Red Letter Year

red letter year

new years eve we dropped mushrooms and danced round the house
making music with everything that we found
incantation replaced resolution and we
vowed to allow each perfection that we could be
and the goddesses sent word that this would be a red letter year
they didn't mention how much shit was gonna change around here
it's just as well we weren't swollen with unfocused dread
we had visions of sugarplums dancing in our heads
dancing in our heads

first you go under and then coming up gives you the bends
and when you break the surface all you see is your friends
so you grab your purple crayon and flesh out the picture behind
and finally the whole world is made of one unbroken line
one unbroken line

when you wake up sick as a dog
with dull eyes and really bad hair
standing under a lit sign with the words “on air”
and the water is rising
it's coming in everywhere
just remember you are there
you are always, always there

and representing the white race
a man with a monkey for a face
is flying over in a helicopter
whistling dixie and playing dumb
in a town that might put a gun to your throat
or rip the roof right off of your place
there’s a mold crawling up the walls
and falling asleep in your lungs
and you and I both know how to drink so
we will always have work in this town
and besides the police are stationed at the bridge
and they’re preventing passage to higher ground
so let’s pull up a bar stool and get ourselves a ring side seat
for one unnerving moment
they’re gonna show the truth on TV

ani - tenor guitar, guitar synth, voices
todd sickafoose- fender bass, piano
mike dillon - marimba, tubular bells
allison miller - drums
jenny scheinman – violin
megan gould - violin
jessica troy  - viola
marika hughes - cello
the rebirth brass band
 

alla this

i will not stand immersed
in this ultra violent curse
i won't let you make a tool of me
i will keep my mind and body free
bye bye minutiae
of the day to day drama
i'm expanding exponentially
i am consciousness without identity

i am many things
made of everything
but i will not be your bank roll
i won't idle in your drive-thru
i won't watch your electric sideshow
i got way better places to go

i will maintain the truth
i knew naturally as a child
i won't forfeit my creativity
to a world that's all laid out for me
i’ll look at everything around me
and i will vow to bear in mind
that all of this was just someone's idea
it could just as well be mine

i won't rent you my time
i won't sell you my brain
i won't pray to a male god
cuz that would be insane
and i can't support the troops
cuz every last one of them is being duped
and i will not rest a wink
until the women have regrouped

i am many things
made of everything
but i will not be your bank roll
i won't idle in your drive-thru
i won't join your electric sideshow
i got way better places to go
 

ani - electric guitar, vocals
todd sickafoose -fender bass, piano
mike dillon - vibraphone, percussion
allison miller - drums, percussion
jenny scheinman – violin
megan gould - violin
jessica troy  - viola
marika hughes - cello

present/infant

lately i've been glaring into mirrors
picking myself apart
you'd think at my age i'd have thought of
something better to do
than make insecurity into a full-time job
make insecurity into an art

i fear my life will be over
and i will have never lived it unfettered
always glaring into mirrors
mad i don't look better

but now here’s this tiny baby
and they say she looks just like me
and she is smiling at me
with that present/infant glee
and i would defend
to the ends of the earth
her perfect right to be

so i'm beginning to see some problems
with the ongoing work of my mind
and i've got myself a new mantra
it says: don't forget to have a good time!
don't let the sellers of stuff
power enough
to rob you of your grace
love is all over the place
there's nothing wrong with your face
love is all over the place
there's nothing wrong with your face
 

ani - acoustic and electric guitars, vocals
todd sickafoose - fender bass
mike dillon - vibraphone, percussion
allison miller - drums,  percussion
cc adcock - electric guitar
richard comeaux - pedal steel

smiling underneath

i don’t mind waiting in line
no no
i don’t mind if the bills pile up
and the work is slow
i don’t mind the gas or the groceries or the grind
long as i’m with you
i’m having a good time

don’t mind the stoner waiter
or the poorly cooked food
don’t mind little miss kitty
or her knuckle head dude
don’t mind if every last person here
is ugly and rude
long as i’m with you
i’ve got a good attitude
long as i’m with you

we could be stuck in traffic
for over a week
with a car full of quintuplets
who are all cutting teeth
and around my neck
could be a flaming christmas wreath
and i’d be smiling underneath
smiling underneath

i don’t mind waking up early
for a flight that’s delayed
i don’t  mind our week’s vacation
was chilly and grey
i don’t mind the traffic cops or the TSA
long as i’m with you
i’m having a good day

don’t mind spilling my hot sauce
onto my white shirt
don’t mind that twinge when i walk
in that knee that i hurt
don’t mind my gums peeling back
or my hair gettin’ thin
long as i’m with you i win

