GROWIN' UP^©

Live 25 Jun 1978 version

[spoken intro part 1]

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

Well 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
Well I broke all the rules, strafed my old high school, never once gave thought to landing
Hid in the clouded wrath of the crowd, when they said "come down" I threw up
Ooooh, growin' up

Big Man!

[spoken intro part 2]

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
Hid in the clouded wrath of the crowd, when they said "come down" we said
Ooooh, growin' up
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Growin' up
Hey!

These lyrics refer to the live 25 Jun 1978 performance at Paramount Theater, Seatle, WA.

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, 23 Mar 1977, 24 Mar 1977, 31 May 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 25 Jun 1978 at Paramount Theater, Seatle, WA:

Part 1: Everyplace I go, people come up to me, they say "Bruce, how did you get like this?" And I've to think real hard. It's always to remember back more than week or two. But I remember one night, I was outside, it was a full moon, I was feeling a little crazy, oh yeah (chuckles). You know what I'm talking about, damn. But the ??? is getting to you guys up there (chuckles). And there I was, and I remember...

Part 2: There we were. I remember, was me and the Big Man and Miami Steve. We had this flat tire, we were on this back road, and we didn't have no spare. So we're blaming each other and yelling at each other, and uh, we decided we try to drive the car home on the flat (chuckles). Have you ever done that? You know, that task's not too easy. We get in that sucker and it is bumping and graging, sparks are flying out the (chuckles), the right rear side. And finally we come to a crash in the swamps at the side of the road, and we just sit there in the dirt cursing and bitching. So, we were looking up at the sky, and all of a sudden, we see something we couldn't figure out what it was. Shooting, doing three rings around the moon, came scooting down, hit the planet, hit about five ??? around the room, 36 circle came buzzing down towards us in about three million miles and hour, and passed us (weird guitar noise) by so fast, and like we were all out there... It was about a mile on the road, the guy slams on his brakes, pulls back, sits right in front of us, hovering about ten feet off the ground. It's a candy-apple red flying saucer, chrome ??? wheels, ???, and on the side it says: "Big Daddy Don Garlitz - King Of The Dragsters". We said "oh yeah!" So we thought about getting a ride home with this guy. We had second thoughts, and then we heard some howling coming from the woods (crowd starts to howl). We jumped a close as we can get to this thing. We're holding on tight, knock on the outside. The green guy sticks his head out, he says "hey, do any of you three guys know the way to the New Jersey Turnpike?" Think we had ???. We said "Big Daddy, you are looking at the New Jersey Turnpike." ??? get him to Turnpike, get back tomorrow. He said "I give you guys one wish if you tell me how I can get there." So we thought about it real hard, we didn't wanna make it something too easy. No new cars, we had new close, girls no. So we thought about it, we said "ok, Mr. Spaceman, what we want, and if... This is so cool that you can ??? this up. What we want, is we wanna be movie stars." The guy said "no way. You guys think at the looks. But, would you, would you settle for Rock 'N' Roll?"