Shakenstir » Ani DiFranco EDUCATED GUESS, Her First Solo Album For Many Years

Ani DiFranco EDUCATED GUESS, Her First Solo Album For Many Years

Ani Goes Solo Again…

Ani DiFranco’s forthcoming new album, EDUCATED GUESS, is her first solo recording in more than a decade. This time around, she recorded herself at home on an old analog 8-track reel-to-reel, and the result may be her most intimate and indigenous work yet.

Tracks for the new album are:

Platforms

Swim

Educated Guess

Origami

Bliss Like This

The True Story Of What Was

Bodily

You Each Time

Animal

Grand Canyon

Company

Raincheck

Akimbo

Bubble

Ani DiFranco has been ‘on her own’ - to quote her company’s phone number - for a long time. But not since the release of her second album back in 1991 has she been quite as much a solo act as she is on her latest CD, EDUCATED GUESS. On it, DiFranco not only plays all the instruments and provides the lead and backing vocals, but for the first time in her career she alone carried out all recording and mixing duties.

If it weren’t for Greg Calbi (who mastered the album, as he has done with almost all of DiFranco’s recordings for the last decade), the folks who usually proof liner notes at Righteous Babe would have to take the month off. EDUCATED GUESS is understood to be a truly a singular sensation.

Its contents are pretty singular too. On songs like “Bubble” and “Swim,” the first-person narrator revisits past loves and reflects on the lessons learned from them. Elsewhere, particularly on the spoken-word track “Grand Canyon,” DiFranco addresses the oft-misunderstood connection between patriotism and dissent (”I love my country / by which I mean I am indebted joyfully / to all the people throughout its history / who have fought the government to make right“) and issues a rallying cry in support of ‘the coolest F-word ever‘ - feminism, which she sees as the birthright of men and women alike. The package also contains a small book including artwork by DiFranco and three additional poems currently unavailable anywhere else.

EDUCATED GUESS was recorded on vintage reel-to-reel equipment in a shack in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans and back home in Buffalo. Deliberately restricting herself to 8 tracks of audio and happy to incorporate such accidental accompaniment as falling rain and passing trains, DiFranco uses the self-imposed limitations of her minimal set-up the way poets embrace the formal restraints of a sonnet: as a vehicle for personal expression. The end result promises to be an album as intimate and fresh as the very best of her work has always been. We at Shakenstir cannot wait to hear it…

**page*

ALBUM SONG LYRICS

Platforms

life knocked me off my platforms

so I pulled out my first pair of boots

bought on the street at Astor Place

before New York was run by suits

and I suited up for the long walk

back to myself

closer to the ground now

with sorrow

and stealth

Swim

you keep telling me I’m beautiful

but I feel a little less so each time

your love is so colorful

it flashes like a neon sign

but I finally drove out where

the sky is dark enuf to see stars

and I found I missed no one

just listening to the swishing of distant cars

I hope I never see

the ocean again

pushing and pulling at me

as I go deeper and deeper in

til I’m so far from my shore

so far from what I came here for

I let you surround me

I let you drown me

out with your din

and then I learned how to swim

I was floating above myself

watching her do just what you wanted

poor little friendly ghost

wondering why her whole house feels haunted

I told myself I was strong enuf

that I had plenty of blood to give

and each elbow cradled a needle

but listless and faint ain’t no way to live

so I hope I never see

the ocean again

pushing and pulling at me

as I go deeper and deeper in

til I’m so far from my shore

so far from what I came here for

I let you surround me

I let you drown me

out with your din

and then I learned how to swim

words and music by ani difranco © 2004 righteous babe music/BMI

**page*

Educated Guess

looks like my crazy family

is down one crazy daughter cuz

I’m shipwrecked in a desert that

once was underwater just

looking for a swift turn of phrase

some colors to fly

as I float by

in the parade

plus I dream in skin scented sentences

of a stronger faster fiercer you

and to each noun, verb and predicate

I dedicate a vivid hue

but you ain’t done too well

getting past your permanent pastel

have you now?

