I think the thread title is pretty clear.
“It sucks to be under 21” - Real Big Fish
I’m sure I’m missing some obvious ones but the rest i can think of are about 16 and 17
I listened to Cranberries - 21 almost all day on my 21st birthday. I dont even know if that’s what the song is about… but it was kind of melancholy and so was I.
o/ twenty one.. twenty one.. today... today.. o/
“It Was a Very Good Year” is about being seventeen, twenty-one and thirty-five.
Jackson Browne 's “Running on Empty” contains the line “In '69 I was 21”.
Dashboard Confessional (forget the name of the song):
We’re not 21.
But the sooner we are the sooner the fun will begin
So get out your fake eyelashes,
Your fake IDs and real disasters,
and grow up fast.
If you are 21
You can have a lot of fun
Now I’m gonna be 22
I say oh my and a-boo-hoo
Iggy, “1969,” okay?
“I was 21 years when I wrote this song, I’m 22 now but I won’t be for long” - Billy Bragg, A New England
Mama Couldn’t Be Persuaded by Warren Zevon
…she was twenty-one or two
and she knew what she wanted
she wanted that gamblin’ man
Someday Soon by Ian Tyson
There’s a young man that I know
His age is twenty one
He comes from down in southern Colorado
Galveston by Glen Campbell
She was 21 when I left Galveston
21 and Over - The Romantics (from National Breakout)
Thanks for the responses, you guys are quick!
But are these songs about being 21 or just have a few lines in them that mention being 21?
“And I turned 21 in prison, doin’ life without parole
No one could steer me right, but mama tried, mama tried
Mama tried to raise me better, but her pleadin’ I denied
That leaves only me to blame cause mama tried.”
- “Mama Tried,” Waylon Jennings
"Now when I was a little boy,
At the age of five,
I had somethin in my pocket,
Keep a lot of folks alive.
Now Im a man,
Made twenty-one,
You know baby,
We can have a lot of fun.
Im a man,
I spell m-a-n…man."
- “I’m a Man,” Bo Diddley
Anthem, Blink-182
“But good things come to those who wait, 'cause she laid me
And mom and dad possess the key, instant slavery
No need to explain the plan, no need to even bother
I’ll pack my bags, I swear I’ll run, wish my friends were 21”
When I was twenty-one it was a very good year
It was a very good year for city girls who lived up the stair
With all that perfumed hair and it came undone
When I was twenty-one
- Ol’ Blue Eyes
Alice Cooper - I’m Eighteen
That’s actually “Under 21” by Save Ferris
Emiliana Torrini - Unemployed in Summertime
That line always seems like “Only Justin 21”, but I knew it couldn’t be that – thanks!
Gordon Lightfoot’s Sweet Guinevere is about a girl who’s “a bit pretty, just turned twenty-one”.
You mean “Leaves That Are Green” by Simon and Garfunkel 