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from Ani Difranco - So Much Shouting/ So Much Laughter (2006)
Squint your eyes and look closer
I'm not between you and your ambition I am a poster girl with no poster I am 32 flavors and then some And I'm beyond your peripheral vision So you might want to turn your head 'Cause someday you are gonna get hungry And eat most of the words you just said Both my parents taught me about goodwill And I have done well by their names Just the kindness I've lavished on strangers Is more than I can explain Still there's many who've turned out their porch lights Just so I would think they were not home And hid in the dark of their windows Till I'd passed and left them alone Hey, yo, hey Oh, hey, yo, hey, yo Oh, hey, yo, hey Oh, hey, yo, hey, yo God help you if you are an ugly girl Course, too pretty is also your doom 'Cause everyone harbors a secret hatred For the prettiest girl in the room And God help you if you are a phoenix And you dare to rise up from the ash A thousand eyes will smolder with jealousy While you are just flying past And I'll never try to give my life meaning By demeaning you But I would like to state for the record I did everything that I could do I'm not saying that I am a saint I just don't want to live that way No, I will never be a saint But I will always say Squint your eyes and look closer I'm not between you and your ambition I am a poster girl with no poster I am 32 flavors and then some And I'm beyond your peripheral vision So you might want to turn your head 'Cause someday you might find you are starving And eating all of the words that you said Oh, oh, hey, yo Oh, hey, yo Oh, hey, yo, hey, yo Oh, hey, yo Mm, mm, mm, mm Mm, mm, mm, mm Oh, hey, yo Oh, hey, yo Oh, hey, yo, hey, yo Oh, hey, yo |
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from Ani Difranco - Canon (2007)
Squint your eyes and look closer
I'm not between you and your ambition I am a poster girl with no poster I am 32 flavors and then some And I'm beyond your peripheral vision So you might want to turn your head 'Cause someday you are gonna get hungry And eat most of the words you just said Both my parents taught me about goodwill And I have done well by their names Just the kindness I've lavished on strangers Is more than I can explain Still there's many who've turned out their porch lights Just so I would think they were not home And hid in the dark of their windows Till I'd passed and left them alone Hey, yo, hey Oh, hey, yo, hey, yo Oh, hey, yo, hey Oh, hey, yo, hey, yo God help you if you are an ugly girl Course, too pretty is also your doom 'Cause everyone harbors a secret hatred For the prettiest girl in the room And God help you if you are a phoenix And you dare to rise up from the ash A thousand eyes will smolder with jealousy While you are just flying past And I'll never try to give my life meaning By demeaning you But I would like to state for the record I did everything that I could do I'm not saying that I am a saint I just don't want to live that way No, I will never be a saint But I will always say Squint your eyes and look closer I'm not between you and your ambition I am a poster girl with no poster I am 32 flavors and then some And I'm beyond your peripheral vision So you might want to turn your head 'Cause someday you might find you are starving And eating all of the words that you said Oh, oh, hey, yo Oh, hey, yo Oh, hey, yo, hey, yo Oh, hey, yo Mm, mm, mm, mm Mm, mm, mm, mm Oh, hey, yo Oh, hey, yo Oh, hey, yo, hey, yo Oh, hey, yo |
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from Ani Difranco - Not A Pretty Girl (2007)
Squint your eyes and look closer
I'm not between you and your ambition I am a poster girl with no poster I am 32 flavors and then some And I'm beyond your peripheral vision So you might want to turn your head 'Cause someday you are gonna get hungry And eat most of the words you just said Both my parents taught me about goodwill And I have done well by their names Just the kindness I've lavished on strangers Is more than I can explain Still there's many who've turned out their porch lights Just so I would think they were not home And hid in the dark of their windows Till I'd passed and left them alone Hey, yo, hey Oh, hey, yo, hey, yo Oh, hey, yo, hey Oh, hey, yo, hey, yo God help you if you are an ugly girl Course, too pretty is also your doom 'Cause everyone harbors a secret hatred For the prettiest girl in the room And God help you if you are a phoenix And you dare to rise up from the ash A thousand eyes will smolder with jealousy While you are just flying past And I'll never try to give my life meaning By demeaning you But I would like to state for the record I did everything that I could do I'm not saying that I am a saint I just don't want to live that way No, I will never be a saint But I will always say Squint your eyes and look closer I'm not between you and your ambition I am a poster girl with no poster I am 32 flavors and then some And I'm beyond your peripheral vision So you might want to turn your head 'Cause someday you might find you are starving And eating all of the words that you said Oh, oh, hey, yo Oh, hey, yo Oh, hey, yo, hey, yo Oh, hey, yo Mm, mm, mm, mm Mm, mm, mm, mm Oh, hey, yo Oh, hey, yo Oh, hey, yo, hey, yo Oh, hey, yo |
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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 - Revelling/ Reckoning (2006)
i love you
