Ani is one of those artists you won't listen to for a year and then you find an album under your bed...and she takes you back to that same powerful and scary place within yourself that you maybe forgot about, but never left you. She can articulate things most people can't even isolate. She's one in a million :)
Almost 20 years later and I still get full-body chills and wheep from the sheer beauty of this song and what it expresses. That is truly art in its highest form.
I totally feel this comment. And I have a Righteous Babe tattoo on my arm. Got it the day I turned 18. I’m almost 40 now. My daughter and I now jam out to her music. It all comes full circle…
Swan dive....this song sustained me when I was a new substitute school bus driver. I would crank it on the way home in my car after having completed the horror of another trip. THANK YOU ANI !!!!!!!!! I'm now a 12 year veteran.
I live in Sydney Australia, and I flew to the cold coast for her concert in Brisbane, this was a concert I'll never forget she was like this performance all night from one start to finish, she bounced around ,changing only a few guitar, absolute incredible artist to see live. arni de franco is her music ,
My hunny gave Ani a ride from Eugene to Portland back in 94' when she was just hitching around the west coast doing gigs.. Ani is the real deal. Completely real and honest to her musical mastery.. at the same time, cool as they come :)
i love how its powerful and desperate at the same time. at least to me. "i just want to get my feet wet till i drown", it all sounds like honesty as well.
She puts so much emotion into her songs.... I'm not her biggest fan, but her dedication and the honesty truly astound me still.. I can't say many artists out there are in any way similar to her, she doesn't just sing her songs, she FEELS them every time.
"gonna go ahead and go boldly cause a lil bird told me that jumping is easy, falling is fun, right up until you hit the sidewalk shivering and stunned." ani's a genius.
I have seen Ani live several times, and she is so awesome, that no matter how many times you see her, it is never enough because of how much she evolves... I love this woman!
I am not exaggerating when I say this song literally not only saved, but made my life. I listened to this every night before bed and every morning in HS, and this song gave me the courage to apply to Brown and I even put in my essay: “I don’t care if they eat me alive, I’ve got better things to do than survive.” I got in with a full ride, fell madly in love w a girl at another Ivy school who also put that same quote in her essay. We were both from dirt poor backgrounds and both probably had more of a chance of getting hit by lightning than us both getting full rides to our dream school, let alone then finding one another .... but all the chance that we needed was one in a million ❤️💜 I think that I’m blessed
Wow. Its true everything does get better with age. This song has always reached out to me, spoken to me (not-so-silently), and now so many years later the message is even stronger. Thank you for creating this amazing anthem.
this is one of the best ani performances- hell, one of the best performances ever, of all time. you can hear the fucking pain oozing out of her voice, her words. i think ani might have been going through a hard time personally here.
Ani is my addiction... I love her and yet I have never met her... The way she writes is in depth and bold and I can picture it all... I love the metaphors😁❤️ she's got the most bold beauty I've ever heard... The first time I heard her it was the song not angry anymore off her up up up album.. only I didn't know that or her name even. I was getting a ride and that song opened me up.. I bawled it was the most beautiful song I had ever heard. Been on the look out ever since. Bought 4 albums before I found that song BTW
man, is this guitar on fire or is it on fire? I think it´s on fire. Really, how much more intense can you perform on stage than Ani here? She has energy galore....
Man I love love love love this live version. She plays to the crowd for a lot of it but then there is part where it is just her and the song and there's a quiet part that becomes bigger than her dreads ('Im cradling the heaviest part of me'), makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. It is a beautiful song. She is an incredible guitarist & performer & writer.
que se puede decirrr, ella es unica,su manera de tocar,y sus letras,me encanta como consigue trasmitr la misma cancion , una gran tristeza,y como una gran alegria,es genial para cada estado de animo,no se que seria de mi sin conocerla.siempre me eriza la piel
Now that's cutting edge artistry!!! To hell with playing it safe and being trendy. You're hot because you make what's hot not following some mindless trend. I dig it!!!
