teeth (2001)
i know this bar
with a jukebox full of medicine and christmas lights blinking around a clouded mirror it's not that far from old voelkers bowling alley just go up there and turn right it's about three blocks from here you'll probably find grace her shift starts at happy hour she's got this sweet face easy as tea leaves to read you gotta know what to look for you gotta know what's there to find but then i guess you don't really know her so nevermind i used to hang out a lot around here in that part of town where all the white kids still have feathered hair i know this song with this one really killer line i don't remember it exactly but it slays me every time it's on the jukebox there i know it's number 5403 go put that song on for me won't you and make gracie think of me |
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from Ani Difranco - Fire Door (2002)
I opened the fire door
to four lips none of which were mine kissing tightened my belt around my hips where your hands were missing and stepped out into the cold collar high under the slate grey sky the air was smoking and the streets were dry and I wasn't joking when I said Good Bye magazine quality men talking on the corner French, no less much less of them then us so why do I feel like something's been rearranged? you know, taken out of context I must seem so strange killed a cockroach so big it left a puddle of pus on the wall when you and I are lying in bed you don't seem so tall I'm singing now because my tear ducts are too tired and my mind is disconnected but my heart is wired I make such a good statistic someone should study me now somebody's got to be interested in how I feel just 'cause I'm here and I'm real oh, how I miss substituting the conclusion to confrontation with a kiss and oh, how I miss walking up to the edge and jumping in like I could feel the future on your skin I opened the fire door to four lips none of which were mine kissing I opened the fire door x 9 |
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from Ani Difranco - Fire Door (2002)
Tending the garden of noise
where i grow the traffic and the church bells and the neighborhood boys singing to myself when the solitude sets in in tune with the symphony of south brooklyn i sing rockabye, rockabye baby rockabye, the baby that is me rockabye, rockabye baby rockabye till i'm fast asleep the tunnel is train torn the tracks are worn and sore i can feel the rattle riding up through the floor she jumped the turnstile he paid for his ride i am the echo in the station where their footfalls collide i left her at the epicenter we were trembling dutifully i left him too i left parts of me singing... rockabye, rockabye baby rockabye, the baby that is me rockabye, rockabye baby rockabye till i'm fast asleep (repeats) i said today i am leaving in every sense of the word but i'm in love with your memory already everything i've seen and heard and i will go singing as the solitude sets in in time with the rhythm of everywhere i have been it sounds like rockabye, rockabye baby rockabye, the baby that is me rockabye, rockabye baby rockabye till i'm fast asleep (repeats x3) tending the garden of noise where i grow the traffic and the church bells and the neighborhood boys singing to myself when the solitude sets in in tune with the symphony of south brooklyn. |
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from Ani Difranco - Fire Door (2002)
i will lean into you
and you can be the wind i will open up my mouth and you can come rushing in you can rush in so hard and make it so i can't breathe i breathe too much anyway i can do that anyday i just wish i knew who you were i wish you'd make yourself known you probably don't realize i'm her the woman you want to call home i'll keep my ear to the wall i'll keep my eye on the door 'cause i've heard all my own jokes and they're just not funny anymore i laugh too much anyway i can do that anyday have you ever been bent or pulled have you ever been played like strings if i could see you i could strum you i could break you make you sing but i guess you can't really see the wind it just comes in and fills the space and everytime something moves you think that you have seen its face and i've always got my guitar to play but i can do that anyday |
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from Ani Difranco - Fire Door (2002)
how come i can pick my ears
but not my nose who made up that rule anyway how can you say that's the way it is that's just the way it goes why don't you decide for yourself what you can do and what you can say how come i can pick my friends but not my enemies what is it about me that offends what is it about me 'cause you know i'm only five foot two and i'm giggly wiggly tell me again, what did i do why are you scared of me i fight with love and i laugh with rage you've gotta live light enough to see the humor and long enough to see some change i think shy is boring i think depressed is too i think pretty is nice but i'd rather see something new all these plastic people got their plastic surgery but we got a big big beautiful we got it for free who you gonna be if you can't be yourself you can't get it from t.v. you can't force it on anybody else you know they come to clear cut they come to strip mine they come for some of my big butt my big brain or just a little time they wanna take me out to dinner think i'm a bitch if i don't go seems like the people who actually like me won't allow me to say no your idea of a conversation is the third degree but i don't really know you and i don't really want to talk about me 'cause i'm not going to pretend that i don't pick my nose that's just the way it is, my friends that's just the way it goes this is who i am what i do and what i say if you like it, let it be if you don't, please do the same i fight with love i laugh with rage you gotta live light enough to see the humor and long enough to see some change |
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from Ani Difranco - Fire Door (2002)
guess there's something wrong with me
guess i don't fit in no one wants to touch it no one knows where to begin i've got more than one membership to more than one club and i owe my life to the people that i love he looks me up and down like he knows what time it is like he's got my number like he thinks it's his he says, call me, miss difranco, if there's anything i can do i say, it's mr. difranco to you some days the line i walk turns out to be straight other days the line tends to deviate i've got no criteria for sex or race i just want to hear your voice i just want to see your face she looks me up and down like she thinks that i'll mature like she's got my number like it belongs to her she says, call me, ms. difranco if there's anything i can do i say, i've got spots i've got stripes, too their eyes are all asking are you in, or are you out and i think, oh man, what is this about? tonight you can't put me up on any shelf 'cause i came here alone i'm gonna leave by myself i just want to show you the way that i feel and when i get tired you can take the wheel to me what's more important is the person that i bring not just getting to the same restaurant and eating the same thing guess there's something wrong with me guess i don't fit in no one wants to touch it no one knows where to begin i've more than one membership to more than one club and i owe my life to the people that i love |
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from Ani Difranco - Imperfectly (2007)
If my life were a movie
