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Fuel Lyrics
they were digging a new foundation in manhattan
and they discovered a slave cemetery there
may their souls rest easy
now that lynching is frowned upon
and we've moved on to the electric chair
and i wonder who's gonna be president, tweedle dum or tweedle dummer?
and who's gonna have the big blockbuster box office this summer?
how about we put up a wall between houses and the highway
and you can go your way, and i can go my mine
except all the radios agree with all the tvs
and all the magazines agree with all the radios
and i keep hearing that same damn song everywhere i go
maybe i should put a bucket over my head
and a marshmallow in each ear
and stumble around for
another dumb-numb week for another hum drum hit song to appear
people used to make records
as in a record of an event
the event of people playing music in a room
now everything is cross-marketing
its about sunglasses and shoes
or guns and drugs
you choose
we got it rehashed
we got it half-assed
we're digging up all the graves
and we're spitting on the past
and you can choose between the colors
of the lipstick on the whores
cause we know the difference between
the font of 20% more
and the font of teriyaki
you tell me
how does it make you feel?
you tell me
what's real?
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 in 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?
am i headed for the same brick wall
is there anything i can do about
anything at all?
except go back to that corner in manhattan
and dig deeper, dig deeper this time
down beneath the impossible pain of our history
beneath unknown bones
beneath the bedrock of the mystery
beneath the sewage systems and the path train
beneath the cobblestones and the water mains
beneath the traffic of friendships and street deals
beneath the screeching of kamikaze cab wheels
beneath everything i can think of to think about
beneath it all, beneath all get out
beneath the good and the kind and the stupid and the cruel
there's a fire just waiting for fuel
there's a fire just waiting for fuel
i love this song. it's my fav ani song at the moment. i have to agree..the part where she gets frustrated and laughs at herself about hearing a song everywhere she goes is cute. there's nothing she can do but laugh about it and she cute for the thought and expressing it this way musically, in my opinion anyway. also, though i'm not sure, i imagine teriyaki always having the same font on things...like always marketed the same way no matter where you go. same thing with 20% more...it's always big bold block letters, you know? it's pigeon holing something to be exactly the same every time you see it so that you recognize what it is. teriyaki always seems to be written in sort of an Asian script. i wouldn't be surprised if there were an official "teriyaki" font out there. illusions.? is what teriyaki looks like really what teriyaki is or do we just think so because it looks like it? how does it make you feel?
is he just a liar with nothing to lie about?
dig deeper, dig deeper this time!
everything about this song speaks to me...i love what she says at the end: "there's a fire just waiting for fuel"
I like this song, but the part where she goes 'and i keep hearing that same damn song everywhere i go' and grunts and laughs...I dunno, it really annoys me...:/
I think that part annoys alot of people! but then sometimes her voice can sound so beautiful and sweet.
I think that part annoys alot of people! but then sometimes her voice can sound so beautiful and sweet.
starmile is probably right, but I always imagined it as being connected with the few lines before "you can choose between the colors of the lipstick on the whores cause we know the difference between the font of 20% more and the font of teriyaki" I thought she was using the word "font" in the same way as someone would you "color," because the "nice," expensive lipsticks are always named things like "teriyaki" and who cares what the cheap one is called. I figured it was just a comment on our society's obsession with what's popular rather than what actually matters (rather than "spitting on the past")
This is one of my favorite Ani Difranco songs. It is beautifully put together giving the words rythm and flow. The imagery takes you right to New York.
when you're ragging and need to release some pent up energy this song does the trick when sing it at the top of your lungs! shanks ani
That is my favorite part. You can picture the expression on her face.
I agree. I rather like that part. Her voice sounds really cute, especially at that part, and the part about the TVs and the radios. Its a very good commentary.
Can anyone maybe explain what the "Font of Teriyaki" means? I love this song, but i never understood that line. Cheers
"The font of 'Teriyaki' and the font of '20% More'" just means the different fonts used to display those advertisements.
"The font of 'Teriyaki' and the font of '20% More'" just means the different fonts used to display those advertisements.
Can anyone maybe explain what the "Font of Teriyaki" means? I love this song, but i never understood that line. Cheers
okay, i'm not the most articulate but I think she's just saying that we are too worried about/focused on such petty things.
okay, i'm not the most articulate but I think she's just saying that we are too worried about/focused on such petty things.
@angelonroute666 in the lines about choosing lipstick colors and different fonts, ani is caricaturing (or really just observing) that the culture industries like advertising or now social media keeps us stupid and compliant in two ways: first -- to your question-- by cultivating in masses of human being all sorts of skills and competencies that can be extremely refined while also being incredibly dumb. Like, if someone showed any of us two different font alphabets and we had to pick which one would go on a "20% more" sign and which on a "Teriyaki" menu, we'd know the right answer...
@angelonroute666 in the lines about choosing lipstick colors and different fonts, ani is caricaturing (or really just observing) that the culture industries like advertising or now social media keeps us stupid and compliant in two ways: first -- to your question-- by cultivating in masses of human being all sorts of skills and competencies that can be extremely refined while also being incredibly dumb. Like, if someone showed any of us two different font alphabets and we had to pick which one would go on a "20% more" sign and which on a "Teriyaki" menu, we'd know the right answer immediately. But if I asked, for example, the names of our Congressional reps, or about the Reconstruction era in our hometown, or about where our food comes from....we'd have a tough time. Similarly, culture industry loves to give us all sorts of meaningless or superficial 'choices' between shitty options-- whore lipstick colors, for example, or one bullshit parasitic health insurance scam and another --- thereby providing the illusion of personal freedom and control, when really all this choice is NOT in fact optional; it's totally exhausting; the terms of the choice are unchosen; the difference between options is fraudulent or negligible; and all this absurd 'choosing' keeps us busy and dizzy so we forget history and believe lies.
this song reminds me of Regina Spektor's, "consequence of sounds" really nice song one of those all about society songs