Today's culture is hypersensitized to any sexual impropriety. In 1964, we were innocent and fun-loving. I was fourteen in 1964 and a 17 year old girl was practically an adult to me! Just enjoy the music and don't overanalyze the song.
These songs were written for teens, so not creepy. Everything is about dancing, holding hands...pretty innocent lyrics with most songs of this era. P.S. That "woooo" was directly from their idol Little Richard.
It just breaks my heart that this stuff comes off as creepy to generations of people who ironically accept truly explicit and often misogynistic lyrics.
@@Hope...M Depends how sick one's mind is! At 17 I always hung around others 20 and over! No big deal! I was old enough to know better, and doing much worse! I find this song so innocent! It would take a sick mind to twist it!
@@TheBobherriot How old was he when he met the girl? He is singing "she WAS just seventeen". They hold hands and dance. Sounds like a high school prom. He might had been younger than her.
Only a politically correct mind from your generation could possibly ruin such a great song by thinking what you are thinking. I think George was only 19 when this song came out and they may have written it even earlier than that. Besides he could be singing it from the perspective of a teenager. Hell, my mother was married by the time she was 16 and she was 18 when I was born. I thank God for that because even though I am 69 she is still alive at 88. Lighten up and don't get weird on us.
Are seventeen year-olds not allowed to have dances (school dances?) in America? Then why were there US hits "Sweet Little Sixteen," "Only Sixteen," etc.?
I fell in love with this song. It was on the only Beatles album I owned "Meet the Beatles" ( i also had 45s) & a friend had Abbey Road. Nothing inappropriate ever crossed our minds back then. It all felt quite innocent. I would suggest " I Want to Hold Your Hand" and " This Boy" for the next reactions!❤❤❤
Paul and John said themselves This song and especially that line, she was just 17 and you know what I mean, was a line John came up with and it was deliberately to be taken innocuous or provocatively. That is from the lips of Paul with quotation marks around it. So yes maybe you didn't think that but I'm sure a lot of people did and especially nowadays a lot of us millennials do think these things just naturally when we hear people using double entendres. I'm sure there are some people out there who took it in a different way than you or other people. I love this song. I'm just making a point that the lyrics were written deliberately to be considered as innocent or provocative. These aren't my words but McCartney's words. I'm glad it felt quite innocent to you. I like the craftsmanship within writing. This is why I enjoy this song could be taken one of two ways.
The lyrics imply that they are at the High School prom together, and both under age. And dancing together in that environment is not illegal or immoral. And nothing in the song suggests otherwise. Despite all those over the years who want to throw their pretentious hands up and scream "OMG!" Idiots.
Everyone today is quite touchy about a man in his 20's even talking about a 17 year old girl as sexy and or even at the idea of falling in love with her. Paul wrote this song when he was 20 years old. I believe 16 was considered legal in England at the time and the further back in time you go the younger the consent age gets. This should come as no surprise considering life expectancy is at it's highest now, people just did not live as long back then. In fact, in the early 1800's I think it was legal in the U.S. to marry a 13 year old as long as her parents gave consent (Edgar Allan Poe did). Hey, maybe that why everybody was kicking him (allusion to _I Am the Walrus_ lyrics for those who don't know). Anyhow, great tune with some rockin' drums, guitars and vocals. It should have been released as a single in the U.K. I believe it was a "B" side here in the States.
From a musician's standpoint, this one reached out and grabbed me when I was a kid, just like so many others. It just has this sense of electric energy about it, and they are such masters even early on like that with manipulating space in the music. All that space in the arrangement makes everything just pop and punch.
Agreed! Right from the count-in, there was an energy and passion that grabbed your attention. Also, the top ten songs in the months previous to the Beatles' arrival were " Dominique" by the Singing Nun and " Blue Velvet " by Bobby Vinton. The time was ripe for shaking things up!
Actually Paul started writing songs that the Beatles later performed at age 14. And remember in most countries 17 is considered an adult for "adult" activities. You can legally marry a 10 year old in some states in the US with a parent's permission. And we criticize ISIS for doing that. Bizarre indeed!
Where do you get that he was a teenage boy seeing an older girl? Remember the Beatles were in the red light district of Hamburg when they were 17 or 18, depending upon who it was in a group. I've not found where it means he was younger than 17 and speaking about someone older. Where did you hear that because I'm always open for a link or at least a source. You said people read so much into stuff these days. I'm trying to understand how you're reading into this meeting or one word in the song which would lead you to believe objectively that he was talking about a a 17-year-old who was older than him or in this case John and Paul since it had lines from both. Especially the line about she was just 17 and you know what I mean. That was something John altered according to Paul. Look Paul said this is both innocuous and provocative track. So it's not people thinking bizarre thoughts when the songwriter said it was a line intentionally to be taken either way
@@Hope...M You know what, wring your fucking hands over how inappropriate it is, I don't give a shit. Live life that way, seeing exploitation and victimization in every work of art or entertainment. Enjoy it. Or don't.
@@Hope...M So wring your hands and be offended by old movies and songs and TV. Enjoy your perception of art and entertainment saturated with predation, exploitation and victimization.
