At Seventeen- Janis Ian

I learned the truth at 17 That love was meant for beauty queens And high school girls with clear skinned smiles Who married young and then retired The valentines I never knew The Friday night charades of youth Were spent on one more beautiful At seventeen I learned the truth

And those of us with ravaged faces Lacking in the social graces Desperately remained at home Inventing lovers on the phone Who called to say 'come dance with me' And murmured vague obscenities It isn't all it seems At seventeen

A brown-eyed girl in hand-me-downs Whose name I never could pronounce Said, 'Pity please, the ones who serve They only get what they deserve' The rich relationed hometown queen Marries into what she needs With a guarantee of company And haven for the elderly

Remember those who win the game Lose the love they sought to gain In debentures of quality and dubious integrity Their small town eyes will gape at you In dull surprise when payment due Exceeds accounts received At seventeen

To those of us who knew the pain Of valentines that never came And those whose names were never called When choosing sides for basketball It was long ago and far away The world was younger than today And dreams were all they gave for free To ugly duckling girls like me

We all play the game and when we dare To cheat ourselves at solitaire Inventing lovers on the phone, Repenting other lives unknown That call and say 'come dance with me' And murmur vague obscenities At ugly girls like me At seventeen

Oh, one of these nights at about twelve o'clock/ This whole earth is gonna reel and rock / Saints will tremble and cry for pain / For the Lord's gonna come in his heaven airplane

If God had a name what would it be? And would you call it to his face? If you were faced with him In all his glory What would you ask if you had just one question?

And yeah, yeah, God is great Yeah, yeah, God is good Yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah

What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us Just a stranger on the bus Trying to make his way home

If God had a face what would it look like? And would you want to see If seeing meant that you would have to believe in things like heaven and in Jesus and the saints and all the prophets

And yeah, yeah, God is great Yeah, yeah, God is good Yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah

What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us Just a stranger on the bus Trying to make his way home

Trying to make his way home Back up to heaven all alone Nobody calling on the phone Except for the Pope maybe in Rome

Yeah, yeah, God is great Yeah, yeah, God is good Yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah

What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us Just a stranger on the bus Trying to make his way home

Just trying to make his way home Like a holy rolling stone Back up to heaven all alone Just trying to make his way home

Nobody calling on the phone Except for the Pope maybe in Rome

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMUz2TNMvL0