Thursday, June 03, 2010

Young Girl

A good friend of mine you may know as the occaisional commenter T-Nobes recently made me a mix tape of mostly indie rock songs, but then "Young Girl" by Gary Pucket and The Union Gap came out of nowhere. The thing is, that song, while it kicks ass in its own way, is really kind of disturbing, in that it's about shagging a young girl. How young is the one in this song, you may ask? 14, evidently.

T-Nobes and I got in a conversation about this over email, and he found this bit of information about the song from the guy who wrote the song:

"As far as what inspired "Young Girl", that's another story" says Jerry."I was on the road a lot as an artist, fronting various groups for many years. I guess every entertainer goes through a time when fourteen-year-olds look like twenty-year-olds. That's somewhat of an inspiration...not from my own experience, but just knowing that it happens".

I just don't buy that part where he says "not from my experience." Yeah, right! Why would he take the time to write a song about someone tortured about the decision of whether or not to pork a young girl if he didn't go through it himself. I'm just not buying it. If you look at the lyrics of Jailbait by Motorhead (get a look here), Lemmy writes the song from the perspective of a guy who doesn't give a damn how young she is. I guess when you look like Lemmy, you just take anything that comes your way. "Young Girl" is all about a guy who is laboring over whether or not to bang a 14-year-old, and I'd like to, if I may, break this song down line-by-line like only Dr. Ken can to figure out once and for all if Gary Pucket stuck it.

Young girl, get out of my mind
My love for you is way out of line
Better run, girl,
You're much too young, girl

The fact that he cautions her by saying, "better run, girl" says to me that this guy is likening himself to a Statutory Rape Wolf Man who will reach a point where he won't be able to stop himself. Scary shit right there.
With all the charms of a woman
You've kept the secret of your youth
You led me to believe
You're old enough
To give me Love

I suppose what he means by this is old enough to lay, but you couldn't say that back when this song came out. I really don't think he means old enough to give love, because someone can give love at any age, right? You love people when you're four-years-old, right?

And now it hurts to know the truth, Oh,
Beneath your perfume and make-up
You're just a baby in disguise
And though you know
That it is wrong to be
Alone with me

Again, this is the Pervert Werewolf persona where he's saying that it's highly dangerous that she be alone with a man with so many deep, deep pervert urges.
That come on look is in your eyes, Oh,
So hurry home to your mama
I'm sure she wonders where you are
Get out of here
Before I have the time
To change my mind
'Cause I'm afraid we'll go too far, Oh,
Young girl

I like that line right there. It might be my favorite. He decides in the end to tell her to leave because he is still not entirely sure about turning this one down. What's sad is, the next time the band is in her town, you just know he's going through this whole thing again . . .

5 comments:

Heff said...

I wonder how much "Lemmy" really gets...?

JerseySjov said...

havent you discussed this song before? i got crazy deja-vu when i read this...

"the next time the band is in her town, you just know he's going through this whole thing again..."
yeah, but then she'll be 15 instead of 14, and i think that's the age of consent in at least a couple states.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater said...

Heff: Good point. Lemmy gets as much as his moles allow him.

Jov: I don't think I've talked about this before, but it does sound like something I would have talked about. Also, good point about waiting around for another year . . .

Ms Smack said...

ughhhhhhhhhhhhhh I hate any songs, articles, news reports, court judgements that remove any form of consent, or create a justification for the abuse of children.

I'm terribly bias because I work in the field and see it every day, everywhere. I was just reading on the USA media where, a raped girl (14) had to apologise. No shit. Rapist was a fellow church goer and ít's not 'nice to lay charges to other christians' blah blah.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater said...

Smack: Right, but I hope Gary Pucket was more like the 25 on 17 type of guy and not the 35 on 12 type.