there would be a sunset and the camera would pan away but the sky is just a little sister tagging along behind the buildings trying to imitate their grey the little boys are breaking bottles along the sidewalk the big boys, too the girls are hanging out at the candy store pumping quarters into the phone 'cause they don't want to go home and I think, what if no one's watching what it when we're dead, we're just dead what if it's just us down here what if god ain't looking down what if he's looking up instead if my life were a movie I would light a cigarette and the smoke would curl around my face everything I do would be interesting I'd play the good guy in every scene but I always feel I have to take a stand and there's always someone on hand to hate me for standing there I always feel I have to open my mouth and every time I do I offend someone somewhere but what what if no one's watching what if when we're dead, we're just dead what if there's no time to lose what if there's things we gotta do things that need to be said you know I can't apologize for everything I know I mean you don't have to agree with me but once you get me going you better just let me go we have to be able to criticize what we love say what we have to say 'cause if you're not trying to make something better as far as I can tell you're just in the way I mean what what if no one's watching what if when we're dead we're just dead what if it's just us down here what if god is just an idea someone put in your head I mean what what if no one's watching what if no one's watching... |
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from Ani Difranco - Imperfectly (2007)
she's looking in the mirror
she's fixing her hair and i touch my head to feel what isn't there she's humming a melody we learned in grade school she's so happy and i think this is not cool 'cause i know the guy she's been talking about i have met him before and i think what is this beautiful beautiful woman settling for? she bends her breath when she talks to him i can see her features begin to blur as she pours herself into the mold he made for her and for everything he does she has a way to rationalize she says he don't mean what he do she tells me he called to apologize he says he loves her he says he's changing and he can keep her warm and so she sits there like america suffering through slow reform but she'll never get back the time and the years sneak by one by one she is still playing the martyr i am still praying for revolution and she still doesn't have what she deserves but she wakes up smiling every day she never really expected more that's just not the way we are raised and i say to her, you know, there's plenty of really great men out there but she doesn't hear me she's looking in the mirror she's fixing her hair |
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from Ani Difranco - Imperfectly (2007)
guess there's something wrong with me
guess i don't fit in no one wants to touch it no one knows where to begin i've got more than one membership to more than one club and i owe my life to the people that i love he looks me up and down like he knows what time it is like he's got my number like he thinks it's his he says, call me, miss difranco, if there's anything i can do i say, it's mr. difranco to you some days the line i walk turns out to be straight other days the line tends to deviate i've got no criteria for sex or race i just want to hear your voice i just want to see your face she looks me up and down like she thinks that i'll mature like she's got my number like it belongs to her she says, call me, ms. difranco if there's anything i can do i say, i've got spots i've got stripes, too their eyes are all asking are you in, or are you out and i think, oh man, what is this about? tonight you can't put me up on any shelf 'cause i came here alone i'm gonna leave by myself i just want to show you the way that i feel and when i get tired you can take the wheel to me what's more important is the person that i bring not just getting to the same restaurant and eating the same thing guess there's something wrong with me guess i don't fit in no one wants to touch it no one knows where to begin i've more than one membership to more than one club and i owe my life to the people that i love |
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from Ani Difranco - Imperfectly (2007)
i got pulled over in west texas
so they could look inside my car he said are you an american citizen i said yes sir so far they made sure i wasn't smuggling someone in from mexico someone willing to settle for america 'cause there's nowhere else to go and every state line there's a new set of laws and every police man comes equipped with extended clause there's a thousand shades of white and a thousand shades of black but the same rule always applies smile pretty, and watch your back i broke down in louisiana and i had to thumb a ride got in the first car that pulled over you can't be picky in the middle of the night he said baby, do you like to fool around baby, do you like to be touched i said maybe some other time fuck you very much and every state line there's a new set of laws and every police man comes equipped with extended clause there's a thousand shades of white and a thousand shades of black but the same rule always applies smile pretty, and watch your back i'm in the middle of alabama they stare at me where ever i go i don't think they like my haircut i don't think they like my clothes i can't wait to get back to new york city where at least when i walk down the street nobody ever hesitates to tell me exactly what they think of me and every state line there's a new set of laws and every police man comes equipped with extended clause there's a thousand shades of white and a thousand shades of black but the same rule always applies smile pretty, and watch your back a little town in pennsylvania there was snow on the ground i parked in an empty lot where there was no one else around but i guess i was taking up too much space as i was trying to get some sleep 'cause an officer came by anyway and told me i had to leave and every state line there's a new set of laws and every police man comes equipped with extended clause there's a thousand shades of white and a thousand shades of black but the same rule always applies smile pretty, and watch your back |
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from Ani Difranco - Imperfectly (2007)
standing just outside
the circle of light avoiding the pool cues watching the game waiting for you hanging in the doorway like smoke like mistletoe this is where i'll be whenever you come or go i'm gonna roll you over gonna peel you back expose your tender center watch the juices flow from the crack gonna peel you out of your protective shell or i might have to break right in there and raise some hell i don't have no grand plan for you and me just nothing is impossible nothing is unlikely i'm just riding the tide nothing more and it's bound to take me out some before it brings me back to shore when you look in the mirror do you see visions of your past i ain't got time for halfway i ain't got time for halfassed when i look in the mirror i see my days to come and my face is just a trace of where i'm coming from just outside the circle of light is where you've been living your whole life you've got to jump into the center and launch your attack and then you've got to crawl back in the corners where it's really black |
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from Ani Difranco - Imperfectly (2007)
standing like john wayne
