Home
AT SEVENTEEN
Songs "A"

AT SEVENTEEN

Janis Ian

I [C] learned the truth at seventeen
That [Dm] love was meant for beauty queens
And [G7] high school girls with clear skinned smiles
Who [C] marry young and then retire
The [C] valentines I never knew,
The [Dm] Friday night charades of youth
Were [G7] spent on one more beautiful
At [C] seventeen I learned the truth
And [Eb] those of us with ravaged faces,
[Dm] lacking in the [G7] social graces
[Cm7] Desperately re-[Fm7]-mained at home
[Cm7] inventing lovers [Fm7] on the phone
Whod [Ab] call and say "come [G7] dance with me"
And [Cm7] murmur vague ob-[Fm7]-scenities
[Dm7] It isn't all it seems, at [G7] seventeen
A [C] brown-eyed girl in hand-me-downs,
Whose [Dm] name I never could pronounce,
Said "[G7] Pity, please, the ones who serve,
They [C] only get what they deserve.
The [C] rich-relationed home-town queen
[Dm] marries into what she needs
A [G7] guarantee of company,
And [C] haven for the elderly"
Re-[Eb]-member those who win the game,
[Dm7] lose the love they [G7] sought to gain
In [Cm7] debentures of [Fm7] quality
And [Cm7] dubious in-[Fm7]-tegrity
Their [Ab] small town eyes will [G7] gape at you
In [Cm7] dull surprise when [F7] payment due
[Dm7] exceeds accounts received, at [G7] seventeen
To [C] those of us who know the pain
Of [Dm] valentines that never came,
And [G7] those whose name were never called
When [C] choosing side at basketball
It [C] was long ago and far away
The [Dm] world was younger than today
And [G7] dreams were all they gave for free
To [C] ugly duckling girls like me
We all [Eb] play the game and when we dare
To [Dm7] cheat ourselves at [G7] solitaire
In-[Cm7]-venting lovers [Fm7] on the phone,
Re-[Cm7]-penting other [Fm7] lives unknown
Who [Ab] call and say "Come [G7] dance with me",
And [Cm7] murmur vague ob-[Fm7]-scenities
[Dm7] at ugly girls like me, at [G7]seventeen[C][Cmaj7]


Back to My Song Book