I have seen literally HUNDREDS of live performances, and to this day Ani is still top 3. To be in an audience of hundreds and feel like its just you and her is an experience one never forgets.
There are so many good one liners in this song. The tampon line, the line about the ship pitching and heaving, and a little too much to drink. I'll go on and on if I have too......just wanna get my feet wet, until I drown....
First time I ever saw Ani play this tune was when she opened for Bob Dylan at Blossom. (Cleveland/Akron) When she mentioned pulling out her tampon, the jock-y security guy separating the lawn from the the pavilion turned around to us and asked "what did she just say . . .?"
she is such an amazing pearson i love the way that you can tell that she just loves to be on the stage and the way that it comes to her with such ez and grace, and shes not afraid to bee goofy:)
Ah.. one of the perks of living in Europe: I've seen Ani in concert half a dozen times, most of which from the front row. She's simply amazing. She f***s up the lyrics in this one quite a bit, but it only adds to the charm. :)
Just read her autobiography and I seem to recall that 2007 was not a good year for her emotionally. You can't see that on stage, because she is on fire.
OMG SO BEAUTIFUL...I've been here. And I failed. Get out at the time girls of this song if you can. It only goes down from here. Time and age passes and you will not fix it.
@jarvez1000 I agree with you....yes she is articulate and expresses herself in a very individual way...But my Goodness!!! Does everyone overlook what an amazing guitarist she is? She has amazing skill and has a style all her own. I'm glad I was a teenager learning guitar when this album came out! As a female it inspired me to experiment and love the guitar even more. It still does.
summertizzime & @EmmaBellaGirl928: me too. She was a significant role model in my teens and college years and she's still empowering me and teaching me new things. I'm a fairly quiet fan because not many of my friends listen to her, but she'll always be near and dear to my heart. EmmaBellaGirl928 - watch DiFranco shred - soul bare to the world - and know you can do it too.
If stating revolutionary ideas is trolling, then Ani is one of my heroes. I don't "troll", really, I just speak my mind. Funny as I've been treated quite badly by women from childhood til now and I'm still not gay or a terrorist, lol... With that in mind- I'd have to be one that "broke the mold" for Ani to be one of my top 5 favorite musicians. I am wary of hard core feminists though- I love them, but they hurt men as they have been hurt by them and I don't think it helps the cause. luv ya :)
Stargazer Leia / we're not all shit. Theres a couple of us with decency inside us that dont look like monsters and love this music and love women and understand the concept of reciprocation and loving women without being selfish pricks. A few anyway.
those pre-teen feminists may be squeeling....but at least that wave of the movement ain't so quiet. Most of our wave crashed on the glass ceiling shore and are too busy fighting daily in corporate land to prove something to themselves. Some out of obligation.....some out of feminist dogma.....some because they're exhausted.
Ani is one of those artists you won't listen to for a year and then you find an album under your bed...and she takes you back to that same powerful and scary place within yourself that you maybe forgot about, but never left you.
She can articulate things most people can't even isolate. She's one in a million :)
"I'm gonna pull out my tampon and just start splashing around"
one of the best lines ever
Almost 20 years later and I still get full-body chills and wheep from the sheer beauty of this song and what it expresses. That is truly art in its highest form.
100% :)
with out this song there i nothing
Totally.
Amen!
Well said
I don't know who I'd be if I hadn't been introduced to Ani DiFranco those many years ago.
Ani DiFranco's music means even more now to me in 2019 than it did in 2004, and in 2004 I thought I knew and felt everything.
I totally feel this comment. And I have a Righteous Babe tattoo on my arm. Got it the day I turned 18. I’m almost 40 now. My daughter and I now jam out to her music. It all comes full circle…
Feel ya..and now..how ya doing?
@@alethiamcgarvey282 glorious!!!!
@@sabrinaanirbas9034 I’m hanging in there. It’s been an effed up year. You doin ok dearest?
Every song is her best . . . because she's an evolution and she's been here for centuries.