and you love me and ain't that the way it's supposed to be? i swing my stick legs 'round at the root and pile drive each foot into a platform boot and i'm up and i'm out cuz i'm bouncing off the walls and i come when i'm called and you called i got a super-cute three-piece suit one piece for your body one piece for your smile one more little piece if you stay a while i gotta beeline double time leave my home sweet home for your honeycomb then i show up steady, ready and proud and i find i've forgotten how to talk out loud isn't it just like you to bring me to my knees in my brand new stockings while the cat is out with my tongue isn't it just like you to bring me to my knees in my brand new stockings love makes me feel so dumb |
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from Ani Difranco - So Much Shouting/ So Much Laughter (2006)
i love you
and you love me and ain't that the way it's supposed to be? i swing my stick legs 'round at the root and pile drive each foot into a platform boot and i'm up and i'm out cuz i'm bouncing off the walls and i come when i'm called and you called i got a super-cute three-piece suit one piece for your body one piece for your smile one more little piece if you stay a while i gotta beeline double time leave my home sweet home for your honeycomb then i show up steady, ready and proud and i find i've forgotten how to talk out loud isn't it just like you to bring me to my knees in my brand new stockings while the cat is out with my tongue isn't it just like you to bring me to my knees in my brand new stockings love makes me feel so dumb |
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| from Ani Difranco - Revelling/ Reckoning (2006) | |||||
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from Ani Difranco - Red Letter Yearb (2007)
i will not stand immersed
in this ultra violent curse i won't let you make a tool of me i will keep my mind and body free bye bye minutiae of the day to day drama i'm expanding exponentially i am consciousness without identity i am many things made of everything but i will not be your bank roll i won't idle in your drive-thru i won't watch your electric sideshow i got way better places to go i will maintain the truth i knew naturally as a child i won't forfeit my creativity to a world that's all laid out for me i'll look at everything around me and i will vow to bear in mind that all of this was just someone's idea it could just as well be mine i won't rent you my time i won't sell you my brain i won't pray to a male god cuz that would be insane and i can't support the troops cuz every last one of them is being duped and i will not rest a wink until the women have regrouped i am many things made of everything but i will not be your bank roll i won't idle in your drive-thru i won't join your electric sideshow i got way better places to go |
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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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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 - 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 - 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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from Ani Difranco - Canon (2007)
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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from Ani Difranco - Not A Pretty Girl (2007)
i want somebody who sees the pointlessness
and still keeps their purpose in mind i want somebody who has a tortured soul some of the time i want somebody who will either put out for me or put me out of misery or maybe just put it all to words and make me say, you know i never heard it put that way make me say, what did you just say? i want somebody who can hold my interest hold it and never let it fall someone who can flatten me with a kiss that hits like a fist or a sentence, that stops me like a brick wall because if you hear me talking listen to what i'm not saying if you hear me playing guitar listen to what i'm not playing and don't ask me to put words to all the spaces between notes in fact if you have to ask, forget it do and you'll regret it i'm tired of being the interesting one i'm tired of heving fun for two just lay yourself on the line and i might lay myself down by you but don't sit behind your eyes and wait for me to surprise you i want somebody who can make me scream until it's funny give me a run for my money i want someone who can twist me up in knots tell me, for the woman who has everything what have you got? i want someone who's not afraid of me or anyone else in other words i want someone who's not afraid of themself do you think i'm asking too much? |
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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 - Canon (2007)
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 - Canon (2007)
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 - Revelling/ Reckoning (2006) | |||||
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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 Ani Difranco - Canon (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)
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 - Canon (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)
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 - 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 - 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 - Canon (2007)
Note: This is a poem in the booklet of Educated Guess, but it is not read on the CD.
