Janis Ian – At Seventeen lyrics

Even though I'm a guy, I can totally relate to this song. I always have. I'm 46 now so I remember when this song was pupular. When I was nine, I never dreamed how it would resonate with me today! I know what it's like to have to stay home on friday night when everyone else is out having fun, and I didn't get to go to either mu junior or senior prom becaus there ws no one for me to go with: all the girls had dates! This is a tear-jerker for me, but one that does mean a lot to me just the same.

I identified with this song in high school. It was as if she wrote this song for or about me. I was the 'brown eyed girl in hand me downs whose name no one ever could pronounce' I was poor, I was the daughter of a Hungarian immigrant with a strange maiden name. I was no good at sports and painfully shy. Maybe part was my own doing, I always looked away when a boy would look my way. Janis Ian was not an ugly duckling even though she saw herself that way. It's all about self esteem. I didn't learn until later, and obviously she didn't either, that I really didn't look that bad.

As an older woman, I recently heard At Seventeen and it got me thinking about my own youth. I can't say I was ugly or unpopular, but there were definitely times when I felt inadequate. There is a saying, everyone puts his pants on one leg at a time. We are really all more alike than we are different.

Well I will attempted to decipher the deeper parts of this song though of course I don't claim to know exactly what she felt.
I come from a slightly different background but my youth was tough and because I worked all the time outside of school and and was even kept out a lot to work it was hard to keep friends since I could not do much with them and was missing at school about a third of the time. I was smart and confident in what I knew.. I got along with the "cool crowd" and probably could have hung with them. I was mot ugly though my family made me feel like I was and made me feel worthless more that anyone at school did. But I think that I felt about the Cool crowd like I think Janis did. It did seem nice in a way but really i never wanted to be one of them.
She speaks of the debt they take on but will be unable to pay.. They started dating and making out and some even having sex in seventh grade. All the boys dated all the girl and vice versa. I though what will it be like later if they marry and they all slept with each other's spouses.?!! They show women and men lose the ability to pair bond after just 3 mates though men can recover more than women. That is a debt they carry. I won't speculate on STDs.
All they ever seemed to talk about was how great the last party was and how great the next one would be.It seemed so shallow to me. I didn't need drugs and alcohol to enjoy myself. I knew the wife swapping and cheating all that stuff that went on in town by the respectable people with professions or businesses. I would rather be a lone than be part of the fake shallow happiness they pretend to have. I would rather respect myself and honestly I'll take my lonely youth to that and their life after school anytime. I think that is what she was saying to those who can see the reality of they they envied at the time .

When I was young I found this song rather maudlin and trite, but over time the quality of the lyrics’ meter has grown on me. Most importantly, I finally realize that what is probably the most underappreciated musical achievement of the song is the utterly stellar supporting Bossa Nova music. This is really some of the best Bossa Nova ever recorded, achieving the best of the genre’s potential for soulful depth without melancholy, layered over an almost hidden optimism conveyed by the rhythm. That tone and effect perfectly mirror the tone and meaning of the lyrics, and it all comes together in a unified whole of artistic expression. I wish I had “gotten” this song thirty years ago, but better late than never!