Honestly I'm not much on her music though some songs are amazing musically. But lyrically she's one of the best. Open, honest, brutal, sad, deranged... She's everything.

excerpt from "SERPENTINE":


..."and the music industry mafia is pimping girl power
sniping off sharp-shooter singles from their styrofoam
towers, and hip-hop is tied up in the back room with a
logo stuffed in it's mouth, cause the master's tools
will never dismantle the master's house..."

I love this woman - her lyrics are defintely kick ass - I love her non- apologetic style. you have no choice but to love a person who says exactly what on their minds.

She got anything comin out lately?


usually she has those releases lined up..

Her latest is entitled "evolve".

i only have a handful of her many cds. but i print out all the lyrics wherever i can find them.

thirty two flavors


squint your eyes and look closer
i'm not between you and your ambition
i am a poster girl with no poster
i am thirty-two flavors and then some
and i'm beyond your peripheral vision
so you might want to turn your head
cause someday you're going to get hungry
and eat most of the words you just said

both my parents taught me about good will
and i have done well by their names
just the kindness i've lavished on strangers
is more than i can explain
still there's many who've turned out their porch lights
just so i would think they were not home
and hid in the dark of their windows
till i'd passed and left them alone

and god help you if you are an ugly girl
course too pretty is also your doom
cause everyone harbors a secret hatred
for the prettiest girl in the room
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 are just flying past

i'm not trying to give my life meaning
by demeaning you
and i would like to state for the record
i did everything that i could do
i'm not saying that i'm a saint
i just don't want to live that way
no, i will never be a saint
but i will always say

squint your eyes and look closer
i'm not between you and your ambition
i am a poster girl with no poster
i am thirty-two flavors and then some
and i'm beyond your peripheral vision
so you might want to turn your head
cause someday you might find you're starving
and eating all of the words you said

Sdldawn said:

Yep, January 20, 2004 sees her next LP entitled Educated Guess. This is the first album since she dumped her entire band and went solo. Samples from the songs can be heard at http://www.righteousbabe.com

smokeverbs said:

Nice

She's got a better output rate than prince..

"Carry You Around"

How pleased can one sun setting make you
If you humble yourself to it?
How grateful can you really say that you are
Just to be here and live through it?

And when beauty asks a question
How often do you reply?
How often do you wonder
About life on the other side?
On the other side of sorrow
On the other side of rage
On the other side of ok
OK at all
In any way

Imagine what lonliness
Will drive someone to do
Now multiply that times me
And multiply that times you
Now imagine what it would take to make
This all happen again
Just when you think you're gonna cry
Multiply that times

You
Are distracting me
From all other activities
And I know the fact of your presence
Will dominate my memory
Of this restaurant
This table
This day
And this town

(chorus)
Cuz I carry you, baby
I carry you around

From the album To The Teeth

who knew *uck you could be so appropriate:

"Untouchable Face"

think i'm going for a walk now
i feel a little unsteady
i don't want nobody to follow me
'cept maybe you
i could make you happy you know
if you weren't already
i could do a lot of things
and i do

tell you the truth i prefer
the worst of you
too bad you had to have a better half
she's not really my type
but i think you two are forever
and i hate to say it but
you're perfect together

so fuck you
and your untouchable face
and fuck you
for existing in the first place
and who am i
that i should be vying for your touch
and who am i
i bet you can't even tell me that much

two-thirty in the morning
and my gas tank will be empty soon
neon sign on the horizon
rubbing elbows with the moon
a safe haven of sleepless
where the deep fryer's always on
radio is counting down
the top 20 country songs
and out on the porch the fly strip is
waving like a flag in the wind
y'know, i don't look forward
to seeing you again soon
you'll look like a photograph of yourself
taken from far far away
and i won't know what to do
and i won't know what to say

except fuck you...

i see you and i'm so perplexed
what was i thinking
what will i think of next
where can i hide
in the back room there's a lamp
that hangs over the pool table
and when the fan is on it swings
gently side to side
there's a changing constellation
of balls as we are playing
i see orion and say nothing
the only thing i can think of saying

is fuck you...

Supernova said:

SHE ABSOLUTELY IS. I LOVE this woman!!!

I just saw a DVD of her the other day in Borders here in Sydney...anyone here got it? any good?

That would be "Render: Spanning Time With Ani Difranco"

And if you're the slightest bit interested in Ani, get it!!