a girl with the sun of her youth at her back and the shadow of her womanhood before her on the stones is approaching with a delicate clip clop clack her sandals full of toes that i suppose are headed home it's early in the evening and up and down the river people begin to gather pearls of laughter on a strand i thought solitude would save me it was pious it was grand but the monk that walked beside me just let go of my hand |
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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 - Canon (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)
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 - Not A Pretty Girl (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 - Canon (2007) | |||||
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from Ani Difranco - So Much Shouting/ So Much Laughter (2006)
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)
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)
the big day has come
the bell is sounding i run my hands through my hair one last time outside the prison walls the town is gathering people are trading crime for crime everyone needs to see the prisoner they need to make it even easier they see me as a symbol, and not a human being that way they can kill me say it's not murder, it's a metaphor we are killing off our own failure and starting clean standing in the gallows everyone turned my way i hear a voice ask me if I've got any last words to say and i'm looking out over the field of familiar eyes somewhere in a woman's arms a baby cries i think guilt and innocence they are a matter of degree what might be justice to you might not be justice to me i went to far, i'm sorry i guess now i'm going home so let any amongst you cast the first stone now we've got all these complicated machines so no one person ever has to have blood on their hands we've got complex organizations and if everyone just does their job no one person has to understand you might be the wrong colour you might be too poor justice isn't something just anyone can afford you might not pull the trigger you might be out in the car and you might get a lethal injection 'cause we take a metaphor that far the big day has come the bell is sounding i run my hands through my hair one last time outside the prison walls the town has gathered people are trading crime for crime people are trading crime for crime people are still trading crime for crime |
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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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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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from Ani Difranco - So Much Shouting/ So Much Laughter (2006)
life used to be life-like
now it's more like show biz 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 you're 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 disappoint me it's kinda like our running joke but it's really not funny 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 dilate 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 every time and the 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 words like that don't matter but don't look so offended you know, you should be flattered i wake up in the night in some big hotel bed my hands grope for the light 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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from Ani Difranco - Canon (2007)
life used to be life-like
now it's more like show biz 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 you're 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 disappoint me it's kinda like our running joke but it's really not funny 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 dilate 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 every time and the 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 words like that don't matter but don't look so offended you know, you should be flattered i wake up in the night in some big hotel bed my hands grope for the light 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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from Ani Difranco - Swing Set (2006)
Lots of folks back East, they say, is leavin' home every day,
Beatin' the hot old dusty way to the California line. 'Cross the desert sands they roll, gettin' out of that old dust bowl, They think they're goin' to a sugar bowl, but here's what they find -- Now, the police at the port of entry say, "You're number fourteen thousand for today." CHORUS: Oh, if you ain't got the do re mi, folks, you ain't got the do re mi, Why, you better go back to beautiful Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee. California is a garden of Eden, a paradise to live in or see; But believe it or not, you won't find it so hot If you ain't got the do re mi. You want to buy you a home or a farm, that can't deal nobody harm, Or take your vacation by the mountains or sea. Don't swap your old cow for a car, you better stay right where you are, Better take this little tip from me. 'Cause I look through the want ads every day But the headlines on the papers always say: If you ain't got the do re mi, boys, you ain't got the do re mi, Why, you better go back to beautiful Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee. California is a garden of Eden, a paradise to live in or see; But believe it or not, you won't find it so hot If you ain't got the do re mi. |
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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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from Ani Difranco - Red Letter Yearb (2007)
emancipated minor
