Miscellaneous, Music Blog

At Seventeen: Thursday Inspiration

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Written for Thursday Inspiration #303 – “Brutal”.
Here’s my response.

© Discogs

For this week’s Thursday Inspiration, Jim Adams asks us to respond to the challenge by using the prompt word ‘drink’, referring to the song “Brutal” by Olivia Rodrigo or another one of her songs, or another song where a person expresses their insecurities, or by anything else we feel fits. I’ve chosen a musical response, a song that shows just how brutal life can be for a short Jewish teenage girl with curly hair and a bad complexion.

My featured song this week is “At Seventeen” by Janis Ian, who wasn’t even old enough to drive when she recorded her first single, “Society’s Child”, in 1965. Two years later she was all of 16 years old when the song worked its way into the Top 20 of the U.S. pop charts.

Young artists having hits isn’t that unusual, but having them with songs like “Society’s Child”, a tale of interracial romance at a time when the topic was quite controversial, was another story. Despite the song’s success, Ian was just barely scraping by in making a living. But it set the table for Between the Lines, the 1975 album that would include “At Seventeen”, the biggest hit of her career. It’s a song where Janis Ian took the truth about her experiences at a younger age and brought that home for all her audience who might have either been feeling the same or did at one time in their lives.

“I learned the truth at seventeen / That life was meant for beauty queens / And high school girls with clear skinned smiles / Who married young and then retired”. The wistful sigh in Ian’s voice with which she sings those opening lines immediately lets the listener know she doesn’t consider herself to be a part of that group. Her easy poetics can’t mask the undeniable pain of feeling left out. “At Seventeen” became a hit for its honest portrayal of adolescent loneliness and feelings of not fitting in, earning Ian a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. 

This is “At Seventeen” by Janis Ian


LYRICS

I learned the truth at seventeen
That love was meant for beauty queens
And high school girls with clear skinned smiles
Who married young and then retired
The valentines I never knew
The Friday night charades of youth
Were spent on one more beautiful
At seventeen I learned the truth…

And those of us with ravaged faces
Lacking in the social graces
Desperately remained at home
Inventing lovers on the phone
Who called to say “come dance with me”
And murmured vague obscenities
It isn’t all it seems at seventeen…

A brown eyed girl in hand me downs
Whose name I never could pronounce
Said: “Pity please the ones who serve
They only get what they deserve”
The rich-relationed hometown queen
Marries into what she needs
With a guarantee of company
And haven for the elderly…

So remember those who win the game
Lose the love they sought to gain
In debentures of quality and dubious integrity
Their small-town eyes will gape at you
In dull surprise when payment due
Exceeds accounts received at seventeen…

To those of us who knew the pain
Of valentines that never came
And those whose names were never called
When choosing sides for basketball
It was long ago and far away
the world was younger than today
when dreams were all they gave for free
to ugly duckling girls like me…

We all play the game, and when we dare
We cheat ourselves at solitaire
Inventing lovers on the phone
Repenting other lives unknown
That call and say: “Come on, dance with me”
And murmur vague obscenities
At ugly girls like me, at seventeen…

Songwriter: Janis Ian

Thursday Inspiration #303 Brutal

Many thanks to Jim Adams for this week’s inspiration. Thanks to you all for stopping by for a look and a listen.

That’s all she wrote, kids. See you on the flip side. 😎

NAR©2025

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for Nancy Richy and are not to be used without permission. NAR©2017-present.

34 thoughts on “At Seventeen: Thursday Inspiration”

    1. You’re so right, Mitch. Janis Ian created a brilliant song about being a misfit and countless people said “That’s me!” Girls especially need to know that it’s OK not being the cheerleader with perfect teeth and hair whose boyfriend is the school quarterback. This song became an anthem that teens listened to in their bedrooms and realized they weren’t alone. Thanks for a wonderful comment, Mitch.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    1. Very welcome! I first fell in love with Janis Ian listening to Society’s Child. When At Seventeen came out, I was already 24 so for me it was more a case of having great admiration for her as a songwriter as opposed to this becoming my anthem. It’s an amazing song.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. Sorry! That’s weird, as I don’t get that. For example, the first video of the Jessie Buckley song I played on Tuesday showed a huge number of restrictions, so I chose another. I haven’t had a single message saying a video wasn’t available since I started using it. Odd!

        Liked by 2 people

        Reply

  14. Sharing and comparing Nancy, … always good song wise and life wise, …The videos unavailable for me, but I’ll go ask Alexa!…. She’s always available., 😉… thanks for the lyrics, such hard hitting facts of life, … have a great Friday and weekend, … and catch you on the flipside, …💙

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

Leave a reply to Clive Cancel reply