when i was seventeen it was a very good year it was a very good year for small town girls and soft summer nights we d hide from the lights on the village green when i was seventeen when i was twenty one it was a very good year it was a very good year for city girls who lived up the stair with all that perfumed hair and it came undone when i was twenty one then i was thirty five it was a very good year it was a very good year for blue blooded girls of independent means we d ride in limousines their chauffeurs would drive when i was thirty five but now the days grow short i m in the autumn of the year and now i think of my life as vintage wine from fine old kegs but from the brim to the dregs it poured sweet and clear it was a very good year