Ani DiFranco

[fox69]

"Fuel"

"Fuel"



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?
How about 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-numb 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 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
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

 

[fox69]

"Garden Of Simple"

"Garden Of Simple"



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

 

[fox69]

"Genie"

"Genie"



When I can hear somethin calling
From somewhere deep and far
I'm a genie in a bikini
Comin out of a jar
I float out of myself
And into the divine

But it ain't all the time
Sometimes I'm stuck in my mind

But I'm sick of standing in the breadlines
With a hunger that just won’t quit
Sick of mining my own hillsides
For gems to sell at market
Just gonna sit here like buddha
Under this here bodhi tree
Say goodbye to the game
Of what can I get for me

I just cried enough times
And I think I wore out my mind

You came out of the blue
Like twilight's first star
And we picked up on each other
From somewhere deep and far
And we woke up married
After one drunk fuck
And I couldn't believe you'd found me
I couldn't believe my luck

Cuz I did my time
Before love came to find me

 

[fox69]

"Glass House"

"Glass House"


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 it's half 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 if you think you know what I'm doing wrong
You're going to have to get in line
For the purposes of this song
Let's just say I'm doing fine
I guess I'm doing fine

Trapped in my glasshouse
Crowd has been gathering outside since dawn
Make a pot of coffee
While a 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 is your house made of?

And if you think you know what I'm doing wrong
You're going to have to get in line
So for the purposes of this song
Let's just say I'm doing fine
I guess I'm doing fine

I am sitting in my glass house
I am sitting in my glass house
I am sitting in my glass house
I am I am

 

[fox69]

"God's Country"

"God's Country"



state trooper thinks I drive too fast
pulled me over to tell me so
I say out here on the prarie
any speed is too slow
I miss brooklyn I miss my crew
let's start over
I missed my cue
guess I just forgot
who I was talking to

I should have recognized
that fierce look in his eyes
I've seen it in the mirror
so many times
he's going to put his two cents in
'cause he's got a gun
but I'm gonna put in three
'cause history owes me one

guess I came out here to see some
stuff for myself
I mean, why leave the telling
up to everybody else
this may be god's country
but it's my country too
move over mr. holiness
and let the little people through

thank you for serving and protecting
the likes of me
thank you for the ticket
now can I leave?
you know I have left everywhere
I have ever been
I don't really recommend it
though not like anyone asked me
maybe you and I
will meet again someday
I've been known to
come down this road
call it destiny
and then again
maybe not
I don't know

 

[fox69]

"Going Down"

"Going Down"



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

 

[fox69]

"Going Once"

"Going Once"



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
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 bungles and near misses
And she was swinging
Through a jungle
Of last calls and first kisses
And she was learning
About please
About huge humilities

Then one day she looked around her
And everything up til 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
And a straight face

She was ready
For the lonely

She was in it for
It only

 

[fox69]

"Good Luck"

"Good Luck"



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 painted her mask on all the way across town
A compact frown projected on a 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, good luck, good luck

A lock with a key in it that ain't turning
Smoke filling up behind a door, a fire with the purpose of 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, good luck, good luck

 

[fox69]

"Good, Bad, Ugly"

"Good, Bad, Ugly"



it was good
good to see you again
good to meet your girlfriend
I'll try not to wonder where you are
when you go outside to kiss her
in the front seat of your car

it is good
good to be back home
how I missed this time zone
strangers are exciting
their mystery never ends
but there's nothing like looking at your own history
in the faces of your friends

and it's bad
to have eyes like neon signs
flashing open open open
open open open open open
open all the time
and it's bad
that I wrapped you in a fantasy
and I carry you with me
but lately it seems like everybody's
joined at the hip
and I'm still fancy
I'm so fancy
fancy free

sometimes the beauty is easy
sometimes you don't have to try at all
sometimes you can hear the wind blow in a handshake
sometimes there's poetry written right
on the bathroom wall

and it's bad
that I took that second look
I guess I'm an open book
you know I didn't really intend
to embrace you that long
but then again I wasn't the only one
holding on

 

[fox69]

"Grand Canyon"

"Grand Canyon"



I love my country
By which I mean
I am indebted joyfully
To all the people throughout its history
Who have fought the government to make right
Where so many cunning sons and daughters
Our foremothers and forefathers
Came singing through slaughter
Came through hell and high water
So that we could stand here
And behold breathlessly the sight
How a raging river of tears
Cut a grand canyon of light

Yes, I've bin so many places
Flown through vast empty spaces
With stewardesses whose hands
Look much older than their faces
I've tossed so many napkins
Into that big hole in the sky
Bin at the bottom of the Atlantic
Seething in a two-ply
Looking up through all that water
And the fishes swimming by
And I don't always feel lucky
But I'm smart enough to try
Cuz humility has buoyancy
And above us only sky
So I lean in
Breathe deeper that brutal burning smell
That surrounds the smoldering wreckage
That I've come to love so well
Yes, color me stunned and dazzled
By all the red white and blue flashing lights
In the American intersection
Where black crashed head on with white
Comes a melody
Comes a rhythm
A particular resonance
That is us and only us
Comes a screaming ambulance
A hand that you can trust
Laid steady on your chest
Working for the better good
(Which is good at its best)
And too, bearing witness
Like a woman bears a child...
With all her might

Born of the greatest pain
Into a grand canyon of light

I mean, no song has gone unsung here
And this joint is strung crazy tight
And people bin raising up their voices
Since it just ain't bin right
With all the righteous rage
And all the bitter spite
That will accompany us out
Of this long night
That will grab us by the hand
When we are ready to take flight
Seatback and traytable
In the upright and locked position
Shocked to tears by each new vision
Of all that my ancestors have done

Like, say, the women who gave their lives
So that I could have one

People, we are standing at ground zero
Of the feminist revolution
Yeah, it was an inside job
Stoic and sly
One we're supposed to forget
And downplay and deny
But I think the time is nothing
If not nigh
To let the truth out
Coolest f-word ever deserves a fucking shout!
I mean
Why can't all decent men and women
Call themselves feminists?
Out of respect
For those who fought for this
I mean, look around
We have this

Yes
I love my country
By which I mean
I am indebted joyfully
To all the people throughout its history
Who have fought the government to make right
Where so many cunning sons and daughters
Our foremothers and forefathers
Came singing through slaughter
Came through hell and high water
So that we could stand here
And behold breathlessly the sight
How a raging river of tears
Is cutting a grand canyon of light