Ani DiFranco
Popular folk-rock singer-songwriter and guitarist.
She says “Do I know you?” I say “Well, no, not biblically,
But I've been waiting for you to come and talk to me.
I have been playing too many of those boy-girl games.”
She says, “Honey, you are safe here. This is a girl-girl thing.”
But what if no one's watching?
What if when we're dead, we are just dead?
What if there's no time to lose?
What if there's things we gotta do,
Things that need to be said?
They're gonna be mad at us.
They're gonna be mad at me and you.
They're gonna be mad at us and all the things we wanna do.
You know
Taken out of context I must
Seem so strange.
They put you in your place, and they tell you to behave
But no one can be free until we're all on even grade.
People used to make records, as in the record of an event, the event of people playing music in a room, and now everything's cross-marketing, its about sunglasses and shoes, or guns and drugs that you choose."
So we're led by denial like lambs to the slaughter
Serving empires of style and carbonated sugar water
And the old farm road's a four-lane that leads to the mall
And our dreams are all guillotines waiting to fall.
And we hold these truths to be self-evident:
Number one-- George W. Bush is not president.
Number two-- America is not a true democracy.
And, Number three-- the media is not fooling me.
Every tool is a weapon - if you hold it right.
Maybe you don't like your job, maybe you didn't get enough sleep--
But nobody likes their job, nobody got enough sleep.
Maybe you just had the worst day of your life;
Well, you know, there's no escape.
That's no excuse. Just suck up and be nice.
And I was shocked to see the mistakes of each generation will just fade like a radio station, if we drive out of range.
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
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.
I always wanted to be commander-in-chief of my one-woman army,
But I can envision the mediocrity of my finest hour.
Some of life's best lessons are learned at the worst times.
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.