Joyful Girl Remix

[Having to do with specifically feeling this way today.]

Ani DiFranco - Joyful Girl
Uploaded by GaleMcDonald

joyful girl
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
i do it because it's the least i can do
i do it because i learned it from you
and i do it just because i want to
because i want to

everything i do is judged
and they mostly get it wrong
but oh well
'cuz the bathroom mirror has not budged
and the woman who lives there can tell
the truth from the stuff that they say
and she looks me in the eye
and says would you prefer the easy way
no, well o.k. then
don't cry

i wonder if everything i do
i do instead
of something i want to do more
the question fills my head
i know there's no grand plan here
this is just the way it goes
when everything else seems unclear
i guess at least i know

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
i do it because it's the least i can do
i do it because i learned it from you
and i do it just because i want to
because i want to

words and music by Ani DiFranco

A Spade

a spade

i will not lie down
on the wrongful groundwork laid
while it's still a radical sound
just to call a spade a spade
dear friends, women and men
please check my math once more
in the totality of all war's history
there's but one common denominator

the answer is in the intention
that lies behind the question
put that on your standardized multiple choice
i mean, how's this supposed to look to me?
but half of divinity
out there trying to make harmony
with only one voice

you know, i've got experience
looking right past the obvious
and i know what is so big and so close
is always the hardest stuff
for us to reckon with
the hardest stuff to know
dear friends, especially the women
tell me are you up to the task
of turning the wheel of human history
at long last

the answer is in the intention
that lies behind the question
put that on your standardized multiple choice
i mean, how's this supposed to look to me?
but half of divinity
out there trying to make harmony
with only one voice

i will not lie down
on the wrongful groundwork laid
while it's still a radical sound
just to call a spade a spade
dear friends, women and men
what better time to face
that we've been looking for
the answer to war
in the wrong place

© 2006 ANI DIFRANCO righteous babe music / bmi

Ani Tease

I can't stop listening to this :)

...focus on the moon's groove
groove with the moon...

Soundtrack

...and half of learning how to play
is learning what not to play
and she's learning the spaces she leaves
have their own things to say
then she's trying to sing just enough
so that the air around her moves
and make music like mercy
that gives what it is
and has nothing to prove

she crawls out on a limb
and begins to build her home
it's enough just to look around
to know she's not alone...
-Up Up Up, Ani DiFranco

Landing Gear

Another new song from Ani. In the past, I always thought it was sort of cheesy for songwriters to write songs for babies, but I obviously have a different perspective now being a mother myself. This song can make me cry every time I hear it, because I can so relate to trying to make this world the best experience for my child, against all odds. Plus, this song reminds me of that expectant feeling that women have right before giving birth.

Landing Gear
by Ani DiFranco

you 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

you're 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 pinata 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

Alla This

I got my Ani DiFranco Official Bootleg CD last night. I'm still jumping up and down, mostly because of this new song on it:

alla this

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.

I love how she's unapologetic in what she calls her "rant" songs.

Now, if she'd just stop supporting Kucinich. Or, tell Kucinich to stop making friends with pornographers!

Half-Assed

you start trippin
and i start slippin away
i was taught to zip it
if i got nothin nice to say
and down in the texas of my heart
driving a really big truck
headed down a dirt road
my love is scrunchin up its features
the really big eyes
big lips, big nose

just show me a moment that is mine
its beauty blinding and unsurpassed
make me forget every moment that went by
and left me so half-hearted
cuz i felt it so half-assed

you are an unruly translucent
a dirty windshield with a shifting view
so many cunning running landscapes
for my dented door to open into
i just wanna tune out all the billboards
weld myself a mental shield
i just wanna put down all the pressures
and feel how i really feel

just show me a moment that is mine
its beauty blinding and unsurpassed
make me forget every moment that went by
and left me so half-hearted
cuz i felt it so half-assed

spring is super in the supermarkets
and the strawberries prance and glow
never mind that they're all kinda tart and tasteless
as strawberries go
meanwhile wild things are not for sale
anymore than they are for show
so i'll be outside, in love with the kind of beauty
it takes more than eyes to know

just show me a moment that is mine
its beauty blinding and unsurpassed
and i'll forget every moment that went by
and left me so half-hearted
cuz i felt it so half-assed


© 2006 ani difranco righteous babe music / bmi