My, how things have changed

[Z3Dreamer]

I have Youtube playing 80's pop hits and a video came on. Barry Mardones singing "Into the night". I remember it as a popular love song we used to slow dance to. Never paid much attention to the lyrics.

Anyhow, Barry, at the age of 34, recorded the song and made a video about his love of a 16 year old girl. Shows them horizontal on a flying carpet, kissing.

Oh, this would never fly today....

 

[Car-Guy]

Didn't happen back in the 80's and still doesn't happen today. Carpet's never could fly.

 

[JoeWras]

So the composers go through this whole story about some girl who used to dog watch for him, and that it was just platonic, blah, blah. All fine, except for that video.

But that's not the only one:
"Your Sixteen... " - Ringo Starr
"Edge of Seventeen" - Stevie Nicks

Stevie's song is particularly disturbing because like Benny's, it seems very sincere. Lyrics like "He was no more than a baby then".

 

[Z3Dreamer]

Ah, yes, and Joan Jett singing "I love rock and roll". "He must of been about 17" and "Baby, can I take you home, where we can be alone." That doesn't sound real platonic.

She was 23 at the time, if my math is correct.

 

[Amethyst]

For years I thought there was a line in this song that went, "I'll love you till there's fourteen candles on the cake." Could not believe they were playing it o the radio.

 

[JoeWras]

For years I thought there was a line in this song that went, "I'll love you till there's fourteen candles on the cake." Could not believe they were playing it o the radio.

Woah! That's a funky way to hear things! I think it was "I love you to the point you can no longer take." Gotta love those mondegreens.

Actually, Popper's lyrics are darn near poetic genius in that song.

 

[kevdude]

Edge of Seventeen

"Edge of Seventeen" - Stevie Nicks

Stevie's song is particularly disturbing because like Benny's, it seems very sincere. Lyrics like "He was no more than a baby then".

As I recall, the song is about the deaths of John Lennon and one of her uncles who died shortly after Lennon. The "Edge of Seventeen" was the age Stevie Nicks first saw John Lennon, which I believe was on Ed Sullivan. The title was actually a reference to Tom Petty and his wife; Nicks asked Mrs. Petty when they met and she replied at the age of seventeen, but due to her southern drawl Nicks heard "at the edge of seventeen" and thought that sounded very cool and kept it in the back of her mind for a song title. Lennon was the white-winged dove.

 

[JoeWras]

As I recall, the song is about the deaths of John Lennon and one of her uncles who died shortly after Lennon. The "Edge of Seventeen" was the age Stevie Nicks first saw John Lennon, which I believe was on Ed Sullivan. The title was actually a reference to Tom Petty and his wife; Nicks asked Mrs. Petty when they met and she replied at the age of seventeen, but due to her southern drawl Nicks heard "at the edge of seventeen" and thought that sounded very cool and kept it in the back of her mind for a song title. Lennon was the white-winged dove.

Cool.

Stevie: Cool, about Lennon
Benny: Cool, about a dog walker
Ringo*: got some 'xplainin' to do.

* - Not written by Mr. Starkey, just sung

 

[Major Tom]

Cool.
Ringo*: got some 'xplainin' to do.

* - Not written by Mr. Starkey, just sung

16 is the age of consent in the UK.

 

[jimbee]

16 is the age of consent in the UK.

16 is also the most common age of consent by state in the US.

 

[Mdlerth]

Mountain wisdom

For years I thought there was a line in this song that went, "I'll love you till there's fourteen candles on the cake."

Fourteen was the "prime marryin' age" according to Granny Clampett.

 

[Curmudgeon]

The Police:

Young teacher, the subject
Of schoolgirl fantasy
She wants him so badly...

[]
Temptation, frustration
So bad it makes him cry
Wet bus stop, she's waiting...

 

[razztazz]

And yet in 1974 Harry Chapin couldn't say the word "butt" in his song "W.O.L.D." and had to work around it musically to have the listener infer it.

 

[Car-Guy]

My, how things have changed

Anyhow, Barry, at the age of 34, recorded the song and made a video about his love of a 16 year old girl.

Yep, time does seem to change how people view many issues. Thinking about this a bit more, I wonder how civilizations during time periods like the Roman empire viewed such issues when life expectancy was only about 30 (give or take a few years depending on what info source you use). 30+ was considered an old man or women at that time. Even by the 1700 and 1800's life expectancy wasn't that much greater.

 

[Meadbh]

Statistics show that teenage pregnancies are down and that people are marrying later in life compared to 30-40 years ago. I remember a time when most people got married in their 20s. Nowadays, I see most friends and relatives marry in their mid to late 30s.

 

[braumeister]

And we won't even mention Jerry Lee Lewis.

 

[REWahoo]

Yes, things certainly have changed. My maternal grandparents married when she was 15 and he was 44. That was in '95*. It was his second marriage, her first...





* 1895

 

[MuirWannabe]

Girl, you’ll be a woman soon. - Neil Diamond

ABBA - Dancing Queen

Cradle of Love - Billy Idol

 

[JoeWras]

And we won't even mention Jerry Lee Lewis.

He didn't sing about it, he just did it. And it was his 1st cousin removed.

 

[gauss]

Young Girl - Gary Puckett And The Union Gap
Tonight's the Night - Rod Stewart

-gauss
"drops the mike"