Teenage Liberation - The Hold Steady

'Seventeen' was an underfunded comedy

About love and drugs and girls and immortality

And most of the jokes just kinda hung around and died

'Nineteen' was a 90 second short

About a cartoon kid who sits and drinks on his porch

And gets pissed

He took one good swipe at his wrist but he missed so he lived

These teenage chicks, they grow up so quick

I swear they must get sucked up by the television

And we’re still losing lights in the fight for the teenage liberation

'Twenty three' was a shot of straight frustration

Flying down the pathways, he was dying in the bars

He mostly ate all his meals in his car

'Twenty nine' was the end of the line

He stayed up for 16 nights at a stretch, he was wrecked

You could see all the veins in his neck when he flexed

These senior class chicks, they’re the easiest to kiss

They got nothing to lose and they know it

You just fill up their cup at the keg a couple a times

And it’s pretty much up to you not to blow it

All the coolest guys have all the coolest rides

But they’re colliding with the inanimation

We’re still losing lights in the fight for the teenage liberation

Teenage heat is a warm and wet and heavy situation

Such sweaty exultation and soft, sharp penetration

On unsupervised vacations

Kissing boys and getting wasted

Hot and soft and generally complacent

'Seventeen' is an underfunded comedy