Ani Difranco's Bundle of Joy!
I have just discovered that Ani Difranco, folk/punk/social critic/feminist singer extraordinaire, gave birth to little girl named Petah on January 20th. I love Ani. My sister first got me onto her six or seven years ago when I listened to her live album 'Living in Clip', which blew me away. Her music has changed over the years, gotten a little softer and more about inner emotions than political or social issues. But as her most recent album 'Reprieve' shows, she's still got some bite on her.
I personally don't care if she has a kid, but I'm glad that she's glad. However, some people are not so happy at her biological clock. As this blog post comments, some people think her music will go the way of Sucky Town now that she has a little one to keep her spirits soaring through the clouds. And maybe they have a point. But I'd just like to point out that the blogger loved Ani's new cd but became less enthusiastic AFTER she heard the bard was pregnant. Meaning that the pregnancy is already affecting fan's reaction to her work. So maybe it won't be that Ani's work changes for the worst, but that some of her greatest fans have already changed their opinion. Ani has been the poster babe for lesbian/bisexuality/self-esteem/independence for so long, and often having a baby doesn't jive with that image. Too bad. (By the way, I used the term 'poster babe' because Ani's self-made record label is called Righteous Babe Records. So get off my back, you feminist chicks.)
Here are some of my favourite Ani lyrics for your enjoyment:
My thighs have been involved in many accidents and now I can’t get insured / and I don’t need to be lured by you / my cunt is built like a wound that won’t heal / now you don’t have to ask because you know how I feel
Out of Habit
I broke down in Louisiana and had to thumb a ride / got in the first car that pulled over / you can’t be picky in the middle of the night / he said baby do like to fool around baby do you like to touch / I said maybe some other time fuck you very much
Every State Line
I’m no heroine least not last time I checked / I’m too easy to roll over I’m too easy to wreck / I just write about I should have done I sing what I wish I could say / and I hope somewhere some woman hears my music and it helps her through her day
I’m No Heroine
Boys get locked up in some prison / girls get locked up in some house / and it don’t matter if it’s a warden or a lover or spouse
Out of Range
I was eleven years old he was as old as my dad / and he took something from me I didn’t even know that I had
Letter to a John
Like you’re trying to fight gravity on a planet that insists / that love is like falling and falling is like this
Falling is Like This
Squint your eyes and look closer I’m not between you and your ambition / I am a poster girl with no poster I am 32 flavors and them some
32 Flavors
Tell you the truth I prefer the worst of you / too bad you had to have a better half
Untouchable Face
They caught the last poor man on a poor man’s vacation / they cuffed him and they confiscated his stuff/ they dragged his black ass down to the station and said ok the streets are safe now / all your pretty white children can come out and see spot run / and they came out of their houses and they looked around / but they didn’t see no one
T’is of Thee
I just want you to understand that I know what all the fighting was for / and I just want you to understand that I’m not angry anymore
Angry Anymore
And if I hear one more time about a fool’s right to his tools of rage / I’m gonna take all my friends and I’m gonna move to Canada / and we’re gonna die of old age
To the Teeth
Watching children run with their arms outstretched / just to throw those arms around their grandpa’s necks / watching lovers plant kisses / old men to their misses / at the arrival’s gate
Arrival’s Gate
Are you weary as water in a faucet left dripping / with an incessant sadness like a sad record skipping
Swing
I was once escorted through the doors of a clinic by a man in a bullet proof vest / and no bombs went off that day / so I am still here to say
Birmingham
You are a miracle but that is not all / you are also a stiff drink and I am on call / you are a party and I am a school night / and I’m looking for my door key but you are my porch light
School Night
Yes this is the news in 90 second segments officially produced / and aired again and again and again / by the little black and white pawns of the network yes men
Decree
While out in tv nation under darkening skies / the resistance is just waiting to be organized
Millenium Theater
I personally don't care if she has a kid, but I'm glad that she's glad. However, some people are not so happy at her biological clock. As this blog post comments, some people think her music will go the way of Sucky Town now that she has a little one to keep her spirits soaring through the clouds. And maybe they have a point. But I'd just like to point out that the blogger loved Ani's new cd but became less enthusiastic AFTER she heard the bard was pregnant. Meaning that the pregnancy is already affecting fan's reaction to her work. So maybe it won't be that Ani's work changes for the worst, but that some of her greatest fans have already changed their opinion. Ani has been the poster babe for lesbian/bisexuality/self-esteem/independence for so long, and often having a baby doesn't jive with that image. Too bad. (By the way, I used the term 'poster babe' because Ani's self-made record label is called Righteous Babe Records. So get off my back, you feminist chicks.)
