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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edgette
09-01-2008

Rated 0 
i think this song really really hits you hard once you've surpassed the ridiculous teenage years where you are struggling to find yourself. once you've made it to the other side and reconnected with who you really are and always will be this song completely bitch slaps you haha

i think it is 17 (as opposed to 18 or 16 or whatever) because once you reach 18 you're an adult officially and shoved off into the adult world of caring for yourself. But at 17 you are still a child but are beginning to realize that, that part of your life is over and you see what you've become and what you've really left behind.

that's my take on it, coming from a girl who has known this song since it came out, but then i was only 15 and originally i didn't really get what all the hype was about and why this song meant so much to people, but once you get to the place where you've found yourself again and can look back and see how you've changed and possibly offended some people along the way, this song means so much, and almost acts as a tribute of the loss of your childhood and innocence in growing up.

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Johnieam
08-23-2008

Rated 0 
I think it's a girl singing about her ex-best friend.
She says the girls "used to be one of the rotten ones" and that's why she liked her, meaning she was probably unpopular.
Then the girl became popular [got your make-up on, bleachin' your teeth, smiling flash (taking pictures)] and the girl's best friend starts talking behind her back [talking trash under my window] and isn't the girls friend any more [And you're not coming back].
Then she tells her ex-best friend to get rid of all her material things [her expensive car, cell phone, and bed] and to think back about her [dream about me].

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mono
08-16-2008

Rated 0 
The title of this song should probably taken as a bit tongue in cheek; it seems it's written from a sort of adult point of view, looking back fondly on the past. The concerns and things the song mentions are trivial but that's part of what makes them beautiful.

I think the song is a perfect blend of trivial teenage worries, realization of their triviality and fondness of remembering them just as they were anyway.

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SeanSkyline
08-12-2008

Rated 0 
Wow this song means the world to me. An absolute favorite of mine. I didn't discover this song until Half through April. I was very into alot of the people who are in BSS such as Stars,Metric,Emily Haines And The Soft Skeleton,Feist etcetc.

So one day I settled to finally to listen to BSS and started with Anthems because I heard Emily sings it.
It was much different than I thought it would be but I kept listening to it. A week later due to a soft of relationship that my heart got drained out ended in the worst way possible I needed to get out so I took a bus to a record store and there was that cd(YFIIP)sitting there I quickly picked it up and went straight to the register when I got home I blasted it on a stereo and just lost myself and when that song came on I got goosebumps all over me because I realised what the song meant to me.

In my opinion it can go either way from failed friendshups to relationships or to just look back at the past to see how much you've changed.

I never knew how little use of words can scream out such a powerful message.

Best song ever hands down.

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matty wolf
08-07-2008

Rated 0 
this song reminds me of someone i use to know and wish came back...

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littlebabykatie
06-27-2008

Rated 0 
i'm not sure if somebody already said this:

Bleachin' your teeth, smiling flash
Talking trash, under YOUR BREATH

& then the 4 time they say it, it's changed to window.

maybe i'm just picky, but i love this song, and its bugs me to see it incorrect.
[:

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milky1210
06-16-2008

Rated 0 
This song is so incredibly perfect. From the simplistic trails of words to the plucking of the banjo. All the melodies seem to intertwine so neatly and I think that's why this song catches the trained ear so well.

I think a few people have really got the meaning of this song down, apart from depicting the epic necessities of a teenage girl, but rather doing such from an outsider's point. Any girl who is like this, everyone but other girls see it. Older or younger ages see it and realise what such a weird time it is.

It seems to me that it's a sad change from an outsider's point of view, like there is absolutely no hope to bring them back.. they have to realise it for themselves. "Now you're all gone, got your make up on and you're not coming back" and she's not going to return to being one of the "rotten ones" again.

alas this just a part of growing up and that's life.

such a beautiful, beautiful song that portrays my ex-girlfriend down to all but her teeth. Sad but true.

And sometimes you just can't listen to any other music after this song :)

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tef
06-08-2008

Rated 0 
this song is so monotonous, and still i like it so bad!!!!
i think it's about this seventeen year old girl who's become preppy and shallow, and the way someone misses her real her.

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veggiesplease
05-07-2008

Rated 0 
This song is so beautiful in its simplicity.

Its very simple. Its the struggles of a teenage girl. (Hence the title)

A girl is in love with some guy and doing everything just to be noticed. The girl is probably frustrated that she isnt getting any feedback."talkin trash under your breath"

All of her efforts are just to be reasured will you think of me? "Park that car, drop that phone, sleep on the floor, dream about me."

anthems- its always a struggle

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joeshmo39
04-24-2008

Rated 0 
I think someone touched on it but I think that main repeat verse is just her thinking about a friend who got in with the popular crowd and got away from her. She wants that girl to stop with the cell phone and the driving and just come have a sleepover in the living room. I think subject/gender stuff is up for debate too but that's my read.