yes, the desert seemed so promising

and then it paled somehow

so school is in session

get your chin off your desk

now pick up your pencil

and turn over your test

use your education

and take an educated guess

about me

I’ve got a slot at eye level like

a speakeasy door

and I know you know the password

cuz I’ve seen you here before

and I’ve got something sweet for you

and I don’t care if it is more than you deserve

I’ve got a lot of love and a lot of nerve

so watch me while I take this curve

yes school is in session

get your chin off your desk

now pick up your pencil

and turn over your test

use your education

and take an educated guess

about me

plus I have this whole new family

and I’m in love with each of them

and I’m on this list called lucky

whenever I’m in reach of them

and I’m learning how to say

that I’d be happy either way

with your love

I’m calling on the stars above

school is in session

get your chin off your desk

now pick up your pencil

turn over your test

use your education

and take an educated guess

about me

Origami

I am an all powerful amazon warrior

not just some sniveling girl

so no matter what I think I need

you know I can’t possibly

have a need in this world

come and come for that sweet sweetness

I’ll be your never-ending vending machine

I could never need to be alone

never need to be my own

as much as you need your queen

I know men are delicate

origami creatures

who need women to unfold them

hold them when they cry

but I am tired of being your savior

and I am tired of telling you why

and since when did this me me me

become the be all and end all of me

oh listen to you talk to me

long time love has got to breathe, babe

you got to let it ebb and flow

if you want a ball to bounce

you gotta let it go

just let it go

I know men are delicate

origami creatures

who need women to unfold them

hold them when they cry

but I am tired of being your savior

and I am tired of telling you why

Bliss Like This

I said Venice

you heard Vegas

now I say either way

baby let’s go

I get so shaky

and I just can’t shake it

I bliss like this

I’m one of those

but I don’t wanna wear you

wear you like a band-aid

wave you like a ticket

out of my good grief

I just wanna know you

know you like I know my garden

what you smell like when you’re bloomin

what lives underneath

deep down underneath

way down underneath

we do a whole lotta laughin

at the shyness that surrounds us

I do a whole lotta lookin

somewhere else

I don’t need to look

no, I can just feel you

besides every time I see you

it just forces me to look at myself

cuz I get so shaky

and I just can’t shake it

I bliss like this

I’m one of those

and I said Venice

and you heard Vegas

but now I say either way

let’s go

c’mon baby let’s go

The True Story Of What Was

the light blue flickering rhythm

of the neighbor’s big console t.v.

is basking on the ceiling

of another insomniac spree

and outside sleep’s open window

between the drops of rain

history is writing a recipe book

for every earthly pain

oh to clean up the clutter of echoes

coming in and out of focus

words spoken

like locusts

sing and sing

in my head

and thing is

they often seem

in my memory’s long dream

to be superfluous to

the true story of what was

cuz

real is real regardless

of what you try to say

or say away

real is real relentless

while words distract and dismay

words that change their tune

though the story remains the same

words that fill me quickly

and then are slow to drain

dialogues that dither down reminiscent

of the way it likes to rain

every screen

a smoke screen

oh to dream

just for a moment

the picture

outside the frame

then in a flash

the light blue horizon

spanning a sudden black

is sucked into the vanishing point

and quiet rushes back

to search for the downbeat

in a tabla symphony

to search in the darkness

for someone who looks like me

(though I’m not really who I said I was

or who I thought I’d be)

just a collection of recollections

conversations consisting

of the kind of marks we make

when we’re trying to get a pen to work again

a lifetime of them!

