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Work Your Way Out Lyrics
lying on the floor
four stories high
in the corridor
between the asphalt and the sky
i am caught like bottled water
the light daughter
and i wonder what you look like
under your t-shirt
i wonder what you sound like
when you're not wearing words
i wonder what we have
when we're not pretending
it's never-ending, haven't you heard?
and i don't need to tell you
what this is about
you just start on the inside
and work your way out
we are all polylingual
but some of us pretend
that there's virtue in relying
on not trying to understand
we're all citizens of the womb
before we subdivide
into sexes and shades
this side
that side
and i don't need to tell you
what this is about
you just start on the inside
and work your way out
undressing for the fan
like it was a man
wondering about all the things
that i'll never understand
there are some things that you can't know
unless you've been there
but oh how far we could go
if we started to share
and i don't need to tell you
what it is about
you just start on the inside
you just start on the inside
and work your way out
lying on the floor
four stories high
in the corridor
between the asphalt and the sky
i am caught like bottled water
the light daughter
i wonder what everyone has when they're not pretending. but then we would just be pretending to not be pretending so it would just make things a deeper spiral of lies
As an Ani Difranco fan, i am compelled to comment on her lyrical genius. I feel so inadequately ignorant because i don't know what this is all about. Damn, she makes me jealous.
i think she's saying that to get to know people you start on the inside, at the inner core of who they are. i think she wants to get to the true being of a person, to transcend words, skin, stereotypes, or whatever could be on the surface. but i'm not sure what she means by being "caught like bottled water the light daughter." maybe she feels held in, not able to express herself, she is bottled up. (i don't know :)
I interpret "light daughter" meaning she is stuck (or bottled) in her stereotype of a white woman. And everyone wears a different label, but it doesn't say anything about who we actually are. Because at our core, we are all citizens of the womb. This is a great perspective of sexism and racism in society. We learn from a young age to not discriminate and treat people equally... but we forget so easily...
I interpret "light daughter" meaning she is stuck (or bottled) in her stereotype of a white woman. And everyone wears a different label, but it doesn't say anything about who we actually are. Because at our core, we are all citizens of the womb. This is a great perspective of sexism and racism in society. We learn from a young age to not discriminate and treat people equally... but we forget so easily...
I think similarly as you starla, except I see it more about "yourself" instead of about somebody else. Start on the inside and work your way out, says to me: start from what you feel and believe and think, and let thát make your behavoir and your outside and your words... (instead of starting from the outside, so starting with the image you want to make to other people, and let that make your behavoir etc, what we all do these days I guess, some in more and some in less )
Personally, I think this song is about Ani having sex (or wanting to have sex) with a female fan.
"and i wonder what you look like under your t-shirt i wonder what you sound like when you're not wearing words i wonder what we have when we're not pretending it's never-ending, haven't you heard?"
This is easily conveying the curiosity that Ani and this woman are having.
"we're all citizens of the womb before we subdivide into sexes and shades this side that side"
I think this is a "love is love" statement. We're all just a being before it's decided what we're going to be so we can be brought into the melting pot of opposite-gender sex and how that's the way it's "supposed to be".
"undressing for the fan like it was a man wondering about all the things that i'll never understand there are some things that you can't know unless you've been there but oh how far we could go if we started to share"
I think the first part of this is pretty obvious. She is (or wants to) getting (get) with her, and she's saying that the reason doesn't matter, and all it needs is a little push.
And, as for the chorus,
"lying on the floor four stories high in the corridor between the asphalt and the sky i am caught like bottled water the light daughter "
I really can't focus on one opinion for this, but the most plausible one (to me) is that she's really, really sprung on this chick. "Caught like bottled water". You know, captivated.