Live 13 Feb 1977 version
Big Man!
Well I stood stone-like at midnight suspended in my masquerade
And I combed my hair till it looked just right and commanded the night brigade, whoa!
I was open to pain and crossed by the rain, I walked on a crooked crutch
I strode all alone into a fallout zone, and came out with my soul untouched
I hid in the clouded wrath of the crowd, when they said "sit down" I stood up
Ooh, ooh, growin' up
The flag of piracy flew from my mast, my sails were set wing to wing
Well I had a jukebox graduate for a first mate, she couldn't sail but she sure could sing
I pushed B-52, bombed 'em with the blues, my gear set stubborn on standing
Broke all the rules, strafed my old high school, never once gave thought to landing
I hid in the clouded wrath of the crowd, when they said "sit down" I said "shut up"
Ooh, yeah, growin' up
Boss Time!
[Spoken:] I lost my volume knob! You can't lose your volume knob, I fucked up!
I'll be right back.
[Clarence, spoken:] Two. We'd like to announce, Bruce will be right back, don't go away. The trouble is not in your receiver.
[Spoken:] There I was, riding down this dark road, it was about ten years ago, I was in this old, I was in this, I was in this '63 Impala, Impala that my old man gave me, after he racked it up into a tree. Now, he said if I could scrape it up off the tree, I could have it. So, I scraped it off and it was me and Miami and the Big Man, we was riding down this dark road, like, taking these girls home, you know, and we took 'em out to the movies and we took 'em out to dinner and we say, "Okay, what you girls wanna do now?", you know? They say, "We wanna go home!" Alright, you know, alright. So, we take 'em down this dark road and I turn the headlights out and I turn off all the lights in the car so it was so dark you couldn't see nothing and we were just getting down this stretch of road, and all of sudden, all of a sudden, from out of the sky came this big flashing light. It was a little bigger than that in truth, but that'll have to do for now. But, anyway, it sideswiped the Impala, right? I put my foot on the brake, went skidding off into the swamp, right? And, uh, like, the girls, they was cursing and screaming at us and stuff, you know, saying we was assholes and stuff 'cause we didn't know what we were doing, so, like, my, you know, gimme a break, you know, but it was like, we looked over in this field and whatever it was that sideswiped us was sitting there in the middle of, in the middle of the swamp and it was all shiny and uh, humming and uh, had a STP sticker on the side, Chevy spark plugs on the side, it had Hooker headers and, and it said, "Big Daddy Don Garlits." So I said, "Miami, that's Big Daddy Don Garlits over there, man!" And he said it wasn't him, right? I said, "Sure it is, sure it is, he wiped us off the road!" So we go ver there, right, we check it out, we get out of the car, the girls are cursing at us, and we walk through the mud, right, now we're sort of uptight, you know, 'cause like the car's all fucked up, the car's all wrecked up and we're all muddy and like, uh, so we get over there and like the thing's just humming and stuff. All of a sudden it opens up, right, the thing opens up, out comes this cat doing this, uh, like, this Michael Renny-impersonation, you know? And he comes stumbling down there, down the, down the ramp and, uh, he says, "Hey, you guys, hey." He talked just like me, it was funny, you know, he said, "Hey, is this Mars?" We said, "No, no, no, man, no, man, you got the wrong block, wrong block, this is," we say, we started laughing and stuff, we said, "This ain't Mars, man, this is New Jersey! What're you doing here ?" He says, "This is New Jersey, huh?" He says, "Well, tell me how to get to the Turnpike so I can get this thing out of here," right? So we said, "No way, man, you wrecked the car on us, the girls are all pissed off at us, we ain't going to tell you how to get anyplace!" So, he said, "Okay, we'll make a deal, make a deal, give you guys one wish and, uh, then you tell me the way to the Turnpike." Said, "Alright, alright, alright, that sounds pretty good." So, so, said, "Okay, Miami, what do you want?" Miami thought for a long time, Miami said, "I want a blue suit"... boom! In a second, man, he had a blue suit, that's where he got that blue suit, I'm telling you. Right? Yeah! It's like, then said to the Big Man, "Big Man, what do you want, man, what's your wish ?" Big Man thought a few minutes, consulted with me, we decided white suit... boom! Gets the white suit! Big Man's standing there like that. So, like, now it was my time, right, and I was thinking real slick, I was thinking, like, a million bucks...My own Laundromat... Let me see... New wheels for my car, no, no... Um... So finally I said, "Okay, Mr. Spaceman... Mr. Spaceman... Mr. Spaceman... I wanna be... Mr. Spaceman, my wish is... I wanna be... I wanna be... I wanna be... a rock and roll star!"
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
I hid in the mother breast of the crowd, when they said "pull down" I threw up
Ooh, ooh, growin' up
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, growin' up
The above lyrics are for the live 13 Feb 1977 performance of GROWIN' UP at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Canada, during what is known as The Lawsuit Tour. The song was played in a full-band, album-style arrangement, and featured a story in the break.
Despite the marvelous reception received by both Born To Run and the tour which followed, the relationship between Bruce Springsteen and his now former manager and producer Mike Appel was deteriorating. In July 1976 the storm broke; Mike Appel wrote to Springsteen saying that he would not allow Jon Landau (Springsteen's friend and co-producer of Born To Run) to produce the next album, citing a particular paragraph from their original agreement. Springsteen replied on 27 Jul 1976 by firing manager Mike Appel and suing him and his management company Laurel Canyon Ltd. in Federal Court in Manhattan, claiming fraud, breach of trust, and undue influence. Appel counter-sued on 29 Jul 1976 in New York State Supreme Court, asking the court to prohibit Springsteen and Jon Landau from working together in studio. Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band were slated to enter the studio that year for the recording of a new album, except that on 15 Sep 1976 the judge in the lawsuits case ruled that Springsteen was enjoined from any further recording with Columbia Records until Appel's suit was resolved. This would drag for about a year. Meanwhile, Springsteen continued gigging, and in the process broke his self-imposed rule of not playing the larger arenas. This was basically because he was not able to put a record out, and it was the only way his fans would be able to hear him at all. The tour became known as "The Lawsuit Tour" (62 know dates, August 1976 to March 1977).
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band performed a concert at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Canada, on 13 Feb 1977, during what is known as The Lawsuit Tour. The pass below right shows that this show was rescheduled from 10 Feb 1977.
The 13 Feb 1977 show in Toronto was commercially released in Europe. Since 2005 some enterprising record labels in Europe (mostly in the UK) have been releasing Bruce Springsteen radio and TV broadcasts (and some soundboard recordings) from the seventies, eighties, and nineties. Though these releases are not authorized by Bruce Springsteen or his record company, they are lawful due to a legal loophole in Europe.
Thanks Jake (ol'catfishinthelake at BTX and Greasy Lake) for the lyrics help.
List of available versions of GROWIN' UP on this website:
GROWIN' UP [Album version]