she is full framed she is center stage and my imagination is rattling in its cage i didn't really notice when everything else disappeared but as far as i'm concerned if it isn't her it isn't here she says do i know you i say well, no, not biblically but i've been waiting for you come and talk to me i have been playing too many of those boy girl games she says honey you are safe here this is a girl girl thing i told him i loved him so he thought i'd roll over and play dead he was god's gift to hypocrisy with weak knees and a big fat head she says honey don't tell me that old story you are boring me just tell me do you like me tell me what you're gonna do now that you're free standing like john wayne she is full framed she is center stage and my imagination is rattling in its cage i didn't really notice when everything else disappeared but as far as i'm concerned if it isn't her it isn't here as far as i'm concerned if it isn't her it isn't here |
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from Ani Difranco - Imperfectly (2007)
you think i wouldn't have him
unless i could have him by the balls you think i just dish it out you don't think i take it at all you think i am stronger you think i walk taller than the rest you think i'm usually wearing the pants just 'cause i rarely wear a dress well... when you look at me you see my purpose, see my pride you think i just saddle up my anger and ride and ride and ride you think i stand so firm you think i sit so high on my trusty steed let me tell you i'm usually face down on the ground when there's a stampede i'm no heroine at least, not last time i checked i'm too easy to roll over i'm too easy to wreck i just write about what i should have done i just sing what i wish i could say and hope somewhere some woman hears my music and it helps her through her day 'cause some guy designed these shoes i use to walk around some big man's business turns a profit every time i lay my money down some guy designed the room i'm standing in another built it with his own tools who says i like right angles? these are not my laws there are not my rules i'm no heroine i still answer to the other half of the race i don't fool myself like i fool you i don't have the power we just don't run this place |
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from Ani Difranco - Imperfectly (2007)
our father who art in a penthouse
sits in his 37th floor suite and swivels to gaze down at the city he made me in he allows me to stand and sollicit graffiti until he needs the land i stand on i in my darkened threshold am pawing through my pockets the receipts, the bus schedules urgent napkin poems and matchbook phone numbers all of which laundering has rendered pulpy and strange loose change and a key ask me go ahead, ask me if i care i got the answer here i wrote it down somewhere i just gotta find it i just gotta find it somebody and their spraypaint got too close somebody came on too heavy now look at me made ugly by the drooling letters i was better off alone ain't that the way it is they don't know the first thing but you don't know that until they take the first swing my fingers are red and swollen from the cold i'm getting bold in my old age so go ahead, try the door it doesn't matter anymore i know the weakhearted are strongwilled and we are being kept alive until we're killed he's up there the ice is clinking in his glass i don't ask i just empty my pockets and wait it's not fate it's just circumstance i don't fool myself with romance i just live phone number to phone number dusting them against my thighs in the warmth of my pockets which whisper history incessantly asking me where were you i lower my eyes wishing i could cry more and care less, yes it's true, i was trying to love someone again, i was caught caring, bearing weight but i love this city, this state this country is too large and whoever's in charge up there had better take the elevator down and put more than change in our cup or else we are coming up |
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from Ani Difranco - Imperfectly (2007)
my breast is cradled
in the curve of my guitar i'm breaking strings and other things playing hard no i'm not on the rag but i'm not on the run i am matching the big boys one for one and i must admit, i'm having myself some fun because the music business is still run by men like every business and everything but we can sing like a sonofabitch make them twitch around their eyes make them apologize he had a mean streak three miles wide it was a long walk to the other side she tried to get through it holding on to her smile but he wasn't worth the time it takes to make that mistake he just wasn't worthwhile she's been under command of the wrong man and she'll give you everything except the upper hand she was his mother, and his lover, and his wife now she wants the luxury of her own life 'cause the marriage business is still run by men like every business and every thing but she can sing like a sonofabitch make him twitch around his eyes girl, make him apologize they all want to lead the fight and they know what they know all right but there's so much they don't understand what about the other sex what about the other hand they only know what they've been told and they're well cast but they don't break the mold and good sources are not enough so she calls their bluff yeah, she calls their bluff 'cause the revolution business is still run by men like every business and everything but we can sing like a sonofabitch make them twitch around their eyes until they realize they just don't realize |
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from Ani Difranco - Imperfectly (2007)
he caresses every bottle
like it's the first one he's had saying it ain't love but it ain't bad it's the only reward bestowed upon me and i have served faithfully i can see he is scarred from doing some hard time but i let alone what is broken 'cause it isn't mine he strikes out at me when i am within reach then he reaches for me when i draw the line sometimes it seems like love is just a fancy word for compromise you gotta read between the years you gotta write between the lines you gotta try to understand the grandness of the man behind the petty crimes and let him off easy sometimes i have only just met an old old friend we've been walking around holding hands i hope some day he can bend as far as it takes to understand and risk breaking open again |
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from Ani Difranco - Imperfectly (2007)
i'm okay
if you get me at a good angle and you're okay in the right sort of light and we don't look like pages from a magazine but that's all right oh baby, that's all right i crashed your pickup truck and then i had to drive it back home i was crying i was so scared of what you would do of what you would say but you just started laughing so i just started laughing along saying, it looks a little rough but it runs okay it looks a little rough but it runs good anyway we get a little further from perfection each year on the road i think that's what they call character i think that's just the way it goes but it's better to be dusty than polished like some store window mannequin why don't you touch me where i'm rusty let me stain your hands touch me where i'm rusty let me when you're pretty as a picture they pound down your door but i've been offered love in two dimensions before and i know that it's not all that it's made out to be let's show them all how it's done let's do it all imperfectly let's do it all imperfectly 'cause i'm okay if you get me at a good angle and you're okay in the right sort of light and we don't look like pages from a magazine but that's all right oh baby, that's all right |
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from Ani Difranco - Like I Said (2007)
you are subtle as a window pane
