Livia
10-28-2005, 10:02 AM
http://www.mywesttexas.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15467129&BRD=2288&PAG=461&dept_id=563016&rfi=6
10/27/2005
Pop Goes the Culture: 17 About '17'
By: Nancy Adamson
I knew there musta been about 17 songs about being 17
I'm not trying to turn exclusively to lists for this thing, but my "27 at 27" posting sent me reeling into an obsession with lists. Lists and numbers. Celebrity related numbers. Natch.
I received a picture frame for a gift recently so I was going though some old photos to find something to put in the new frame. I came across a few photos I took at an autograph session sometime in the 1980s with hair band Winger at the old Hastings store on the Loop.
It was a picture of me with Kip Winger. I was looking at him with a desperate kind of "I will have you" look on my face and he was looking at the camera with a desperate kind of "help me" look on his face. I had quite a crush on him (and Nikki Sixx, amd Jon Bon Jovi, and Richie Sambora, and ... sorry, I digress). But so did millions of other women. Actually, there were even quite a few guys there that day who seemed more interested in Kip's jeans than his music. And he did, in fact, sign just as many body parts as pictures and CD covers. But again, I digress.
The picture triggered a weird progression of thoughts in my head that had me remembering that one of Winger's biggest hits was a song called "Seventeen." Not the greatest lyrically, but it had a good beat and you could dance to it. Recalling those lyrics, I thought of others songs mentioning that number and thought there sure were a lot of perverted headbangers out there. Are these guys taking statutory rape laws into account when they're sitting down to compose a song? And why is 17 such a magic number?
Granted, there are a boatload of songs about being 16, but the vast majority of those seem to be centered on the innocence of youth. At 16, you're still "Mama's little boy" or "Daddy's little girl," At 17, all bets are off.
Is it because it's such a crucial age in our journey into adulthood? Are the songwriters pandering to a younger CD buyer? Were they the lamented ramblings of pitiful men who realized they had passed their sexual peak? Worst of all, were they possibly songs written by a bunch of sick, twisted pedophiles?
Once again, I turned to the Internet for help in my research and once again, I stumbled upon another weird coincidence. Yes, I found, oh, exactly 17 songs about being 17.
They are:
"Seventeen" by Winger. "She's only 17, her daddy says she's too young but she's old enough for me." The really hard part of being a woman who likes heavy metal is trying to ignore the lyrics. They invariably either dehumanize, objectify or villify women and girls. By the same token, they are sung by guys in spandex so form-fitting you know the long hair is a compensatory measure, and who generally spend more time fixing that hair than I ever though about spending on mine. A fair enough trade-off.
"I Love Rock and Roll" by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. Joan said she knew he musta been about 17 when she saw him standing by the record machine. What she apparently didn't know was that a couple of her former Runaways bandmates were gonna out her a few years later and tell us all Joan couldn't have cared less about any guy, no matter his age. To be fair, Ms. Jett has never revealed her sexual status, but that "Dykes Rule" sticker on her guitar might be a hint. By the way, Britney Spears' version of the song doesn't count.
"Edge of Seventeen" by Stevie Nicks is about, oh, come on, does anybody know what "sings a song sounds like she's singing" means? This was Stevie at the height of her Lindsey-hating, reincarnated-witch-being madness. We mere Earthlings aren't meant to understand, just buy the CD.
"At Seventeen" by Janis Ian. When this song first came out, Ian was lauded for laying bare her soul and confessing she spent her high school years crying herself to sleep at night because "love was meant for beauty queens." When Ian came out a few years later, we knew she wasn't competing WITH the beauty queens, but FOR them. Didn't stand a chance against the jocks.
"(She's) Sexy and 17" by the Stray Cats is written from the perspective of a juvenile delinquent who hates school but digs his slutty girlfriend. "She acts little bit obscene" but she's "gotta let off a little steam." Remember when Brian Setzer was all cute with his pompadour hair and the whole cool retro '50s thing? Remember how pompous he could be when he fancied himself the greatest guitarist in the history of rock 'n' roll? Remember Brian Setzer?
"I Saw Her Standing There" by the Beatles. Quick trivia question: When did Paul McCartney write silly love songs? The answer: He started in 1962 and he's still releasing them. Case in point: "Well, she was just 17, if you know what I mean." Um, no, Paul, I don't exactly know what you mean. But it rhymes and that's all the matters, innit?
"It Was a Very Good Year" by Frank Sinatra. Ol' Blue Eyes started that song by saying the year he was 17 was a very good year. Then again, he was a skinny kid from Hoboken, New Jersey who could melt a woman's heart when he sang. He sold millions of records, could buy anything he wanted, had alleged ties to a certain Italian organization that could get him anything else he wanted. He won an Academy Award. He won 10 Grammys, including best male vocal performance in 1965 for this very song. With the possible exception of 1998 - the year he died - did the man ever NOT have a very good year?