ani - tenor, 12 string, electric gits, voices
todd sickafoose - fender bass, wurlitzer
allison miller - drums
animal prufrock - piano
cc adcock - electric guitar

way tight

i'll tell you what
there is plenty wrong with me
but i’ve fixed up a few old buildings
and i’ve planted a few trees
and children seem to like me
and animals too
like the birds
and the bees

and eating a sandwich
standing over the kitchen counter
with only the sound of chewing in the room
i can see you as a challenge
that i will eagerly meet
cuz you are way way way way sweet

it's just that kind of evening
that cracks open like a half shaken beer
cool and refreshing and running down your arm
and baby there's really no other place i'd rather be than here
pardon my periodic alarm

you are ever true
ever new in love
and i mean that in the best and worst way
and i don't really know what i was so mad about
but the full moon is about a week away

i’ll tell you what
there is plenty wrong with you
stuff you'd sooner fight for than cop to
but i think it's just more reason why we are meant to be
people say i look like you
and you look like me
and we get this crazy combination
of everything and nothing right
but we are way way way way
way way way way
way tight

ani - guitar, voice
todd sickafoose  - bass, pump organ
mike dillon - vibraphone
richard comeaux - pedal steel

emancipated minor

emancipated minor
well directed
and brilliantly casted
riding a greyhound
down to the city
with her fake id
and a hell of a little hand-basket

little game of see-saw
and then he came to claim her
and then a sordid line
formed behind him
reproductive system
newly activated
she participated
in nature’s plan
she participated

and i can’t say i envy her
i don’t think i miss it
wrought iron cobwebbing
over thin
window panes
the city seducing her
on tip-toe to kiss it
don’t think twice
just roll the dice
roll the dice

so she attended the dance classes
and she learned the little dance
and she tried the high heels
but she couldn’t bring herself to prance
all the while a faint ticking
in the silence between the songs
just south of her gut
two tiny time bombs
and love comes in many forms
and for each she would yearn
hungry as a student
hungry to learn
every flavor of person
every species of intent
with the body pulsing
at the center detent
but all the good graffiti
got painted over in time
and she watched the last faceless chain

ani - guitars, guitar synth, vocals
todd sickafoose  - fender bass, piano, wurlitzer
mike dillon - vibraphone, percussion
allison miller - drums
jeff kline - vocals
animal prufrock - percussion
rene lopez - percussion
jenny scheinman – violin
megan gould - violin
jessica troy  - viola
marika hughes - cello


good luck

a throat with a heart in it stuck in traffic
a ticket and a mind to fly
an alarm clock still drunk and high

sanity painting her mask on
all the way across town
a compact frown
projected on her retina upside down

you’re an avalanche of detour signs
falling off a truck
swooning like a boxer
that is too dizzy to duck
your decisions turn around
and make you back and then you’re stuck
and then good luck
good luck

a lock with a key in it that ain’t turning
smoke filling up behind door
a fire with a purpose being ignored

a body slipping into disease
quietly making that choice
while the joy drains out of a voice

you’re an avalanche of detour signs
falling off a truck
swooning like a boxer
that is too dizzy to duck
your decisions turn around
and make you back and then you’re stuck
and then good luck
good luck

ani - guitar, vocals, percussion, guitar synth
todd sickafoose - fender bass, pump organ
mike dillon - vibraphone, percussion
allison miller - drums
jenny scheinman – violin
megan gould - violin
jessica troy  - viola
marika hughes - cello


the atom

the glory of the atom
begs a reverent word
the primary design
of the whole universe
yes, let us sing its praises
let us bow our heads in prayer
at the magnificent consciousness
incarnate there

the smallest unit of matter
with its orbiting electrons
echoing off the solar system
like a hawk in the hills at dawn
the smallest unit of matter
uniting bird and rock and tree
and you and me

oh holy is the atom
the truly intelligent design
to which all of evolution
is graciously aligned
the one single structure
to which everything distills
the air
the wood smoke there
and the hills

leave me here surrounded
by everything that's real
far outside the boundaries
of the digitized ordeal
leave me here awake
leave me here to heal

human beings are a cross
between monkeys and ants
you can see us from your spaceship
melting the polar ice caps
with our arrogance
summon a congress of angels
dressed in riot gear
we got ourselves a serious situation
down here

i have this great great uncle
who worked on the atomic bomb
he got a nobel prize in physics
and a place in this song
and i bet there were no windows
and no women in the room
when they applied themselves
to the pure science of
boom

yes, messing with the atom
is the highest form of blasphemy
whether you are making weapons
or simple electricity
someone fashion me a pulpit
i have been called to engage
with the maniacal heretics
of the nuclear age!

