Ani DiFranco
Popular folk-rock singer-songwriter and guitarist.
Somedays the line I walk turns out to be straight -
Other days the line tends to deviate.
I don't always feel lucky, but I'm smart enough to try.
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.
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.
My life may not be something special
But it's never been lived before.
Girl, next time he wants to know
What your problem is
Next time he wants to know
Where the anger comes from
Just tell him this time the problem's his
Tell him the anger just comes
It just comes.
If you're not angry, you're just stupid, or you don't care.
My country tis of thee,
To take swings at each other on talk-show TV.
I am looking for the holes,
The holes in your jeans
Because I want to know:
Are they worn out in the seat,
Or are they worn out in the knees?
I am still praying for revolution.
Because I know the biggest crime
Is just to throw up your hands
And say "This has nothing to do with me,
I just want to live as comfortably as I can.
I believe in that step of not just making revolutionary music but making it in a way that challenges the system, Especially in this day and age when the tools for producing and distributing are more and more accessible to the average Joe and Josephine. The possibility of emancipation and control and independence is so much greater now.
Some of life's best lessons are learned at the worst times.
I always wanted to be commander-in-chief of my one-woman army,
But I can envision the mediocrity of my finest hour.
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 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're just flying past.
They can call me crazy if I fail
All the chance that I need
Is one in a million
And they can call me brilliant
If I succeed…
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.
You've got your whole life to do something,
And that's not very long.
So why don't you give me a call
When you're willing to fight
For what you think is real,
For what you think is right.
When we patch things up,
They say a job well done.
But when we ask the question why
Where did the rips come from?,
They say we are subversive,
And extreme, of course.
We are just trying to track a problem to its source.