Not A Pretty Girl, by Ani DiFranco

Not A Pretty Girl

by Ani DiFranco

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1.	Worthy 04:31	lyrics	buy track
you think you're not worthy i'd have to say i agree i'm not worthy of you you're not worthy of me which of us is deserving i mean, look at the human race the whole planet at arm's length and we don't deserve this place what good is a poker face when you've got an open hand i was supposed to be cool about this i remember cool was the plan tried to keep it all under wraps but the wraps kept going slack i keep turning around i keep coming back give me your vertical your horizontal lines i want to take each of them bend them to fit mine the world is too good for me i am such a naughty girl but when we're together we're too good for this world you think you're not worthy i'd have to say i agree i'm not worthy of you you’re not worthy of me
2.	Tip Toe 00:37	lyrics	buy track
tiptoeing thru the used condoms strewn on the piers off the west side highway sunset behind the skyline of jersey walking towards the water with a fetus holding court in my gut my body hijacked my tits swollen and sore the river has more colors at sunset then my sock drawer ever dreamed of i could wake up screaming sometimes but i don't i could step off the end of this pier but i got shit to do and an appointment on tuesday to shed uninvited blood and tissue i'll miss you i say to the river to the water to the son or daughter i thought better of i could fall in love with jersey at sunset but i leave the view to the rats and tiptoe back
3.	Cradle and All 04:17	lyrics	buy track
14th street the garbage swirls like a cyclone three-o-clock in the afternoon and i am going home f-train is full of high school students so much shouting, so much laughter last night's underwear in my back pocket sure sign of the morning after take me home take me home and leave me there think i'm gonna cry, don't know why think i'm gonna sing myself a lullaby feel free to listen feel free to stare i live in new york, new york city that never shuts up in the daylight everything is so gory you can hear snatches of stranger's sorry stories i moved there from buffalo but that's nothing the trico plant moved to mexico left my uncle standing out in the cold said here's your last paycheck have fun growing old take me home take me home and leave me there think i'm gonna cry, don't know why think i'm gonna sing myself a lullaby feel free to listen feel free to stare rockabye baby in the tree top when the wind blows the cradle will rock when the bow breaks the cradle will fall and down will come baby cradle and all youth is beauty money is beauty hell, beauty is beauty sometimes it's the luck of the draw it's the natural law it's a joke, it's a crime i was bored you were bored it was a meeting of the minds now it's three in the afternoon and i can't leave too soon saying, thank you i had a nice time take me home take me home and leave me there think i'm gonna cry, don't know why think i'm gonna sing myself a lullaby feel free to listen feel free to stare rockabye baby in the tree top when the wind blows the cradle will rock when the bow breaks the cradle will fall and down will come baby cradle and all maybe i'll live my whole life just getting by maybe i'll be discovered maybe i'll be colonized you can try to train me like a pet you can try to teach me to behave but i'll tell you, if i haven't learned it yet i ain't gonna sit i Anita gonna stay take me home take me home and leave me there think i'm gonna cry don't know why think i'm gonna sing myself a lullaby feel free to listen feel free to stare
4.	Shy 04:45	lyrics	buy track
the heat is so great it plays tricks with the eye turns the road into water then from water to sky there's a crack in the concrete floor that starts at the sink there's a bathroom in a gas station and i've locked myself in it to think back in the city the sun bakes the trash on the curb the men are pissing in doorways and the rats are running in herds i got a dream with your face in it that scares me awake i put too much on the table now i got too much at stake i might let you off easy i might lead you on i might wait for you to look for me and then i might be gone there's where i come from and where i'm going and i am lost in between i might go out to that phone booth and leave a veiled invitation on your machine you'll stop me won't you if you've heard this one before the one where i surprise you by showing up at your front door saying let's not ask what next or how or why i am leaving in the morning so let's not be shy the door opens the room winces the housekeeper comes in without a warning i squint at the muscular motel light and say, hey, good morning as she jumps her keys jingle and she leaves as quickly as she came in i roll over and taste the pillow with my grin the sheets are twisted and damp the heat is so great and i swear i can feel the mattress sinking underneath your weight sleep is like a fever and i'm glad when it ends the road flows like a river it pulls me around every bend stop me won't you if you've heard this one before the one where i surprise you by showing up at your front door saying let's not ask what's next or how or why i'm leaving in the morning let's not be shy
5.	Sorry I Am 04:48	lyrics	buy track
i'm sorry i didn't sound more excited on the phone i'm sorry that after all these years i've left you feeling unrequited and alone brought you to tears i guess i never loved you quite as well as the way you loved me i guess i'll never really be able to tell you how sorry i am i don't know what it is about you i just know it's not what it was i don't know why red fades before blue it just does and i don't know what it is about me that i just can't keep still i keep thinking some day i will make this all up to you and maybe some day i will i guess i never loved you quite as well as the way you loved me i guess i'll never really be able to tell you how sorry i am
