Growin' Up - Live at the Walter Kerr Theatre, New York, NY - July 2018

I stood stone-like at midnight

Suspended in my masquerade

I combed my hair 'till it was just right

And commanded the night brigade

I was open to pain and crossed by the rain

And I walked on a crooked crutch

I strolled all alone through a fallout zone

And came out with my soul untouched

I hid in the clouded wrath of the crowd

But when they said, "Sit down," I stood up

Ooh... growin' up

Well the flag of piracy flew from my mast

My sails were set wing to wing

I had a jukebox graduate for first mate

She couldn't sail but she sure could sing

I pushed B-52 and bombed them with the blues

With my gear set stubborn on standing

I broke all the rules

Strafed my old high school

Never once gave thought to landing

I hid in the clouded warmth of the crowd

When they said

"Come down," I threw up

Ooh... growin' up

"I've never had an honest job in my entire life"

"I've never done any hard labour"

"I've never worked nine to five"

"I've never worked five days a week until

Right now"

"I don't like it"

"I've never seen the inside of a factor

Yet it's all I've ever written about"

"Standing before you is a man who

Has become wildly and absurdly successful

Writing about something of which he has had

Absolutely no personal experience"

"I made it all up"

"That's how good I am"

"Now how, I'm sure you wondering

How did this great great miracle come to pass"

Well, in the beginning there was a great darkness

Upon the waters as a child

It was Christmas, your birthday, summer vacation"

But the rest of life was a life of sucking black hole

A lifeless sucking black hole

Of homework, church, school, homework

Church, school, homework, church,

School, green beans

Green beans, fucking green beans

But then a blinding flash of sanctified

Light, a human being and just a kid

Just a kid from the Southern sticks

But huh

New kinda man and he spilt the world in two and

Suddenly a new world existed

The one below your belt

And

Above your heart

Sunday night 1956, 39 an a half

Institute Street

A cold water flat and into the mind of a 7 year old kid

A revolution had been televised

Right under the noses

Of the powers that be

What would they have known what

Was actually happening

The great changes, the changes that were about

To come

They would have shut this shit down

Or more than likely

Signed it up real quick

Because we the unwashed the invisible

The the powerless, the kids

Would want more

More life, love and more sex and more

Hope and more truth and more power

And more soul

And most of all, more Rock n roll

So I sat with my mom, my little 7 year

Old mind on fire, staring into a blue tube as

The fun happened, fun the real kind

Joyful, life affirming, hip shaking

Earth quaking, guitar playing

Mind and heart changing, race challenging

Soul lifting bliss of a freer existence

A freer existence exploded into unsuspecting

Homes all across America

On a regular Sunday night

The world had fucking changed

In an instant

In a sweating, wet, orgasm of fun

And all you needed to do to

Get a taste of it was to risk

Being your true self

Because a Rock n Roll genie

Had been let out the bottle

And he told us that if you were

Born in the USA my fellow citizens

These feelings, these freedoms

This fun was your birth right

I listened, I believed and I heard

A call to action

So, I studied my new hero

And here he's got the same two

Arms, two legs, two eyes that I got

Yes he is a human Adonis

And I'm oooh pathetically creepy

But I'll figure that part out

The one thing he had that I didn't have was

Wrapped around his waste, it was his guitar

The guitar or as my father had christened

It "That fucking guitar"

But that fucking guitar was the key

It was the sword in the stone

It was the staff of rigorousness

And they sell them at Westaoral down town

For 25 dollars

So I begged and I pleaded with my mother

Just to rent me, because we couldn't afford to buy

A guitar from Mike Deals Music school on

South street, 1:30 afternoon

I brought it home, and I sat on the

Living room coach and I unlatched

It's full alligator key and I slowly opened it up

And up from the green velvet lining

Came the sweet smell

Of a cherry wood cocktail

Power, pleasure, salvation

Dreams and dreams and dreams

So I took lessons, dedicatedly

I took lessons for two solid weeks

And I quite, it was just too fucking

Hard

Learning the guitar, not only was it fucking

Hard, but the lessons were boring

Just give me the three magic cords please

And let me twist and shout

But I was a seven year old kid and

My hands barely fit around the neck and

I couldn't waste my mothers hard earned cash

Week after week so very shortly

I knew back it would have to go

But the morning before I returned it

Strapped it on one more time

I took it to in the backyard where

The neighbourhood kids were

And I put on my first show

Woah, I slapped it, I shook it

I shouted, I sang voodoo nonsense

I burned a hole in the grass

I shook my little 7 year old ass

Wooo, most importantly I posed with it

Thats the shit

I danced with it I did everything but play it

I couldn't do that

I sucked so bad and the kids laughed

And laughed at my silly ass

And we brought it back that afternoon

Riding back home with my mom in the car

Sat in the backseat and I was quiet

And I was thinking,I was a little disappointed

With myself but somewhere inside

Somewhere inside I knew that for a moment

Just a moment infant of those kids

In that backyard, I smelt blood

I took month-long vacations in the stratosphere

And 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 in full costume dress

My feet they finally took root in the earth

But I 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

I hid in the mother breast of the crowd

But when they said, "Sit down," I stood up

Ooh... growin' up

Ooh... growin' up

And it was bye bye New Jersey

I'm gonna be air born