let the religious get religion
let consumers get a clue
let scientists get perspective
let activists get their due
let industry get a conscience
let the earth inherit the meek
let the divinity of nature speak

the glory of the atom
begs a reverent word
the primary design
of the whole universe
yes, let us sing its praises
let us bow our heads in prayer
at the magnificent consciousness
incarnate there

ani - guitar, voice, optigon
todd sickafoose - bowed basses
mike dillon - vibraphone, marimba, tubular bells, percussion
allison miller - drums
jenny scheinman – violin
megan gould - violin
jessica troy  - viola
marika hughes - cello
 

round a pole

i could sing you round a pole
i could talk you up a tree
but when it comes to what really matters
you are way more clever than me

i knew i wanted to be challenged
but i was unclear about how
so i'll be the guy with the toolbox
and you be the fun lovin gal

and i'll learn to fix stuff
if you will teach me love
and god will radiate out from within us
instead of this bullshit from above
and we can dance round like monkeys
after the paparazzi have gone home
having let go forever
the fallacy of ever being alone

i could sing you round a pole
like a ball at the end of a rope
have you duckin and sluggin
protecting your head
but i decided just to love you back instead

cuz i have studied my own pain
like an ambitious scientist
and i've discovered it’s all the same
and has nothing to do with this

so i'll learn to fix stuff
if you will teach me love
and god will radiate out from within us
instead of this bullshit from above
and we can dance around like monkeys
after the paparazzi have gone home
having let go forever
the fallacy of ever being alone

ani - wurlitzer, synthesizers, voice
todd sickafoose - bass, pump organ
allison miller - drums

landing gear

hey little bag of sugar
floating in your biosphere
summon the courage
to put down your landing gear
and come out here
cuz i am as exhausted
as a drowning polar bear
swimming around  looking for a ride
and it's so god-awful hot outside
and quit kicking me in the rib
every time adam tells what he did
man creates woman, he says
sweeping his hand through the air
like mister show biz

you're gonna love this world
if it's the last thing i do
the whole extravagant joke
topped in bittersweet chocolate goo
for someone who ain't even here yet
look how much the world loves you
look how much the world loves you

the candles are burning down
the music is fading
your piñata is torn
it is time to be born
death is at the door
peddling that old fashioned
blood and gore
here at the house of creation
cue the sobering moment
of revelation

you're gonna love this world
if it's the last thing i do
the whole extravagant joke
topped in bittersweet chocolate goo
for someone who ain't even here yet
look how much the world loves you
look how much the world loves you

ani - tenor guitar, ukuleles, voice
todd sickafoose - fender bass, synthesizer
mike dillon - percussion
allison miller - drums
richard comeaux - pedal steel

star matter

love gets started
and next thing you know
it leaves everything else behind

love sets fire to your schedule
and then calls an end to time

and love ain't far behind you
love ain't far behind

when we're parted
it's always too long
and every time you come back
you come back so strong
and as soon as we can
we gotta go lie down
in that place
where our breath is one sound

and love ain't far behind you
love ain't far behind

i was there to hear your bell
the first time it rang
and the beauty was
the beauty of everything
we are star matter
from the big bang

and that love ain't far behind you
love ain't far behind
no love ain’t far behind you
love ain’t far behind
ani - tenor guitar, voice
todd sickafoose - bass
jon hassell - trumpet

red letter year reprise
featuring the rebirth brass band

phil frazier - tuba (band leader)
shorty frazier  - bass drum
derrick tabb - snare drum
derrick shezbie - trumpet
glen andrews - trumpet
stafford agee - trombone
corey henry - trombone
vincent broussard - saxophone
byron (flee) bernard - saxophone


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produced by mike napolitano and ani d.

recorded and mixed by mike napolitano
at the dugout, new orleans, louisiana
and at dockside, maurice, lousiana
rebirth recorded at fudge, new orleans, louisiana
strings recorded at studio g, brooklyn, new york
additional engineers:
@ dockside - david rashou,corie richie
@ fudge - jack miele
@ studio g - tony maimone
jon hassell recorded by jesse voccia
rene lopez recorded by ken rich
additional recording by ani and todd sickafoose

string arrangements by todd sickafoose

mastered by brent lambert at the kitchen
 

graphic design by brian grunert & ani
with help from tim staszack and scot fisher
photographs by rhea anna

special thanks to: nappy, scot and todd.
david torkanowsky, rebecca lichtenfeld, george ortolano, kirsten lambert, tom maxwell, bruce barielle, jack miele, david rashou, sara otto, mary begley, ian blackaby, jim fleming, karla rice, cynthia dunitz , tracy mann, sean o'connell, peter casperson, the fleming staff, the lfs crew, righteous babe, music allies, alvarez, d'addario

all songs by ani difranco
copyright 2008 righteous babe music