"Freaky Tales" by Snoop Dogg contains very few lyrics that are family-friendly. It does refer to an evening a then 17-year-old Snoop spent with a woman who was 38. He refers to evenings with several women and how he isn't terribly discerning when it comes to telling the "freaky tales, the tales he tells so well."
"She is Always 17" by Harry Chapin is a love song written about an idealistic woman who still has hope in her heart despite the evils of the world. Chapin talks of the despair he feels over JFK's assassination and the escalating U.S. military presence in Vietnam in the mid-1960s so the song is fairly dated. The sentiment isn't.
"Anthems For a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl" by Broken Social Scene is a hopeful wish for one to break free of the clique mentality and celebrate individuality. Oh, sure, and end up like Janis Ian on Friday nights or Ally Sheedy in "Breakfast Club." Too dated with the movie reference? Thought so.
"Seventeen" by Tim McGraw would have us believe two lovestruck teens are making out in the back seat of a car and realize this is a special moment in their lives because 17 only "comes around once in a lifetime." Ha! Just you wait until you realize 40 only comes by once in a lifetime too.
Tim also talks about being 17 in "Something Like That" AND "We Carry On" but it would mess up my whole format thing I've got going here, so I'm counting 17 by 17 as 17 different artists, not songs. I will also try to worm my way out of more predicaments later. Keep reading.
"Soulja's Story" by Tupac Shakur is a tale about the rise of a young gangsta who "sold a pound a weed, made G's, bought a new house I'm only seventeen, I'm the new kid." But he finally sees the error of his ways when his little brother is looking to follow in his footsteps. It's too bad 'Pac lived the life he rapped about. His was a voice that made a difference but he could have done so much more. As with Tim McGraw, I'm cheating because Tupac had two more songs, "A Day in the Life" and "Dear Mamma" that referred to being 17.
"She Was Only Seventeen" by Marty Robbins is about the love between a 17-year-old girl and the boy who was "one year more." Their love is frowned upon by their friends and family who think the couple is too young to form a serious relationship. It is one of many hits for the nearly-forgotten country legend.
"17 Again" by Eurythmics alludes to an emotional pain felt by one who thought they were too old and too jaded to be hurt so deeply again. Pretty sad stuff. I actually just listed this song so I could go off on a rant about the name of the group. There is no "the" in the name. It is just Eurythmics. I'm sure it's hard for DJs, VJs and fans to omit the the. I have even done it when talking about Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox. Another formerly the-less band, the Pretenders, apparently got tired of correcting people and finally just added the the.
"Seventeen" by Mandy Moore. At last a song written from the perspective of being the 17-year-old jailbait. And she's in love. Initially, it doesn't sound like she or her beloved have a lick of sense because she doesn't "want to do right," and wants to save her "best behavior for a little later." But Mandy finally snaps out of it and realizes it's "time to grow up and face responsibility."
"Seventeen" by Musiq. Oh, sure, she was frontin' like she was 25 but when she couldn't get in the club, Musiq knew something was wrong. Player got played! Not wanting to "talk it out with the boys in blue," Musiq told shorty to "get gone."
"17 and Under" by Psychefunkapus. Sample lyrics include: "I'll wait for the bell to ring that tells me school is out. From behind a bush I spring, I scream and shout. I don't mind. 17 and under. It's a crime but it's worth the slammer." Was R. Kelly in that group?
Some of you may have noticed I did not include Celine Dion's "Too Young at Seventeen." Well, not only would it have screwed up the whole 17 about 17 thing, but most of the thing's in French so I didn't know what she was warbling on about.
My column. My rules.
Truth be told, I'm also pleading ignorance on the Beu Sisters' "I Was Only (Seventeen)," The Game's "200 Bars and Runnin'," Green Day's "Coming Clean," Little Joe's "Life Goes On," The Rolling Stones' "Little Queenie," Reba McEntire's "What Do You Say," Keith Urban's "Yesterday," Will Smith's "The Rain," Ella Fitzgerald's "Bewitched," SugaBabes' "Angels With Dirty Faces," Bruce Springsteen's "The River," The Dorks' "Ticket Outta Loserville," Public Enemy's "1 Million Bottlebags,"The Swingin Utters' "Heaven at Seventeen," Mandalay's "Not Seventeen," Nicole's "Seventeen" (with Missy Elliott).
Did you notice anything strange about that last list? I swear I didn't notice until I'd exhausted every avenue on the Internet highway, but then I discovered there are exactly 17 songs listed.
