17 Crimes
by AFI

Album: Burials (2013)
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Songfacts®:

  • The second single from the California rock band's ninth studio album, this track is about the reckless, carefree freedom of living and loving at 17. AFI singlehandedly wrote this song in 15 minutes. Their guitarist Jade Puget came in with the verse riff and singer Davey Havok wrote lyrics and demoed it out.


    The second single from AFI's 2013 album Burials, this song is about the reckless, carefree freedom of living and loving at 17. In a 2013 interview with Radio.com, frontman Davey Havok explained that the song came together very quickly.

    "It was very immediate. Writing '17 Crimes, it felt like we were playing a song that had already existed," Havok explained. "[Guitarist] Jade [Puget] sat down and started playing chords, and the top line for the verse came to me immediately. He shifted to the chorus, [and the] top line for the chorus came to me immediately. I sat down, I wrote the words. Those flowed as easily as did the rest of the words for the record, which were stream of consciousness, virtually. And the song was written within 15, 20 minutes." >>>
    Suggestion credit:
    Charlie - Houston, TX
  • This peaked at #49 on the rock chart and #25 on the Alternative Songs chart in the US.
  • Matt Stawski directed the music video, which finds a group of teens wreaking havoc in a house that's under construction.

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