standing in my view but I will wait for it to rain so that I can see you you call me up at night when there's no light passing through and you think that I don't understand but I do we don't say everything that we could so that we can say later oh, you misunderstood I hold my cards up close to my chest I say what I have to and I hold back the rest 'cause someone you don't know is someone you don't know get a firm grip, girl before you let go for every hand extended another lies in wait keep your eye on that one anticipate dress down get out there pick a fight with the police we will get it all on film for the new release seems like everyone's an actor or they're an actor's best friend I wonder what was wrong to begin with that they should all have to pretend we lost sight of everything when we have to keep checking our backs I think we should all just smile come clean and relax if there's anything I've learned all these years on my own it's how to find my own way there and how to find my own way back home |
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from Ani Difranco - Like I Said (2007)
Tending the garden of noise
where i grow the traffic and the church bells and the neighborhood boys singing to myself when the solitude sets in in tune with the symphony of south brooklyn i sing rockabye, rockabye baby rockabye, the baby that is me rockabye, rockabye baby rockabye till i'm fast asleep the tunnel is train torn the tracks are worn and sore i can feel the rattle riding up through the floor she jumped the turnstile he paid for his ride i am the echo in the station where their footfalls collide i left her at the epicenter we were trembling dutifully i left him too i left parts of me singing... rockabye, rockabye baby rockabye, the baby that is me rockabye, rockabye baby rockabye till i'm fast asleep (repeats) i said today i am leaving in every sense of the word but i'm in love with your memory already everything i've seen and heard and i will go singing as the solitude sets in in time with the rhythm of everywhere i have been it sounds like rockabye, rockabye baby rockabye, the baby that is me rockabye, rockabye baby rockabye till i'm fast asleep (repeats x3) tending the garden of noise where i grow the traffic and the church bells and the neighborhood boys singing to myself when the solitude sets in in tune with the symphony of south brooklyn. |
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from Ani Difranco - Like I Said (2007)
in a forest of stone underneath a corporate canopy
where the sun rarely filters down the ground is not so soft it is not so soft they build buildings to house people making money or they build buildings to make money housing people it's true, like a lot of things are true foraging from a phone booth on the forest floor that is not so soft i look up, it looks like the builidings are burning but it's just the sun, setting in the windows the solar system calling an end to another business day eternally circling, signalling the rythmic clicking on and off of computers the pulse .. of the american machine the pulse .. that draws death dancing out of anonymous side streets you know, the ones that always get dumped on but never get ploughed it draws death dancing out of little countries with funny languages where the ground is getting harder and it was not that soft before but those who call the shots are never in the line of fire why when there's life for hire out there if the flag of truth were raised we could watch every liar rise to wave it here we learn america like a script playright, birthright - same thing we bring ourselves to the role we're all rehearsing for the presidency i always wanted to be commander in chief of my own one woman army but i can envision the mediocrity of my finest hour it's the failed america in me it's the fear that lives in a forest of stone, underneath the corporate canopy where the sun rarely filters down and the ground is not so soft...... |
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from Ani Difranco - Like I Said (2007)
she says my ass hurts
when i sit down she says my feet hurt from just standing around i think my body is as restless as my mind and i don't know if i can roll with it this time packed his uniforms and drove him to the base she was crying all the way the world looked her in the face and said roll with it, baby make it your career keep the home fires burning till america is in the clear the mainstream is so polluted with lies once you get wet, it's so hard to get dry we're all taught how to justify history as it passes by and it's your world that comes crashing down when the big boys decide to throw their weight around but just roll with it baby make it your career keep the home fires burning till america is in the clear what if the enemy isn't in a distant land what if the enemy lies behind the voice of command the sound of war is a child's cry behind tinted windows, they just drive by all i know is that those who are going to be killed aren't those who preside on capitol hill i told him, don't fill the front lines of their war those assholes aren't worth dying for but he said roll with it, baby make it your career keep the home fires burning till america is in the clear she says my ass hurts when i sit down she says my feet hurt from just standing around i think my body is as restless as my mind and i'm not gonna roll with it this time no, i'm not gonna roll with it this time |
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from Ani Difranco - Like I Said (2007)
lying on the floor
four stories high in the corridor between the asphalt and the sky i am caught like bottled water the light daughter i wonder what you look like under your t-shirt i wonder what you sound like when you're not wearing words i wonder what we have when we're not pretending it's never-ending, haven't you heard? i don't need to tell you what this is about you just start on the inside and work your way out we are all polylingual but some of us pretend there's virtue in relying on not trying to understand we're all citizens of the womb before we subdivide into sexes and shades this side that side and i don't need to tell you what this is about you just start on the inside and work your way out undressing for the fan like it was a man wondering about all the things that i'll never understand there are some things that you can't know unless you've been there but oh how far we could go if we started to share i don't need to tell you what it is about you just start on the inside you just start on the inside and work your way out |
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from Ani Difranco - Like I Said (2007)
I opened the fire door
to four lips none of which were mine kissing tightened my belt around my hips where your hands were missing and stepped out into the cold collar high under the slate grey sky the air was smoking and the streets were dry and I wasn't joking when I said Good Bye magazine quality men talking on the corner French, no less much less of them then us so why do I feel like something's been rearranged? you know, taken out of context I must seem so strange killed a cockroach so big it left a puddle of pus on the wall when you and I are lying in bed you don't seem so tall I'm singing now because my tear ducts are too tired and my mind is disconnected but my heart is wired I make such a good statistic someone should study me now somebody's got to be interested in how I feel just 'cause I'm here and I'm real oh, how I miss substituting the conclusion to confrontation with a kiss and oh, how I miss walking up to the edge and jumping in like I could feel the future on your skin I opened the fire door to four lips none of which were mine kissing I opened the fire door x 9 |
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from Ani Difranco - Like I Said (2007)
thank you
