I got into a discussion on Twitter the other day about lyrics from pop songs in the late 50s and the 60s. When it got around to lyrics that would be looked on in horror today (although some of the modern rap stuff is very close to the mark)someone referred to Young Girl by Gary Puckett and the Union Gap.
The claim was that it is a classic example of an older man grooming a young girl preparatory to having sex with her.
Now I remember this song coming out in March 1968 and it was a big hit. In fact it became a classic disco number of the time.
The initial Twitter response across the board was to support the accusation and claim that the song should have been banned at the time and should certainly never be played in modern times.
Now people might have a “thing” about 60s pop music and, considering the number of 60s idols who have fallen foul of the law precisely because they got sexually involved with under-age girls, a lot of it may be true. There were some dodgy lyrics out there – but Young Girl is NOT one of them.
I don’t know if you have ever listened to it, and I don’t know, if you did, whether you just liked the music and didn’t listen to the lyrics or listened and didn’t hear anything dodgy.
In fact the singer is not grooming the girl he is warning her off because he knows she is under age, although he didn’t know that when he first met her.
The song is one of those beginning with a chorus and follows it with the first verse of the narrative:
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
Right from the start he is telling the girl to go away and to stop messing with his head because he knows it would be wrong for him to have sex with her. He tells her to run because she is too young.
Now there are some who might suggest his basic urge is to have sex with an under age girl, but that is not what the song says:
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 And now it hurts to know the truth
There it is – second line – she kept the secret of her youth.
Only now has he discovered her real age and the truth hurts him, possibly because he still loves her but knowing her real age he cannot go back to seeing her as a girl of 17 or 18.
Remember also that this is not a song about a man in his late 20s or his 30s, despite the real age of the singer it was sung on the basis of one teenager to another, even if he was 20 or 21 there is nothing wrong with someone of that age dating a 17-year-old.
Then we come to the second verse:
Beneath your perfume and make-up You're just a baby in disguise And though you know that it's wrong to be Alone with me That come on look is in your eyes
Now we know what he meant about having the charms of a woman, she was dressed up to the nines with all the appropriate make-up normally associated with a girl in her late teens, or older.
He’s now confronting her about her age and is even suggesting that she still loves him but he is telling her and himself that the situation is wrong.
I am not suggesting that she is doing a Jodie Foster from the film Taxi Driver, or is playing him as Lolita played Humbert Humbert. Maybe she just dressed up to fool the people at the dance hall that she was old enough to be there.
Now we come to verse three:
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
He is telling her to go back to her mother who is probably wondering where she is. He emphasises with his “Get out of here” that he still has feelings for the person he sees but now he knows her real age he has to reject her.
I wonder how many lads out there have met a girl at a disco and believed her to be in his age group.
How many young teenage girls borrowed their mum’s lippie, even borrowed a big sister’s posh dress and headed off to the disco with the intention of just deceiving the bouncers, not meaning to lure an older man into her clutches.
To be honest I believe there are more people around today trying to groom young girls than there were in the 60s when I was a teenager.
I do know that when I raised these points on Twitter my post was liked by more than 200 people at the last count.
Maybe the people complaining about the song Young Girl had got the Gary Puckett song mixed up with a Frank Lynch song with the same title, released in 1967. Now there is a song with dodgy lyrics.
If anyone thinks, after reading this, that I am suggesting young girls in the 60s deliberately led on young men then please be aware, I do not go by stereotypes and I am only defending the singer of this song based on the lyrics by Jerry Fuller.
If you know of any songs with dodgy lyrics let me know. There are probably plenty of them out there. Even Elvis is not above singing songs with suspicious lyrics – have a look at the lyrics of Little Sister.
Robin's Nest 