Lyrics for Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl as interpreted by fallacies

Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl Lyrics
Used to be the one of the rotten ones
And I liked you for that
Now you're all gone, got your make-up on
And you're not coming back

Bleachin' your teeth, smiling flash
Talking trash, under your breath
Bleachin' your teeth, smiling flash
Talking trash, under my window

Park that car, drop that phone,
Sleep on the floor, dream about me

Used to be the one of the rotten ones
And I liked you for that
Now you're all gone, got your make-up on
And you're not coming back

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Courtney.25
04-07-2005

Rated +1 
a street smart kid and her partner in crime, parter in crime gets caught by the plastic world.

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Courtney.25
04-07-2005

Rated 0 
a street smart kid and her partner in crime, parter in crime gets caught by the plastic world.

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Courtney.25
04-07-2005

Rated 0 
a street smart kid and her partner in crime, parter in crime gets caught by the plastic world.

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pablohoney94704
04-09-2005

Rated 0 
i see a guy thinking about this girl and how she's changed from what he used to like in her. that is, she no longer has that feature. but the guy doesn't want to admit it and he just wants her to want him. maybe?

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Dessel
04-11-2005

Rated 0 
"pitter patter goes my broken heart", the last track on "you forgot it in people" is the same track, but stripped down. basically it's only the strings arrangement.

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NightLight
04-22-2005

Rated 0 
Yes, I thought something similar Pablo, although not at first.
I only realized how the lyrics fit to tell that story after reading them, and not listening them. Due to the female vocalist when I first listened to this song a while back I took it from the female perspective (I am a hetero, guy). From the lyrics alone, however, I interpreted it differently. I saw it as a guy who liked a girl who has now changed, while he liked her just how she was. Now she is into the cosmetic and physical aspects of herself while he just liked her for who she was, not what she looked like.
Anyways, a terrific song!

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NightLight
04-22-2005

Rated 0 
hmm, thats an interesting concept boton, I could definately see that as well.

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Onestrawplease
04-24-2005

Rated 0 
I can't seem to work out if she's referring to someone else who has changed, or if she's referring to herself. It works either way, I guess. :)

Great song.

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matsientst
05-10-2005

Rated -1 
Used to be one of the rotten ones and I liked you for that.

It reminds me of when I was a teenager and our friend left our punk rock crowd and moved on to the more mainstream muffy crowd. We couldn't understand it because she was so great and we couldn't understand why she would want to migrate to a plastic scene.

Such a great song. They did a wonderful job conveying that angst and desperation. I can't help but listen to this song 40 times in a row.

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kellythebeast
05-25-2005

Rated 0 
(I WANT FEEDBACK ON THIS!!

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kellythebeast
05-25-2005

Rated 0 
I think it's "smile in a flash," ...like whoever they're singing about is prepared to put on a mask/smile in a moments notice. in general I think they're talking about someone who used to not give a shit and was, "one of the rotton ones," but got caught up in superficial ways and now the person they used to be, "isn't coming back." They're perfecting themselves to be accepted (bleaching their teeth, caking on the foundation, pretending to be happy), but inside they still feel displaced and they talk shit about themselves and the way they're living now (under their breath of course, they wouldn't want the crowd their trying to please to realize they're not perfect/perfectly happy). unfortunately, no matter how much they want to fit in with these other people, they still find themselves ending up back at the person who's singing the song ("under their window"). When the singer says, "park that car, drop that phone," I see it as a plea for the superficial one to cut the bullshit out (drop the cell phone, forget about her shiny sports car), and come back to way things were when she used to sleep on floors (sleeping on floors is infamous for being associated with punks and the "rotton" lifestyle) and dream about the singer, and wasn't denying she loved him. ....uhhh, does anyone else see it this way?

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Lucabelle
07-08-2005

Rated 0 
"Bleaching your teeth, smiling flash, talking trash, under your breath." This line pretty much sums up the world for girls around 17. It talks about the vanity, the idea that they alwys have to smile, be a bitch, but only under their breath. It's an incredible line. I love the song.