well directed and brilliantly casted riding a greyhound down to the city with her fake id and a hell of a little hand-basket little game of see-saw and then he came to claim her and then a sordid line formed behind him reproductive system newly activated she participated in nature's plan she participated and i can't say i envy her i don't think i miss it wrought iron cobwebbing over thin window panes the city seducing her on tip-toe to kiss it don't think twice just roll the dice roll the dice so she attended the dance classes and she learned the little dance and she tried the high heels but she couldn't bring herself to prance all the while a faint ticking in the silence between the songs just south of her gut two tiny time bombs and love comes in many forms and for each she would yearn hungry as a student hungry to learn every flavor of person every species of intent with the body pulsing at the center detent but all the good graffiti got painted over in time and she watched the last faceless chain replace the last five and dime and she wondered if the only noble thing ain't to just to get a big garden and plant it in the spring and kiss the city goodbye in some big graceful gesture and focus on the moon's groove and groove with the moon focus on the moon's groove and groove with the moon and i can't say i envy her i don't think i miss it wrought iron cobwebbing over thin window panes the city seducing you on tip-toe to kiss it don't think twice just roll the dice roll the dice roll the dice |
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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 - Canon (2007)
i walk in stride with people
much taller than me and partly it's the boots but mostly it's my chi and i'm becoming transfixed with nature and my part in it which i believe just signifies i'm finally waking up and there's this moth outside my kitchen door she's bonkers for that bare bulb flying round in circles bashing in her exoskull and out in the woods she navigates fine by the moon but get her around a light bulb and she's doomed she is trying to evolve she's just trying to evolve now let's get talking reefer madness like some arrogant government can't by any stretch of the imagination outlaw a plant! yes, their supposed authority over nature is a dream c'mon people we've got to come clean cuz they are locking our sons and our daughters in cages they are taking by the thousands our lives from under us it's a crash crash course in religious fundamentals now let's all go to war get some bang for our buck yes i am trying to evolve i'm trying to evolve i am trying to evolve i'm trying to evolve gunnin for high score in the land of dreams morbid bluish-white consumers ogling luminous screens on the trail of forgetting cruising without a care the jet set won't abide by that pesky jet lag and our lives boil down to an hour or two when someone pulls a camera out of a bag and i am trying to evolve trying to evolve i'm trying to evolve trying to evolve so i walk like i'm on a mission cuz that's the way i groove i got more and more to do i got less and less to prove it took me too long to realize that i don't take good pictures cuz i have the kind of beauty that moves i am trying to evolve i'm trying to evolve i am trying to evolve i'm trying to evolve.... |
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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 - Revelling/ Reckoning (2006)
she was cuffed to the truth like the truth was a chair
bright interrogation light in her eyes her conscience lit a cigarette and just stood there waiting for her to crack waiting for her to cry his face scampered through her mind like a roach across a wall it made her heart soar it made her skin crawl they said, we got this confession we just need for you to sign why don't you just cooperate and make this easier on us all there was light and then there was darkness but there was no line in between and asking her heart for guidance was like pleading with a machine 'cause joy, it has its own justice and dreams are languid and lawless and everything bows to beauty when it is fierce and when it is flawless on the table were two ziploc baggies containing her eyes and her smile they said, we're keeping these as evidence 'til this thing goes to trial meanwhile anguish was fingering solace in another room down the hall both were love's accomplices but solace took the fall now look at her book of days it's the same on every page and she's got a little tin cup with her heart in it to bang along the bars of her rib cage bang along the bars of her rib cage |
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from Ani Difranco - Revelling/ Reckoning (2006)
she was cuffed to the truth like the truth was a chair
bright interrogation light in her eyes her conscience lit a cigarette and just stood there waiting for her to crack waiting for her to cry his face scampered through her mind like a roach across a wall it made her heart soar it made her skin crawl they said, we got this confession we just need for you to sign why don't you just cooperate and make this easier on us all there was light and then there was darkness but there was no line in between and asking her heart for guidance was like pleading with a machine 'cause joy, it has its own justice and dreams are languid and lawless and everything bows to beauty when it is fierce and when it is flawless on the table were two ziploc baggies containing her eyes and her smile they said, we're keeping these as evidence 'til this thing goes to trial meanwhile anguish was fingering solace in another room down the hall both were love's accomplices but solace took the fall now look at her book of days it's the same on every page and she's got a little tin cup with her heart in it to bang along the bars of her rib cage bang along the bars of her rib cage |
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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 - Canon (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)
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 - 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 - Revelling/ Reckoning (2006) | |||||
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| from Ani Difranco - Revelling/ Reckoning (2006) | |||||
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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 - 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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from Ani Difranco - Canon (2007)
They were digging a new foundation 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 dumb or tweedle dumber? And who's gonna have the big Blockbuster box office this summer? How about we put up a wall between houses and the highway? And you can go your way, and i can go my way Except all the radios agree with all the TVs And 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-numb week For another hum drum 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 It's 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 Ff the lipstick on the whores Cause we know the difference between The font of 20% more And the font of teriyaki 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 train 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 |
