ani difranco (1990)
There are some things that you can't know unless you've been
there, but oh--how far we could go
if we started to share. i dont need to tell you what it is all about, you just start
on the inside and work your way out.
(work your way out)
I'd make such a good statistic,
someone should study me now.
somebody's gotta be interested in how i feel,
just cause i'm here,
and i'm real.
(fire door)
My thighs have been involved in many accidents
and now I cant get insured,
and I dont need to be lured by you.
my cunt is built like a wound that
wont heal,
and now you dont have to ask cause you know how I feel.
(out of habit)
Taken out of
context i must seem so strange.
(fire
door)
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.
(both hands)
not so soft (1991)
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.
(anticipate)
We can touch, touch our girl cheeks
and we can hold hands like paper dolls,
we can try, try each other on in the privacy
within new york city's walls.
(the whole night)
imperfectly (1992)
We're
in a room
without a door, and i am sure without a doubt, they're gonna wanna know how we got
in here, and they're gonna wanna know how we plan to get out.
(in
our out)
She says he dont 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.
(fixing her hair)
Some days the line I walk turns out to be straight,
other days the line tends to deviate.
i've got no criteria for sex or race, i just wanna
hear your voice, i just wanna see your face.
(in or out)
The same rule always applies: smile pretty and watch your back.
(every state line)
I didn't really notice when everything else disappeared.
as far as I'm concerned: if it isn't her, it isn't here.
(if it isn't her)
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.
(circle
of light)
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.
(every state line)
And it's bad that i took that second look,
I guess i'm an open book.
you know i really didn't intend to embrace you that long, but then
again--i noticed i
wasn't the only one
holding on.
(good, bad ugly)
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.
(circle of light)
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.
(good, bad ugly)
I'm okay if you get me at a good angle, and youre okay in the right
sort of light, and we don't look like pages from a magazine, but that's
alright.
(imperfectly)
We get a little further from perfection each year on the road, i
guess that's what they call character, i guess that's just the way it goes.
Better to be polished than dusted like some store window mannequin--why don't
you touch me where i'm rusty, let me stain your hands.
(imperfectly)
Strangers are exciting, their mystery never ends, but there's
nothing like looking at your own history in the faces of your friends.
(good, bad, ugly)
out of range (1994)
I want you to pay me for
my beauty,
i think it's only right.
cause
i have been paying for it all of my life.
(letter to a john)
How can i go home with nothing to say, when i know you're going to
look at me that way, and say--what did you do out there? what did you decide?
you
said you needed time, and you had time.
(you had time)
We are wise wise women, we are giggling girls. we both cary a smile to show when we're
pleased, we both carry a switchblade in our sleeves.
(if he tries anything)
Boys get locked up in some prison, girls get locked up in some
house.
(out of range)
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.
(buildings and bridges)
I've been waking up slowly savoring the same old dream, and
somewhere between the folds of your memory, i was sleeping soundly.
(hell yeah)
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', we'll say we didn't know, we
didn't even try, one minute there was road between us, the next just sky.
(falling is like this)
You'll say it's really good to see you,
you'll say i missed you horribly,
you'll say 'let me carry that, give that to me,'
and you will take the heavy stuff and you will drive the car,
and i'll look out the window and make jokes
about the way things are.
(you had time)
We can't fight gravity on a planet that insists
that love is like falling
and falling is like this.
(falling is like this)
Life is a b movie, it's stupid and it's strange
it's a didrectionle 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.
(hell yeah)
I like you so much, i talk to everyone but
you.
(hell yeah)
not a pretty girl (1995)
Maybe
we are both good people who've done some bad things.
(crime
for crime)
You'll stop me, won't you, if you've
heard this one before? The one where I
surprise you by showing up at your front door, saying lets not ask what next,
or how or why,
i am leaving in the morning, so let's not be shy.
(shy)
Yeah i'd like to go to all the pretty parties where all the pretty
people go. and i ain't really all that pretty, but nobody will know--because
everyone loves you when you're a star, and nobody questions what it takes to go
that far. life
is a sleazy stranger and this is his favorite bar.
(million you never made)
In the end the world comes down to just a few people,
but for you it comes down to me.
but no one ever asked me if i thought i could be everything to
someone,
there's a crowd of people harbored in every person,
there are so many roles that we play,
and you've decided to love me for eternity,
i'm still deciding who i want to be today.
(light of some kind)
Too much is how i love you,
but too well is how i know you.
(hour follows hour)
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)
I want somebody who sees the pointlesness and still keeps the
purpose in mind.
I want somebody who has a tortured soul, some of the time.
I want somebody who would like to put out for me or put me out of
my misery, or maybe just put it all to words and make me go 'i never heard it
that way before.'
(asking too much)
Imagine you're a girl,
just trying to finally come clean,
knowing full well they'd prefer you were dirty,
and smiling.
(pretty girl)
Someday
you're going to get hungry and eat most of the words you just said.
(32
flavors)
And generally my generation wouldn't be caught dead working for
the man, and generally i agree with them, trouble is you gotta have yourself an
alternate plan.
(not a pretty girl)
God help you if you are an ugly girl,
course too pretty is also your doom,
because everyone harbors a secret hatred
for the prettiest girl in the room.
(32 flavors)
And i would like to state for the record i did everything that i
could do.
(32 flavors)
I'm sorry i ddidn't sound more excited on the phone.
i'm sorry that after all these years
i've left you feeling unrequited and alone, brought you to tears,
i guess i never loved you quite as well as the way you loved me
i guess i'll never really be able to tell you how sorry
i am.
(sorry i am)
dilate (1996)
To tell you the truth i prefer the worst of you.
