Ani DiFranco - Crime for crime

Music and Lyrics by Ani DiFranco from the album 'Not a Pretty Girl' http://www.righteousbabe.com/

the big day has come
the bell is sounding
i run my hands through my hair one last time
outside the prison walls
the town is gathering
people are trading crime for crime

everyone needs to see the prisoner
they need to make it even easier
they see me as a symbol, and not a human being
that way they can kill me
say it's not murder, it's a metaphor
we are killing off our own failure
and starting clean

standing in the gallows
everyone turned my way
i hear a voice ask me
if I've got any last words to say
and i'm looking out over the field of familiar eyes
somewhere in a woman's arms a baby cries

i think guilt and innocence
they are a matter of degree
what might be justice to you
might not be justice to me
i went to far, i'm sorry
i guess now i'm going home
so let any amongst you cast the first stone
now we've got all these complicated machines
so no one person ever has to have blood on their hands
we've got complex organizations
and if everyone just does their job
no one person has to understand

you might be the wrong colour
you might be too poor
justice isn't something just anyone can afford
you might not pull the trigger
you might be out in the car
and you might get a lethal injection
'cause we take a metaphor that far

the big day has come
the bell is sounding
i run my hands through my hair one last time
outside the prison walls
the town has gathered
people are trading crime for crime
people are trading crime for crime
people are still trading crime for crime

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• Ani DiFranco
• Crime for Crime
• Lyrics
• Not a Pretty Girl

[lot110]

FOR TROY DAVIS !!!!

[briteness]

Listening to this, I couldn't help thinking about the applicability of the lyrics, which are, of course, about the injustice of capital punishment, to the abortion question. (I'm not talking about pro-choice or life here, just abortion.) It is ironic that she has a spoken piece on the same album about how she is going to have an abortion the next week. (No idea whether or not that poem was autobiographical, and it doesn't matter.) I wonder if she saw the connections, or if she sees them now.

[laceygg11]

This song is so deep and meaningful about capital punishment. Love this woman!

[Frasi1966]

Shhhhh... Quiet, genius at work.

[ShamelesslyStrange]

Thank you so much for posting this, i've been looking for it for ages!! My favourite Ani song I think.