Revelling/Reckoning, by Ani DiFranco

Revelling/Reckoning

by Ani DiFranco

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1.	Ain’t That the Way 05:14	lyrics	buy track
i love you and you love me and ain't that the way it's supposed to be? i swing my stick legs ’round at the root and pile drive each foot into a platform boot and i'm up and i'm out ‘cuz i'm bouncing off the walls and i come when i’m called and you called i got a super-cute three-piece suit one piece for your body one piece for your smile one more little piece if you stay a while i gotta beeline double time leave my home sweet home for your honeycomb then i show up steady, ready and proud and i find i've forgotten how to talk out loud isn't it just like you to bring me to my knees in my brand new stockings while the cat is out with my tongue isn't it just like you to bring me to my knees in my brand new stockings love makes me feel so dumb
2.	O.K. 02:51	lyrics	buy track
if you ask me i’ll say yes please to you today so don’t ask me ‘cuz i’m weak that way just don’t ask me o.k. i’m so glad we got that straightened away if you see me walk by you better just let me walk by you better not bat your pretty eyes you better not stop me to say hi i got a sweet tooth today so you better not cut that pie if you ask me i’ll say yes please to you today so don’t ask me ‘cuz i’m weak that way just don’t ask me o.k.
3.	Garden of Simple 03:54	lyrics	buy track
some crazy fucker carved a sculpture out of butter and propped it up in the middle of the bonanza breakfast bar and i am stuffing toast and sausage into my pockets under a sign that says GRAND OPENING while my dog is waiting in the car i wake up, i check out i fill the tank and wash the windshield clean then i'm back out on the highway and BANG that's when i remember my dream: we were standing in a garden and i had a machine that made silence it just sucked up the whole opinionated din and there were no people on the payroll and there were no monkeys on our backs and i said, show me what you look like without skin science chases money and money chases its tail and the best minds of my generation can't make bail but the bacteria are coming to take us down that's my prediction it's the answer to this culture of the quick fix prescription but in the garden of simple where all of us are nameless you were never anything but beautiful to me and, you know, they never really owned you you just carried them around and then one day you put 'em down and found your hands were free so now it's early in the morning at the longitude of memphis and the sun is setting sweetly on hong kong and the big plan is just to keep spinning ‘cuz the big bang is only just beginning and sometimes it's all that we can do just to hang on and what i meant to say is xxoo which means i'm thinking of ya which means i've been thinking of you all along
4.	Tamboritza Lingua 05:07	lyrics	buy track
a cold and porcelain lonely in an old new york hotel a stranger to a city that she used to know so well bathing in a bathroom that is bathed in the first blue light of the beginning of a century at the end of an endless night then she is wet behind the ears and wafting down the avenue pre-rush hour post-rain shower stillness seeping upwards like steam from another molten sewer summer in new york they’ve been spraying us with chemicals in our sleep us / they something about the mosquitoes having some kind of disease them / me CIA foul play if you ask the guy selling hair dryers out of a gym bag chemical warfare “i’m telling you, lab rat to lab rat,” he says, “that’s where the truth is at” that’s where the truth is at that’s where the truth is at and everything seems to have gone terribly wrong that can but one breath at a time is an acceptable plan she tells herself and the air is still there and this morning it’s even breathable and for a second the relief is unbelievable and she’s a heavy sack of flour sifted her burden lifted she’s full of clean wind for one lean moment and then she’s trapped again reverted caged and contorted with no way to get free and she’s getting plenty of little kisses but nobody’s slippin’ her the key and her whole life is a long list of what ifs and she doesn’t even know where to begin and the pageantry of suffering therein rivals television tv is, after all, the modern day roman coliseum human devastation as mass entertainment and now millions sit jeering collectively cheering the bloodthirsty hierarchy of the patriarchal arrangement she is hailing a cab she is sailing down the avenue she’s 19 going on 30 or maybe she’s really 30 now... it’s hard to say it’s hard to keep up with time once it’s on its way and, you know, she never had much of a chance born into a family built like an avalanche and somewhere in the 80s between the oat bran and the ozone she started to figure out things like why one eye pointed upwards looking for the holes in the sky one eye on the little flashing red light a picasso face twisted and listing down the canvas of the end of an endless night 10 9 8 seven six 5 4 three 2 one and kerplooey you’re done. you’re done for. you’re done for good. so tell me did you? did you do- did you do all you could?
5.	Marrow 05:19	lyrics	buy track
