I’m 65 and was listening to some oldies today. There were a bunch of the teen age death songs and they made me laugh. To think that, at one time, I thought that this was how the world worked.
Oh, to be that young and stupid again.
Most of us die because our bodies fall apart with age. Good times.
Hmm, need examples of the specific songs you heard on order to participate in the amused reminisce/self-deprecating youth mocking/making fun of teen music activity.
gotta pick the right era you know
Off the top of my head: “Teen Angel”, “Last Kiss”, “Leader of the Pack”
Probably prevented a significant amount of deaths from car crashes and drug overdoses among us 70’s teens: “Jesus, do you really want to go out like such a stupid cliché?”
BigBlue- you got it. There are a whole list on “wikipedia” under teen age death songs.
I don’t know why, probably because I was thirteen or so, but Patches always got to me.
I wish I were young and stupid again because old and stupid isn’t any better!
Your right Pai325, “patches” is one of the songs that got to me too.
You are, also, right about being old and stupid. It isn’t any better.
I may be older and wiser, but I sure don’t feel like it.
ok you two, knock it off. If you are old and stupid, instead of young and stupid, then you have overcome the first challenge to success and fulfilled the requirement of surviving. Keep your heads down low and mumble your mediocrity to the world under your breath with unabashed indifference;)
there’s a twisted sister comeback album in that statement somewhere
On a more serious note, why? What I mean is did you look in the mirror this morning and it suddenly hit you (perhaps harder or differently in some way) that you’re not the comely youth you once were?
And a recent Financial Times podcastdevoted to the creepiest, “Johnny Remember Me.”
The teen death songs were always very funny to me. I used to get big laughs at parties singing “Teen Angel.”
Ode to Billy Joe, Johnny Remember Me, Billy Don’t Be a Hero, Bat Out Of Hell, Running Bear …
They ALWAYS forget “Indiana Wants Me”.
No only does it reference a murder (“If a man ever needin’ dying, he did”), but it ends with a shoot out with the cops who had him surrounded. IOW: a suicide-by-cop.
But “Patches” is my go-to dead teen song.
“It may not be right
But I’ll join you tonight
Patches, I’m coming to you”
Ya know, jerk - if you had had the guts to join her in life you’d both be alive now. Jerk.
I found that if I just say “Dead Teen Songs” to boomers, the most common response is “Tell Laura I Love Her”.
Oh, that hit me about 20 years ago!
I just thought by the time I was my current age I’d have it more together, but I still screw up sometimes and look back at things I’ve done and thought, why did I do that?
At 60+ I thought I’d be more June Cleaver and less Lucy Arnaz.
I have mixed feelings about “Last Kiss”. I hate hate hate the refrain. But I really like the description of the car crash. The cryin’ tires and bustin’ glass and his girl asking him to hold her one last time, I thought was pretty moving. Pearl Jam’s version is pretty good too. Eddie Vedder’s strained vocals add a layer of anguish.
“I couldn’t stop, so I swerved to the right…”
Bye bye, bitch!
My favourite example of the genre is The Best Way to Die by Jet Set Satellite.
I Want My Baby Back by Jimmy Cross
Oh, yeah, only teen-age death songs.
They’re all wasted!
Wasted on the young!