6.	Light of Some Kind 04:10	lyrics	buy track
wish i didn't have this nervous laugh wish i didn't say half the stuff i say wish i could just learn to cover my tracks guess i'm not concerned enough about getting away with it every time i try to hold my tongue it slips like a fish from the line they say if you're gonna play you should learn how to play dumb guess i can't bring myself to waste your time ‘cuz we both know what i've been doing i've been intentionally bad at lying and you're the only one i ever let see thru me and i hope you believe me when i say i'm trying i hope i never improve my game i would rather have these things weigh on my mind ‘cuz at the end of this tunnel of guilt and shame there must be a light of some kind musta blown a fuse or something it was so dark in my mind she came up to me with the sweetest face and she was holding a light of some kind and i still think of you as my boyfriend i don't think this is the end of the world maybe you should follow my example and go meet yourself a really nice girl we both know what i've been doing i've been intentionally bad at lying and you're the only boy i ever let see thru me and i hope you believe me when i say i'm trying i hope i never improve my game i would rather have these things weigh on my mind ‘cuz at the end of this tunnel of guilt and shame there must be a light of some kind in the end the whole world comes down to just a few people for you it comes down to one but nobody ever asked me if i thought i could be everything to someone there's a crowd of people harbored in every person there are so many roles that we play you've decided to love me for eternity and i'm still deciding who i want to be today we both know what i've been doing i've been intentionally bad at lying and you're the only boy i ever let see thru me and i hope you believe me when i say i'm trying i hope i never improve my game i would rather have this thing weigh on my mind ‘cuz at the end of this tunnel of guilt and shame there must be a light of some kind give me a light of some kind i want a light of some kind
7.	Not a Pretty Girl 03:57	lyrics	buy track
i am not a pretty girl that is not what i do i ain't no damsel in distress and i don't need to be rescued so put me down punk wouldn't you prefer a maiden fair isn't there a kitten stuck up a tree somewhere i am not an angry girl but it seems like i've got everyone fooled every time i say something they find hard to hear they chalk it up to my anger never to their own fear imagine you're a girl just trying to finally come clean knowing full well they'd prefer you were dirty and smiling i'm sorry but i am not a maiden fair and i am not a kitten stuck up a tree somewhere generally my generation wouldn't be caught dead working for the man and generally i agree with them trouble is you got to have yourself an alternate plan i have earned my disillusionment i have been working all of my life i am a patriot i have been fighting the good fight and what if there are no damsels in distress what if i knew that and i called your bluff don't you think every kitten figures out how to get down whether or not you ever show up i am not a pretty girl i don't really want to be a pretty girl i want to be more than a pretty girl
8.	The Million You Never Made 04:19	lyrics	buy track
the air comes off the ocean and the city smells fishy the air is full of fish and mystery whispering who? what? when? and i'm warning you i'm weightless and the wind is always shifting so don't hang anything on me if you ever want to see it again i'm telling you i'm different than you think i am you can dangle your carrot but i ain't gonna reach for it ‘cuz i need both my hands to play my guitar and life is a sleazy stranger who looks vaguely familiar flirting with a bimbo named disaster at the end of the bar i'm telling you i'm different than you are at night when you're asleep self hatred's gonna creep in you can blame it on the devil (the one who's bed you sleep in) don't tell me what they did to you as though you had no choice isn't that your picture? isn't that your voice? if you don't live what you sing about your mirror is going to find out yeah, i'd like to go to all the pretty parties where all the pretty people go and i ain't really all that pretty but nobody will know ‘cuz everybody loves you when you're a star and nobody questions what it takes to go that far life is a sleazy stranger and this is his favorite bar and no i don't prefer obscurity but i'm an idealistic girl and i wouldn't work for you no matter what you paid i may not be able to change the whole fucking world but i can be the million that you never made yeah i can be the million you never made you are looking at the million that you never made
9.	Hour Follows Hour 06:01	lyrics	buy track