the answer came like a shot in the back while you were running from your lesson which might explain why years later all you could remember was the terror of the question plus, you weren't listening you were stockpiling canned goods making a bomb shelter of our basement and i can't believe you let the moral go by while you were soaking in the product placement where was your conscience? where was your consciousness? and where did you put all those letters that you wrote to yourself but could not address? i'm a good kisser and you're a fast learner and that kinda thing could float us for a pretty long time then one day you'd realize you've memorized my phone number and you'll call it and find it's a disconnected line ‘cuz i got tossed out the window of love's el camino and i shattered into a shower of sparks on the curb you were smoking me weren't you? between your yellow fingers you just inhaled and exhaled without saying a word where was your conscience? where was your consciousness? and where did you put all those letters that you wrote to yourself but could not address? there's a smorgasbord of unspoken poisons a whole childhood of potions that are all bottled up and so one by one i am dusting off labels i am uncorking bottles and filling up cups so go ahead and have a taste of your own medicine and i'll have a taste of mine but first let’s toast to the lists that we hold in our fists of the things that we promised to do differently next time ‘cuz the answer came like a shot in the back while you were running from your lesson which might explain why years later all you could remember was the terror of the question plus i'm not listening to you anymore my head is too sore and my heart's perforated and i’m mired in the marrow of my (well... ain't that) funny bone learning how to be alone and devastated where was my conscience? where was my consciousness? and what do i do with all these letters that i wrote to myself but cannot address?
6.	Heartbreak Even 03:36	lyrics	buy track
it's a heartbreak even situation nothing lost and nothing gained so i'm 10 years old again standing in the backyard waving at a train i feel you make love to me slightly every time you let a little laugh slip too soon and the moment passes over us so lightly it feels like sand blowing over a dune you try not to let your emotions show but it ain't a balloon you can just let go it's an ice cream cone dripping in the sun sticky hands sticky arms sticky situation it's a heartbreak even situation one part powerful elation one part pitiful and frail and i'm trying to feel my way around a book of promises written in braille there is pressure from within this and pressure from above there is pressure on our tenuous, strenuous love and there’s wet wool blankets one, two, three laid onto my chest ’til i just can't breathe and i try not to let my emotions show but it ain't a balloon i can just let go it's an ice cream cone dripping in the sun sticky hands sticky arms sticky situation
7.	Harvest 01:04		buy track
8.	Kazoointoit 03:51	lyrics	buy track
i love us both but i don't feel good so i keep pulling over and looking under the hood i love us both but i'm at wit's end where does your compromise begin and mine end? i love us both but what world's it gonna be? the one according to you or the one according to me? i don't feel good so ... now do my problems include talks with doctors who don't even understand about food? i think in ancient china they kinda figured out how the body works but our culture is just a roughneck teenage jerk with a bottle of pills and a bottle of booze and a full round of ammunition and nothing to lose and is it really the best we can do to arm wrestle over whose world it's gonna be? (the one according to you or the one according to me) i love us both and i'll see ya if you'll see me so ... who are we?
9.	Whatall Is Nice 04:36	lyrics	buy track
today we are only whatall is nice about us today we turned on in the blue light of dawn and made love and you were not a dot dot dot waiting for me to complete you and it was like i just forgot to measure everything that i do we woke up with the notion that enough is not enough without more and then we pushed with one motion like the ocean heaves a wave at the shore and you were not a dot dot dot leaning forward expectantly and i was not in such a rush to insure my autonomy today we are only whatall is nice about us
10.	What How When Where (Why Who) 05:58	lyrics	buy track
what what what what what did you think you were doing? how how how how how did you think this would go? when when when when when you showed up on my radar where where where where where did you think you would show? what what what what what do you make of this station how how how how how it pulls away from the train? when when when when when if at all will you realize where where where where where do and done are the same? what what what what what now you’re out in the open how how how how how do you think you can hide? when when when when when will you find some nice soft sand where where where where where you can bury your pride? what what what what what do you want from this lifetime? how how how how how does your story line flow? when when when when when you finally get to the punch line where where where where where will the applause sign go? and why why why why why don’t you just take your bow ‘cuz who’s gonna love you now?
11.	Fierce Flawless 05:04	lyrics	buy track
