Teenage Angst

Time for another song. I remember distinctly the first time I heard this song. It was a handful of years after graduation and we were hanging out in our backyard having a cook out with some friends. We had the radio on and they played this song. It was almost over when I caught the line "and those whose names were never called when choosing sides for basketball". I made it a point to listen closer the next time I heard it and was blown away by the idea that this lady had somehow crawled inside my life. She may have written it from a girl's perspective, but believe me, it pretty much nails it for teenage guys too.

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, married into what she needs
A guarantee of company and haven for the elderly

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 know 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
And dreams were all they gave for free, to ugly duckling girls like me

We all play the game and when we dare to cheat ourselves at solitaire
Inventing lovers on the phone, repenting other lives unknown
That call and say, come dance with me and murmur vague obscenities
At ugly girls like me, at seventeen