# I've had it with "Edge of Seventeen" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 2, 2017, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-had-it-with-edge-of-seventeen/778844 "2017-02-02T20:06:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-had-it-with-edge-of-seventeen/778844/41 "2017-02-03T20:00:52Z")
::stands up, dusts off hands:: My work here is done. ;). Glad it was helpful. Yeah, in effect, you are _playing the effect_ as much as you are playing the guitar. The Edge lives in that world, but it is everywhere, including a personal favorite, **She Sells Sanctuary** by **The Cult** : [The Cult - She Sells Sanctuary - BBC Broadcast 1987 - YouTube](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ErgzObQJMPM) ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-had-it-with-edge-of-seventeen/778844/42 "2017-02-03T21:26:06Z")
> [@Ponch8](#): > > [Carl on The Simpsons] How come oldies stations are always playing the same songs? How about some NEW oldies, geniuses! When I was a wee lad, the restaurants and stores played “old fogey” music - 50s easy listening. Now when I got into restaurants I hear a lot of 80s alternative. I thought , wow, finally, they’re playing my music! Until I realized that now I am the old fogey! > [@Spit](#): > > I’ve always wondered how tired the guitar player’s hand must have been at the end of that song. It’s gotta be hell playing the same riff so quickly for 4 minutes. In college, I had a roommate in a band, and I told him: if you ever make it big, and you ever write a song like Eo17, and you go on tour, I want to tour, and just play the tunka-tunka-tunka part. That’s it. I come out on stage for that song, play, and disappear. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-had-it-with-edge-of-seventeen/778844/43 "2017-02-03T21:31:47Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > No, _it is not!_ We also would’ve accepted “_NAY_!” ---
**Author:** ![Spit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/76d3ee/32.png) [@Spit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spit)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-had-it-with-edge-of-seventeen/778844/44 "2017-02-03T21:34:12Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > When I was a wee lad, the restaurants and stores played “old fogey” music - 50s easy listening. Now when I got into restaurants I hear a lot of 80s alternative. I thought , wow, finally, they’re playing my music! Until I realized that now I am the old fogey! > In college, I had a roommate in a band, and I told him: if you ever make it big, and you ever write a song like Eo17, and you go on tour, I want to tour, and just play the tunka-tunka-tunka part. That’s it. I come out on stage for that song, play, and disappear. HAHAHA. I have said, nearly verbatim, the same thing to someone about THAT SONG. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-had-it-with-edge-of-seventeen/778844/45 "2017-02-03T21:36:02Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > When I was a wee lad, the restaurants and stores played “old fogey” music - 50s easy listening. Now when I got into restaurants I hear a lot of 80s alternative. I thought , wow, finally, they’re playing my music! Until I realized that now I am the old fogey! Yep, and now the Oldies are gone, at least as they used to be defined: It’s very hard to find modern terrestrial radio stations which play pop music from the 1950s and the early (pre-Beatles) 1960s. The earliest anyone wants to go is the psychedelic 1960s and the 1970s, and they mostly stick to the 1980s and 1990s. No more dead teenagers on the radio, I guess. ("Oh where, oh where can my baby be/The Lord took her away from me… ") The only song I can think of that I feel the need to dive to the radio to turn off is “Song 2” by Blur. The fact it’s intentionally bad doesn’t improve it. ---
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-had-it-with-edge-of-seventeen/778844/46 "2017-02-03T21:39:10Z")
Both Fleetwood Mac and The Eagles were THE radio bands of the '70s. I still like The Eagles but I want to burn out my eardrums whenever I hear “Hotel California”. Ditto “Rhiannon”. “Edge Of Seventeen” has never bothered me for some odd reason. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-had-it-with-edge-of-seventeen/778844/47 "2017-02-03T21:40:40Z")
I used to have a lot of “gopher” tunes (when it comes on, you immediately have to “gopher” the knob), but over time I’ve mellowed. Only one real one remains - Paradise By The Dashboard Light. Man, I HATE that song. I will NOT listen to it. ---
**Author:** ![Spit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/76d3ee/32.png) [@Spit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spit)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-had-it-with-edge-of-seventeen/778844/48 "2017-02-03T21:44:02Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Yep, and now the Oldies are gone, at least as they used to be defined: It’s very hard to find modern terrestrial radio stations which play pop music from the 1950s and the early (pre-Beatles) 1960s. The earliest anyone wants to go is the psychedelic 1960s and the 1970s, and they mostly stick to the 1980s and 1990s. No more dead teenagers on the radio, I guess. ("Oh where, oh where can my baby be/The Lord took her away from me… ") > > The only song I can think of that I feel the need to dive to the radio to turn off is “Song 2” by Blur. The fact it’s intentionally bad doesn’t improve it. What the hell man? Song 2??? I’ve heard that at LEAST a thousand times and still smash the accelerator when it comes on. Hell, that and “Walk Like A Camel” are my toddlers favorite songs. WOOOOOOOOOO-hoo! ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-had-it-with-edge-of-seventeen/778844/49 "2017-02-03T23:59:35Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > When I was seventeen, I got stuck sharing my bedroom with a cousin. He brought his record player and listened to it every night. I am mostly a silence kind of person. One album he played end to end just about every night was _Fly Like an Eagle_, which, to me, sucked right out of the starting gate (“_Look through the window, tell me what do you see? A beautiful planet, peace and harmony, harmony, harmony_”). > > At one point, I became concerned that I hated that shit because I resented having him in my room, that maybe the music itself was not actually so horrible. Then he brought in the brand new _Tales of Mystery and Imagination_, which settled for me that it was Steve Miller that gagged me. TOMAI was by the Alan Parson Project. > **[Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Alan Parsons Project album)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_Mystery_and_Imagination_(Alan_Parsons_Project_album))** > > Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Edgar Allan Poe) is the debut studio album by British rock band the Alan Parsons Project. It was released on 25 June 1976 in the United Kingdom and Ireland by Charisma Records and 20th Century Records in the rest of the world. The lyrical and musical themes of the album, which are retellings of horror stories and poetry by Edgar Allan Poe, attracted a cult audience. The title of the album is taken from the title of a collection of Poe's macabre stories of t Mu... ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-had-it-with-edge-of-seventeen/778844/50 "2017-02-04T00:00:02Z")
> [@kiz](#): > > Both Fleetwood Mac and The Eagles were THE radio bands of the '70s. > > I still like The Eagles but I want to burn out my eardrums whenever I hear “Hotel California”. > > Ditto “Rhiannon”. Holy mind meld. Occasionally I will think, “I never need to hear that song again”. It’s not that I hate it or that it isn’t a perfectly fine song, it’s just that I have heard enough for my lifetime. The thought struck yesterday when “Rhiannon” came on. (!) And I mentally started listed the others: Hotel California (!) Brown-Eyed Girl ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-had-it-with-edge-of-seventeen/778844/51 "2017-02-04T00:07:04Z")
Three classic rock bands will cause me to reach for the off switch, put my fingers in my ears or run for the hills; 1. Boston 2. Aerosmith\* 3. Def Leppard \*Definite exception for “Chip Away At The Stone” (for personal reasons) and a couple tunes from the first couple albums. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-had-it-with-edge-of-seventeen/778844/52 "2017-02-04T01:28:19Z")
REO Speedwagon is my nemesis. Cloying, insincere, sappy to the core. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-had-it-with-edge-of-seventeen/778844/53 "2017-02-04T01:39:57Z")
I’m so hopelessly out of touch! Is “Edge of Seventeen” that damned whiny song by Janis Ian I never want to hear again (titled “At Seventeen”) or another damned whiny song? The only thing I find googling “Edge or Seventeen” is a movie. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-had-it-with-edge-of-seventeen/778844/54 "2017-02-04T01:57:15Z")
[Edge of Seventeen - Stevie Nicks](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn8-4tjPxD8) One of her bigger solo hits. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-had-it-with-edge-of-seventeen/778844/55 "2017-02-04T01:57:57Z")
> [@Labdad](#): > > I’m so hopelessly out of touch! Is “Edge of Seventeen” that damned whiny song by Janis Ian I never want to hear again (titled “At Seventeen”) or another damned whiny song? The only thing I find googling “Edge or Seventeen” is a movie. It’s by Stevie Nicks. Here you go: [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ojGKSgug\_FM](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ojGKSgug_FM) ETA: ninja’d! ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-had-it-with-edge-of-seventeen/778844/56 "2017-02-04T02:33:30Z")
> [@Labdad](#): > > I’m so hopelessly out of touch! Is “Edge of Seventeen” that damned whiny song by Janis Ian I never want to hear again (titled “At Seventeen”) or another damned whiny song? The only thing I find googling “Edge or Seventeen” is a movie. **“I learned the truth at seventeen The white winged dove was a beauty queen And high school girls sing a song, sounds like she’s singing…”** ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-had-it-with-edge-of-seventeen/778844/57 "2017-02-04T04:22:19Z")
To **silenus** and **WordMan** , both of whom have always been nothing but kind and generous in their discourse with me, thank you for patiently fighting my ignorance. Btw, I listened to the song twice. As of now, I think once was too much! ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-had-it-with-edge-of-seventeen/778844/58 "2017-02-04T05:10:14Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > When I was a wee lad, the restaurants and stores played “old fogey” music - 50s easy listening. Now when I got into restaurants I hear a lot of 80s alternative. I thought , wow, finally, they’re playing my music! Until I realized that now I am the old fogey! The same is true of me. Oldies stations (classic hits stations, to use the parlance of our times) are playing songs from when I was little (late 70s to early 80s), rather than the 50s and 60s oldies of old. What is odd is that I used to enjoy listening to oldies stations 15-20 years ago when they were playing songs from well before I was born. I find that I just don’t like the “classic hits” stations that replaced the oldies stations, though. Sure, there are plenty of late 70s and early 80s songs that I like. It just seems that these “classic hits” stations aren’t playing them. Instead, they’re playing lots of crap like REO Speedwagon, Journey, Def Leppard, etc. I even used to like some of these bands’ songs, but I’m just sick of them now. There does seem to be a pretty big void as far as 90s, 2000s, and early 2010s music goes. Not many stations play songs from these eras, with the exception of some 90s alternative music (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots). Where are the early Eminem songs? Where is “Baby Got Back”? ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-had-it-with-edge-of-seventeen/778844/59 "2017-02-04T05:22:05Z")
Another one I just thought of is Pat Benatar’s “We Belong”. It’s one of those songs that shouldn’t have been a hit in the first place, let alone a classic. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Dickerman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8baadc/32.png) [@Dickerman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dickerman)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-had-it-with-edge-of-seventeen/778844/60 "2017-02-04T20:46:24Z")
The local classic rock station is my default (except Saturday and Sunday nights when the blues are played exclusively on another station), but any Rush song will get the axe. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-had-it-with-edge-of-seventeen/778844.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-had-it-with-edge-of-seventeen/778844.md?page=4)