Cough…cough…ahem…

I say to me

now here listening

I say to the locusts

that sing and sing to me sitting

now here on the front porch swing of my eyes:

I hereby amend

whatever I’ve ever said

with this sigh

Bodily

you broke me bodily

the heart ain’t the half of it

and I’ll never learn to laugh at it

in my good natured way

in fact I’m laughing less in general

but I learned a lot at my own funeral

and I knew you’d be the death of me

so I guess that’s the price I pay

I’m trying to make new memories

in cities where we fell in love

my head just barely above

the darkest water I’ve ever known

you had me in that cage

you had me jumpin through those hoops for you

still, I think I’d stoop for you

stoop for your eyes alone

from that bomb shell moon in yet another lovely dress

to the deep mahogany sheen of a roach

I am trying to take an appreciative approach

to life in your wake

I focus on the quiet now

and occasionally I’ll fall asleep somehow

and emptiness has its solace

in that there’s nothing left to take

You Each Time

there you were day after day

six feet

twenty feet

two feet away

right in my pocket singin me a song

makin my heart race all day long

and we talked it out and we talked it down

but your eyes were not listening

and my ears were looking around

for another song to sing

but it was you each time

it was you

the answer to each moment must be yes

and the question: can you live with that?

becomes the test

so you weigh it against that aching in your chest

and that secretly relentless emptiness

and you talk it out and you talk it down

but your eyes are not listening

and my ears are running around

looking for another song to sing

but it is you each time

it is you

so my heart finally broke

it was so long bent

and it broke in three places

when it finally went

it wanted only to say what it meant

so it suffered every punishment

now it lives in a shack outside of town

and only the wolves are out there listening

and in her dreams they chase her down

their moonlit eyes are glistening

and it is you each time

it is you

Animal

more and more there is this animal

looking out through my eyes

at all the traffic on the road to nowhere

at all the shiny stuff around to buy

at all the wires in the air

at all the people shopping

for the same blank stare

at America the drastic

that isolated geographic

that’s become infested with millionaires

when you grow up surrounded

by willful ignorance

you have to believe

mercy has its own country

and that it’s round and borderless

and then you have to grow wings

and rise above it all

like there

where that hawk is circling

above that strip mall

more and more there is this animal

looking out through my eyes

seeing that animals only take from this world

what they need to survive

but she is prowling through all the religions of men

seeing that time and time and time again

their gods have made them

special and above

nature’s law

and the respect thereof

and I think when you grow up surrounded

by willful ignorance

you have to believe that mercy has its own country

and that it’s round and borderless

and then you just grow wings

and rise above it all

like there where that hawk is circling

above that strip mall

ask any eco-system

harm here is harm there

and there and there

and aggression begets aggression

it’s a very simple lesson

that long preceded any king of heaven

and there’s this brutal imperial power

that my passport says I represent

but it will never represent where my heart lives

only vaguely where it went

cuz I know when you grow up surrounded

by willful ignorance

you learn that mercy has its own country

and that it’s round and borderless

and then you just grow wings

and rise above it all

like there

where that hawk is circling

above that strip mall

words and music by ani difranco © 2004 righteous babe music/BMI

**page*

Grand Canyon

I love my country

by which I mean

I am indebted joyfully

to all the people throughout its history

who have fought the government to make right

where so many cunning sons and daughters

our foremothers and forefathers

came singing through slaughter

came through hell and high water

so that we could stand here

and behold breathlessly the sight

how a raging river of tears

cut a grand canyon of light

yes, I’ve bin so many places

flown through vast empty spaces

with stewardesses whose hands

look much older than their faces

I’ve tossed so many napkins

into that big hole in the sky

bin at the bottom of the Atlantic

seething in a two-ply

looking up through all that water

and the fishes swimming by

and I don’t always feel lucky

but I’m smart enough to try

cuz humility has buoyancy

and above us only sky

so I lean in

breathe deeper that brutal burning smell

that surrounds the smoldering wreckage

that I’ve come to love so well

yes, color me stunned and dazzled

by all the red white and blue flashing lights

in the American intersection

where black crashed head on with white

comes a melody

comes a rhythm

a particular resonance

that is us and only us

comes a screaming ambulance

a hand that you can trust

laid steady on your chest

working for the better good

(which is good at its best)

and too, bearing witness

like a woman bears a child:

with all her might

born of the greatest pain

into a grand canyon of light

I mean, no song has gone unsung here

and this joint is strung crazy tight

and people bin raising up their voices

since it just ain’t bin right

with all the righteous rage

and all the bitter spite

that will accompany us out

of this long night

that will grab us by the hand

when we are ready to take flight

seatback and traytable

in the upright and locked position

shocked to tears by each new vision

of all that my ancestors have done

like, say, the women who gave their lives

so that I could have one

people, we are standing at ground zero

of the feminist revolution

yeah, it was an inside job

stoic and sly

one we’re supposed to forget

and downplay and deny

but I think the time is nothing

if not nigh

to let the truth out

coolest f-word ever deserves a fucking shout!

I mean

why can’t all decent men and women

call themselves feminists?

out of respect

for those who fought for this

I mean, look around

we have this

yes

I love my country

by which I mean

I am indebted joyfully

to all the people throughout its history

who have fought the government to make right

where so many cunning sons and daughters

our foremothers and forefathers

came singing through slaughter

came through hell and high water

so that we could stand here

and behold breathlessly the sight

how a raging river of tears

is cutting a grand canyon of light

Company

what’s the point

of all this pointless proximity

if you won’t talk

take me for a walk

through a little story

all these years

have made me sick to tears

of such mysteries

why should I keep you

if you won’t keep me

company?

til I get to know you

I ain’t gonna show you nothing

wordlessly

whatchoo think this is?

you think that that grin

gonna get you in

where you wanna be?

do I have to stand under your little cloud

just to get near you

baby can’t you help this little girl

not to fear you

why don’t you just talk

take me for a walk

through a little story

and tell me

why should I keep you

if you won’t keep me

company?

Raincheck

as dolls go I am broken

and you could just let that get us off the hook

but from under the umbrella of the unspoken

I see you giving me that look

baby, you’re right as rain about the benefits

but you might be wrong about the costs

and it feeds my heart that you came looking for me

but I’m thinkin I need to stay lost

so I won’t say I saw you fibbing

or jump-jigging across the floor

I won’t say you walked me to my car

and draped your arm on my open door

I know my mind is made of matter

but I need to know exactly

what is the matter at it’s core?

because my heart is just a muscle

and simply put, it’s sore

so never mind about the benefits

and never mind about the costs

that don’t change the basic premises

in which I am surely lost

so I won’t say I saw you fibbing

or jump-jigging across the floor

I won’t say you walked me to my car

and draped your arm on my open door

Akimbo

what dreams cause me

to abandon my pillow each night?

push away each of them, in fact

since there always seem to be more than one

then wake to aching stiff neck twisted

tits and face smashed against the mattress

legs and arms akimbo

like the high pitched body of a jumper

waiting for her chalk outline

finally at rest

Bubble

I hated to pop the bubble

of me and you

but it only held enough oxygen

for a trip or two

to the moon and back again

tell me, do you remember when

our love had such grace

we were floating above this whole place

it’s dawn on the corner

where the city tests its squeaky breaks

outside my bedroom window

a doppler muffler and a boomin bass

it’s dawn and the snow

is turning on its deepest blue

so i go outside just to stand there and

look at my hands against the color

I find I always return to

I want you to always remember for me

baby, if you can

how much you hated the woman

who made you a man

and remember for me won’t you

back further before that

how you loved her like a boy

cried from the joy

when you weren’t laughing

no, I hated to pop the bubble

of me and you

but it only held enough oxygen

for a trip or two

to the moon and back again

do you remember when

our love had such grace

we were floating above this whole place

so I hear these days you too

are trying your hand at sleeplessness

a few more dizzying doppler lovers

and then a booming loneliness

how innocent the young student

on the day school has begun

when I said this was what I wanted

did you think I thought it would be fun?

no, I hated to pop the bubble

of me and you

but it only held enough oxygen

for a trip or two

to the moon and back again

oh but I remember when

our love had such grace

we were floating above this whole place

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