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from Ani Difranco - Live At Babebille (2008)
They were digging a new foundation 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 dumb or tweedle dumber? And who's gonna have the big Blockbuster box office this summer? How about we put up a wall between houses and the highway? And you can go your way, and i can go my way Except all the radios agree with all the TVs And 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-numb week For another hum drum 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 It's 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 Ff the lipstick on the whores Cause we know the difference between The font of 20% more And the font of teriyaki 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 train 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 |
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from Ani Difranco - Revelling/ Reckoning (2006)
some crazy fucker carved a sculpture out of butter
and propped it up in the middle of the bonanza breakfast bar and i am stuffing toast and sausage into my pockets under a sign that says grand opening while my dog is waiting in the car i wake up, i check out i fill the tank and wash the windshield clean then i'm back out on the highway and BANG that's when i remember my dream: we were standing in a garden and i had a machine that made silence it just sucked up the whole opinionated din and there were no people on the payroll and there were no monkeys on our backs and i said, show me what you look like without skin science chases money and money chases its tail and the best minds of my generation can't make bail but the bacteria are coming to take us down that's my prediction it's the answer to this culture of the quick fix prescription but in the garden of simple where all of us are nameless you were never anything but beautiful to me and, you know, they never really owned you you just carried them around and then one day you put 'em down and found your hands were free so now it's early in the morning at the longitude of memphis and the sun is setting sweetly on hong kong and the big plan is just to keep spinning cuz the big bang is only just beginning and sometimes it's all that we can do just to hang on and what i meant to say is xxoo which means i'm thinking of ya which means i've been thinking of you all along |
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from Ani Difranco - Revelling/ Reckoning (2006)
some crazy fucker carved a sculpture out of butter
and propped it up in the middle of the bonanza breakfast bar and i am stuffing toast and sausage into my pockets under a sign that says grand opening while my dog is waiting in the car i wake up, i check out i fill the tank and wash the windshield clean then i'm back out on the highway and BANG that's when i remember my dream: we were standing in a garden and i had a machine that made silence it just sucked up the whole opinionated din and there were no people on the payroll and there were no monkeys on our backs and i said, show me what you look like without skin science chases money and money chases its tail and the best minds of my generation can't make bail but the bacteria are coming to take us down that's my prediction it's the answer to this culture of the quick fix prescription but in the garden of simple where all of us are nameless you were never anything but beautiful to me and, you know, they never really owned you you just carried them around and then one day you put 'em down and found your hands were free so now it's early in the morning at the longitude of memphis and the sun is setting sweetly on hong kong and the big plan is just to keep spinning cuz the big bang is only just beginning and sometimes it's all that we can do just to hang on and what i meant to say is xxoo which means i'm thinking of ya which means i've been thinking of you all along |
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from Ani Difranco - Canon (2007)
some crazy fucker carved a sculpture out of butter
and propped it up in the middle of the bonanza breakfast bar and i am stuffing toast and sausage into my pockets under a sign that says grand opening while my dog is waiting in the car i wake up, i check out i fill the tank and wash the windshield clean then i'm back out on the highway and BANG that's when i remember my dream: we were standing in a garden and i had a machine that made silence it just sucked up the whole opinionated din and there were no people on the payroll and there were no monkeys on our backs and i said, show me what you look like without skin science chases money and money chases its tail and the best minds of my generation can't make bail but the bacteria are coming to take us down that's my prediction it's the answer to this culture of the quick fix prescription but in the garden of simple where all of us are nameless you were never anything but beautiful to me and, you know, they never really owned you you just carried them around and then one day you put 'em down and found your hands were free so now it's early in the morning at the longitude of memphis and the sun is setting sweetly on hong kong and the big plan is just to keep spinning cuz the big bang is only just beginning and sometimes it's all that we can do just to hang on and what i meant to say is xxoo which means i'm thinking of ya which means i've been thinking of you all along |
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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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| from Sub Sampler - Sub Sampler 9802 vol.2 [omnibus] (1998) | |||||
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| from Ani Difranco - Canon (2007) | |||||
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| from Ani Difranco - Canon (2007) | |||||
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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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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 - Red Letter Yearb (2007)