Here are some of my favourite Ani lyrics for your enjoyment:
My thighs have been involved in many accidents and now I can’t get insured / and I don’t need to be lured by you / my cunt is built like a wound that won’t heal / now you don’t have to ask because you know how I feel
Out of Habit
I broke down in Louisiana and had to thumb a ride / got in the first car that pulled over / you can’t be picky in the middle of the night / he said baby do like to fool around baby do you like to touch / I said maybe some other time fuck you very much
Every State Line
I’m no heroine least not last time I checked / I’m too easy to roll over I’m too easy to wreck / I just write about I should have done I sing what I wish I could say / and I hope somewhere some woman hears my music and it helps her through her day
I’m No Heroine
Boys get locked up in some prison / girls get locked up in some house / and it don’t matter if it’s a warden or a lover or spouse
Out of Range
I was eleven years old he was as old as my dad / and he took something from me I didn’t even know that I had
Letter to a John
Like you’re trying to fight gravity on a planet that insists / that love is like falling and falling is like this
Falling is Like This
Squint your eyes and look closer I’m not between you and your ambition / I am a poster girl with no poster I am 32 flavors and them some
32 Flavors
Tell you the truth I prefer the worst of you / too bad you had to have a better half
Untouchable Face
They caught the last poor man on a poor man’s vacation / they cuffed him and they confiscated his stuff/ they dragged his black ass down to the station and said ok the streets are safe now / all your pretty white children can come out and see spot run / and they came out of their houses and they looked around / but they didn’t see no one
T’is of Thee
I just want you to understand that I know what all the fighting was for / and I just want you to understand that I’m not angry anymore
Angry Anymore
And if I hear one more time about a fool’s right to his tools of rage / I’m gonna take all my friends and I’m gonna move to Canada / and we’re gonna die of old age
To the Teeth
Watching children run with their arms outstretched / just to throw those arms around their grandpa’s necks / watching lovers plant kisses / old men to their misses / at the arrival’s gate
Arrival’s Gate
Are you weary as water in a faucet left dripping / with an incessant sadness like a sad record skipping
Swing
I was once escorted through the doors of a clinic by a man in a bullet proof vest / and no bombs went off that day / so I am still here to say
Birmingham
You are a miracle but that is not all / you are also a stiff drink and I am on call / you are a party and I am a school night / and I’m looking for my door key but you are my porch light
School Night
Yes this is the news in 90 second segments officially produced / and aired again and again and again / by the little black and white pawns of the network yes men
Decree
While out in tv nation under darkening skies / the resistance is just waiting to be organized
Millenium Theater
posted by Kris at 4:37 PM
8 Comments:
yea, she is rather brilliant. i usually get to listen to her at a close friend's when i'm visiting. it's something i don't even know i could do on my own anymore;-)
k.
tough to pick, but i dig:
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 within 2,000 miles to buy beer
and i wonder/ is he different?/ is he different?/ has he changed what's he about?.../ or is he just a liar with nothing to lie about?
Fuel
Yeah, but people got pissed when they found out she had a man too. And she's proved that she can produce good music and still have a (non torturous) relationship. Maybe some of her fans need to move on and grow up a little and stop thinking that the only life worth living is that full of pain and angst. Good music is good music, and good music contains lyrics that touch some emotion within the listener, but I don't expect the artists that I listen too to live a martyred life so that I can feel better about my pathetic life.
D
Sorry to bug you again, but I thought I should add my favourite lyrics from Untouchable Face--its the entire reason I got into Ani in the first place five years ago(thanks to my sister who is the leader in all things I find interesting).
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
Like all good music, it came along (or was introduced to me) during a time when I needed it and I don't think that changes based on the artists life choices.
Sorry to open my big mouth again! I'll stop pestering your blog now.
D
Some quick responses to people's comments:
1. "Untouchable Face" and "Napoleon" were the songs that hooked me from the get-go. I think UF is one of the best songs ever written. Period.
2. I find that music always seems to hit us at the proper exact moment. So when our fondness lessens for an artist, I like to think it's because we don't need them anymore; that they've helped us along as far as they could, and it's time for us to move on, grow on, meet new challenges. But every once in a while we need to stick their CD/tape back in the player, if only to remind us what they did, and to give them back a little thanks.
3. People grow; people change. Artists should be able to grow and change too, without fans bitching at them.
4. For some reason, k., I find your comment extremely heartwarming. You're a poet and didn't even realize. (I know that's not how the saying goes, but I like to throw people for a loop)
mhmhmmhm, your comment is like the penguins in douglas adams' 'the long dark teatime of the soul'.
it's got to be the nicest thing anyone said to me in a long time:-)
oops, i forgot to sign, sorry.
k.
Thank God I have friends like you in my life. I just went somewhere on the net I shouldn't have gone and it made me feel so completely hopeless, but now I'm here and I remember that I am so much more and that there's more to life than superficial, whiny, self-centered myspace people. Thanks for reminding me that intelligence is sexy.
L.
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