April 25, 2006 | Posted by David B. at 9:29 AM

I know what all the fighting was for

photo

The original version of this song is really just something to behold: it starts with a chugging banjo line with a cracking snare drum, then a little accordion, and then that all stops so a plaintive acoustic guitar can accompany the verses. Then, it all kicks back in again after the line "I'm not angry anymore," to complement her feeling of letting go.

This version, recorded live at Carnegie Hall in 2002, sticks with the plaintive guitar, and it still really works. This is one of my favorite Ani DiFranco songs, and I think it shows what an excellent songwriter she is. She obviously has billions of fans, so I wouldn't call her generally "underappreciated," but I do feel like her songwriting gets overlooked. She's clever, funny and just very good at what she does.

Ani DiFranco - Angry Anymore.

This comes from the recently released Carnegie Hall - 4.6.02, part of her "official bootleg" series of solo shows. I've never seen her live, just heard her great live record Living In Clip, which features a band. So a whole record of DiFranco performing solo is novel to me, and it brings out the best - and, during her rambling stories and excessive wailing - her worst.
But this record is good, and I recommend picking it up. It has her eight-minute spoken word poem "Self Evident," about September 11, which I haven't tackled yet because I'd like to give it a good listen.

This is the first of the bootleg series available in stores, but ytou can also buy Carnegie Hall - 4.6.02 from Ani's website.

Comments

Is this appropriate for MFR?

Casual reader.

Posted by: at April 25, 2006 12:29 PM

Yes.

Posted by: Robot David at April 25, 2006 12:45 PM

uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... thanks?

Posted by: ani at April 25, 2006 12:58 PM

seriously?......i mean.. seriously?

Posted by: Ed at April 25, 2006 2:34 PM

no. no. no.

Posted by: Rajesh Bhatt at April 25, 2006 8:39 PM

Nice departure, and well said; she's good at what she does. Haters have no sense of critical progression. Keep up the good work!

Posted by: dj at April 26, 2006 6:41 AM

ewwww. no hippies, please. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Posted by: abigail_hater at April 28, 2006 1:14 AM
Post a comment









Human verification is easy! Type f in this box to prevent your comment from being rejected:


Remember personal info?

Human verification:

To help us fight the good fight against comment spam, you must enter your anti-spam key as indicated on the left. Don't forget to do this! Your comment may end up in the junk bin if you dont...