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theorangeseed
07-21-2005

Rated 0 
everytime i listen to this song i have to stop whatever im doing and just melt into the music. so wonderful

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dontxdeconstruct
10-23-2005

Rated 0 
I was talking to a friend about this song the other day, and she mentioned that she saw this song as being from the point of view of a mother thinking about her seventeen year-old daughter and how she has grown up and changed and has different priorities and how she wishes she could be her little girl again. I had not thought about it that way before, but it made perfect sense to me. I really liked that interpretation.

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backy
11-13-2005

Rated 0 
i'm sure when they wrote this song they wrote out of personal experience and every line has much more depth and meaning to them. i can relate to this song. many can. the melody and singing is amazing and i love the way it starts so calmly and then turns into a completely beautiful disaster that crushes you.

YFIIP has a lot of tracks that are connected to each other, it starts slowly then swells up and then goes down and then goes up and then it dies down again. amazing record.

this song is proof how much a small amount of words can mean.

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tackledspoon
12-06-2005

Rated 0 
... She's even 17 years old. I guess there's something about that age, eh? I always thought it was sung for a 17 year old girl who's sort of lost herself.

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stellawasadiver
12-14-2005

Rated 0 
seems like she's singing about a friend who "used to be one of the rotten ones" who has now grown up and turned her back on their friendship

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lzheart
01-25-2006

Rated 0 
i feel that as a seventeen year old girl i have to add my two cents about this song.

when i listen to this song i think of it as me now looking back on all my "teen" years.... at some point you realize that its not enough for a boy to like you if you are not yourself so she is not one of the "rotten ones" anymore because it takes more than a guy's attention to make someone happy. the "park that car, drop that phone, sleep on the floor, dream about me" perfectly describes the confusion of being a 17yo girl, changing your mind all the time, not knowing what you want, knowing what you want but not being able to get it...... anyways i just wanted to say that this is the perfect song to describe life as a girl. i love it

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apollo IV
02-12-2006

Rated 0 
i absoluetly adore every single part about this song. it is so identifiable with everything that people go through. it just helps to know that someone else feels the same way that you do out there, i guess.

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ndo
02-16-2006

Rated 0 
I agree Botono9. It's about the regret all rebels feel as they mature and become less sure of their previous convictions.

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Bandwitch
02-20-2006

Rated 0 
I dont understand why everyone likes this song???
what is so great about it?
listen to Bandwitch
haha

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bigleague
02-22-2006

Rated 0 
I think we can all agree the meaning is about a person who used to be cool and not care what other sthought of them, but then became superficial, but the only part that confuses me is it says put your makeup on? Most guys don't wear makeup, which makes me wonder if the girl is a lesbian, singing about herself, or it's about a boy singing to the girl. Confusing. Or maybe the guy is just metro? He did bleach his teeth

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Bandwitch
02-23-2006

Rated 0 
www.myspace.com/brokensocialscene4life

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NothinReally
02-25-2006

Rated 0 
Here's one guy's interpretation...Does anyone remember the '80s movie "Can't Buy Me Love" with Patrick Dempsey? This is a song sung by the girl version of that red-headed dude that gets his door poohbagged by Dempsey after he's with the cool crowd...instead of being guy-nerd-best friends, the song's about girl-punk-best friends. It doesn't have to be boyfriend/girlfriend or lesbian gf/gf just because she says "dream about me". She could have chosen less perfect words, but she's carrying the idea of "sleep on the floor" (punk reference along with "rotten ones") into remembering how things used to be even if she can't/won't do it while she's living her new lifestyle (awake). In the middle where she sings "Bleaching your teeth / Smiling flash / Talking trash / Under your breath (Under my window)" the last part is a bit sad because if you listen to the tone of her voice, she's implying that her "best friend" is now talking trash under HER window. Think of how red-head dude's feeling when Dempsey's mask comes off when he's caught in the net. In the first part she still has hope of her friend being punk again because she changes "and your not coming back" to a quick "can't ya come back?" (this might also be "ain't ya come back" which would short for "aren't you coming back?"). It's this hope that carries through even though she thinks her friend is now talking trash about her behind her back and why she still wants her friend to "dream about me" or the way things used to be...

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Brian_Wilde
03-25-2006

Rated 0 
I won't lie, this song was on repeat for weeks. It wasn't the lyrics that really got to me though, just how well put together it was and how many different instruments from oh-so different genres they twined together. Good song, they do have better I must say.

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