LyricMeaning

At Seventeen [*]
Janis Ian

I learned the truth at seventeen
That love was meant for beauty queens
And high school girls with clear skinned smiles
Who married young and then retired
The valentines I never knew
The Friday night charades of youth
Were spent on one more beautiful
At seventeen I learned the truth

And those of us with ravaged faces
Lacking in the social graces
Desperately remained at home
Inventing lovers on the phone
Who called to say - come dance with me
And murmured vague obscenities
It isn't all it seems at seventeen

A brown eyed girl in hand me downs
Whose name I never could pronounce
Said - pity please the ones who serve
They only get what they deserve
The rich relationed hometown queen
Marries into what she needs
With a guarantee of company
And haven for the elderly

So remember those who win the game
Lose the love they sought to gain
In debentures of quality and dubious integrity
Their small-town eyes will gape at you
In dull surprise when payment due
Exceeds accounts received at seventeen

To those of us who knew the pain
Of valentines that never came
And those whose names were never called
When choosing sides for basketball
It was long ago and far away
The world was younger than today
When dreams were all they gave for free
To ugly duckling girls like me

We all play the game, and when we dare
We cheat ourselves at solitaire
Inventing lovers on the phone
Repenting other lives unknown
That call and say - come on, dance with me
And murmur vague obscenities
At ugly girls like me, at seventeen


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Lyrics by Janis Ian

  All Those Promises   Amsterdam   Between The Lines   Bigger Than Real   Billie's Bones   Boy I Really Tied One On   Bright Lights And Promises   Danger Danger   Day by Day   Days Like These   Dead Men Walking   Dear Billy   Emmanuel   Fly Too High   Folk Is The New Black   From Me To You   Getting over You   Getting over You [With Strings]   Ginny the Flying Girl   God and the FBI   Have Mercy Love   Holes   Home Is The Heart   I Hear You Sing Again   Jackie Skates   Joy   Life Is Never Wrong   Light A Light   Love Is Blind   Love Is Blind [Live][*]   Lover's Lullaby   Marching on Glasgow [Instrumental]   Mary's Eyes   Miracle Row   Mockingbird   Murdering Stravinsky   My Autobiography   My Tennessee Hills   One Mississippi   Paris In Your Eyes   Party Lights   Photographs   Roses   Save Somebody   She Must Be Beautiful   Silly Habits   Slow Dance Romance   Society's Child   Some People   Standing In The Shadows Of Love   Stars   Sugar Mountain   Sunset of Your Life   Sweet Sympathy   Take to the Sky   Tattoo   Tea and Sympathy   The Come On   The crocodile Song   The Drowning Man   The Great Divide   The Last Comeback   The Last Train   The Other Side of the Sun   This Must Be Wrong   This Train   Water Colors   Watercolors   When Angels Cry   When I Lay Down   When The Party's Over

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