for letting me stay here thank you for taking me in thank you for the beer and the food thank you for loaning me bus fare thank you for showing me around that was a very kind thing to do thank you for the use of the clean towel thank you for half of your bed we can sleep here like brother and sister, you said but you changed the rules in an hour or two and i don't know what you and your sisters do but please don't please stop this is not my obligation what does my body have to do with my gratitude? look at you little white lying for the purpose of justifying what you're trying to do i know that you feel my resistance i know that you heard what i said otherwise you wouldn't need the excuse thank you for letting me stay here thank you for taking me in i don't know where else i would have gone but i don't come and go like a pop song that you can play incessantly and then forget when it's gone you can't write me off and you don't turn me on so don't change the rules in an hour or two i don't know what you and your sisters do but please don't please stop this is not my obligation what does my body have to do with my gratitude? |
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from Ani Difranco - Like I Said (2007)
I am walking
out in the rain and I am listening to the low moan of the dial tone again and I am getting nowhere with you and I can't let it go and I can't get through... The old woman behind the pink curtains and the closed door on the first floor she's listening through the air shaft to see how long our swan song can last And both hands now use both hands oh, no don't close your eyes I am writing graffitti on your body I am drawing the story of how hard we tried I am watching your chest rise and fall like the tides of my life, and the rest of it all and your bones have been my bedframe and your flesh has been my pillow I am waiting for sleep to offer up the deep with both hands Oh! both hands And in each other's shadows we grew less and less tall and eventually our theories couldn't explain it all and I'm recording our history now on the bedroom wall and when we leave the landlord will come and paint over it all And I am walking out in the rain and I am listening to the low moan of the dial tone again and I am getting nowhere with you and I can't let it go and I can't get though So now use both hands please use both hands oh, no don't close your eyes I am writing graffitti on your body I am drawing the story of how hard we tried hard we tried how hard we tried |
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from Ani Difranco - Like I Said (2007)
she says forget what you have to do
pretend there is nothing outside this room and like an idea she came to me but she came too late or maybe too soon i said please try not to love me close your eyes, i'm turning on the light you know i have no vacancy and it's awfully cold outside tonight the rain stains the brick a darker red slowly i'm rolling out of her bed the rain stains the streets a darker black i dress my face in stone because i can't go back i feel her eyes watching me from behind the curtain of her hair and she says i'm sorry i didn't mean to stare i say i think i really have to go now but oh baby, maybe someday maybe somehow. |
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from Ani Difranco - Like I Said (2007)
rush hour
and the day's dawning the rain came and pushed me under the awning the puddles grew and threw themselves at me with every passing car i'm shielding my guitar and there were some things that i did not tell him there were certain things he did not need to know and there were some days when i did not love him he didn't understand me and i don't know why i didn't go he said change the channel i've got problems of my own i'm so sick of hearing about drugs and aids and people without homes and i said, well, i'd like to sympathize with that but if you don't understand then how can you act i expected summer to be there in the morning i woke to the alarm but she was out of arms reach sneaking out on silent thighs that were spent and sore from the hot nights that came before he said i looked for you i don't know why i said i was wearing black so you could see me against the sky take your big leather boots and your buckles and your chains put them on a downtown train i expected he would be there in the morning i awoke to the alarm he was still in arm's reach but his body was just a disguise his mind had wandered off long ago you see in his eyes love isn't over when the sheets are stained in my head there remains so much left to be said make me laugh, make me cry, enrage me but just don't try to disengage me |
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from Ani Difranco - Like I Said (2007)
the butter melts out of habit
the toast isn't even warm the waitress and the man in the plaid shirt play out a scene they've played so many times before I am watching the sun stumble home in the morning from a bar on the east side of town and the coffee is just water dressed in brown beautiful but boring he visited me yesterday he noticed my fingers and asked me if I would play I didn't really care a lot but I couldn't think of a reason why not I said if you don't come any closer I don't mind if you stay my thighs have been involved in many accidents and now I can't get insured and I don't need to be lured by you my cunt is built like a wound that won't heal and now you don't have to ask because you know how I feel you know how I feel art is why I get up in the morning but my definition ends there and it doesn't seem fair that I'm living for something I can't even define there you are right there in the meantime I don't want to play for you anymore show me what you can do tell me what are you here for I want my old friends I want my old face I want my old mind fuck this time and place the butter melts out of habit you know, the toast isn't even warm |
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from Ani Difranco - Like I Said (2007)
i opened a bank account
when i was nine years old i closed it when i was eighteen i gave them every penny that i'd saved and they gave my blood and my urine a number now i'm sitting in this waiting room playing with the toys and i am here to exercise my freedom of choice i passed their handheld signs went through their picket lines they gathered when they saw me coming they shouted when they saw me cross i said why don't you go home just leave me alone i'm just another woman lost you are like fish in the water who don't know that they are wet as far as i can tell the world isn't perfect yet his bored eyes were obscene on his denim thighs a magazine i wish he'd never come here with me in fact i wish he'd never come near me i wish his shoulder wasn't touching mine i am growing older waiting in this line some of life's best lessons are learned at the worst times under the fierce fluorescent she offered her hand for me to hold she offered stability and calm and i was crushing her palm through the pinch pull wincing my smile unconvincing on that sterile battlefield that sees only casualties never heroes my heart hit absolute zero lucille, your voice still sounds in me mine was a relatively easy tragedy now the profile of our country looks a little less hard nosed but that picket line persisted and that clinic's since been closed they keep pounding their fists on reality hoping it will break but i don't think there's a one of them leads a life free of mistakes |
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from Ani Difranco - Like I Said (2007)
he said ani, you've gotten tough
'cause my tone was curt yeah, and when i'm approached in a dark alley i don't lift my skirt in this city self-preservation is a full time occupation i'm determined to survive on this shore you know i don't avert my eyes anymore in a man's world i am a woman by birth and after nineteen times around i have found they will stop at nothing once they know what you are worth talk to me now i played the powerless in too many dark scenes and i was blessed with a birth and a death and i guess i just want some say in between don't you understand in the day to day and the face to face i have to act just as strong as i can just to preserve a place where i can be who i am so if you still know how talk to me now |