©MyWestTexas.com 2005
10/27/2005
Pop Goes the Culture: 17 About '17'
By: Nancy Adamson
I knew there musta been about 17 songs about being 17
I'm not trying to turn exclusively to lists for this thing, but my "27 at 27" posting sent me reeling into an obsession with lists. Lists and numbers. Celebrity related numbers. Natch.
I received a picture frame for a gift recently so I was going though some old photos to find something to put in the new frame. I came across a few photos I took at an autograph session sometime in the 1980s with hair band Winger at the old Hastings store on the Loop.
It was a picture of me with Kip Winger. I was looking at him with a desperate kind of "I will have you" look on my face and he was looking at the camera with a desperate kind of "help me" look on his face. I had quite a crush on him (and Nikki Sixx, amd Jon Bon Jovi, and Richie Sambora, and ... sorry, I digress). But so did millions of other women. Actually, there were even quite a few guys there that day who seemed more interested in Kip's jeans than his music. And he did, in fact, sign just as many body parts as pictures and CD covers. But again, I digress.
The picture triggered a weird progression of thoughts in my head that had me remembering that one of Winger's biggest hits was a song called "Seventeen." Not the greatest lyrically, but it had a good beat and you could dance to it. Recalling those lyrics, I thought of others songs mentioning that number and thought there sure were a lot of perverted headbangers out there. Are these guys taking statutory rape laws into account when they're sitting down to compose a song? And why is 17 such a magic number?
Granted, there are a boatload of songs about being 16, but the vast majority of those seem to be centered on the innocence of youth. At 16, you're still "Mama's little boy" or "Daddy's little girl," At 17, all bets are off.
Is it because it's such a crucial age in our journey into adulthood? Are the songwriters pandering to a younger CD buyer? Were they the lamented ramblings of pitiful men who realized they had passed their sexual peak? Worst of all, were they possibly songs written by a bunch of sick, twisted pedophiles?
Once again, I turned to the Internet for help in my research and once again, I stumbled upon another weird coincidence. Yes, I found, oh, exactly 17 songs about being 17.
They are:
"Seventeen" by Winger. "She's only 17, her daddy says she's too young but she's old enough for me." The really hard part of being a woman who likes heavy metal is trying to ignore the lyrics. They invariably either dehumanize, objectify or villify women and girls. By the same token, they are sung by guys in spandex so form-fitting you know the long hair is a compensatory measure, and who generally spend more time fixing that hair than I ever though about spending on mine. A fair enough trade-off.
"I Love Rock and Roll" by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. Joan said she knew he musta been about 17 when she saw him standing by the record machine. What she apparently didn't know was that a couple of her former Runaways bandmates were gonna out her a few years later and tell us all Joan couldn't have cared less about any guy, no matter his age. To be fair, Ms. Jett has never revealed her sexual status, but that "Dykes Rule" sticker on her guitar might be a hint. By the way, Britney Spears' version of the song doesn't count.
"Edge of Seventeen" by Stevie Nicks is about, oh, come on, does anybody know what "sings a song sounds like she's singing" means? This was Stevie at the height of her Lindsey-hating, reincarnated-witch-being madness. We mere Earthlings aren't meant to understand, just buy the CD.
"At Seventeen" by Janis Ian. When this song first came out, Ian was lauded for laying bare her soul and confessing she spent her high school years crying herself to sleep at night because "love was meant for beauty queens." When Ian came out a few years later, we knew she wasn't competing WITH the beauty queens, but FOR them. Didn't stand a chance against the jocks.
"(She's) Sexy and 17" by the Stray Cats is written from the perspective of a juvenile delinquent who hates school but digs his slutty girlfriend. "She acts little bit obscene" but she's "gotta let off a little steam." Remember when Brian Setzer was all cute with his pompadour hair and the whole cool retro '50s thing? Remember how pompous he could be when he fancied himself the greatest guitarist in the history of rock 'n' roll? Remember Brian Setzer?
"I Saw Her Standing There" by the Beatles. Quick trivia question: When did Paul McCartney write silly love songs? The answer: He started in 1962 and he's still releasing them. Case in point: "Well, she was just 17, if you know what I mean." Um, no, Paul, I don't exactly know what you mean. But it rhymes and that's all the matters, innit?
"It Was a Very Good Year" by Frank Sinatra. Ol' Blue Eyes started that song by saying the year he was 17 was a very good year. Then again, he was a skinny kid from Hoboken, New Jersey who could melt a woman's heart when he sang. He sold millions of records, could buy anything he wanted, had alleged ties to a certain Italian organization that could get him anything else he wanted. He won an Academy Award. He won 10 Grammys, including best male vocal performance in 1965 for this very song. With the possible exception of 1998 - the year he died - did the man ever NOT have a very good year?