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dustybreeze
04-13-2008

Rated 0 
yay! :)
please post a link or something about it on here, i'll check back!

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kconheady
04-07-2008

Rated 0 
the dvds don't come out until june, but i shall post it when i get it!

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dustybreeze
03-09-2008

Rated 0 
kconheady damn i wish i saw that.
sounded very interesting : )
any chance you videotaped it and put it on youtube?

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kconheady
03-03-2008

Rated 0 
my friend choreographed a dance to this song.
across the stage there was a white sash, stretching the entire length of the stage, about a foot high.
and it was composed of about 8 dancers, moving across the stage, following the path of the sash (which signified the path of life). they weaved over, under, and across the sash, kind of like saying that the path of life is only a general guideline.

and it was mainly solos pieced together, one solo would begin when the dancer before them was about halfway across the stage. but sometimes, even if only for a count of 8 or two, there would be a small duet, their paths would cross. everyone travels the road of life differently, but sometimes you need someone to help you get where you're going.

there was alot of fast, shaking, almost whiplash type movement, followed by slow, sustained extensions. the piece as a whole was about growing up.

it was beautiful.

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tmtmidget
01-17-2008

Rated 0 
the "park that car..." verse is one of the greatest ever in a pop song.

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txstatekate
12-29-2007

Rated 0 
it's about realizing that you just want that one special person to stop what they're doing and mean something. i miss the days when emily haines toured with broken social scene.

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digital_bull
11-20-2007

Rated 0 
i think it's really a general song about someone who you really loved for them, then over time he/she changed for the worse, and its the anguish of the wanting everything to be back to the way it was, even though you know it won't.

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derkasaur
11-18-2007

Rated 0 
She does sing "talking trash under your window" once. I say it should be changed to under your breath then put another of the same verse with window.

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derkasaur
11-17-2007

Rated 0 
There is a mistake in the lyrics. She sings, "Talking trash under your breath" not "talking trash, under my window"

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Schlechter Penguin
11-04-2007

Rated 0 
Oh, wow, I love this song.

I know you've heard this idea so many times, but this is how I see this song...

"Used to be the one of the rotten ones
And I liked you for that"
'You' could either refer to a friend of the narrator, or the narrator's self. As one of the "rotten ones", she was a real person, and the narrator liked it this way because she (or her friend) wasn't fake.

But in these lines:
"Now you're all gone, got your make-up on
And you're not coming back

Bleachin' your teeth, smiling flash
Talking trash, under my window"
The person's changed into a makeup-wearing, teeth-bleaching, trash-talking, and possibly backstabbing (I think that "under my window" could mean "behind my back") fake, and the narrator doesn't like it. If the song's not about a friend, then it could mean that the narrator knows that she's changed into someone she doesn't want to be, but she can't turn away.

"Park that car
Drop that phone
Sleep on the floor
Dream about me"
I think this means "come back to your old life, come back to me", something like that.

Except Emily Haines isn't seventeen...

But anyway, even though I'm thirteen and I can't totally relate to this song, I had a friend who turned to the "dark side" described in this wonderful song, and that just makes me appreciate this song even more.

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arcadeonline
10-26-2007

Rated 0 
I think it's about somebody who is close to you changing.

'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'
Say's to me the narrator's person used to be like the narrator, but has now changed and isn't coming back. It could mean that the person the narrator is on about isn't part of a minority anymore. People look down on the narrators group, hence the 'rotton', but now the person has his/her 'make up' on and has changed for the majority.

Beautiful song, I love it when the singer almost whispers 'can't you come back', incredible.

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Jessops
10-13-2007

Rated 0 
i could listen to this song over and over again. Its one of my faves. Paticulary like the title, as i am a seventeen y.o girl!

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lilliebelle
10-07-2007

Rated 0 
For me... I'm sure someone has said what I'm about to say, but I'll give it my best shot.

When I first heard this song I saw desire in layers, which is how it usually is as a 17 year old. You want everything, a little of everything, and slowly you have to focus, choose, make decisions.

There's a desire here for childhood, certainly, for the way things used to be. "I liked you for that" tells me that this girl wanted her friend to stay the way she was, rotten, trash-talking, maybe a tom-boyish type of character.

Of course, they grow up and apart - one starts to wear makeup, drive, spend hours talking. This change is too much for the friend, who has the sudden desire to go back, take everything back and stay children.

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kmmisgod
09-14-2007

Rated 0 
i saw a girl, changing, so indifferent to everything and just letting her life go by. waste away until she's just a teenage ho that she never really knew, that she's hiding behind.

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ipod15
09-02-2007

Rated 0 
I agree with the majority here, this song is about a girl growing up, deciding to change and leaving her best friend(s). I almost wish this song had a happy ending. I reckon everyone can relate to it at some point in their life, whether 17 or not!

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