she was cuffed to the truth like the truth was a chair bright interrogation light in her eyes her conscience lit a cigarette and just stood there waiting for her to crack waiting for her to cry his face scampered through her mind like a roach across a wall it made her heart soar it made her skin crawl they said, we got this confession we just need for you to sign why don't you just cooperate and make this easier on us all there was light and then there was darkness but there was no line in between and asking her heart for guidance was like pleading with a machine ‘cuz joy, it has its own justice and dreams are languid and lawless and everything bows to beauty when it is fierce and when it is flawless on the table were two ziploc baggies containing her eyes and her smile they said, we're keeping these as evidence ’til this thing goes to trial meanwhile anguish was fingering solace in another room down the hall both were love's accomplices but solace took the fall now look at her book of days it's the same on every page- and she's got a little tin cup with her heart in it to bang along the bars of her rib cage bang along the bars of her rib cage
12.	Rock Paper Scissors 06:00	lyrics	buy track
it's rock paper scissors as to whether i will get over you at all it's hand against hand and both hands are mine it's standing in a circular line which is not to say that i'm not also happy a happy meal with a surprise inside surprise surprise here’s another bright light in your eyes exposing all the stuff you’re not calculating enough to hide this melancholy that i carry makes me feel so grown up at my kitchen table doing shots of resignation i never thought i'd see the day when i would say i give up and break the stallions of my wildest expectations i do not want to know you this way surrounded by so much pain but how am i supposed to let go of you this way like a bird into the sky of my brain? i think i could accept all these dark colors as just part of some bigger color scheme if it wasn't for that drippy string quartet of sadness underscoring each smiling scene desire drags me right out of myself a gas-soaked rope tied to a piece of coal and i'm getting pretty good at looking at the bright side while the flames rip along the sand and swallow me whole
13.	Beautiful Night 06:25		buy track
14.	Your Next Bold Move 05:47	lyrics	buy track
coming of age during the plague of reagan and bush watching capitalism gun down democracy it had this funny effect on me i guess i am cancer i am HIV and i'm down at the blue jesus blue cross hospital just lookin' up from my pillow feeling blessed and the mighty multinationals have monopolized the oxygen so it's as easy as breathing for us all to participate yes they're buying and selling off shares of air and you know it's all around you but it's hard to point and say "there" so you just sit on your hands and quietly contemplate your next bold move the next thing you're gonna need to prove to yourself what a waste of thumbs that are opposable to make machines that are disposable and sell them to seagulls flying in circles around one big right wing yes, the left wing was broken long ago by the slingshot of cointelpro and now it's so hard to have faith in anything especially your next bold move or the next thing you're gonna need to prove to yourself you want to track each trickle back to its source and then scream up the faucet 'til your face is hoarse ‘cuz you're surrounded by a world's worth of things you just can't excuse but you've got the hard cough of a chain smoker and you're at the arctic circle playing strip poker and it's getting colder and colder every time you lose so go ahead make your next bold move tell us what's the next thing you're gonna need to prove to yourself
15.	This Box Contains… 00:29		buy track
16.	Reckoning 06:02	lyrics	buy track
you can doubt anything if you think about it long enough ‘cuz what happened always adjusts to fit what happened after that and it’s hard to feel like you are free when all you seem to do is referee remember when it was just you and me steppin’ up to bat? and win or lose just that you choose this little war is what kills you and either/or it’s that this war is maybe also what thrills you we thought we left possession behind but truth is i was yours and you were mine and now i’ve replayed a thousand times exactly what was said ‘cuz nothing is as it appears in the funhouse mirrors of your fears on a roller coaster of all these years with your hands above your head and win or lose just that you choose this little war is what kills you and either/or it’s that this war is maybe also what thrills you i don’t care how fast you run just tell me, baby, that when you’re done with your little marathon you still got cab fare home ‘cuz the finish line is a shifty thing and what is life but reckoning and, you know you are still the song i sing to myself when i’m alone and win or lose just that we choose this little war is what kills us and either/or it’s that this war is maybe also what thrills us
17.	So What 05:03	lyrics	buy track
who’s gonna give a shit who’s gonna take the call when you find out that the road ahead is painted on a wall and you’re turned up to top volume and you’re just sitting there in pause with your feral little secret scratching at you with its claws and you’re trying hard to figure out just exactly how you feel before you end up parked and sobbing forehead on the steering wheel who are you now and who were you then that you thought somehow you could just pretend that you could figure it all out the mathematics of regret so it takes two beers to remember now and five to forget that i loved you so yeah, i loved you, so what how many times undone can one person be as they’re careening through the facade of their favorite fantasy you just close your eyes slowly like you’re waiting for a kiss and hope some lowly little power will pull you out of this but none comes at first and little comes at all and when inspiration finally hits you it barely even breaks your fall who where you then and who are you now that you can’t pretend that you could figure it all out subtract out the impact and the fall is all you get so it takes two beers to remember now and three more to forget that i loved you so yeah, i loved you, so what i loved you so what
