In a perfect Seinfeld voice, “What’s the deal with age?” Are you “of age?”, Have you reached the “
age of accountability?”, The “age of consent?”, Are you “underaged?”, or Are you of “legal age?” What is your “age?”, How old are you??? Questions that have been questioned, answers that have been sought since that pesky Eve took a bite of the forbidden fruit, then passed it on to that boyfriend of hers. Well I don’t have the answer either, you would have been shocked if I said I did, but whatever, lets look at this age old question (why yes that was a pun) from a musical perspective. Shall we?
Blues and Rock musicians have always been fascinated with the age factor, especially the age of the females of the species. Which brings up that magic number, wait, there are actually two magic numbers, have you guessed them yet? Fine I’ll spell it out , the magic numbers of “Sixteen” and “Seventeen”. Yep, you’ve already got that Winger song running thru your head, don’t you?
Before we get into examples and discussion points, lets get some background. The roots of Blues go way back to the early 1900’s, Rock and Roll which is based off the Blues kicks in, the mid 1950’s. Here’s where Dave’s brain goes on full rinse cycle with fabric softener. The next points are my own, ideas that come to me in the middle of the night. Got it? Alright then here we go. By 1900, the migration to the larger cities from the farms was well established. Kids were expected to grow up faster back then, my mom married my dad when she was sixteen. A lot of couples got married right out of high school. So, if you are married by say 18 or 19, then 16 and 17 are the dating fun years. Get my point now? Singing about a sixteen or seventeen year old girl / boy was perfectly normal. Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen are kid’s ages, eighteen and nineteen are old married people. But sixteen or seventeen, wow now your talking primetime! Right smack dab in between childhood and old age. Plus the words sixteen , seventeen kinda roll off the tongue making them simple to work into verse. I haven’t lost you yet have I? Good. Now for some fun.
Blues musicians seem to really like the term “little girl”. Not creepy in and of itself, but from Good Morning Little School Girl, done by multiple artists, “Good morning little schoolgirl, can I come home with you? Tell your mama and your papa I’m a little schoolboy too, Come on now pretty baby I just can’t help myself, You’re so young and pretty I don’t need nobody else”. Howlin Wolf said it in Backdoor Man, “I’m a back door man, The men don’t know, but the little girls understand”. BB King was a bit more blunt with Sweet Little Angel, ”I’ve got a sweet little angel, I love the way she spread her wings”.
The Fifties have Sixteen Candles, “You’re only sixteen (sixteen), But you’re my teenage queen, (You’re my queen) “. Chuck Berry had Sweet Little Sixteen, “Sweet little sixteen, She’s got the grown up blues
Tight dress and lipstick”. Sam Cooke in Only Sixteen has “She was only sixteen, only sixteen. But I loved her so, But she was too young to fall in love, And I was too young to know”. It keeps going and going.
To the Beatles, “she was just seventeen, you know what I mean….”. Ringo as a solo artist said, “ your sixteen, your beautiful and your mine”. REO Speedwagon in Little Queenie states, “she’s too cute to be a minute over seventeen”. Joan Jett said, “I saw him dancin by the record machine, I knew he must have been about seventeen”. Elton John’s suicidal teenage lesbian hooker in “All the Young Girls Love Alice” sang “She couldn’t get it on with the boys on the scene, but what do you expect from a chick who’s just sixteen?”. Janis Ian and the melancholy “At Seventeen”. And of course Winger’s, “she’s only seventeen, her daddy says she too young but she’s old enough for me”. Now we’re starting to get a bit creepy. Finish it up the ultra creepy from the Knack’s My Sharona, “Such a dirty mind. Always get it up for the touch ,Of the younger kind. My my my i yi woo. M M M My Sharona” oh dear!
Sometimes it’s just simply not a good idea to read between the lines………..the insights are simply those of the simple-minded writer.