a throat with a heart in it stuck in traffic
a ticket and a mind to fly an alarm clock still drunk and high sanity painting her mask on all the way across town a compact frown projected on her retina upside down you're an avalanche of detour signs falling off a truck swooning like a boxer that is too dizzy to duck your decisions turn around and make you back and then you're stuck and then good luck good luck a lock with a key in it that ain't turning smoke filling up behind door a fire with a purpose being ignored a body slipping into disease quietly making that choice while the joy drains out of a voice you're an avalanche of detour signs falling off a truck swooning like a boxer that is too dizzy to duck your decisions turn around and make you back and then you're stuck and then good luck good luck |
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from Ani Difranco - So Much Shouting/ So Much Laughter (2006)
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)
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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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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from Ani Difranco - Canon (2007)
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 fight, 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 there 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 abhor 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 you 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 lies 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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from Ani Difranco - Live At Babebille (2008)
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 fight, 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 there 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 abhor 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 you 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 lies 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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from Ani Difranco - Canon (2007)
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 fight, 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 there 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 abhor 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 you 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 lies 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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from Ani Difranco - Revelling/ Reckoning (2006)
the sky is grey
the sand is grey and the ocean is grey and i feel right at home in this stunning monochrome alone in my way i smoke and i drink and every time i blink i have a tiny dream but as bad as i am i'm proud of the fact that i'm worse than i seem what kind of paradise am i looking for? i've got everything i want and still i want more maybe some tiny shiny key will wash up on the shore you walk through my walls like a ghost on tv you penetrate me and my little pink heart is on its little brown raft floating out to sea and what can i say but i'm wired this way and you're wired to me and what can i do but wallow in you unintentionally what kind of paradise am i looking for? i've got everything i want and still i want more maybe some tiny shiny key will wash up on the shore regretfully i guess i've only got three simple things to say: why me? why this now? why this way? with overtones ringing and undertows pulling away under a sky that is grey on sand that is grey by an ocean that's grey what kind of paradise am i looking for? i've got everything i want and still i want more maybe some tiny shiny key will wash up on the shore |
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from Ani Difranco - Revelling/ Reckoning (2006)
the sky is grey
the sand is grey and the ocean is grey and i feel right at home in this stunning monochrome alone in my way i smoke and i drink and every time i blink i have a tiny dream but as bad as i am i'm proud of the fact that i'm worse than i seem what kind of paradise am i looking for? i've got everything i want and still i want more maybe some tiny shiny key will wash up on the shore you walk through my walls like a ghost on tv you penetrate me and my little pink heart is on its little brown raft floating out to sea and what can i say but i'm wired this way and you're wired to me and what can i do but wallow in you unintentionally what kind of paradise am i looking for? i've got everything i want and still i want more maybe some tiny shiny key will wash up on the shore regretfully i guess i've only got three simple things to say: why me? why this now? why this way? with overtones ringing and undertows pulling away under a sky that is grey on sand that is grey by an ocean that's grey what kind of paradise am i looking for? i've got everything i want and still i want more maybe some tiny shiny key will wash up on the shore |
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from Ani Difranco - So Much Shouting/ So Much Laughter (2006)
the sky is grey
the sand is grey and the ocean is grey and i feel right at home in this stunning monochrome alone in my way i smoke and i drink and every time i blink i have a tiny dream but as bad as i am i'm proud of the fact that i'm worse than i seem what kind of paradise am i looking for? i've got everything i want and still i want more maybe some tiny shiny key will wash up on the shore you walk through my walls like a ghost on tv you penetrate me and my little pink heart is on its little brown raft floating out to sea and what can i say but i'm wired this way and you're wired to me and what can i do but wallow in you unintentionally what kind of paradise am i looking for? i've got everything i want and still i want more maybe some tiny shiny key will wash up on the shore regretfully i guess i've only got three simple things to say: why me? why this now? why this way? with overtones ringing and undertows pulling away under a sky that is grey on sand that is grey by an ocean that's grey what kind of paradise am i looking for? i've got everything i want and still i want more maybe some tiny shiny key will wash up on the shore |
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from Ani Difranco - Canon (2007)
the sky is grey
