Ani DiFranco mp3s

[hermionesviolin]

Ani DiFranco: a nonrepresentative sampling (note the distinct lack of political songs) further edited by the limitations of my personal mp3 collection.

all lyrics from http://www.danah.org/Ani/

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...
-both hands


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 gray sky
the air was smoking and the streets were dry
and i wasn't joking when i said
good bye
-fire door


the butter melts out of habit
the toast isn't even warm
-out of habit


tending the garden of noise
where i grow the traffic
and the church bells
and the neighborhood boys
singing to myself
as the solitude sets in
in tune with the symphony
of south brooklyn
-rockabye


she says forget what you have to do
pretend there is nothing
outside this room
-she says


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
-gratitude


we can touch
touch our girl cheeks
and we can hold hands
like paper dolls
-the whole night


there are so many ways to wear
what we have before it's gone
to make use of what is there
you know i don't wear anything i can't wipe my hands on
-looking for the holes


if my life were a movie
there would be a sunset
and the camera would pan away
-what if no one's watching


she's looking in the mirror
she's fixing her hair
and i touch my head to feel
what isn't there
-fixing her hair


i just write about
what i should have done
i just sing
what i wish i could say
and hope somewhere
some woman hears my music
and it helps her through her day
-i'm no heroine


he caresses every bottle
like it's the first one he's had
saying
it ain't love
but it ain't bad
it's the only reward
bestowed upon me
and i have served faithfully
-served faithfully


let's show them how it's done
let's do it all imperfectly
-imperfectly


i say
if you're born a lion
don't bother trying to act tame
-born a lion


i woke up one morning
thighs covered in blood
like a war
like a warning
that i live in a breakable takeable body
an ever increasingly valuable body
-my i.q.


buildings and bridges
are made to bend in the wind
-buildings and bridges


thinking
nothing ever changes
and i was shocked
to see the mistakes of each generation
will just fade like a radio station
if you drive out of range
-out of range


somebody do something
anything soon
i know i can't be the only
whatever i am in the room
-face up and sing


how can i go home
with nothing to say
i know you're going to look at me that way
-you had time


it's a long long road
it's a big big world
we are wise wise women
we are giggling girls
-if he tries anything


you think you're not worthy
i'd have to say i agree
i'm not worthy of you
you're not worthy of me
-worthy


the heat is so great
it plays tricks with the eye
it turns the road to water
and then from water to sky
-shy


i am not a pretty girl
that is not what i do
i ain't no damsel in distress
and i don't need to be rescued
-not a pretty girl


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
cuz blame is much too messy
-hour follows hour


squint your eyes and look closer
i'm not between you and your ambition
i am a poster girl with no poster
i am thirty-two flavors and then some
-32 flavors


got a garden of songs where i grow all my thoughts
wish i could harvest one or two for some small talk
-this bouquet


think i'm going for a walk now
i feel a little unsteady
i don't want nobody to follow me
'cept maybe you
-untouchable face


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
-dilate


and i wonder if you'll miss your old friends
once you've proven what you're worth
and i wonder when you're a big star
will you miss the earth
-napoleon


i cannot name this
i cannot explain this
and i really don't want to
just call me shameless
-shameless


i do it for the joy it brings
because i'm a joyful girl
because the world owes me nothing
and we owe each other the world
-joyful girl


in a coffee shop in a city
which is every coffee shop
in every city
on a day which is every day
i pick up a magazine
which is every magazine
and read a story then forgot it right away
-little plastic castle


they were digging a new foundation in manhattan
and they discovered a slave cemetary there
-fuel


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
-as is


each time we've spoken, we've put in a token and ridden the tilt-a-whirl
i was giggling and dizzy
flirting like a 12 year old girl
the carnival of you and me is coming to town
watch how we spin and spin and then fall down
now we just say hello and head for firmer ground
-loom


cradling the softest, warmest part of you in my hand
feels like a little baby bird fallen from the nest
i think that your body is something i understand
i think that i'm happy, i think that i'm blessed
-swandive


i 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
-glass house


and i don't think war is noble
and i don't like to think that love is like war
but i got a big hot cherry bomb, and i want to slip it through the mail slot
of your front door
-independence day


that night you leaned over
and threw up into your hair
and i held you there, thinking
i would offer you my pulse
if i thought it would be useful
i would give you my breath
-pulse


in the jukebox of her memory
the list of names flips by and stops
and she closes her eyes
and smiles as the record drops       
-jukebox


i just want you to understand that i know what all the fighting
was for, and i just want you to understand that i'm not angry anymore.
-angry anymore


i don't keep much stuff around
i value my portability
but i will say that i have saved every letter
you ever wrote to me
-soft shoulder


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
-freakshow


so they went and stuffed god down the barrel of a gun
and after him they stuffed his only son
-hello birmingham


gonna go out
to the arrivals gate at the airport
and sit there all day
watch people reuniting
public affection is so exciting
it even makes airports ok
-the arrival's gate


but in the garden of simple
where all of us are nameless
you were never anything but beautiful to me
-garden of simple


and i feel right at home
in this stunning monochrome
alone in my way
-grey


she went over to his apartment
clutching her decision
and he said, did you come here to tell me goodbye?
so she built a skyscraper of procrastination
and then she leaned out the twenty-fifth floor window
of her reply
and she felt like an actress
just reading her lines
-school night


and then finally she went out into the rain
carrying her bicycle chain
and her feet worked the pedals
while her appetite steered
and after that she just followed her nose
cuz fate is not just whose cooking smells good
but which way the wind blows
-slide


i walk in stride with people
much taller than me
and partly it's the boots but
mostly it's my chi
-evolve


second intermission
anticipation
you know the third act
small talk drops out of the play
-second intermission


welcome to:
this year's alone - brought to you by christmas day
welcome to:
the darkness into which praying people pray
-welcome to

Comments

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

Ah, thanks. I didn't have a few of these.

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

Happy to help :)

(I should probably do up a post at some point of requests for the ones I don't have but want; I was craving "rush hour" yesterday.)

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

I'm now dying to write Mal-Zoe fic around "Served Faithfully."

[rhipowered.livejournal.com]

Taking Evolve.

[hedy.livejournal.com]

No "political songs" but you included IQ and Fuel?

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

I almost included a note on the definition of "lack" -- "deficiency or absence," which I interpreted as meaning I'd included a few but less than would be a representative sample. (And actually, "Hello Birmingham" is the one I think of as the most explicitly political of the ones I included.)

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow! These lyrics are brilliant. Thanks for posting these. :)

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

Download at will :) Flisters' unfamiliarity with her music has been a recurrent theme in recent weeks, so I thought it was high time to remedy that.