Swing Set

Ani Difranco Swing Set Lyrics
1.Swing(Radio Set)

She cam to and her
Whole life was how she remembered it
She had a mouth full of fur
And she was laughing
She parked her hearse across
Three spaces posted for motorcycles only
And jumped out shouting
What the cus could make a nice girl like us
Feel so lonely?

Are you weary as water
In a faucet left dripping
With an incessant sadness
Like a sad record skipping
And an ugly and ornery
And shadowy dread
Lurking like a troll under the bridge
Between your heart and your head

Please dumb blind kind sir
Lend little miss listless a bit of Christmas
She's been a real good girl
But now she's stuck here
The world is so little and still
Mysterious and ominious as ever before
Like an unmarked bottle full of pills
On the shelf right next to the ting
You were reaching for

Swing the groove 'round here
Where I can reach it
When I get my ass back on track
I'm gonna need it
Swing shift til I get the money
To buy me and my baby a moon full of honey
Then I'm gonna turn the nagging voices
Inside my head
That follow me to bed and say
You suck.. blah blah blah


2.Swing(Album Version)

She cam to and her
Whole life was how she remembered it
She had a mouth full of fur
And she was laughing
She parked her hearse across
Three spaces posted for motorcycles only
And jumped out shouting
What the cus could make a nice girl like us
Feel so lonely?

Are you weary as water
In a faucet left dripping
With an incessant sadness
Like a sad record skipping
And an ugly and ornery
And shadowy dread
Lurking like a troll under the bridge
Between your heart and your head

Please dumb blind kind sir
Lend little miss listless a bit of Christmas
She's been a real good girl
But now she's stuck here
The world is so little and still
Mysterious and ominious as ever before
Like an unmarked bottle full of pills
On the shelf right next to the ting
You were reaching for

Swing the groove 'round here
Where I can reach it
When I get my ass back on track
I'm gonna need it
Swing shift til I get the money
To buy me and my baby a moon full of honey
Then I'm gonna turn the nagging voices
Inside my head
That follow me to bed and say
You suck.. blah blah blah


3.To The Teeth(Shoot-Out Remix)

The sun is settin on the century
And we are armed to the teeth
We are all working together now
To make our lives mercifully brief
Schoolkids keep trying to teach us
What guns are all about
Confuse liberty with weaponry
And watch your kids act it out
Every year now like Christmas
Some boy gets the mildfed surburban blues
Reaches for the avaliable aresenal
And saunters off to make the news
And women in the middle
Are learning what poor women have always known
That the edge is closer than you think
When your men bring the guns home

Look at where the profits are
That's how you'll find the source
Of the big lie that you and i
Both know so well
It the time it takes this cultural
Death wish to run its course
They're gonna make a pretty penny
And then they're all going to hell
He said the chickens all come home to roost
Yeah, malcom forecasted this flood
Are we really gonna sleep through another century
While the rich profir off our blood?
True, it may take some doing
To see this undoing done
But in my humble opinion
Here's what I suggest we do:

Open fire on hollywood
Open fire on MTV
Open fire on NBC
And CBS and ABC
Open fire on the NRA
And all the lies they told us
Along the way
Open fire on each weapons manufacturer
While he's giving head
To some republician senator

And if I hear one more time
About fool's rights
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


4.Do Re Me(Live)

Lots of folks back East, they say, is leavin' home every day,
Beatin' the hot old dusty way to the California line.
'Cross the desert sands they roll, gettin' out of that old dust
bowl,
They think they're goin' to a sugar bowl, but here's what they
find --
Now, the police at the port of entry say,
'You're number fourteen thousand for today.'
CHORUS:
Oh, if you ain't got the do re mi, folks, you ain't got the do
re mi,
Why, you better go back to beautiful Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas,
Georgia, Tennessee.
California is a garden of Eden, a paradise to live in or see;
But believe it or not, you won't find it so hot
If you ain't got the do re mi.
You want to buy you a home or a farm, that can't deal nobody
harm,
Or take your vacation by the mountains or sea.
Don't swap your old cow for a car, you better stay right where
you are,
Better take this little tip from me.
'Cause I look through the want ads every day
But the headlines on the papers always say:
If you ain't got the do re mi, boys, you ain't got the do re mi,
Why, you better go back to beautiful Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas,
Georgia, Tennessee.
California is a garden of Eden, a paradise to live in or see;
But believe it or not, you won't find it so hot
If you ain't got the do re mi.


