Annotated lyrics for The Hold Steady song 'Teenage Liberation' - 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