It's got a lot of concert footage, but also interviews, rehearsal footage, and some footage of ani mixing a song at her studio. She's dumped her entire band, and that band was excellent, so this is the last chance to really see what they were capable of. Julie's organ solo in the middle of "overlap" kills me everytime. Not only that, but there's live footage from other artists on her label that she runs. The segment with Bitch and Animal is hilarious!

Yes, well worth whatever you have to pay for it.

"Fuel"

They were digging a new foundation 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 dumb or tweedle dumber?
And who's gonna have the big blockbuster
Box office this summer
How 'bout we put up a wall
Between the houses and the highway
And then you can go your way
And I can go my way

Except all the radios agree with all the tv's
And 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 week
For another hum drum 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
It's about sunglasses and shoes
Or guns or 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 we can choose between the colors
Of the lipstick on the whores
Cuz we know the difference
Between the font of twenty percent more
And the font of teriyaki
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 in two thousand miles
To buy beer
And I wonder is he different
Is he different
Has he changed
What he's 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 system and the path train
Beneath the cobblestones and the water main
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 that's just waiting for fuel

Album: Little Plastic Castle

º
[This message was edited Wed Dec 17 11:34:21 PST 2003 by Supernova]

She's terrific. I love the lyrics to her "Imperfectly" CD.

FROM IMPERFECTLY CD:

"Served Faithfully"

he caresses every bottle
like it's the first one he's had
saying
it ain't love
but it ain't bad
it's the only reward
bestowed upon me
and I have served faithfully

I can see he is scarred
from doing some hard time
but I let alone what is broken
'cause it isn't mine
he strikes out at me
when I am within reach
then he reaches for me
when I draw the line

sometimes it seems like love
is just a fancy word for compromise
you gotta read between the years
you gotta write between the lines
you gotta try to understand
the grandness of the man behind the petty crimes
and let him off easy sometimes

I have only just met
an old old friend
we've been walking around holding hands
I hope some day he can bend
as far as it takes to understand
and risk breaking open again


:PIMP:

I've never heard this album. but i know the words very well.

I saw Ani live this year for the first time. I had previously caught her VHI Hard Rock live concert from a couple of years back, and thought it was incredible, but I had no idea how good she would actually be on her own. This time out, she had no backing band, just her and a guitar. I only own a couple of her CDs, so I only knew about 3 songs that she played, but I didn't mind at all! She was mesmerising, to say the least.

Ani also gave the final fucking word on the whole september 11th tragedy. Here it is, and if you can't feel this, then I don't know what to say to you.

first here are links to the LEGAL mp3 from her site: (streaming) http://www.righteousbabe....vident.asx
(download) http://righteousbabe.com/...vident.mp3
her band fucking stomps here, it's from her live album last year

and here's the words

"Self Evident"
yes,
us people are just poems
we're 90% metaphor
with a leanness of meaning
approaching hyper-distillation
and once upon a time
we were moonshine
rushing down the throat of a giraffe
yes, rushing down the long hallway
despite what the p.a. announcement says
yes, rushing down the long stairs
with the whiskey of eternity
fermented and distilled
to eighteen minutes
burning down our throats
down the hall
down the stairs
in a building so tall
that it will always be there
yes, it's part of a pair
there on the bow of noah's ark
the most prestigious couple
just kickin back parked
against a perfectly blue sky
on a morning beatific
in its indian summer breeze
on the day that america
fell to its knees
after strutting around for a century
without saying thank you
or please

and the shock was subsonic
and the smoke was deafening
between the setup and the punch line
cuz we were all on time for work that day
we all boarded that plane for to fly
and then while the fires were raging
we all climbed up on the windowsill
and then we all held hands
and jumped into the sky

and every borough looked up when it heard the first blast
and then every dumb action movie was summarily surpassed
and the exodus uptown by foot and motorcar
looked more like war than anything i've seen so far
so far
so far
so fierce and ingenious
a poetic specter so far gone
that every jackass newscaster was struck dumb and stumbling
over 'oh my god' and 'this is unbelievable' and on and on
and i'll tell you what, while we're at it
you can keep the pentagon
keep the propaganda
keep each and every tv
that's been trying to convince me
to participate
in some prep school punk's plan to perpetuate retribution
perpetuate retribution
even as the blue toxic smoke of our lesson in retribution
is still hanging in the air
and there's ash on our shoes
and there's ash in our hair
and there's a fine silt on every mantle
from hell's kitchen to brooklyn
and the streets are full of stories
sudden twists and near misses
and soon every open bar is crammed to the rafters
with tales of narrowly averted disasters
and the whiskey is flowin
like never before
as all over the country
folks just shake their heads
and pour

