“A teenage dream’s so hard to beat, every time she walks down the street. Another girl in the neighborhood, wish she was mine, she looks so good. I wanna hold her, wanna hold her tight, get teenage kicks all through the night.”
Behold, some shitty socially acceptable pedophiles.
My problem is that this song is so damn good. Musically. Fuck the lyrics a lot. The music to this song rules ass.
That is not true for “Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen” or “Young Girl.” We can file those songs in the hall of shame, never listen to them again, and nothing of value is lost. “Teenage Kicks,” on the other hand…
Somebody rewrite this song for me, please. Thank you.
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alright, i dunno how old feargal and the gang were when they performed this, and one could say he’s doing a character, and the treacly-sounding creep in HBSS was just a few years older than the girl, whatever whatever. the extent to which teenage girl sex appeal has been played up in music, doesn’t leave me feeling very generous about it. i’ve known more than my share of dudes who are hung up on the sex appeal of teenage children. one could, in theory, have that hangup and still power through it to be a decent person, in the way you conduct yourself. reserve it for the life of fantasy, yadda yadda. in practice, no, you get grown men trying to seduce teenage girls – and succeeding way too often.
letting this kind of messaging be acceptable was a big mistake. you shouldn’t be able to say “teenage girls are so sexy” without getting looked at like the slime that you are. certainly you shouldn’t be lauded for it. fucken hell.
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The Beatles, sung by a guy in his 30s: “She was just seventeen, you know what I mean…”
A large part of the appeal is that young children are naive and easily manipulated, so the lazy man doesn’t have to be or to have anything particularly impressive to prey on them.
The song was written in 1977 when the Group members were 19 years old. (It was released a tear later)
The age of consent in the UK is 16.
Teenagers writing about legally having sex with other teenagers. I’m not seeing a problem.
Unless this was satire and in which case, I apologise that i missed it.
it’s disturbing how common sexualization of teenagers is
When I was enlisted, and we got news we were going on deployment to Okinawa, a few people started spreading the rumor(?) that the age of consent in Japan was 13, and it was seriously disturbing how many people were excited to hear that.
1 and 3 – big time
2 – read the second half of my post for comprehension and tread lightly. i address that point, then go on to explain why it don’t assuage the ick.
also nobody has rewritten the lyrics for me yet. i thought you nerds loved song rewrites.
I am not familiar with this song. I read teenage kicks and my nerd brain immediately started singing “All the other kids with their pumped up kicks, better run, better run, …”
It’s not any better from a social standpoint.
i had to look up the pumped up kicks song. that’s wild, yo.
You might like this version better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB1g7Ij8eas&list=RDRB1g7Ij8eas&start_radio=1
Though this is one of my favorites:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFo4u_ADiw4&list=RDgFo4u_ADiw4&start_radio=1
Can’t help you with the lyrics. I can’t seem to find a hook in there to work with.
@Ridana
Those are certainly more comfortable than thinking about shooting teenagers. It reminds me of the Big Bang song by They Might Be Giants. I believe they made a whole album of catchy science songs?
It works, I can still recall the various songs of Schoolhouse Rock that teach grammar.
Rufous Xavier Sassparilla is all about pronouns.
I enjoy this extra nerdy version of Pumped Up Kicks in Early Medieval olde English. The Hildegarde von Blingen version is good too.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JcKqhDFhNHI
Finding that video led me to Hildegarde vonBlingens version of We Didn’t Start the Fire, a real banger by Billy Joel way back in ‘89, when I was a teen. It’s a medieval and renaissance list of notable people and events.
It does help provide both humor and historical perspective to hear “Panic, it’s the Mongols!”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=drDs-Y5DNH8&pp=ygUhd2UgZGlkbid0IHN0YXJ0IHRoZSBmaXJlIG1lZGlldmFs
High nerdiness achieved!
I bought most of the James Bond collection on DVD in about 2010. Rewatching those movies so many years later was a kaleidoscope of thoughts and emotions, but one scene in particular drew me up short:
In Thunderball (1965), Bond is still heavily damaged from the events of From Russia With Love, and is ordered to a certain spa resort to be fixed up. Part of his PT is to be strapped into a machine that is supposed to loosen and stretch his spine muscles. The lovely lady attendant straps him in and selects a gentle setting, but then she leaves him alone for a time (really bad idea). Of course, a villain has discovered Bond is there, and resets the machine to max, which apparently will do serious damage to our hero. After some tense moments Bond is able to reach the controls and turn the machine off just in time for the lovely lady to return.
Here is where it gets really bad: Bond tells her he is OK and doesn’t need any additional people on the scene, BUT then he reminds her that she shouldn’t have left him unattended. Then he tells her in so many words that he will keep his mouth shut for a price. She tries to protest, but he essentially forces her into a steamed up shower stall to extract his “price”.
So, the sexiest man in the world, he whose charms no woman can resist, resorts to blackmail to get his dose of jollies.
This was a hugely popular film, yet I have no memory of anyone pointing to this rape (for that is what it is) and decrying it. Apparently, the zeitgeist of the time was that attractive women were rather like hunted animals, one must bag them by any means available.