hour follows hour like water follows water everything is governed by the rule of one thing leads to another you can't really place blame cuz blame is much too messy some was bound to get on you while you were trying to put it on me don't fool yourself into thinking things are simple nobody's lying and still the stories don't line up why do you try to hold on to what you'll never get a hold on you wouldn't try to put the ocean in a paper cup [i have had something to prove as long as i’ve had something that needs improving and you know that every time i move i make a woman’s movement first you decide what you’ve gotta do then you go out and do it and maybe the most that we can do is just to see each other thru it] hour follows hour like water in a river and from one to the next we don't know what each hour will deliver we just call it like we see it we call it out loud as we can and then afterwards we call it all water over the dam and maybe the moral high ground isn't as high as it seems maybe we are both good people who've done some bad things i just hope it was o.k., i know it wasn't perfect i hope in the end we can laugh and say it was all worth it [i have had something to prove as long as i’ve had something that needs improving and you know that every time i move i make a woman’s movement first you decide what you’ve gotta do then you go out and do it and maybe the most that we can do is just to see each other thru it] we make our own gravity to give weight to things and then things fall and they break and gravity sings we can only hold so much is what i figure we try and keep our eye on the big picture and the picture keeps getting bigger too much is how i love you but too well is how i know you i've got nothing to prove this time just something to show you i guess i just wanted you to see that it was all worth it to me
10.	32 Flavors 06:07	lyrics	buy track
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 wanna turn your head ‘cuz some day you are 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 ‘til i passed and left them alone god help you if you are an ugly girl course too pretty is also your doom ‘cuz 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 never tried 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 not saying that i'm a saint i just don't wanna live that way 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 wanna turn your head ‘cuz some day you might find you are starving and eating all of the words that you said
11.	Asking Too Much 02:55	lyrics	buy track
i want somebody who sees the pointlessness and still keeps their purpose in mind i want somebody who has a tortured soul some of the time i want somebody who will either put out for me or put me out of my misery or maybe just put it all to words and make me go you know, i never heard it put that way make me go what did you just say!? i want somebody who can hold my interest hold it and never let it fall somebody who can flatten me with a kiss that hits like a fist or a sentence that stops me like a brick wall if you hear me talking listen to what i'm not saying if you hear me playing guitar listen to what i'm not playing and don't ask me to put words to all the spaces between notes don't ask me to put words to all the silences i wrote in fact, if you have to ask, forget it do and you'll regret it i am tired of being the interesting one i'm tired of having fun for two just lay yourself on the line i might just lay myself down by you but don't sit behind your eyes and wait for me to surprise you i want somebody who can make me scream until it's funny give me a run for my money i want somebody who can twist me up in knots tell me, for the woman who has everything what have you got? i want somebody who's not afraid of me or anyone else in other words i want someone who is not afraid of themselves do you think i am asking too much?
12.	This Bouquet 02:28	lyrics	buy track
got a garden of songs where i grow all my thoughts wish i could harvest one or two for some small talk seems like i'm starving for words whenever you're around nothing on my tongue and so much in the ground nothing on my tongue and so much in the ground half the time i got my gaze trained on your motel door fourth door from the end rest of the time my gaze lays like a stain on the carpeted floor if it weren't for my brain i'd just go over and make friends too bad about my brain ‘cuz i'd like to make friends see the little songbird unable to make a sound you'd never know she follows her words from town to town we both got gardens of songs and maybe it's o.k. that i am speechless ‘cuz i picked you this bouquet yup, sure am speechless but i picked you this bouquet
13.	Crime for a Crime 05:42	lyrics	buy track
the big day has come and the bell is sounding i run my hands thru my hair one last time outside the prison walls the town is gathering the people are trading crime for crime everyone needs to see the prisoner they need to make it even easier by seeing me as a symbol and not a human being that way they can kill me and say it's not murder it's a metaphor we are killing off our own failure and starting clean i am standing at the gallows everyone turned my way and i hear a voice ask me if i've got any last words to say i am looking out over a field of familiar eyes somewhere in a woman's arms a baby cries i say guilt and innocence are a matter of degree and what is justice to you might not be justice to me i went too far and i'm sorry i guess now i'm going home so let he amongst you cast the first stone nowadays we have all kinds of complicated machines so no one person ever has to have blood on their hands we have complex organizations and if everyone just does their job no one person ever has to understand you might be the wrong color you might just be too poor justice isn't something just anyone can afford you might not pull the trigger you might be out in the car and you might get a lethal injection ‘cuz we take metaphors that far the big day has come and the bell is sounding i run my hands thru my hair one last time outside the prison walls the town is gathering the people are trading crime for crime the people are trading crime for crime people are still trading crime for crime
14.	Coming Up 02:28		buy track