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from Ani Difranco - Like I Said (2007)
the slant
a building settling around me my figure female framed crookedly in the threshold of the room door scraping floorboards with every opening carving a rough history of bedroom scenes the plot hard to follow the text obscured in the folds of sheets slowly gathering the stains of seasons spent lying there red and brown like leaves fallen the colors of an eternal cycle fading with the wash cycle and the rinse cycle again an unfamiliar smell like my name misspelled or misspoken a cycle broken the sound of them strong stalking talking about their prey like the way hammer meets nail pounding, they say pounding out the rhythms of attraction like a woman was a drum like a body was a weapon like there was something more they wanted than the journey like it was owed to them steel toed they walk and i'm wondering why this fear of men maybe it's because i'm hungry and like a baby i'm dependent on them to feed me i am a work in progress dressed in the fabric of a world unfolding offering me intricte patterns of questions rhythms that never come clean and strengths that you still haven't seen |
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from Ani Difranco - Out Of Range (2007)
Buildings and bridges
Are made to bend in the wind To withstand the world Thats what it takes. All that steel and stone Are no match for the air, my friend. What doesn't bend breaks What doesn't bend breaks. la da da da da... We are made to bleed And scab and heal and bleed again and turn every scar into a joke. We are made to fight And fuck and talk and fight again. And sit around and laugh until we choke Sit around and laugh until we choke. la da da da da... Don't know who you were expecting... Probably some bitch who does not budge. With eyes the size of snow. I may get pissed off sometimes, But you seem like the type to hold a grudge and in the end I just let go, In the end I'll just let go... la da da da da... Buildings and bridges Are made to bend in the wind, To withstand the world Thats what it takes. All that steel and stone Are no match for the air my friend, What doesn't bend breaks What doesn't bend breaks. la da da da da da da la da da da da.... |
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from Ani Difranco - Out Of Range (2007)
just the thought
of our bed makes me crumble like the plaster where you punched the wall beside my head and i try to draw the line but it ends up running down the middle of me most of the time boys get locked up in some prison girls get locked up in some house and it don't matter if it's a warden or a lover or a spouse you just can't talk to 'em you just can't reason you just can't leave and you just can't please 'emi was locked into being my mother's daughter i was just eating bread and water thinking nothing ever changes and i was shocked to see the mistakes of each generation will just fade like a radio station if you drive out of range if you're not angry you're just stupid or you don't care how else can you react when you know something's so unfair the men of the hour can kill half the world in war make them slaves to a super power and let them die poor i was locked into being my mother's daughter i was just eating bread and water thinking nothing ever changes and i was shocked to see the mistakes of each generation will just fade like a radio station if you drive out of range just the thought of our bed makes me crumble like the plaster where you punched the wall beside my bed and i try to draw the line but it ends up running down the middle of me most of the time baby i love you that's why i'm leaving there's no talking to you and there's no pleasing you and i care enough that i'm mad that half the world don't even know what they could have had i was locked into being my mother's daughter i was just eating bread and water thinking nothing ever changes and i was shocked to see the mistakes of each generation will just fade like a radio station if you drive out of range |
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from Ani Difranco - Out Of Range (2007)
don't ask me why I'm crying
I'm not going to tell you what's wrong I'm just gonna sit on your lap for five dollars a song I want you to pay me for my beauty I think it's only right 'cause I have been paying for it all of my life I'm gonna take the money I make I'm gonna take the money I make I'm gonna take the money I make and I'm gonna go away... we barely have time to react in this world let alone rehearse and I don't think I'm better than you but I don't think that I'm worse women learn to be women and men learn to be men and I don't blame it all on you but I don't want to be your friend I'm gonna take the money I make I'm gonna take the money I make I'm gonna take the money I make and I'm gonna go away... I was eleven years old he was as old as my dad and he took something from me I didn't even know that I had so don't tell me about decency don't tell me about pride just give me something for my trouble 'cause this time, it's not a free ride I'm gonna take the money I make I'm gonna take the money I make I'm gonna take the money I make and I'm gonna go away... don't ask me why I'm crying I'm not going to tell you what's wrong I'm just gonna sit on your lap for five dollars a songs I want you to pay me for my beauty I think it's only right 'cause I have been paying for it all of my life now I just wanna take and I'm just gonna take I'm gonna take and I'm gonna go away |
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from Ani Difranco - Out Of Range (2007)
life is a b movie
it's stupid and it's strange a directionless story and the dialogue is lame but in the he said she said sometimes there's some poetry if you turn your back long enough and let it happen naturally oh, yeah hell yeah i got a face like a limp handshake hair like an accident scene i've been waking up slowly savoring the same old dream and somewhere between the folds of your memory i was sleeping soundly oh, yeah hell yeah 'cause i like you but i know you don't know it i like you so much, i talk to everyone but you and i wonder what you would think of this little number i wonder what you would say if you knew if you don't ask the right questions every answer seems wrong i was a terrible waitress so i started to write songs and i don't know how i feel but i wonder if you feel like me do you ever get wrapped up in the folds of my memory oh, yeah hell, yeah 'cause i like you but i know you don't know it i like you so much i talk to everyone but you and i wonder what you would think of this little number yeah i wonder what you would say if you knew there's a river of people that runs past my eyes and it's beautiful enough just to watch it go by but the trouble with water is she'll always leave you for gravity i never even told you i had a crush on you or anything oh, yeah hell yeah life is a b movie it's stupid and it's strange a directionless story and the dialogue is lame but in the he said she said sometimes there's some poetry if you turn your back long enough and let it happen naturally oh, yeah hell yeah |
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from Ani Difranco - Out Of Range (2007)
you could always hear the rub squeaking