the sand is grey and the ocean is grey and i feel right at home in this stunning monochrome alone in my way i smoke and i drink and every time i blink i have a tiny dream but as bad as i am i'm proud of the fact that i'm worse than i seem what kind of paradise am i looking for? i've got everything i want and still i want more maybe some tiny shiny key will wash up on the shore you walk through my walls like a ghost on tv you penetrate me and my little pink heart is on its little brown raft floating out to sea and what can i say but i'm wired this way and you're wired to me and what can i do but wallow in you unintentionally what kind of paradise am i looking for? i've got everything i want and still i want more maybe some tiny shiny key will wash up on the shore regretfully i guess i've only got three simple things to say: why me? why this now? why this way? with overtones ringing and undertows pulling away under a sky that is grey on sand that is grey by an ocean that's grey what kind of paradise am i looking for? i've got everything i want and still i want more maybe some tiny shiny key will wash up on the shore |
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| from Ani Difranco - Revelling/ Reckoning (2006) | |||||
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| from Ani Difranco - Revelling/ Reckoning (2006) | |||||
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from Ani Difranco - Revelling/ Reckoning (2006)
it's a heartbreak even situation
nothing lost and nothing gained so i'm 10 years old again standing in the backyard waving at a train i feel you make love to me slightly every time you let a little laugh slip too soon and the moment passes over us so lightly it feels like sand blowing over a dune you try not to let your emotions show but it ain't a balloon you can just let go it's an ice cream cone dripping in the sun sticky hands sticky arms sticky situation it's a heartbreak even situation one part powerful elation one part pitiful and frail and i'm trying to feel my way around a book of promises written in braille there is pressure from within this and pressure from above there is pressure on our tenuous, strenuous love and there's wet wool blankets one, two, three laid onto my chest 'til i just can't breathe and i try not to let my emotions show but it ain't a balloon i can just let go it's an ice cream cone dripping in the sun sticky hands sticky arms sticky situation |
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from Ani Difranco - Revelling/ Reckoning (2006)
it's a heartbreak even situation
nothing lost and nothing gained so i'm 10 years old again standing in the backyard waving at a train i feel you make love to me slightly every time you let a little laugh slip too soon and the moment passes over us so lightly it feels like sand blowing over a dune you try not to let your emotions show but it ain't a balloon you can just let go it's an ice cream cone dripping in the sun sticky hands sticky arms sticky situation it's a heartbreak even situation one part powerful elation one part pitiful and frail and i'm trying to feel my way around a book of promises written in braille there is pressure from within this and pressure from above there is pressure on our tenuous, strenuous love and there's wet wool blankets one, two, three laid onto my chest 'til i just can't breathe and i try not to let my emotions show but it ain't a balloon i can just let go it's an ice cream cone dripping in the sun sticky hands sticky arms sticky situation |
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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 - 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 - Canon (2007)
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 - Canon (2007)
I bet you're wondering.
if you woke up today, just to learn why the caged bird sings. I bet you're wondering if the goddesses are all crazy, or just keeping it interesting, situated slightly outside society, at odds with its odd offerings. I bet you're teetering on the edge of sobriety, just to alleviate a few things. Like the fear that you're standing here, 'cause you want to be liked. You know you need your instrument, but does your instrument need to be miked? You keep imagining that pretty soon you will just disappear, and thinking that one thing is what saves you from your fear of being here. Here for now. Here for now. I bet you're looking for the little red x next to the red arrow, and the words 'you are here'. I bet you're hoping that your heart will send up the white flag this time, or some sign that the coast is clear. Yeah, the moment when your heart jumps. It's all that's happening, and once again, it's like the first time you've felt that shock. yeah, the moment when your heart jumps It's all that's happening, and I was right behind the door when you knocked. Thinking: maybe I'm just standing here, 'cause I want to be liked. I know I need my instrument, but does my instrument need to be miked? I keep imagining that pretty soon I will just disappear, and thinking that one thing is what saves me from my fear of being here. Here for now. Here for now. Here for now. |
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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 - Not A Pretty Girl (2007)
Hour follows hour like water follows water
Everything is governed by the rule of 'one thing leads to another' You can't really place blame 'cause blame is much too messy Someone's bound to get on you while you were trying to put it on me And don't fool yourself into thinking things are simple Nobody's lying still the stories don't line up Why do you try to hold on to what you'll never get a hold on? You wouldn't try to put the ocean in a paper cup 'Cause I have had something to prove as long as I know there's something that needs improvement And you know that every time I move I make a woman's movement. And first you decide what you've gotta do then you go out and do it And maybe the most we can do is just to see each other through it. Hour follows hour like water in a river And from one to the next We don't know what each hour will deliver We just call it like we see it Call it out loud as we can and then afterwards we call it all water over the dam Maybe the moral higher ground ain't as high as it seems Maybe we are both good people who've done some bad things I just hope it was okay I know it wasn't perfect I hope in the end we can laugh and say it was all worth it 'Cause I have had something to prove as long as I know something that needs improvement And you know that every time I move I make a woman's movement And first you decide what you've gotta do and then you go out and do it And maybe the most that we can do is just to see each other through it. We make our own gravity to give weight to things Then things fall and they break and gravity sings We can only hold so much is what I figure Try and keep our eye on the big picture, picture keeps getting bigger. And too much is how I love you but too well is how I know you And I've got nothing to prove this time, just something to show you I guess I just wanted you to see that it was all worth it to me |
