GROWIN' UP^©

Live 23 Mar 1977 version

[spoken intro part 1]

I stood stone-like at midnight suspended in my masquerade
Yeah I combed my hair till it looked just right and commanded the night brigade, say!
Well I was open to pain and crossed by the rain and I walked on a crooked crutch
Well I strolled all alone through a fallout zone and came out with my soul untouched
Well I hid in the clouded wrath of the crowd, when they said "sit down" I stood up
Ooooh, growin' up

The flag of piracy flew from my mast, my sails were set wing to wing
Well I had a jukebox graduate for first mate, she couldn't sail but she sure could sing
Well I pushed B-52, bombed 'em with the blues, my gear set stubborn on standing
I broke all the rules, strafed my old high school, never once gave thought to landing
Well I hid in the clouded wrath of the crowd, when they said "come down" I said "shut up!"
Ooooh, growin' up

Big Man!

Get down!

[spoken intro part 2]

Well I took month-long vacations in the stratosphere, you know it's really hard to hold your breath
I swear I lost everything I ever loved or feared, I was the cosmic kid
My feet they finally took root in the earth, got me a nice little place in the stars
I swear I found the key to the universe in the engine of an old parked car
Well I hid in the mother breast of the crowd, they said "pull down" I pulled up
Ooooh, growin' up
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Growin' up

???

These lyrics refer to the live 23 Mar 1977 performance at the Music Hall, Boston, MA.

Check also the album's version (more details), the Tracks version, and the alternative version. The live versions are all pretty similar, and have no important lyrics variations. Only the spoken intro differs. Check them out: 10 Aug 1972, 31 Oct 1973, 05 Feb 1975, 30 Dec 1975, 07 Apr 1976, 27 Oct 1976, 04 Nov 1976, 24 Mar 1977, 31 May 1978, 25 Jun 1978, 05 Jul 1978, 07 Jul 1978, 04 Aug 1978, 09 Aug 1978, 20 Aug 1984, 14 Sep 1984, 22 Sep 1992, 24 Sep 1999, 19 Feb 2003, and 22 Jun 2003.

Spoken intro on 23 Mar 1977 at the Music Hall, Boston, MA:

Part 1: This is a song, this is a song my mother always makes me play it for my father when he comes home. Right. Now, this is for all folks there that was uh, that came to see us when we were starting out over at Oliver's and Charlie's Place, and at Joe's dump (chuckles). Sorry Joe (chuckles). Ah, Professor, please. Let's see how it go now. Oh yeah!

Part 2: There I was. Was me and Miami, the Big Man, we're riding down this dirt road down in the swamps. Just came back off this date where we had these three girls with us in the car that we got 'em to go out with us. All they kept saying all night, we took 'em out to eat, took 'em to the movies, all they kept saying was "we wanna go home, we wanna go home, we wanna go home", right? Alright, happens to everybody, you know, it's like... So we're heading home but we, we was drinking. We take 'em down this dirt road. There was no streetlights, no moon out. We shut off the headlights, all the lights in the car, we tried to scare 'em , you know. It's like I used to tell 'em like I was a mass murderer, you know, ??? axe murders. And like we'd park at the dark side of the road, try to scare the hell out of 'em so the night wouldn't be a total waste. And like, in this night, this night, we're riding down the road. I had my old man's '63 Impala. Riding down the road. And then man, had that thing to the floor, we was screaming, we must've been doing 45, right? Yeah. It stopped there, right? Wanna do 40 uh... So we'd try to have some fun. All of a sudden, they're bitching, bitching, bitching at me, right? Like all of a sudden, out of the sky flying flashing light (weird guitar noise). "Goddamn" I said. It's like, it's like (chuckles). It's like uh, sideswiped the car, right? The car spins off into the mud, right? Spins off into the swamps, it's all messed up, the side all fucked up. My old man's gonna kill me, right? And like, it's like I hit my head on the steering wheel. That's how my nose got like this and then I looked off into the field and there was like, sitting over there in the field was this big silver thing there humming away, so it make mmm noise like that. And like, there on the side it had "Don Big Daddy Kerwich SDP, ??? cigarettes, hope your head is on the side, 347 fuel-injected", right? It's like uh, a competition clutch falling on the floor. It's like (chuckles)... So we go over there, like, and we're feeling sorta mean, you know, because like the car is messed up and the girls they're really, they're really singing the blues now, you know. It's like (chuckles), their clothes all muddy and stuff. So we go over there and we knock on the thing, right? This guy has on the side big sign "??? bust". Sticks his head out, we explain him he ain't on Mars, we explain him that he's in New Jersey and that, not only that... So, he's in for some real trouble, and he's all out of luck and he just racked, smashed up my car, right? So the guy says "listen, just tell me how to get to the New Jersey Turnpike so I can get out of here and get back to my home", right? So we sit, so we sit there and we're like, we said "nah, now we ain't telling you how to get no place till you fix the car". He says "I tell you what I'll do for you guys. I give you guys a wish. I'll give you guys one wish if you tell me how to get to the Turnpike". We thought about it for a while, he said "come on, what you guys wanna be? I can make you guys, wanna be emperors? You guys wanna be kings of the world? You wanna be, you wanna own your own Pizza Hut?", right. So we were thinking, alright we're thinking of stuff so we said "ok we got it, we got it". So we talked out low, we came up and said "Mr. Spaceman, we wanna, our wish is we wanna, we wanna, we wanna be, we wanna, Mr. Spaceman, we wanna, we wanna, we wanna be Rock 'N' Roll stars.