# Songs about being 17 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 8, 2012, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-being-17/615122 "2012-03-08T05:18:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-being-17/615122/41 "2012-03-10T16:32:27Z")
“Cherry Bomb” by John Mellencamp. An adult reminiscing about his teenage years. Seventeen has turned thirty-five I’m suprised that we’re still livin’ ---
**Author:** ![Barking\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Barking\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barking_Dog)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-being-17/615122/42 "2012-03-10T20:05:23Z")
[Wishing I was 21](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlCZJiGWWtA) - Corey Smith ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-being-17/615122/43 "2012-03-11T00:24:07Z")
Jethro Tull had a song called “17” very early in their career (1968 or '69). It’s a pretty lame song (and I love Tull, almost all Tull, up to about 1978), but there you go. Also, if you get Chuck Berry’s aforementioned Little Queenie, consider going for the live Rolling Stones version (off _Get Yer Ya Yas Out_). It’s great. ---
**Author:** ![Skara\_Brae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Skara\_Brae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skara_Brae)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-being-17/615122/44 "2012-03-11T00:41:34Z")
The Airborne Toxic Event’s song [Gasoline](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsiQiBmq-qw) has the following lyrics: _When we were only seventeen We were holding back our screams Like we’d torn our lives From the pages of some girly Magazines And you scratch and turn And say “let’s burn these Sheets down to the seams” Like gasoline_ Though the whole song is about “high school sex,” according to the lead singer, so it make be innapropriate for your party… ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-being-17/615122/45 "2012-03-11T01:54:52Z")
[_7-Teen_ by The Regents](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqSSttLQrHw). > [@Valerieblaise](#): > > “[I Love Rock & Roll](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AT_Pbtyid0)” has the lines, “I saw her dancing there by the record machine/ I knew she must’ve been about 17” in the original version by the Arrows. > > [Joan Jett’s cover](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JuD9umfGo8&feature=related) changes the ‘her’ to ‘him’ and the ‘she’ to ‘he’ and is way more awesome because it’s Joan Jett. I am pretty sure this is referencing Chuck Berry (see post #23). ---
**Author:** ![Ashley\_Pomeroy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c68b51/32.png) [@Ashley\_Pomeroy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashley_Pomeroy)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-being-17/615122/46 "2012-03-13T19:14:29Z")
> [@Hakuna\_Matata](#): > > So she doesn’t turn 17 for six more months but I wanted to at least start collecting songs about being seventeen to include in next years mix. \*"They only want you when you’re seventeen when you’re twenty-one, you’re no fun They take a polaroid and let you go say they’ll let you know so come on"\* You already have it on your list. Presumably it’s about the modelling world rather than e.g. internet porn. However a chap on Songmeanings has an alternative and all-too-plausible suggestion: “_the song is obviously about fishing. if you are too big(21 inches) they can’t legally keep you, so they take a picture and throw you back in. if you are the right size(17 inches) they want you. you guys read too much into these songs sometimes_” ---
**Author:** ![breezman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@breezman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/breezman)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-being-17/615122/47 "2012-03-13T20:26:00Z")
“English Boys” by Blondie is the only one I can think of that hasn’t been mentioned yet. ---
**Author:** ![Beastly\_Rotter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@Beastly\_Rotter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beastly_Rotter)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-being-17/615122/48 "2012-03-19T01:43:47Z")
Jaqueline, by Franz Ferdinand: Jacqueline was seventeen Working on a desk When Ivor Peered above a spectacle Forgot that he had wrecked a girl [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-being-17/615122.md?page=2)