of those two tree limbs 'til one day one of them came down taken down by the wind but on the one that's still there you can still see where the bark was rubbed bare it's a metaphor if you know what i mean how have you been? me and you and your girlfriend makes three in the interest of even numbers i will make myself scarce i will make myself scarcely me but i'll be outside your window at night pull up your shades leave on your light i don't want to come in between i just want to know how have you been i leave for a living music's just something i do on my way out the door and i'd do almost anything once something about you i think i'd do you more if i had my way i'd stay here and watch your hair grow for a while it makes me smile just to dream of it how have you been |
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from Ani Difranco - Out Of Range (2007)
I search your profile
for a translation I study the conversation like a map 'cause I know there is strength in the differences between us and I know there is comfort where we overlap come here stand in front of the light stand still so I can see your silhouette I hope that you have got all night 'cause I'm not done looking, no, I'm not done looking yet each one of us wants a piece of the action you can hear it in what we say you can see it in what we do we negotiate with chaos for some sense of satisfaction if you won't give it to me at least give me a better view come here stand in front of the light stand still so I can see your sillouette I hope that you have got all night 'cause I'm not done looking no, I'm not done looking yet I build each one of my songs out of glass so you can see me inside of them I suppose or you could just leave the image of me in the background, I guess and watch your own reflection superimposed and I build each one of my days out of hope and I give that hope your name and I don't know you that well but it don't take much to tell either you don't have the balls or you don't feel the same come here stand in front of the light stand still so I can see your silhouette I hope that you have got all night 'cause I'm not done looking no, I'm not done looking yet I seach your profile for a translation I study the conversation like a map 'cause I know there is strength in the differences between us and I know there is comfort where we overlap |
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from Ani Difranco - Out Of Range (2007)
Some guy tried to rub up against me
In a crowded subway car Some guy tried to feed me some stupid line In some stupid bar I see the same shit everyday The landscape looks so bleak I think I'll take the first one of you's home That does something unique Some chick says Thank you for saying all the things I never do I say The thanks I get is to take all the shit for you It's nice that you listen It'd be nicer if you joined in As long as you play their game girl You're never going to win Today I just want someone to entertain me I'm tired of being so fierce I'm tired of being so friendly You don't have to be a supermodel To do the animal thing You don't have to be a supergenius To open your face up and sing Somebody do something Anything soon I know I can't be the only Whatever I am in the room So why am I so lonely? Why am I so tired? I need company I need backup I need to be inspired |
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from Ani Difranco - Out Of Range (2007)
you give me that look that's like laughing
with liquid in your mouth like you're choosing between choking and spitting it all out like you're trying to fight gravity on a planet that insists that love is like falling and falling is like this feels like reckless driving when we're talking it's fun while it lasts, and it's faster than walking but no one's going to sympathize when we crash they'll say "you hit what you head for, you get what you ask" and we'll say we didn't know, we didn't even try one minute there was road beneath us, the next just sky i'm sorry i can't help you, i cannot keep you safe i'm sorry i can't help myself, so don't look at me that way we can't fight gravity on a planet that insists that love is like falling and falling is like this. |
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from Ani Difranco - Out Of Range (2007)
just the thought
of our bed makes me crumble like the plaster where you punched the wall beside my head and i try to draw the line but it ends up running down the middle of me most of the time boys get locked up in some prison girls get locked up in some house and it don't matter if it's a warden or a lover or a spouse you just can't talk to 'em you just can't reason you just can't leave and you just can't please 'emi was locked into being my mother's daughter i was just eating bread and water thinking nothing ever changes and i was shocked to see the mistakes of each generation will just fade like a radio station if you drive out of range if you're not angry you're just stupid or you don't care how else can you react when you know something's so unfair the men of the hour can kill half the world in war make them slaves to a super power and let them die poor i was locked into being my mother's daughter i was just eating bread and water thinking nothing ever changes and i was shocked to see the mistakes of each generation will just fade like a radio station if you drive out of range just the thought of our bed makes me crumble like the plaster where you punched the wall beside my bed and i try to draw the line but it ends up running down the middle of me most of the time baby i love you that's why i'm leaving there's no talking to you and there's no pleasing you and i care enough that i'm mad that half the world don't even know what they could have had i was locked into being my mother's daughter i was just eating bread and water thinking nothing ever changes and i was shocked to see the mistakes of each generation will just fade like a radio station if you drive out of range |
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from Ani Difranco - Out Of Range (2007)
How can I go home
With nothing to say? I know you're going to look at me that way And say "What did you do out there? And what did you decide?" You said you needed time And you had time You are a china shop And I am a bull You are really good food And I am full I guess everything is timing I guess everything's been said So I am coming home with an empty head You'll say "Did they love you or what?" I'll say "They love what I do The only one who really loves me is you" And you'll say "Girl, did you kick some butt?" And I'll say "I don't really remember But my fingers are sore And my voice is too" You'll say "It's really good to see you" You'll say "I missed you horribly" You'll say "Let me carry that Give that to me" And you will take the heavy stuff And you will drive the car And I'll look out the window and make jokes About the way things are How can I go home With nothing to say? I know you're going to look at me that way And say "What did you do out there? And what did you decide?" You said you needed time and you had time You had time... You had time... You had time... You had time... |
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from Ani Difranco - Out Of Range (2007)
I'm invincible
so are you we do all the things they say we can't do we walk around in the middle of the night and if it's too far to walk we just hitch a ride we got rings of dirt around our necks we talk like auctioneers and we bounce like checks we smell like shit still, when we walk down the street all the boys line up to throw themselves at our feet I say I think he likes you you say I think he do too go and get him girl before he gets you I'll be watching you from the wings I will come to your rescue if he tries anything it's a long long road it's a big big world we are wise wise women we are giggling girls we both carry a smile to show when we're pleased we both carry a switchblade in our sleeves tell you one thing I'm gonna make noise when I go down for ten square blocks they're gonna know i died all the goddesses will come up to the ripped screen door and say, what do you want, dear? and I'll say, I want inside I say I think he likes you you say i think he do too go and get him girl before he gets you I'll be watching you from the wings I will come to your rescue if he tries anything |