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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 - Swing Set (2006)
Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night
Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall. She sees the bartender in a pool of blood, Cries out, "My God, they killed them all!" Here comes the story of the Hurricane, The man the authorities came to blame For somethin' that he never done. Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been The champion of the world. Three bodies lyin' there does Patty see And another man named Bello, movin' around mysteriously. "I didn't do it," he says, and he throws up his hands "I was only robbin' the register, I hope you understand. I saw them leavin'," he says, and he stops "One of us had better call up the cops." And so Patty calls the cops And they arrive on the scene with their red lights flashin' In the hot New Jersey night. Meanwhile, far away in another part of town Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are drivin' around. Number one contender for the middleweight crown Had no idea what kinda shit was about to go down When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road Just like the time before and the time before that. In Paterson that's just the way things go. If you're black you might as well not show up on the street 'Less you wanna draw the heat. Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the cops. Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowlin' around He said, "I saw two men runnin' out, they looked like middleweights They jumped into a white car with out-of-state plates." And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head. Cop said, "Wait a minute, boys, this one's not dead" So they took him to the infirmary And though this man could hardly see They told him that he could identify the guilty men. Four in the mornin' and they haul Rubin in, Take him to the hospital and they bring him upstairs. The wounded man looks up through his one dyin' eye Says, "Wha'd you bring him in here for? He ain't the guy!" Yes, here's the story of the Hurricane, The man the authorities came to blame For somethin' that he never done. Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been The champion of the world. Four months later, the ghettos are in flame, Rubin's in South America, fightin' for his name While Arthur Dexter Bradley's still in the robbery game And the cops are puttin' the screws to him, lookin' for somebody to blame. "Remember that murder that happened in a bar?" "Remember you said you saw the getaway car?" "You think you'd like to play ball with the law?" "Think it might-a been that fighter that you saw runnin' that night?" "Don't forget that you are white." Arthur Dexter Bradley said, "I'm really not sure." Cops said, "A poor boy like you could use a break We got you for the motel job and we're talkin' to your friend Bello Now you don't wanta have to go back to jail, be a nice fellow. You'll be doin' society a favor. That sonofabitch is brave and gettin' braver. We want to put his ass in stir We want to pin this triple murder on him He ain't no Gentleman Jim." Rubin could take a man out with just one punch But he never did like to talk about it all that much. It's my work, he'd say, and I do it for pay And when it's over I'd just as soon go on my way Up to some paradise Where the trout streams flow and the air is nice And ride a horse along a trail. But then they took him to the jailhouse Where they try to turn a man into a mouse. All of Rubin's cards were marked in advance The trial was a pig-circus, he never had a chance. The judge made Rubin's witnesses drunkards from the slums To the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bum And to the black folks he was just a crazy nigger. No one doubted that he pulled the trigger. And though they could not produce the gun, The D.A. said he was the one who did the deed And the all-white jury agreed. Rubin Carter was falsely tried. The crime was murder "one," guess who testified? Bello and Bradley and they both baldly lied And the newspapers, they all went along for the ride. How can the life of such a man Be in the palm of some fool's hand? To see him obviously framed Couldn't help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land Where justice is a game. Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell An innocent man in a living hell. That's the story of the Hurricane, But it won't be over till they clear his name And give him back the time he's done. Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been The champion of the world. |
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from Ani Difranco - Canon (2007)
so that's how you found me
rain falling around me lookin down at a worm with a long way to go and the traffic was hissing by and i was homesick and i was high i was surrounded by a language in which i could say only hello and i thank you very much but you spoke so i could understand and i drew a treasure map on your hand and you were no picnic you were no prize but you had just enough pathos to keep me hypnotized hypnotized the map led ro an island in a seas of store-bought dreams where soulless singers sang over beats built by machines and lovely girls were hovering above my head like gulls with their long slender necks and their delicate skulls and i was no picnic i was no prize but i had just enough sweetness to keep you hypnotized hypnotized so that's how you found me rain falling around me lookin down at a worm with a long way to go |
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