Ani DiFranco Album

new years eve we dropped mushrooms
and danced around the house
making music with everything that we found
incantation replaced resolution and we vowed to allow each perfection we could be
and the goddesses sent word that this would be a red letter year
they didn't mention how much shit was gonna change around here

it's just as well we weren't swollen with unfocused dread
we had visions of sugarplums dancing in our heads
dancing in our heads

first you go under and then you coming up gives you bends
and when you break the surface
and all you see is your friends
so you grab your purple crayon
and flush out the picture behind
and finally the whole world is made of one unbroken line
one unbroken line

and when you wake up sick as a dog
with dull eyes and really bad hair
standing under a lit sign with the words on air
and the water is rising it's coming in everywhere
just remember you are there
you're always, always there

i will not stand immersed,
in this ultra violent curse
i won't let you make a tool of me
i will keep my mind and body free
bye bye minutiae
of the day to day drama,
i'm expanding exponentially,
i am consciousness without identity

i am many things,
made of everything,
but i will not be your bank roll
i won't idle in your drive-thru,
i won't watch your electric sideshow
i got way
better places to go

i will maintain the truth
i knew naturally as a child
i won't forfeit my creativity,
to a world that's all laid out for me
i will look at everything around me
and i will vow to bear in mind
that all of this was just someone's idea
it could just as well be mine

i won't rent you my time
i won't sell you my brain
i won't pray to a male god
cuz that would be insane

and i can't support the troops,
cuz every last one of them's being duped,
and i will not rest a wink
until the women have regrouped

i am many things,
made of everything,
but i will not be your bank roll
i won't idle in your drive-thru
i won't watch your electric sideshow
i got way
better places to go

lately i've been glaring into mirrors
picking myself apart
you'd think at my age i'd of thought
of something better to do
than making security into a full-time job
making security into art
and i fear my life will be over
and i will have never lived it better
always glaring into mirrors
mad i don't look better

but now here is this tiny baby
and they say she looks just like me
and she is smiling at me
with that present infant glee
and yes i will defend
to the ends of the earth
her perfect right to be here

so i'm beginning to see some problems
with the on going work of my mind
and i've got myself a new mantra
it says: "don't forget to have a good time"
don't let the sellers of stuff in power enough
to rob you of your grace
love is all over the place

there's nothing wrong with your face
love is all over the place
there's nothing wrong with your face

lately i've been glaring into mirrors
picking myself apart

i don't mind waiting in line
no, no
i don't mind if the bills pile up and the work is slow
i don't mind the gas or the groceries or the drive
gone inside with you i'm having a good time

i don't mind the stoner waiter or the poorly cooked food
i don't mind little miss kitty or her knucklehead dude
i don't care if every person is ugly and rude
long as i'm with you i got a good attitude
long as i'm with you

we could be stuck in traffic for all world week
with a car full of quintuplets who are all cutting teeth
and around my neck could be a flaming christmas wreath
and i'd be smiling under
smiling underneath

i don't mind waking up early for a flight that's delayed
i don't mind our weeks' vacation was chilly and gray
i don't mind the traffic cops or the TSA
long as i'm with you i'm having a good day
long as i'm with you

i don't mind spilling my hot sauce on my white shirt
i don't mind that twinge when i walk in that knee that i hurt
i don't mind my gums peeling back or my hair getting thin
long as i'm with you, i win
long as i'm with you

we could be stuck in traffic for all world week
with a car full of quituplets who are all cutting teeth
and around my neck could be a flaming christmas wreath
and i'd be smiling under
smiling under
smiling underneath

I'll tell you what there is plenty wrong with me
But I fixed up a few old buildings and I planted a few trees
And children seem to like me and animals too
Like the birds and the bees

And eating a sandwich standing over the kitchen counter
With only the sound of chewing in the room
I can see you as a challenge that I will eagerly meet
'Cause you are way, way, way, way sweet

And it's just that kind of evening that cracks open like a half shaken beer
Cool and refreshing and running down your arm
And baby there's really no other place I'd rather be than here
Pardon my periodic alarm

You are ever true, ever new in love
And I mean that in the best and worst way
And I don't really know what I was so mad about
But the full moon is about a week away

And I'll tell you what there is plenty wrong with you
Stuff you'd sooner fight for than cop to
But I think it's just more reason why we are meant to be
People say that I look like you and you look like me

We get this crazy combination of everything and nothing right
But we are way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way tight
Yeah, we are way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way tight
Yeah, we are way, way, way, way, way, way, way tight

Emancipated minor
Well directed, brilliantly casted
Riding a Greyhound down to the city
With her fake I.D. and a hell of a little hand basket

Little game of seesaw, then he came to claim her
And then a sordid line formed behind him
Reproductive system newly activated
She participated in nature's plan, she participated

And I can't say I envy her, I don't think I miss it
Wrought iron cobwebbing over thin windowpanes
The city seducing you on tiptoe to kiss it
Don't think twice, just roll the dice, roll the dice

