At Seventeen

"At Seventeen" is a song by Janis Ian, released in 1975 on Between the Lines (her seventh studio album) and as a single. Ian's most successful recording, the song is a commentary on society's beauty standards, adolescent cruelty, the illusion of popularity, and teenage angst, as reflected upon from the maturity of adulthood. It is told from the point of view of a woman who was an "ugly duckling" as a girl and ignored in high school while the popular girls got all the attention.

Background

Janis Ian, then 22, wrote "At Seventeen" in 1973 at her mother's house over the course of three months. In her autobiography Society's Child, Ian says that the song was inspired by a newspaper article about a former teenage debutante who learned the hard way that being popular did not solve all her problems. The article included the quote, "I learned the truth at eighteen"; Ian found that the word "seventeen" worked better than "eighteen" when she tried to put this lyric with the bossa nova-style melody she had been composing on guitar. She also says she initially did not want to record or perform the song because she felt it was far too personal to share, but eventually changed her mind after adding the song's final verse ("To those of us who knew the pain/Of Valentines that never came...").

Numeral (linguistics)

In linguistics, a numeral is a member of a word class (or sometimes even a part of speech) designating numbers, such as the English word 'two' and the compound 'seventy-seven'.

Identifying numerals

Numerals may be attributive, as in two dogs, or pronominal, as in I saw two (of them).

Many words of different parts of speech indicate number or quantity. Quantifiers do not enumerate, or designate a specific number, but give another, often less specific, indication of amount. Examples are words such as every, most, least, some, etc. There are also number words which enumerate but are not a distinct part of speech, such as 'dozen', which is a noun, 'first', which is an adjective, or 'twice', which is an adverb. Numerals enumerate, but in addition have distinct grammatical behavior: when a numeral modifies a noun, it may replace the article: the/some dogs played in the park → twelve dogs played in the park. (Note that *dozen dogs played in the park is not grammatical, so 'dozen' is not a numeral.)

Seventeen (Winger song)

"Seventeen" is a single released by the American rock band Winger, from their album Winger. Released in 1988, the song charted at No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100. Despite its pop metal sound, Kip Winger points out that the tune is musically a Progressive song and that it is actually quite challenging to play and sing simultaneously. Along with Headed for a Heartbreak, it is Winger's most popular song for which they are most remembered.

The B-side for this single was the album cut "Hangin' On."

It is featured on the video games, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s for PlayStation 2 and Saints Row for the Xbox 360.

The song was named the 87th best hard rock song of all time by VH1.

On the show Beavis & Butt-Head, Butt-Head comments that this is the theme song for Joey Buttafuoco, who was then known in those times through the Amy Fisher scandal.

References

Seventeen (The Killing)

"Seventeen" is the twenty-ninth episode of the American television drama series The Killing, which aired on June 9, 2013. The episode is written by Eliza Clark and is directed by Kari Skogland. In the episode, James Skinner (Elias Koteas) creates a task force after Sarah Linden (Mireille Enos) discovers 17 dead bodies in a pond. Bullet (Bex Taylor-Klaus) points Detectives Holder (Joel Kinnaman) and Reddick (Gregg Henry) to a new suspect. Ray Seward (Peter Sarsgaard) is slipped a hidden razor blade in prison.

Plot

After Linden finds the pond containing decomposed bodies, Skinner debriefs a task force at the station: 17 bodies were found encased in biohazard bags, throats slashed or heads severed, all female teenagers. Ashley Kwon is confirmed as having likely been killed by the same person. Skinner presumes the killer may hold victims for several days before killing them. Holder mentions teenager Kallie Leeds (Cate Sproule) has recently gone missing. In Skinner's office, Linden suggests a connection to the Trisha Seward case. Skinner gives Linden a badge, welcoming her back, but is hesitant about re-opening the Seward case. In prison, Seward showers next to Alton (James Lewis), who asks about an "A" tattoo on Seward's chest. Becker (Hugh Dillon) says it's for Adrian (Rowan Longworth), Seward's son. Seward finds a razor blade planted in his soap and hides it inside his mouth.