5.When I'm Gone

There's no place in this world where I'll belong when I'm gone
And I won't know the right from the wrong when I'm gone
And you won't find me singin' on this song when I'm gone,
So I guess I'll have to do it while I'm here
And I won't feel the flowing of the time when I'm gone
All the pleasures of love will not be mine when I'm gone
My pen won't pour out a lyric line when I'm gone,
So I guess I'll have to do it while I'm here
And I won't breathe the bracing air when I'm gone
And I can't even worry 'bout my cares when I'm gone
Won't be asked to do my share when I'm gone
So I guess I'll have to do it while I'm here
And I won't be running from the rain when I'm gone
And I can't even suffer from the pain when I'm gone
Can't say who's to praise and who's to blame when I'm gone,
So I guess I'll have to do it while I'm here
Won't see the golden of the sun when I'm gone
And the evenings and the mornings will be one when I'm gone
Can't be singing louder than the guns when I'm gone
So I guess I'll have to do it while I'm here
All my days won't be dances of delight when I'm gone
And the sands will be shifting from my sight when I'm gone
Can't add my name into the fight while I'm gone,
So I guess I'll have to do it while I'm here
And I won't be laughing at the lies when I'm gone
And I can't question how or when or why when I'm gone
Can't live proud enough to die when I'm gone,
So I guess I'll have to do it while I'm here


6.Hurricane

Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night
Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall.
She sees the bartender in a pool of blood,
Cries out, 'My God, they killed them all!'
Here comes the story of the Hurricane,
The man the authorities came to blame
For somethin' that he never done.
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.
Three bodies lyin' there does Patty see
And another man named Bello, movin' around mysteriously.
'I didn't do it,' he says, and he throws up his hands
'I was only robbin' the register, I hope you understand.
I saw them leavin',' he says, and he stops
'One of us had better call up the cops.'
And so Patty calls the cops
And they arrive on the scene with their red lights flashin'
In the hot New Jersey night.
Meanwhile, far away in another part of town
Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are drivin' around.
Number one contender for the middleweight crown
Had no idea what kinda shit was about to go down
When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road
Just like the time before and the time before that.
In Paterson that's just the way things go.
If you're black you might as well not show up on the street
'Less you wanna draw the heat.
Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the cops.
Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowlin' around
He said, 'I saw two men runnin' out, they looked like
middleweights
They jumped into a white car with out-of-state plates.'
And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head.
Cop said, 'Wait a minute, boys, this one's not dead'
So they took him to the infirmary
And though this man could hardly see
They told him that he could identify the guilty men.
Four in the mornin' and they haul Rubin in,
Take him to the hospital and they bring him upstairs.
The wounded man looks up through his one dyin' eye
Says, 'Wha'd you bring him in here for? He ain't the guy!'
Yes, here's the story of the Hurricane,
The man the authorities came to blame
For somethin' that he never done.
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.
Four months later, the ghettos are in flame,
Rubin's in South America, fightin' for his name
While Arthur Dexter Bradley's still in the robbery game
And the cops are puttin' the screws to him, lookin' for somebody
to blame.
'Remember that murder that happened in a bar?'
'Remember you said you saw the getaway car?'
'You think you'd like to play ball with the law?'
'Think it might-a been that fighter that you saw runnin' that
night?'
'Don't forget that you are white.'
Arthur Dexter Bradley said, 'I'm really not sure.'
Cops said, 'A poor boy like you could use a break
We got you for the motel job and we're talkin' to your friend
Bello
Now you don't wanta have to go back to jail, be a nice fellow.
You'll be doin' society a favor.
That sonofabitch is brave and gettin' braver.
We want to put his ass in stir
We want to pin this triple murder on him
He ain't no Gentleman Jim.'
Rubin could take a man out with just one punch
But he never did like to talk about it all that much.
It's my work, he'd say, and I do it for pay
And when it's over I'd just as soon go on my way
Up to some paradise
Where the trout streams flow and the air is nice
And ride a horse along a trail.
But then they took him to the jailhouse
Where they try to turn a man into a mouse.
All of Rubin's cards were marked in advance
The trial was a pig-circus, he never had a chance.
The judge made Rubin's witnesses drunkards from the slums
To the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bum
And to the black folks he was just a crazy nigger.
No one doubted that he pulled the trigger.
And though they could not produce the gun,
The D.A. said he was the one who did the deed
And the all-white jury agreed.
Rubin Carter was falsely tried.
The crime was murder 'one,' guess who testified?
Bello and Bradley and they both baldly lied
And the newspapers, they all went along for the ride.
How can the life of such a man
Be in the palm of some fool's hand?
To see him obviously framed
Couldn't help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land
Where justice is a game.
Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties
Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise
While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell
An innocent man in a living hell.
That's the story of the Hurricane,
But it won't be over till they clear his name
And give him back the time he's done.
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.