18.	Prison Prism 01:34		buy track
19.	Imagine That 04:01	lyrics	buy track
imagine that i am onstage under a watchtower of punishing light and in the haze is your face bathed in shadow and what’s beyond you is hidden from sight and somebody right now is yawning and watching me like a tv and i’ve been frantically piling up sandbags against the flood waters of fatigue and insecurity then suddenly i hear my guitar singing and so i just start singing along and somewhere in my chest all the noise just gets crushed by the song imagine that i’m at your mercy imagine that you are at mine pretend i’ve been standing here watching you watching me all this time now imagine that you are the weather in the tiny snow globe of this song and i am the statue of liberty one inch long so here i am at my most hungry and here i am at my most full here i am waving a red cape locking eyes with a bull just imagine that i am onstage under a watchtower of punishing light and in the haze is your face bathed in shadow and what’s beyond you is hidden from sight
20.	Memphis 00:47		buy track
21.	Grey 05:22	lyrics	buy track
the sky is grey the sand is grey and the ocean is grey and i feel right at home in this stunning monochrome alone in my way i smoke and i drink and every time i blink i have a tiny dream but as bad as i am i’m proud of the fact that i’m worse than i seem what kind of paradise am i looking for? i’ve got everything i want and still i want more maybe some tiny shiny thing will wash up on the shore you walk through my walls like a ghost on tv you penetrate me and my little pink heart is on its little brown raft floating out to sea and what can i say but i’m wired this way and you’re wired to me and what can i do but wallow in you unintentionally what kind of paradise am i looking for? i’ve got everything i want and still i want more maybe some tiny shiny key will wash up on the shore regretfully i guess i’ve only got three simple things to say: why me? why this now? why this way? with overtones ringing and undertows pulling away under a sky that is grey on sand that is grey by an ocean that’s grey what kind of paradise am i looking for? i’ve got everything i want and still i want more maybe some tiny shiny key will wash up on the shore
22.	Subdivision 03:57	lyrics	buy track
white people are so scared of black people they bulldoze out to the country and put up houses on little loop-dee-loop streets and while america gets its heart cut right out of its chest while the berlin wall still runs down main street separating east side from west and nothing is stirring, not even a mouse in the boarded-up stores and the broken-down houses so they hang colorful banners off all the street lamps just to prove they got no manners no mercy and no sense and i wonder what it will take for my city to rise first we admit our mistakes then we open our eyes the ghosts of old buildings are haunting parking lots in the CITY OF GOOD NEIGHBORS that history forgot i remember the first time i saw someone lying on the cold street i thought: i can’t just walk past here this can’t just be true but i learned by example to just keep moving my feet it’s amazing the things that we all learn to do 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 i’m wondering what it will take for my country to rise first we admit our mistakes and then we open our eyes or nature succumbs to one last dumb decision and america the beautiful is just one big subdivision
23.	Old Old Song 04:22		buy track
24.	Sick of Me 05:21		buy track
25.	Don’t Nobody Know 01:17		buy track
26.	School Night 04:54		buy track
27.	That Was My Love 01:03		buy track
28.	Revelling 05:08		buy track
29.	In Here 04:16		buy track

about

The double album Revelling/Reckoning has been the subject of widespread critical acclaim. Rolling Stone, Spin, the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post are a few of the publications that have sung the album's praises. Half the songs on each disc find Ani flying solo (playing a small orchestra's worth of instruments), while the other half feature the members of her road-tested live band along with guests Maceo Parker and Jon Hassell on horns and Lloyd Maines on pedal steel. The whole thing is wrapped up in one elegant, specially designed package, complete with a pair of lyric-and-photo booklets. On the journey from Revelling to Reckoning, Ani takes her music in countless new directions -- but she never strays from the path she's been on all along.

"Ani produces an extraordinary variety of sounds from her guitar, playing rhythm and lead simultaneously and often making you wonder if there aren't four other guitarists hidden beneath the dry ice." - THE OBSERVER

credits

released April 9, 1997

2001, 2001 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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