Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl Lyrics

Lyric discussion by botono9 

Cover art for Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl lyrics by Broken Social Scene

I was listening to Anthems... this evening and a new perspective hit me. Not only is she talking about adolescence in general, but about her's in particular. The older, "grown-up" version is looking back lovingly at the person she was growing up, the person that turned into what she is now. She uses the second-person pronouns to refer to the young girl to not only separate her from herself, but to allow the audience to more easily identify with her.

Brilliant.

yeah, that's what I always thought. It's like, she's looking at herself and realizes she loed who she was when she was a kid, and didn't care about rules and being good or other people, but now she is a teenager who wears makeup and brightens her teeth. she wishes she was young again and carefree, but she can't stop it. butthen i can never understand the part where she's like, "park that car, drop that phone, sleep on the floor, dream about me..." so, i think it is possible that is froma younger sister to an older one, wishing her role...

Given your interpretation, she's just trying to get herself into a nostalgic mood. Take a break from being an adult (park that car, drop that phone) and go back to what she'd do as a kid (sleep on the floor) and remember (dream about) how good it used to be.

The younger self looks upon the older self, watching the older self, in turn, "dream" about the old times of being the young self.

Though the young self was probably boisterous, "rotten" and fun, the older self is more mature and cannot return to that state of being.

One of the tragedies of aging, one becomes a different person with time.

(I will interpret "under my window" as the bedroom window of the girl, so the older girl still sleeps under the same window she slept under as a child. This is reasonable because rooms tend...