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from Ani Difranco - Out Of Range (2007)
I'm calling from the diner
the diner on the corner I ordered two coffees one is for you I was hoping you'd join me 'cause I ain't go no money and I really miss you I should mention that too yes I know what time it is in fact, I just checked I even know the date and the month and the year I know I haven't been sleeping and when I do I just dream of you dear I miss watching you drool on your pillow I miss watching you pull on your clothes I miss listening to you in the bathroom flushing the toilet blowing your nose I'm calling from the diner the diner on the corner I ordered two coffees one is for you the cups are so close the steam is rising in one stream how are you I think you're the least fucked up person I've ever met and that may be as close to the real thing as I'm ever gonna get but my quarter's gonna run out now or so I'm told I guess I'd better go sit down and wait for you til my coffee gets cold |
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from Ani Difranco - Not A Pretty Girl (2007)
you think you're not worthy
i'd have to say i agree i'm not worthy of you you're not worthy of me which of us is deserving look at the human race the whole planet at arm's length and we don't deserve this place what good is a poker face when you've got an open hand i was supposed to be cool about this yeah i remember cool was the plan tried to keep it all under wraps but the wraps kept going slack i keep turning around i keep coming back give me your vertical your horizontal line i want to take each of them bend them to fit mine the world is too good for me i am such a naughty girl but when we're together we're too good for this world you think you're not worthy i'd have to say i agree i'm not worthy of you you're not worthy of me i'm not worthy of you you aren't worthy of me... |
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from Ani Difranco - Not A Pretty Girl (2007)
tiptoeing through the used condoms
strewn on the piers off the west side highway sunset behind the skyline of jersey walking towards the water with a fetus holding court in my gut my body highjacked my tits swollen and sore the river has more colors at sunset than my sock drawer ever dreamed of i could wake up screaming sometimes but i don't i could step off the end of this pier but i got shit to do and an appointment on tuesday to shed uninvited blood and tissue i'll miss you i say to the river to the water to the son or daughter i thought better of i could fall in love with jersey at sunset but i leave the view to the rats and tiptoe back. |
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from Ani Difranco - Not A Pretty Girl (2007)
Fourteenth street and the garbage swirls like a cyclone
Three o'clock in the afternoon and I am going home F train is full of high school students So much shouting So much laughter Last night's underwear in my back pocket Sure sign of the morning after Take me home Take me home and leave me there Think I'm going to cry, I don't know why Think I'm going to sing myself a lullaby Feel free to listen Feel free to stare I live in New York New York the city that never shuts up In the daylight everything is so gory You can hear snatches of stranger's sorry stories And I moved there from Buffalo but that's nothing The TRICO plant moved to Mexico Left my uncle standing out in the cold Said there's your last paycheck have fun growing old Take me home Take me home and leave me there Think I'm going to cry, I don't know why Think I'm going to sing myself a lullaby Feel free to listen Feel free to stare Rockabye baby In the treetop When the wind blows Cradle will rock When the bough breaks The cradle will fall Down will come baby Cradle and all Youth is beauty Money is beauty Hell, beauty is beauty sometimes It's the luck of the draw It's the natural law It's a joke It's a crime I was bored You were bored It was a meeting of the minds Now it's three in the afternoon and I can't leave too soon Saying thank you, I had a nice time Take me home Take me home and leave me there Think I'm going to cry, I don't know why Think I'm going to sing myself a lullaby Feel free to listen Feel free to stare Maybe I'll live my whole life Just getting by Maybe I'll be discovered Maybe I'll be colonized You could try to train me like a pet You could try to teach me to behave But I'll tell you, if I haven't learned it yet You know, I ain't gonna sit, I ain't gonna stay Take me home Take me home and leave me there Think I'm going to cry, I don't know why Think I'm going to sing myself a lullaby Feel free to listen Feel free to stare |
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from Ani Difranco - Not A Pretty Girl (2007)
Well the heat is so great
It plays tricks with the eye It turns the road into water Then from water to sky And there's a crack in the concrete floor That starts at the sink Yea, there's a bathroom in the gas station And I've locked myself in it to think Back in the city The sun bakes the trash on the curb The men are pissing in doorways And the rats are running in herds And I've got a dream with your face in it That scares me awake I've put too much on my table Now I've got too much at stake And I might let you off easy Yea I might lead you on I might wait for you to look for me And then I might be gone There's where I've come from and where I'm going And I am lost in between I might go out to that phone booth And leave a veiled invitation on your machine And you'll stop me, won't you? If you've heard this one before Oh the one where I surprise you By showing up at your front door Saying, "Let's not ask what next or how or why I'm leaving in the morning So let's not be shy" Don't be shy The door opens, the room winces The housekeeper comes in without a warning And I squint at the muscular motel lady And say "Hey morning" As she jumps her keys jingle She leaves as quickly as she came in And I roll over and taste the pillow with my grin Well the sheets are twisted and damp But the heat is so great And I swear I can feel the mattress Sinking underneath your weight Boy your sleep is like a fever And I'm glad when it ends Oh the road flows like a river And it pulls me round every bend Stop me, won't you? If you've heard this one before Oh the one where I surprise you By showing up at your front door Saying, "Let's not ask what next or how or why I am leaving in the morning So let's not be shy" Don't be shy Well the heat is so great It plays tricks with the eye It turns the road into water Then from water to sky And there's a crack in the concrete floor It starts at the sink There's a bathroom in the gas station And I have locked myself in it to think And you'll stop me, won't you? If you've heard this one before yeah the one where I surprise you By showing up at your front door Saying, "Let's not ask what next or how or why I am leaving in the morning So let's not be shy" You'll stop me, won't you? If you've heard this one before yeah the one where I surprise you By showing up at your front door Saying, "Let's not ask what next how or why I'm leaving in the morning So let's not be shy" Don't be shy no dont be shy no don't be shy no don't be shy come on fucker don't be shy |
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