At Seventeen Chords by Janis Ian

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [G#m] _
_ _ _ This is not to be arrogant in any way, shape, or form,
because I have plenty of that in other areas of my life. _
_ _ But _ [N] I've sung that song in Ireland
and watched 30,000 people sing it back at me.
And I've sung that song in Japan and watched
an entire crowd of people who don't speak a word of English
sing it back at me.
I mean, I've watched people do that all over the world.
_ And I said, _ don't you think that every writer like me
dreams of one day hitting a universal, just
one time in your life?
It's like that major pop fly right out of the park.
You dream that you're going to hit one song one time
where everybody who hears it is touched.
And everybody who hears it feels like it belongs to them.
_ And I said, if you get once in your life
to write something that crosses race and gender and culture
and all the other things that we put up between ourselves
to make sure we don't get too close to [F#] one another, _
if you can do that for just one moment,
then someone like me thinks, well, this life
was very much worth living.
How could you get tired of that?
_ [B] _
_ [G#m] _ _ _ _ [B] _ _ _
_ _ [G#m] _ _ [B] _ _ _ _
_ _ [G#m] _ _ I learned [B] the truth at 17.
_ _ [E] That [G#] love was meant for [C#m] beauty queens [F#] _ and high school
girls with clear-skinned [B] smiles, _ _ married young and then retired. _ _ _
_ _ [G#m] _ _ _ [B] The Valentines I never knew.
_ [C#m] Friday [G#] night [E] charades of youth [F#] _ were spent on one more beautiful.
[B] _ _ At 17, I [G#m] learned the truth.
[B] _ _ _ _
_ _ [G#m] _ _ [D] And those of us with ravaged _ [E] faces, _
lacking [F#] in the social [Bm] graces, _ we [Em] desperately remained at home,
[Bm] _ _ inventing [Em] lovers on the phone [G] who called to say,
come dance with [B] _ [Bm] me. _ _
[E] Mermaid [Em] vague obscenities, [C#m] _ _
it isn't all it seems [F#] at 17.
_ _ _ _ _ [B] A brown-eyed girl in [G#m] tandy gowns,
[C#m] whose name I never [E] could _ [F#] pronounce, _
said, pity, please the ones who [B] serve,
because they only get what [G#m] they [B] deserve. _ _ _
_ _ [G#m] _ And [B] the rich relation hometown queen
_ _ [E]
buries into [E] what she needs [F#] with a guarantee of company
_ _ [B] _ and haven for [G#m] the elderly.
[B] _ _ _
_ _ [G#m] _ So [D] remember those who win the game,
[E] lose the love [F#] they sought to gain _ [Bm] in [Em] debentures of _ quality
[Bm] and dubious [Em] integrity.
_ _ [G] _ Their small [F#]-town eyes [Bm] will gape at you in dull surprise
[Em] _ when payment [E] due [C#m] _
exceeds accounts received [F#] at 17.
_ _ _ _ _ [B] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ To those of us who knew [G#m] the [B] pain _
[C#m] of [G#] Valentines that [E] never came,
_ [F#] _
those whose names were never [B] called _ when choosing sites
for basketball, _
_ _ _ _ [G#m] _ _ [B] it was long ago and [G#m] far away.
[F#] _
_ [C#m] The [G#] world was younger than [E] today _
[F#] _ when dreams were all
they gave for free [B] _ to ugly duckling [G#m] girls [B] like me.
_ _ _ [G#m] We [D] all play the game, and when we dare,
[C#m] we cheat ourselves, it's [F#] _ solitaire.
[Bm] _ Inventing [Em] lovers on the phone, _ [Bm] _ repenting other [B] [Em] lives unknown.
_ [G] They'd call [F#] and say, come [B] dance with [Bm] me,
_ and [Em] learn my vague _ [E] obscenities _ [B] at ugly girls like me _ [F#] at 17. _ _ _
_ _ [B] _ _ _ _ [A#] _ _
_ [G#m] _ _ _ _ [B] _ _ _
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_ _ _ _ [C#m] _ _ _ [N] _
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