about

Up close and personally political, if Not A Pretty Girl's album artwork is any indication - this record is hot and there is no need to be "Shy" about it. Ani's thumping bass under her percussive guitar grooves are in themselves undeniable but pair that scene up with Andy Stochansky's drums/backing vocals and you have a killer record (the kind where at least one song makes it onto every mix you will make from now on). Yes, these are the songs that the audience goes into seizures to witness.

Memoir and melody are just two of the ingredients in Not A Pretty Girl's potent spell. Ani's voice soars around the sonic skyline she paints with her guitar, percussion and studio production. Fourteen lyrical stories rise up like a Phoenix, a New York City bus ride, on the gallows facing execution, the edge of a dock at sunset, a gas station rest room – songs about living and loving in a country that's being sold off from underneath her feet (well not if she can help it…) Her deftly delivered poem "Coming Up" clarifies: "and whoever's in charge up there had better take the elevator down and put more than change in our cup or else we are coming up".

Performed with the ferocity of her live shows this song collection is both guttural and buoyant: "Shy", "Not A Pretty Girl" and "Million You Never Made" are just a few packing punches. "Sorry I Am" is heavy on the heart stings as is "32 Flavors", a song that ends in a show stoppin' percussive jam.

"On Not A Pretty Girl, I wanted to really scale down sound to its essence," Ani Says. The result is not only essence but essential as well. Don't lend it to a friend cause you won't get it back.

Hair: shaved underneath, braids on top
Tattoo note: Pre-chest tat, last time you'll see the one on the back of the neck for a while
Love: good when you are crushed out or crushing someone out.
Misc: This might be the first record you are able to recite every lyric from and name each song by two notes. Seriously.
RBR: A 25 year-old CEO, making headlines, selling out venues coast to coast, and independent distribution in US and Canada.
AKA: The purple one

credits

released July 1, 1995

1995, 1995 Righteous Babe Records distributed by United For Opportunity

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about

Ani DiFranco New Orleans, Louisiana

Grammy winner and feminist icon Ani DiFranco began her career as a proponent of the artist-run label, creating her own Righteous Babe Records in 1990. Since then she has released over twenty studio albums and supported a broad range of social causes including racial justice, reproductive rights, gender equality, environmental issues and prison reform. ... more

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