"I've got better things to do than survive"
Sing it Ani.
Swan dive....this song sustained me when I was a new substitute school bus driver. I would crank it on the way home in my car after having completed the horror of another trip. THANK YOU ANI !!!!!!!!! I'm now a 12 year veteran.
I live in Sydney Australia, and I flew to the cold coast for her concert in Brisbane, this was a concert I'll never forget she was like this performance all night from one start to finish, she bounced around ,changing only a few guitar, absolute incredible artist to see live.
arni de franco is her music ,
“Just want to get my feet wet until I drown!!” is my favorite Ani lyric ever
My hunny gave Ani a ride from Eugene to Portland back in 94' when she was just hitching around the west coast doing gigs.. Ani is the real deal. Completely real and honest to her musical mastery.. at the same time, cool as they come :)
i love how its powerful and desperate at the same time. at least to me. "i just want to get my feet wet till i drown", it all sounds like honesty as well.
She puts so much emotion into her songs.... I'm not her biggest fan, but her dedication and the honesty truly astound me still.. I can't say many artists out there are in any way similar to her, she doesn't just sing her songs, she FEELS them every time.
Best performance of this song
"gonna go ahead and go boldly
cause a lil bird told me
that jumping is easy,
falling is fun,
right up until you hit the sidewalk
shivering and stunned."
ani's a genius.
Ani breathes fire and life and death and everything, everything into this song. So grateful to be here now 🔥
I have seen Ani live several times, and she is so awesome, that no matter how many times you see her, it is never enough because of how much she evolves... I love this woman!
How can anyone "thumbs down" this? Freaking awesome, Ani.
This may be my favorite Ani song.
I am not exaggerating when I say this song literally not only saved, but made my life. I listened to this every night before bed and every morning in HS, and this song gave me the courage to apply to Brown and I even put in my essay: “I don’t care if they eat me alive, I’ve got better things to do than survive.” I got in with a full ride, fell madly in love w a girl at another Ivy school who also put that same quote in her essay. We were both from dirt poor backgrounds and both probably had more of a chance of getting hit by lightning than us both getting full rides to our dream school, let alone then finding one another .... but all the chance that we needed was one in a million ❤️💜 I think that I’m blessed
That's an amazing story. Thank you for sharing.
Literally got chills. What an amazing artist 💖✌
Wow. Its true everything does get better with age. This song has always reached out to me, spoken to me (not-so-silently), and now so many years later the message is even stronger. Thank you for creating this amazing anthem.
She is like that through the whole show! She is a singer songwriter!!!
this is one of the best ani performances- hell, one of the best performances ever, of all time. you can hear the fucking pain oozing out of her voice, her words. i think ani might have been going through a hard time personally here.
Ani is my addiction... I love her and yet I have never met her... The way she writes is in depth and bold and I can picture it all... I love the metaphors😁❤️ she's got the most bold beauty I've ever heard... The first time I heard her it was the song not angry anymore off her up up up album.. only I didn't know that or her name even. I was getting a ride and that song opened me up.. I bawled it was the most beautiful song I had ever heard. Been on the look out ever since. Bought 4 albums before I found that song BTW
man, is this guitar on fire or is it on fire? I think it´s on fire.
Really, how much more intense can you perform on stage than Ani here?
She has energy galore....
notwister1 That's Ani. She does this EVERY performance.
Man I love love love love this live version. She plays to the crowd for a lot of it but then there is part where it is just her and the song and there's a quiet part that becomes bigger than her dreads ('Im cradling the heaviest part of me'), makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. It is a beautiful song. She is an incredible guitarist & performer & writer.
it's a shame she doesn't make albums anymore like the ones she made in the mid-90's.