Bro, I was doing worse things at 17 than dancing and falling in love! Shheesh take it easy, it's a song written when they were young themselves, and when everything wasn't so nefarious! Chiil, enjoy the sound of the 60's! Don't go looking for an issue! I'm almost sure you've heard worse!
I don't have a problem with this song and I like it but also with a millennial I can see through the lyrics and understand metaphors. When he says she was just 17 and you know what I mean, what exactly does he mean? Now remember we're talking about early '60s
@@Hope...M I think he didn't like the original line that he wrote. About "her being a beauty queen." So it was changed to "you know what I mean." I don't make a fuss about it. Remember this song says she "was" (past tense) just 17. I see it as him remembering when he was that same age, and him being at a high school dance. I think you are making something out of it that is not there.
@@robertszekely8686 100% They're so thrown by all this crap these days that they can't go with their natural instinct, or have an independent thought. After listening to this song for nearly 40 years, I never read into it or over thinked it, just naturally thought what you thought. Hang on, that's one of Ringo's covers.
Song is 60 years old. I was 10. Yeah 17, no big deal, not talking about SEX for pete's sake, yeah it ain't deep. They were about 19-20. You have to remember the time. 1964.
You are judging by todays standard. When I was coming up it was entirely accepted for college aged boys to date 16-17 year old girls especially amoung wealthier people. Also how do you know he wasn't reminiscing about a girl from a few years prior perhaps when he was in high school? In fact it sounds like he's talking about a high school dance?
I see a lot of young reactors squirm about stuff in the past that really amuses me. The most hedonistic, crude and godless society in the history of the world and people worry about things like the arbitrary age restrictions we have put up in this day and age. 100 years ago 15 to 16 year olds were routinely married. Earlier than that for many millennia prior to that. Life expectancy in primitive societies was around 22. So, as soon as girls had their menses they usually had children. I’m not advocating child marriage today and definitely think we need to preserve innocence and stop older people preying on children, but teenagers dancing and/or being in love is not scandalous.
I saw the Beatles live when they played Dodger Stadium in the summer of 1966. I was really young, a few weeks shy of my 9th birthday, but I already knew the lyrics to this ⇧ song and many others from previous years. If I had to spend my life alone on a remote island with the music of just one artist or band, it would have to choose the Fab Four. ♡
Wow, hold on there. The song was written in like 1963. It was written for teen-agers. That's who listened to rock n roll. Look at songs from earlier. Sam Cooke had a big hit with "Only Sixteen". Bottom line you have displayed a reaction for all to see. So, you obviously have misjudged the intention of the artist or writer. A learning experience. Now, you know better.
FOR NO ONE. Paul allegedly wrote it because he heard John Lennon and his first wife Cynthia fighting. John was done with the marriage, Cynthia didn't want him to leave her.. Paul said he wrote as if the female was done with guy because he didn't want John to know it was about him. Also John wrote GIRL about his marriage.
Paul McCartney was 20 when he wrote this and yes he is singing about a 17 year old but he could easily be singing about the past. The person in this story could also have been 17 or 18 at that time.
Fun fact: when Paul wrote this song the original lyrics were "Well she was just 17. She'd never been a beauty queen." ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-u97_inloBmY.html
When was the last time it was weird for girls of 17 to go to a dance? Long before 1962, I think! Sad that today we have to edit our reactions to a song like this for non-pc implications.
Brian Epstein did research on this marketing wise they found out the average age of females was 17! They went for it, brilliant marketing to their youthful audience at the time!
When they wrote this song Lennon and McCartney were not more than a few years older than 17. It's not like they were 35. Plenty of young men who have dated 17 year olds or danced with them. It is a legal age. Some songs use the age of 16, which I consider creepy as most people do. Yes, 17 is pretty young, but, 16 is creepy and illegal, "If you know what I mean." . On a sidenote, Paul originally wrote: "She was just 17, she'd never been a beauty queen." But, fortunately, Lennon told him to change it to: "If you know what I mean."
@@robertszekely8686 yes, which was my point. For young men around 20 years old to mention dancing with a 17 year old girl is not illegal. And many 20 year old men have dated or been interested in 17 year old females.
Yeah, this music all started with I Want To Hold Your Hand (SO innocent) and ended up a bunch of half-naked, drug induced hippies at Woodstock in 1969! What a time it was to be alive!
Be careful to not apply modern standards to old songs, or to read too much into the lyrics. Notice that the song is about meeting at a dancing, and him deciding he wanted to dance with her.
People weren't freaking out about men barely 20 years old talking about a girl being 17 when this came out. It was a different time. A time when common sense prevailed over nonsense. These days people freak out if a 20 year old man is with a 17 year old girl, but it's perfectly okay if the man is 25 and the girl is 18. Which is nonsense not common sense.
Different time,different perspective on dating. But then,not every song,in fact very few, are really related to the storyteller in any way in music ( it's like thinking every story you read in non fiction).Music is often aimed at what is a popular sound for a age demographic.That song was aimed at teens and young adults as a dance tune.
I like the fact that you considered her age in relation to the age of the men singing. I think it says a lot about your life compass, respect for women in general - and therefore respect for yourself .... good on you ...
