So many are sad stories.
Society's Child. The singer tells her boyfriend, several times, "they say I can't see you any more, baby" and then finally, "I say I can't see you any more" because she is only "society's child". The song was banned in multiple locations and probably would be today because it might make some white people uncomfortable. Someone once said Janis Ian, while in the closet, wrote sad song after sad song.
At Seventeen is devastating and so true for so many young women. Then she came out and wrote happy songs.
Donovan's
To Try for the Sun. A story of innocence and loss but mostly of the deep love between two outcast boys. Boys, not men, ("our years put together counted thirty"). Reminds me of a gay boy I knew when we were both in our teens, a long time ago, for whom I cared deeply. He was handsome, talented, kind, funny and put through hell. Thrown out of his house, he ran off to San Francisco and did what a street kid needs to do to survive. After several arrests was declared an "incorrigible minor" and locked up in juvenile detention. Released on his 18th birthday, he had by then been brainwashed by Teen Challenge, a pray away the gay hate organization, and had to of course stop being friends with me. I wasn't out, didn't even know the name for who I was, but still radical Jewish hippie. He prayed for years and was still gay. Then just exploded out of the closet, headed back to San Francisco, had a few happy years before dying in the epidemic. For you, my friend, whom I never will forget:
And who's going to be the one/To say it was no good, what we done/I dare a man to say I'm too young/For I'm going to try for the sun.
The Boxer, Simon & Garfunkel.
In the clearing stands a boxer and a fighter by his trade, and he carries the reminder of every glove that laid him down and tapped him til he cried out, in his anger and his shame, I am leaving I am leaving
Always sounded like a suicide note.
Although I am personally too ornery to ever be suicidal. Even at my lowest, part of me says "fuck you asshole, I am not dying to make some shithead happy". Maybe that's why I like Joan Jett, there is a lot of "fuck you asshole" about her.