so here's a toast to all the folks who live in palestine
afghanistan
iraq

el salvador

here's a toast to the folks living on the pine ridge reservation
under the stone cold gaze of mt. rushmore

here's a toast to all those nurses and doctors
who daily provide women with a choice
who stand down a threat the size of oklahoma city
just to listen to a young woman's voice

here's a toast to all the folks on death row right now
awaiting the executioner's guillotine
who are shackled there with dread and can only escape into their heads
to find peace in the form of a dream

cuz take away our playstations
and we are a third world nation
under the thumb of some blue blood royal son
who stole the oval office and that phony election
i mean
it don't take a weatherman
to look around and see the weather
jeb said he'd deliver florida, folks
and boy did he ever

and we hold these truths to be self evident:
#1 george w. bush is not president
#2 america is not a true democracy
#3 the media is not fooling me
cuz i am a poem heeding hyper-distillation
i've got no room for a lie so verbose
i'm looking out over my whole human family
and i'm raising my glass in a toast

here's to our last drink of fossil fuels
let us vow to get off of this sauce
shoo away the swarms of commuter planes
and find that train ticket we lost
cuz once upon a time the line followed the river
and peeked into all the backyards
and the laundry was waving
the graffiti was teasing us
from brick walls and bridges
we were rolling over ridges
through valleys
under stars
i dream of touring like duke ellington
in my own railroad car
i dream of waiting on the tall blonde wooden benches
in a grand station aglow with grace
and then standing out on the platform
and feeling the air on my face

give back the night its distant whistle
give the darkness back its soul
give the big oil companies the finger finally
and relearn how to rock-n-roll
yes, the lessons are all around us and a change is waiting there
so it's time to pick through the rubble, clean the streets
and clear the air
get our government to pull its big dick out of the sand
of someone else's desert
put it back in its pants
and quit the hypocritical chants of
freedom forever

cuz when one lone phone rang
in two thousand and one
at ten after nine
on nine one one
which is the number we all called
when that lone phone rang right off the wall
right off our desk and down the long hall
down the long stairs
in a building so tall
that the whole world turned
just to watch it fall


and while we're at it
remember the first time around?
the bomb?
the ryder truck?
the parking garage?
the princess that didn't even feel the pea?
remember joking around in our apartment on avenue D?

can you imagine how many paper coffee cups would have to change their design
following a fantastical reversal of the new york skyline?!

it was a joke, of course
it was a joke
at the time
and that was just a few years ago
so let the record show
that the FBI was all over that case
that the plot was obvious and in everybody's face
and scoping that scene
religiously
the CIA
or is it KGB?
committing countless crimes against humanity
with this kind of eventuality
as its excuse
for abuse after expensive abuse
and it didn't have a clue
look, another window to see through
way up here
on the 104th floor
look
another key
another door
10% literal
90% metaphor
3000 some poems disguised as people
on an almost too perfect day
should be more than pawns
in some asshole's passion play
so now it's your job
and it's my job
to make it that way
to make sure they didn't die in vain
sshhh...
baby listen
hear the train?

words and music by ani difranco © 2002 righteous babe music / BMI

If anyone sees this and doesn't really know how incredible ani difranco is you should find and listen to "Little Plastic Castle" The words are simple but profoundly beautiful like when you listen to "When Doves Cry". I think any true Prince/Music fan can 'hear' her voice. P.S=> Prince, Tupac, Jonny Depp, Lenny Kravitz, Freud, Andre 3000...thank God I'm a GEMINI, any other Gemini's holla if ya hear me

Little Plastic Castle


in a coffee shop in a city
which is every coffee shop
in every city
on a day which is every day
i pick up a magazine
which is every magazine
and read a story then forgot it right away

they say goldfish got no memory
i guess their lives are much like mine
the little plastic castle
is a surprise every time
it's hard to say if they are happy
when they don't seem much to mind

from the shape of your shaved head
i recognized your silhoutte
as you stepped in out of the sun and sat down
your sleepy smile eclipsed everyone else in the room
as they paused to snear at the girls from out of town

i said, "Baby, look at you this morning
you are so way the fucking cutest
be careful getting cofee
i think these people want to shoot us
i think there's some kind of competition here

to see who can be the rudest

people talk about my image
like i come in two dimensions
like lipstick is a sign of my decling mind
like what i happen to be wearing the day
that someone takes my picture
is my new statement for all womankind

i wish they could see us now
in leather bras and rubber shorts
like some ridiculous team uniform
for some ridculous new sport
quick someone call the girl police
and file a report

in a coffe shop in a city
which is every coffee shop
in every city
on a day which is every day