So she attended the dance classes and she learned the little dance
And she tried the high heels but she couldn't bring herself to prance
All the while a faint ticking in the silence between the songs
Just south of her gut two tiny time bombs

And love comes in many forms and for each she would yearn
Hungry as a student, hunger to learn
Every flavor of person, every species of intent
With the body pulsing at the center detent

But all the good graffiti got painted over in time
She watched the last faceless chain replace the last five and dime
And she wondered if the only noble thing
Ain't to just to get a big garden and plant it in the spring

Kiss the city goodbye in some big graceful gesture
And focus on the moon's groove, groove with the moon
Focus on the moon's groove and groove with the moon
Focus on the moon's groove, groove with the moon

And I can't say I envy her, I don't think I miss it
Wrought iron cobwebbing over thin windowpanes
The city seducing you on tiptoe to kiss it
Don't think twice, just roll the dice, roll the dice
Roll the dice, roll the dice

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

The glory of the atom begs a reverent word
The primary design of the whole universe
Yeah, let us sing its praises, let us bow our heads in prayer
At the magnificent consciousness incarnate there

The smallest unit of matter with its orbiting electrons
Echoing off the solar system like a hawk in the hills at dawn
The smallest unit of matter
Uniting bird and rock and tree and you and me

Oh, holy is the atom, the truly intelligent design
To which all of evolution is graciously aligned
The one single structure to which everything distills
The air, the wood smoke there and the hills

Oh, leave me here surrounded by everything that's real
Far outside the boundaries of the digitized ordeal, yeah
Leave me here awake, leave me here to heal

Human beings are a cross between monkeys and ants
You can see us from your spaceship
Melting the polar ice caps with our arrogance
Summon a congress of angels dressed in riot gear
We've got ourselves a serious situation down here

I have this great, great uncle who worked on the atomic bomb
He got a Nobel Prize in physics and a place in this song
And I bet there were no windows and no women in the room
When they applied themselves to the pure science of boom

Yeah, messin' with the atom is the highest form of blasphemy
Whether you are making weapons or simple electricity
Someone fashion me a pulpit, I have been called to engage
With the maniacal heretics of the nuclear age

Let the religious get religion, let consumers get a clue
Let scientists get perspective, let activists get their due
Let industry get a conscience, let the earth inherit the meek
Let the divinity of nature speak

Oh, the glory of the atom begs a reverent word
The primary design of the whole universe
Yes, let us sing its praises, let us bow our heads in prayer
At the magnificent consciousness incarnate there

I could sing you 'round a pole
I could talk you up a tree
But when it comes to what really matters
You are way more clever than me

I know I wanted to be challenged
But I was unclear about how
So I'll be the guy with the toolbox
And you be the fun-lovin' gal

And I'll learn to fix stuff
If you will teach me to love
And God'll radiate out from within us
Instead of this bullshit from above

And we could dance 'round like monkeys
After the paparazzi have gone home
Having let go forever
The fallacy of ever being alone

I could sing you 'round a pole
Like a ball at the end of a rope
Have you ducking and sluggin' protecting your head
But I decided just to love you back instead

'Cause I have studied my own pain
Like an ambitious scientist
And I've discovered it's all the same
And has nothing to do with this

So I'll learn to fix stuff
If you will teach me to love
And God'll radiate out from within us
Instead of this bullshit from above

We can dance 'round like monkeys
After the paparazzi have gone home
Having let go forever
The fallacy of ever being alone

hey little bag of sugar
floating in your bias-sphere
summon the courage
to put down your landing gear
and come out here

'cuz i am as exhausted
as a drowning polar bear
swimming around
looking for a ride
and it's so god awful hot outside

and quit kicking me in the rib
every time adam tells what he did
man creates woman he says
sweeping his hand through the air
like mister show biz

you're gonna love this world
if it's the last thing i do
the whole extravagant joke
topped in bitter sweet chocolate goo
for someone who ain't even here yet
look how much the world loves you
look how much the world loves you

candles are burning down
the music is fading
your pinnate is torn
it is time to be born
yes, and death is at the door
peddling that old fashioned
blood and gore
here at the house of creation
cue the sobering moment
of revelation

you're gonna love this world
if it's the last thing i do
the whole extravagant joke
topped in bitter sweet chocolate goo
for someone who ain't even here yet
look how much the world loves you
look how much the world loves you

love gets started
next thing you know
it leaves everything else behind
love sets fire to your schedule
and then calls an end to time

love ain't far behind you
love ain't far behind

and when we're parted
it's always too long
and every time you come back
you come back so strong
and as soon as we can
we gotta go lie down
in that place where
our breath is one sound

love ain't far behind you
love ain't far behind

i was there to hear your bell
the first time it rang
and the beauty was
the beauty of everything
we are star matter
from the big bang

love ain't far behind you
love ain't far behind

love ain't far behind you
love ain't far behind

[No lyrics]