Too bad you had
to have a better half.
(untouchable
face)
And you are so
lame, you know, you always dissapoint 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 dissatisfied, i see
you and i dilate.
(dilate)
'Cause you've left me with nothing,
but i've worked with less.
(dilate)
So fuck you, and your untouchable
face,
and fuck you for existing in the
first place.
(untouchable face)
If I was dressed in my best defenses,
would you agree to
meet me for coffee?
(superhero)
I don't want no one to follow me, except maybe you.
(untouchable face)
Just dont treat me like i am something that happened to you.
(adam and eve)
Tell me what did you like about me? And don't say my strength and
daring. Cause now i think i'm at your mercy, and it's my first time for this
kind of thing.
(superhero)
I'll walk the plank and i'll jump with a smile,
cause if i'm gonna go down, i'm gonna do it with style
(dialate)
I just happen to like apples, and I am not afraid of snakes.
(adam and eve)
You won't see me surrender, you won't hear me confess, cause
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.
(dilate)
I truly am sorry about all this,
i envy you your ignorance
i hear that its bliss.
(adam and eve)
When i say you
sucked my brian out, the english translation is: i am in love with you, and it
is no fun.
(dilate)
I used to be a superhero
no one could touch me
not even myself.
You are like a phone booth
that i somehow stumbled into
and now look at me
i am just like everybody else.
(superhero)
you rhapsodize about beauty
and my eyes glaze
everything i love is ugly,
i mean really, you would be amazed.
(adam and eve)
little plastic castle (1998)
Am i headed for the same brick wall,
is there anything i can do about anything at all?
(fuel)
And i teeter between tired, and really, really tired,
i'm wiped and i'm wired but i guess it's just as well.
(swan dive)
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)
That
night you leaned over and threw up into your hair
and
i thought, i would offer you my pulse
if
i thought it would be useful.
i
would give you my breath.
(pulse)
And
I've got no illusions about you.
and
guess what--I never did.
when
I said I'd take it, i meant as is.
(as
is)
I've got a lack of inhibition, i've got a loss of perspective,
i've had a little bit to drink and it's making me think that i can jump ship
and swim, that the ocean will hold me, there's got to be more than this boat
i'm in.
(swandive)
I will be picturesque, i will be nice, i won't do anything you
can't tell your wife.
(loom)
I teeter between tired, and really,
really tired, i'm wiped and i'm wired but i guess it's just as well.
(swandive)
Each time we've spoken we've put in our 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)
Here comes little naked me, padding up to the bathroom door,
to find little naked you, slumped on the bathroom floor,
so I guess I'll just stand here with my back against the wall
while you distill your whole life down to a 9-1-1 call.
(two little girls)
'Cause they can call me crazy if i fall,
all the chance that i need is one in a million,
and they can call me brilliant if i succeed,
gravity is nothing to me, moving at ths speed of sound,
i'm just going to get my feet wet, until i drown.
(swandive)
Maybe
you don't like your job,
maybe
you didn't get enough sleep,
nobody
likes their job,
nobody
got enough sleep.
maybe
you just had the worst day of your life,
but
there's no escape, and there's no excuse,
so
just suck up and be nice.
(pixie)
Love is a piano dropped out a four story window,
and you were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
(two little girls)
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.
(gravel)
And maybe you can keep me from ever
being happy,
but you're not gonna stop me from having
fun.
(gravel)
So many sheep i quit counting,
sleepless and embarassed about the way that i feel,
trying to take mole hills out of mountains,
building base camp at the bottom of a really big deal.
(independence day)
We met in a dream, we were both ninteen, i remember where we were
standing, i remember how it felt, this little girl breaks furniture, this
little girl breaks laws.
(two little girls)
Just give up, and admit
you're an asshole,
you
would be in some good company.
(as
is)
up up up up up (1999)
She taught me how to wage cold war with quiet charm but i just
want to walk through my life unarmed.
To accept and just get by like my father learned to do, but without all
the acceptance of getting by that got my father through.
(angry anymore)
But it's not the same going town to town
now that they put everyone in jail except
the cleavers and the bradys.
('tis of thee)
revelling/reckoning (2001)
You can doubt anything if you
think about it long enough,
cause what happened always adjusts
to fit
what happened after that.
(reckoning)
So she built a skyscraper of procrastination and then she leaned
out the 25th floor window of her reply
and she felt like an acress just reading her lines when she
finally said "yes its really goodbye this time."
(school night)
I'm a good kisser and you're a fast learner,
and that kinda thing could float us for a pretty long time.
(marrow)
But
as bad as i am, i'm proud of the fact that i'm worse than i seem.
(grey)
You are a party and i am a school night
and i'm looking for my door key but you
are my porch light, you'll never know, dear
just how much i loved you, you'll probably think
this was just my big excuse.
(school night)
And i say i'm sorry that i'm so
crazy,
i am astounded by your patience.
and you say believe it or not baby,
the joy you bring still outweighs it.
(sick of me)
The fact that i adore you is but one of my truths.
(school night)
And win or lose, just that you chose this little war is what kills
you, and either/or it's that this war
is maybe also what thrills you.
(reckoning)
And now i've replayed a thousand times exactly what was sasid, cuz
nothing is as it appears in the funhouse mirrors of your fears on the roller
coaster of all these years, with your hands above your head" (reckoning)
evolve (2003)
There's nothing that could have prepared me
for the side effect of this dirty drug
the way you punish me, and then you shrug.
(shrug)
We took down all the pictures and then
we took down all the walls,
packed up our expectations and piled em up in the hall.
(in the way)
