Seventeen Going Under (2021) – Sam Fender

Jeff at Eclectic Music Blogger first got me onto this song here which I failed to recognise upon my publication of this article.

Sam Fender was invited on BBC’s Future Sounds with Annie Mac and said about the song:

I started writing about growing up in Shields, about me and me mom when things weren’t so great….
It’s really hard to process what’s going on at that age, that’s why I’m writing about it now because, to be honest, a lot of the stuff that happened when I was seventeen and eighteen, it was a lot of big moments and it wasn’t the easiest time of my life. It took us to my mid-twenties to kind of process that stuff and be able to actually write about it in a way that’s, you know, enjoyable.

Seventeen Going Under is the title track of English singer-songwriter Sam Fender’s 2021 album. As alluded to above, the song is a no-holds-barred account of the struggles Fender had at 17. I believe the lyrics of Seventeen Going Under is well worth a visit (but reader discretion advised), before you see the official music video at the bottom of this post. The DWP acronym at the end of the song refers to the Department for Work and Pensions.

The song chronicles Fender’s life at 17 when his mother, Shirley was afflicted with fibromyalgia and depressed because she could no longer work after 40 years of service as a nurse. She had become the owner of her apartment at 19 and had never missed a workday. Nevertheless, the Department for Work and Pensions began harassing her with letters and treating her unjustly. Fender was trying to help his mother financially but could not due to his young age. Fender recalled: “That’s when my rose-tinted glasses fell off.”
– Wikipedia – Seventeen Going Under (song)

The following information was extracted from the Wikipedia article below:
The song was released on 7 July 2021 as the lead single from his second studio album. It was a sleeper hit, peaking at number three on the UK Singles Chart on 7 January 2022, becoming Fender’s highest-charting career single to date. The record was named Hottest Record of the Year 2021 by BBC Radio 1 listener and voted 16 by triple J Australian radio Triple J listeners. In May 2022, the song won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors. It received the 2022 Rolling Stone UK Award for Song of the Year Award.

[Verse 1]
I remember the sickness was forever
I remember snuff videos
Cold Septembers, the distances we covered
The fist fights on the beach
The Bizzies round us up
Do it all again next week
An embryonic love
The first time that it scarred
Embarrass yourself for someone
Cryin’ like a child
And the boy who kicked Tom’s head in
Still bugs me now
That’s the thing, it lingers
And claws you when you’re down

[Verse 2]
I was far too scared to hit him
But I would hit him in a heartbeat now
That’s the thing with anger, it begs to stick around
So it can fleece you of your beauty
And leave you spent with nowt to offer
Makes you hurt the ones who love you

[Chorus]
You hurt them like they’re nothin’
(Oh-ooh-oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh) x3

[Verse 3]
See, I spent my teens enraged, spirallin’ in silence
And I armed myself with a grin
‘Cause I was always the fuckin’ joker
Buried in their humour amongst the white noise and boys’ boys
Locker room talkin’ lads’ lads
Drenched in cheap drink and snide fags
A mirrored picture of my old man
Oh God, the kid’s a dab hand
Canny chanter, but he looks sad
God, the kid looks so sad
And God, the kid looks so sad

[Bridge]
She said the debt, the debt, the debt
So I thought about shifting gear
And how she wept and wept and wept
Well, luck came and died ’round here
I see my mother, the DWP see a number
She cries on the floor encumbered

[Chorus]

References:
1. Seventeen Going Under (song) – Wikipedia