Revolutionary Love was a fantastic album released around 2021 or so.
agreed - she is still amazing tho
utterly amazing. i can listen to this version over and over. the voice, the guitar, the emotion -- i can't help but be moved by this performance.
i love this song! one ani's best right here
que se puede decirrr, ella es unica,su manera de tocar,y sus letras,me encanta como consigue trasmitr la misma cancion , una gran tristeza,y como una gran alegria,es genial para cada estado de animo,no se que seria de mi sin conocerla.siempre me eriza la piel
'cuz i don't care if they eat me alive
i've got better thing to do than survive...
i was there! she was amazing!
She is surely one of my top 10 if not top 5... Luv you Ani...
that was the coolest performance of swan dive i've seen so far. amazing. especially the last bit.
i just heard of her a few weeks ago from my cousin.
this is amazing.
i have really, really never heard anything like this before.
Now that's cutting edge artistry!!! To hell with playing it safe and being trendy. You're hot because you make what's hot not following some mindless trend. I dig it!!!
I'm cradling the softest, warmest part of you in my hands
Feels like a little baby bird
Fallen from the nest
I think that your body is something I understand
I think that I'm happy
I think that I'm blessed
But I've had a lack of inhibition
I've had a loss of perspective
I've had a little bit to drink
And it's making me think
That I can jump ship and swim
That the ocean will hold me
That there's got to be more
Than this boat I'm in
They can call me crazy if I fall
All the chance I need
Is one-in-a-million
And they can call me brilliant
If I succeed
Gravity is nothing to me
I'm moving at the speed of sound
I'm just gonna get my feet wet
Until I drown
I teeter between tired
And really, really tired
I'm wiped out and I'm wired
But I guess that's just as well
'Cause I've built my own empire
Out of car tires and chicken wire
And now I'm queen of my own compost heap
And I'm getting used to the smell
I've had a lack of information
I've had a little revelation
I'm climbing up on the railing
Trying not to look down
I'm going to do my best swan dive
Into shark infested waters
I'm going to pull out my tampon
And start splashing around
'Cause I don't care if they eat me alive
I've got better things to do than survive
I've got the memory of your warm skin in my hands
And I've got a vision of blue sky and warm land
I'm cradling the hardest, heaviest part of me in my hands
The ship is pitching and heaving
Our limbs are bobbing and weaving
I think this is something I understand
I think I need a couple vaccinations
For my far-away vacation
I'm gonna go ahead and go boldly
'Cause a little bird told me
That jumping is easy
And falling is fun
Right up until you hit the sidewalk
Shivering and stunned
They can call me crazy if I fall
All the chance I need
Is one-in-a-million
And they cal call me brilliant
If I succeed
Gravity is nothing to me
I'm moving at the speed of sound
I'm just going to get my feet wet
Until I drown
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Ani Difranco
Swan Dive lyrics © A Side Music LLC D/B/A Modern Works Music Publishing
Darling, you must see her in concert!! oh you must!!! You will leave feeling touched.
I have seen literally HUNDREDS of live performances, and to this day Ani is still top 3. To be in an audience of hundreds and feel like its just you and her is an experience one never forgets.
get to see her live tonight. i know my life won't be the same after it.
The most beautiful person in the world right here people.
There are so many good one liners in this song. The tampon line, the line about the ship pitching and heaving, and a little too much to drink. I'll go on and on if I have too......just wanna get my feet wet, until I drown....
I and everyone I have ever loved loves you...bravo to you Ani. you are Magnificent
to behold.
hands down best version of swan dive
It should be on all steaming platforms.
perfection at its finest.
First time I ever saw Ani play this tune was when she opened for Bob Dylan at Blossom. (Cleveland/Akron) When she mentioned pulling out her tampon, the jock-y security guy separating the lawn from the the pavilion turned around to us and asked "what did she just say . . .?"
i've got a vision of blue sky and dry land
everytime i watch this, it amazes me more
i love this dvd. ani rules my world
Thank you Love!
she is such an amazing pearson i love the way that you can tell that she just loves to be on the stage and the way that it comes to her with such ez and grace, and shes not afraid to bee goofy:)
Awesome live and original.
Well shot video.
Ah.. one of the perks of living in Europe: I've seen Ani in concert half a dozen times, most of which from the front row.
