you all know part one by Janis Ian.
this is my own song about being seventeen, growing up as an American kid in London
the song reflects in both style and lyrical content my love of prog, punk and soul music, which defined the 1970s I grew up in
Watch the video of this song on this very page!
the image is of puppeteer at the age of 17
lyrics
At Seventeen, Part Two by Puppeteer C)2021
I still recall the night time walks I took
To the Fulham Road Pan to buy a sci-fi book
And sometimes Parrot Records near Earl's Court
Would recommend a disc that should be bought
Camel, Gentle Giant, Faust, and Strawbs
After school bell rang at French Lycee
I'd cross Cromwell Road with my acoustic to play
I was a Natural History Museum fan
Of the room with models showing ancient man
And there I'd strum 'til some rare modern one would come
I'd bicycle to a Paris Pullman show
Louis Bunuel, Werner Herzog, Francois Truffault
The masters surely left me with an ideal
Of beauty on the reel not in the real
How much the crowds would see me in the clouds
(my guitar jealously wants to sing a little bit here)
I loved so many girls I couldn't count
A few I French kissed, but none would ask me to mount
In novels, poems, music, works of art
I'd try to fill the longing in my heart
What does it mean to be alive? Will I survive?
I lived in a phase of history well told
No slaves or peasants, but people's skills bought and sold
I'd need an avocation, need a job
Scared the rich would have someone new to rob
But mostly so I could find meaning in my demeaning
And then one day I grew wings on my back
And spent all evening flying through the nighttime black
Crashing through windows to bite some necks
Enjoying the thrill of mixing violence with sex
But wait, it seems that last part was just a bad dream
(another opportunity for my danelectro to show off a little)
At 17 I was a kind of messed up kid
Socialist, surrealist, and an atheist Yid
I'd bike around London taking in data
Anthropologist voyeur to study later
Then go back home when I felt too alone
Under sheets at ten o'clock a glow
It was the radio tuned to the John Peel Show
I heard the greatest sounds that ever were
Though compared with them life seemed a hazy blur
I'd weep while my parents thought me fast asleep
Wire, Undertones, Buzzcocks, Banshees
Oh Bondage Up Yours! and In The City
See No Evil and Roadrunner
Sonic Reducer and Psycho Killer
I Wanna Be Your Dog and Alternative Ulster
(some more punky noise from my danelectro)
In clothes boutiques in High Street Ken Market
I tried to flirt unsuccessfully with the odd punkette
I loved punk but kept my love of prog to myself
Whose cassettes I nicked from the Harrods music shelves
For all I failed, how did I avoid a life in jail?
I'd cycle to the Tate to take in Modern Art
Colors have such an appeal when you feel apart
And I'd hang out with Martin in Golders Green
Spinning his vinyl by the Who, and Squeeze, and Queen
He'd sadly swore he'd be dead by 24
In Dark They Were And Golden Eyed within
They'd turn me on to John Wyndham and Ursula Le Guin
I'd catch a meeting of the SPGB
Which excited me with a world where goods were free
What was free at 17 was fantasy
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Watch the video of this song on this page
credits
released June 27, 2020
song written and played by puppeteer, except for bass by the great Sandy Beales (sandybeales.com).
Watch the video of this song on this page
song copyright with US Copyright Office, global performing and broadcasting rights managed by BMI, published digitally globally by CD Baby.
who is puppeteer? i grew up of American parents in Paris and London. i became a psychologist by career, remaining a music
obsessive, writing songs when i could on bits of paper. raising a family prevented creative outlet of that nature. now, as a divorced skeleton, i spend time when i can writing and recording for this collection of songs, entitled Songs of Love and Earth....more
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