"Freaky Tales" by Snoop Dogg contains very few lyrics that are family-friendly. It does refer to an evening a then 17-year-old Snoop spent with a woman who was 38. He refers to evenings with several women and how he isn't terribly discerning when it comes to telling the "freaky tales, the tales he tells so well."
"She is Always 17" by Harry Chapin is a love song written about an idealistic woman who still has hope in her heart despite the evils of the world. Chapin talks of the despair he feels over JFK's assassination and the escalating U.S. military presence in Vietnam in the mid-1960s so the song is fairly dated. The sentiment isn't.
"Anthems For a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl" by Broken Social Scene is a hopeful wish for one to break free of the clique mentality and celebrate individuality. Oh, sure, and end up like Janis Ian on Friday nights or Ally Sheedy in "Breakfast Club." Too dated with the movie reference? Thought so.
"Seventeen" by Tim McGraw would have us believe two lovestruck teens are making out in the back seat of a car and realize this is a special moment in their lives because 17 only "comes around once in a lifetime." Ha! Just you wait until you realize 40 only comes by once in a lifetime too.
Tim also talks about being 17 in "Something Like That" AND "We Carry On" but it would mess up my whole format thing I've got going here, so I'm counting 17 by 17 as 17 different artists, not songs. I will also try to worm my way out of more predicaments later. Keep reading.
"Soulja's Story" by Tupac Shakur is a tale about the rise of a young gangsta who "sold a pound a weed, made G's, bought a new house I'm only seventeen, I'm the new kid." But he finally sees the error of his ways when his little brother is looking to follow in his footsteps. It's too bad 'Pac lived the life he rapped about. His was a voice that made a difference but he could have done so much more. As with Tim McGraw, I'm cheating because Tupac had two more songs, "A Day in the Life" and "Dear Mamma" that referred to being 17.
"She Was Only Seventeen" by Marty Robbins is about the love between a 17-year-old girl and the boy who was "one year more." Their love is frowned upon by their friends and family who think the couple is too young to form a serious relationship. It is one of many hits for the nearly-forgotten country legend.
"17 Again" by Eurythmics alludes to an emotional pain felt by one who thought they were too old and too jaded to be hurt so deeply again. Pretty sad stuff. I actually just listed this song so I could go off on a rant about the name of the group. There is no "the" in the name. It is just Eurythmics. I'm sure it's hard for DJs, VJs and fans to omit the the. I have even done it when talking about Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox. Another formerly the-less band, the Pretenders, apparently got tired of correcting people and finally just added the the.
"Seventeen" by Mandy Moore. At last a song written from the perspective of being the 17-year-old jailbait. And she's in love. Initially, it doesn't sound like she or her beloved have a lick of sense because she doesn't "want to do right," and wants to save her "best behavior for a little later." But Mandy finally snaps out of it and realizes it's "time to grow up and face responsibility."
"Seventeen" by Musiq. Oh, sure, she was frontin' like she was 25 but when she couldn't get in the club, Musiq knew something was wrong. Player got played! Not wanting to "talk it out with the boys in blue," Musiq told shorty to "get gone."
"17 and Under" by Psychefunkapus. Sample lyrics include: "I'll wait for the bell to ring that tells me school is out. From behind a bush I spring, I scream and shout. I don't mind. 17 and under. It's a crime but it's worth the slammer." Was R. Kelly in that group?
Some of you may have noticed I did not include Celine Dion's "Too Young at Seventeen." Well, not only would it have screwed up the whole 17 about 17 thing, but most of the thing's in French so I didn't know what she was warbling on about.
My column. My rules.
Truth be told, I'm also pleading ignorance on the Beu Sisters' "I Was Only (Seventeen)," The Game's "200 Bars and Runnin'," Green Day's "Coming Clean," Little Joe's "Life Goes On," The Rolling Stones' "Little Queenie," Reba McEntire's "What Do You Say," Keith Urban's "Yesterday," Will Smith's "The Rain," Ella Fitzgerald's "Bewitched," SugaBabes' "Angels With Dirty Faces," Bruce Springsteen's "The River," The Dorks' "Ticket Outta Loserville," Public Enemy's "1 Million Bottlebags,"The Swingin Utters' "Heaven at Seventeen," Mandalay's "Not Seventeen," Nicole's "Seventeen" (with Missy Elliott).
Did you notice anything strange about that last list? I swear I didn't notice until I'd exhausted every avenue on the Internet highway, but then I discovered there are exactly 17 songs listed.
©MyWestTexas.com 2005