She's simply amazing.
She f***s up the lyrics in this one quite a bit, but it only adds to the charm. :)
Raw grit, courage chilling!
this album saved my life, not in an i was about to commit suicide kind of way, but in a hey someone else gets it too kind of way. it changed me.
damn !!!!
that was unbridled passion at its zenith
I
Listen. This version better be on the 25th anniversary remastered release. IJS.
someday ill meet this girl again... once it happens, ill be as famous she is
ani defranco is the bestttttttttttttttttt ever
nice....she sounds great
Just read her autobiography and I seem to recall that 2007 was not a good year for her emotionally. You can't see that on stage, because she is on fire.
@pegleg747 amazing, beautiful summation. gave me chills.
no words. just absolutely no words. Ani, Ani, Ani, thank you.
The epitome of a women's strength summed up in 6 minutes! I dare anyone to challenge that! Ani...
I respect thought provoking comments. Luv ya more
Great song. Bad ass, beautiful person.
The best song
Little Plastic Castle. My god. WHAT A RECOOOOOOOORD!!!
@TheMelissaNakama and I (and probably Ani too) am/are so disappointed in you stopping.
I am so in love with her.
Amazing
OMG SO BEAUTIFUL...I've been here. And I failed. Get out at the time girls of this song if you can. It only goes down from here. Time and age passes and you will not fix it.
@jarvez1000
I agree with you....yes she is articulate and expresses herself in a very individual way...But my Goodness!!! Does everyone overlook what an amazing guitarist she is? She has amazing skill and has a style all her own. I'm glad I was a teenager learning guitar when this album came out! As a female it inspired me to experiment and love the guitar even more. It still does.
one of the only people who almost sounds better live.
“… And I’m Queen of my own compost heap
And I’m getting used to the smell…” ❤️🔥
well said pegleg...couldn't of put it better.
Fucking amazing...pure epic.
Couldn't have said it better myself
One beautifully RAW chick
My #1 ♥
Haramitayso ani d, haramitayso forever, 4 you. "paris the orange card" was and is my favtorite writting ive ever done. hope you all read it some day
my ex wife introduced me to her in 98 and ihave yet to fall out of love with her.
summertizzime & @EmmaBellaGirl928: me too. She was a significant role model in my teens and college years and she's still empowering me and teaching me new things. I'm a fairly quiet fan because not many of my friends listen to her, but she'll always be near and dear to my heart. EmmaBellaGirl928 - watch DiFranco shred - soul bare to the world - and know you can do it too.
21 now. Yep.
rembber there was no screens yet to control u. this means u
p.s. i love todd. todd's bass work is just so atmospheric and, for lack of a better phrase, amazing (L)
If stating revolutionary ideas is trolling, then Ani is one of my heroes. I don't "troll", really, I just speak my mind. Funny as I've been treated quite badly by women from childhood til now and I'm still not gay or a terrorist, lol... With that in mind- I'd have to be one that "broke the mold" for Ani to be one of my top 5 favorite musicians. I am wary of hard core feminists though- I love them, but they hurt men as they have been hurt by them and I don't think it helps the cause. luv ya :)
I love you?
Wow.
awesome, really cool off beat rhythm
When I get pissed at the male species I hear this song and It makes me place the bullshit in perspective.
Stargazer Leia / we're not all shit. Theres a couple of us with decency inside us that dont look like monsters and love this music and love women and understand the concept of reciprocation and loving women without being selfish pricks. A few anyway.
@@j.b.booker7912 facts
eye luv U
you dont believe me? then check out the album version, took her a while to duplicate the album didnt it
those pre-teen feminists may be squeeling....but at least that wave of the movement ain't so quiet.
Most of our wave crashed on the glass ceiling shore and are too busy fighting daily in corporate land to prove something to themselves. Some out of obligation.....some out of feminist dogma.....some because they're exhausted.
❤
She should set this to music.
@pegleg747
my god, couldn't have said it better
aniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii