GROWIN' UP

Live 07 Jul 1978 version

[Spoken intro:] This is for a fellow sent me a note backstage. Said he's here with his son who's six years old. Are you here any place? The cat that sent the note? Is that you? It was a fine note, and, uh, this was his son's first rock show or something, rock concert? I forgot his name. [chuckles] It was Jason or something. And uh, this is for him and this is for everybody else that's still growing up. There I was... Gotta get my buttons straight. There, I got it. There I was one night, just a normal guy. And then, there I was the next night -- goddamn it I was still just a normal guy. I was...

Well I stood stone-like at midnight suspended in my masquerade
Then I combed my hair till it was just right and commanded the night brigade
Well 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
Hid in the clouded wrath of the crowd, when they said "sit down" I stood up
Ooh, 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
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
Hid in the clouded wrath of the crowd, when they said "come down" I threw up
Ooh, ooh, growin' up

Big Man, assist me please!

[Spoken:] I think, I ain't sure, but I think my mother and father and my sister, they're here again tonight. Hey, are you guys out there? You're over there? For six years, they've been following me around California, trying to get me to come back home. Hey Ma! Give it up, Ma! Give me a break! They're still [chuckles] [someone in the crowd: where are they?] I don't know. They're over there somewhere. But, [audience voice: get them to take a bow] you know, they're still trying to get me to go back to college. Every time I come in the house, "You know, it's not too late, you can still go back to college," they tell me. I say, "Alright, alright, Ma". But it's funny, 'cause when I was growin' up, there were two things that were unpopular in my house. One was me, and the other one was my guitar. And my father, he used to sit in the kitchen. And we had this grate, like the heat's supposed to come through, except it wasn't hooked up to any, any like, heating ducts. It was just open, straight down to the kitchen. And there was a gas stove right underneath it. And when I used to start playing, he used to turn on the gas jets and try to smoke me out of my room. I'd end up out on the, out on the roof or something, you know. And he used to always refer to this guitar, you know, never "Fender guitar", "Gibson guitar", it was always the "goddamned guitar", you know. Whenever he stuck his head into my door, that's all I'd hear: "Turn down the goddamned guitar." You know. He used to try to get me to be a lawyer. And it was funny 'cause I was in a motorcycle accident when I was 17. And like, this cat just, you know, ran head on into me and then got out and yelled at me for ruining his Cadillac. And we had like a suit, a legal suit. And my father took me down to this lawyer in town. His name was Billy Boyle, and he later became mayor, which, uh, and anyway, I went down there, and he looked at me, he said, "Oh man, I gotta defend this?" I looked about, just about exactly the same way I look right now. And uh, and like I remember, we were going to court, right? The day of the suit. Like I got, I'm like in the right! I just got hit, and my leg's messed up. And I remember my lawyer telling me, "If I was the judge, I'd find you guilty!" You know? I don't know for what. For being, just for being there, I guess, you know. And I said... But anyway, my father always said "You know, you should be a lawyer. You know, you get, get a little something for yourself." You know? Then my mother, you know, she used to say "No, no, no, no. He should be, he should be an author. He should write books. You know, you should... That's a good life, you can get a little something for yourself." Well, like, what they didn't understand was, was that I wanted everything. [some woman in the crowd: you got it!] And so you guys, you, one of you guys wanted a lawyer, and the other one wanted an author. Well, tonight, youse are both just gonna have to settle for Rock 'N' Roll.

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 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 clouded wrath of the crowd, when they said "sit down" I stood up
Ooh, ooh, growin' up
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Growin' up
Yeah!

It was bye bye New Jersey, we were airborne!

Info

The above lyrics are for the live 07 Jul 1978 performance of GROWIN' UP at The Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood, CA, during the Darkness On The Edge Of Town Tour. The song was played in a full-band, album-style arrangement, and featured a story in the break.

This live 07 Jul 1978 performance of GROWIN' UP was included on the Live/1975-85 box set in 1986. The song is edited on the official release:

• The spoken intro is shortened; the part in red was not included. On the box set, the track starts from "There I was one night, just a normal guy..."
• For legal reasons, the "Lawyer" rap was slightly cut and shortened; the "His name was Billy Boyle..." part in red was edited out.
• The "It was bye bye New Jersey, we were airborne!" line at the end (in bold) is not from the original source tape; it was added from another show.

The 07 Jul 1978 Show

On 07 Jul 1978, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band performed a special concert at The Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood, CA. The full show was originally broadcast live on the now-defunct local radio station KMET-FM, and later became one of the main source concerts for the Live/1975-85 box set which includes eight recordings from this show. One more recording didn't make it onto the box set but was released as a b-side. Prior to its official release in 2018, this show circulated in its complete form on bootlegs (and unauthorized releases) sourced from tapes recorded off the airways.

Ticket stub for the 07 Jul 1978 show at The Roxy Theatre, West Hollywood, CA
(Taken from Brucebase)

It was Jon Landau who suggested to Paul Rappaport, Columbia Records' west coast promotion manager at the time, the idea of a live broadcast on KMET-FM to widely promote Springsteen in Los Angeles. Rappaport had only a few days to organize a concert. The Roxy Theatre, which had a seating capacity of only 500, was selected and the band already booked to play the venue on that date has to be bought out. Ma Bell laid special high-fidelity phone lines at the venue to send audio to the radio station and a remote-recording truck was procured to handle the mix and record the concert on multi-track tapes for future use.

Reel-to-reel tape from which the official release was transferred

Rumors that a special show is happening on Friday 07 Jul 1978 at The Roxy Theatre started circulating just 48 hours prior to the show, and this was later confirmed in the 06 Jul 1978 issue of the Los Angeles Times. Tickets went on sale at noon on Thursday and the venue's limited capacity made getting tickets extremely difficult. With such short notice, tickets were simply stamped onto standard Roxy Theatre stubs (see above scan). It has been reported that the record company had bought half of the tickets, but Springsteen requested that they return half of them to various Los Angeles radio stations who would distribute them to fans.

In July 2018 the complete 07 Jul 1978 concert was officially released on Live.BruceSpringsteen.net (see the "Official Live Downloads" section below for more details). It was recorded live with the Wally Heider Mobile truck by Jimmy Iovine and his crew consisting of Pete Carlson, Biff Dawes, Dennis Mays, Phil MacConnell, and Paul Sandweiss. The audio was freshly mixed by Jon Altschiller from 24-track 2-inch 15 IPS master tapes, assisted by Danielle Warman. It was mastered to DSD and PCM by Adam Ayan at Gateway Mastering Studios in Portland, ME.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band -- The Roxy July 7, 1978

The 07 Jul 1978 broadcast from The Roxy Theatre 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.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band -- The Roxy Theater, West Hollywood July 7, 1978

3xCD - Rox Vox (RV3CD1001) - UK, 2015

This release contains the 07 Jul 1978 broadcast from The Roxy Theatre.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band -- The Roxy Theater, West Hollywood July 7, 1978

4xLP - Rox Vox (RV4LP1001) - UK, 2015

This release contains the 07 Jul 1978 broadcast from The Roxy Theatre.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band -- Roxy Night 1978

3xCD - Leftfield Media (LFM3CD534) - UK, 2015

This release contains the 07 Jul 1978 broadcast from The Roxy Theatre.

Bruce Springsteen -- 1978 Roxy Night Volume 1

2xLP - Let Them Eat Vinyl (LETV386LP) - UK, 2015

This release contains part 1 of two of the 07 Jul 1978 broadcast from The Roxy Theatre.

Bruce Springsteen -- 1978 Roxy Night Volume 2

2xLP - Let Them Eat Vinyl (LETV387LP) - UK, 2015

This release contains part 2 of two of the 07 Jul 1978 broadcast from The Roxy Theatre.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band -- Roxy 1978

Digital album - Lilith Records (no catalog number) - UK, 2016

This is a download-only digital album. It contains the 07 Jul 1978 broadcast from The Roxy Theatre.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band -- The Complete 1978 Radio Broadcasts

15xCD - Sound Stage (SSCDBOX10) - UK, 2015

This release contains the 09 Aug 1978 broadcast from The Agora, the 07 Jul 1978 broadcast from The Roxy Theatre, the 19 Sep 1978 broadcast from Capitol Theatre, the 30 Sep 1978 broadcast from Fox Theatre, and the 15 Dec 1978 broadcast from Winterland Ballroom.

Official Live Downloads

Prior to the High Hopes Tour, Bruce Springsteen's management announced a new service allowing fans to download concert recordings approximately 48 hours after each show. The initial plan required fans to purchase a special USB wristband, which could then be used to download a single High Hopes Tour show of the purchaser's choice and also functions as a regular reusable USB flash drive. The wristband, which could be purchased online or at the concert venue, was priced at $40. Following some negative response from fans over the high cost for the wristband, Springsteen's management subsequently announced a separate cheaper option for purchasing shows directly, without the need for the wristband. The shows were available for purchase and download via Live Nation, Bruce Springsteen's concert promoter, priced at $9.99 for MP3 and $14.99 for FLAC. Audio recordings for 31 of the 34 High Hopes Tour dates (all except 16 Feb 2014, 06 Apr 2014, and 03 May 2014) were released as such and they were available until 30 Jun 2014.

On 17 Nov 2014, Live.BruceSpringsteen.net was launched. It's a new addition to the official website, serving as an online store offering high-quality live concert recordings as well as high-resolution digital releases of Springsteen's album catalog. The download store is powered by Nugs.net in cooperation with Columbia Records. Audio recordings for 30 of the 34 High Hopes Tour dates (all except 16 Feb 2014, 06 Apr 2014, 03 May 2014, and 18 May 2014) were re-released on the new download store in multiple formats, including MP3, lossless CD-quality FLAC or ALAC, and 24-bit HD FLAC or ALAC or MQA, as well as audio CD-R with custom artwork. Nugs.net adopted the MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) format on 24 May 2017. From then on, all Bruce Springsteen live concert recordings, including the previously released ones, became also available in MQA.

Audio recordings for all 75 The River Tour 2016 dates were also released on Live.BruceSpringsteen.net in multiple formats, including MP3, lossless CD-quality FLAC or ALAC, and 24-bit HD FLAC or ALAC or MQA, as well as audio CD-R with custom artwork. Each show was generally released within a month after it took place.

Audio recordings for all 14 Summer '17 Tour dates were also released on Live.BruceSpringsteen.net in multiple formats, including MP3, lossless CD-quality FLAC or ALAC, and 24-bit HD FLAC or ALAC or MQA, as well as audio CD-R with custom artwork. Each show was generally released within a month after it took place.

Archival releases were periodically released on the same site, as part of the Bruce Springsteen Archive Series. These shows were also made available in multiple formats, including MP3, lossless FLAC or ALAC, 24-bit FLAC or ALAC or MQA, DSD, and audio CD-R. So far 90 shows (or sets of shows) were released from the ongoing series.

The Live/1975-85 Box Set

With the Born In The U.S.A. album and tour, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band reached the highest level of rock stardom. Columbia Records was expecting a follow up studio album and tour that would, like it's predecessor, achieve a huge commercial success. Instead, Springsteen released Live/1975-85, an over-three-hours-and-a-half-long live compilation album consisting of 40 tracks recorded at various concerts between 1975 and 1985.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band -- Live/1975-85

The set was produced by Jon Landau, Chuck Plotkin, and Bruce Springsteen, and hit the stores on 10 Nov 1986. It was released as a box set with either five vinyl records, three cassettes, or three CDs. Live/1975-85 is the first album to be credited to "Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band" instead of "Bruce Springsteen" only.

The highly-anticipated live album generated advance orders of more than 1.5 million copies, making it the largest dollar-volume pre-order in the history of the record business at the time. Record stores around the country found fans waiting in line on Monday morning before opening and one New York store reportedly sold the album right off the back of the delivery truck. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard album chart and also became the first five-record set to reach the top 10 and the first to sell over a million copies. Live/1975-85 is the second-best-selling live album in U.S. history based on RIAA certification. It has been certified by the RIAA for 13 times platinum, trailing only Garth Brooks' Double Live.

Other Official Releases

The live 07 Jul 1978 version of GROWIN' UP can also be found on one Bruce Springsteen promo-only sampler.

Bruce Springsteen -- Live 1975-1985 Digest CD

CD-R - Sony (no catalog number) - Japan, 2005

Japan-only promotional "Digest" CD-R advance sampler tying in with the release of the Japanese 2005 "mini-LP"-style CD album reissue of Live/1975-85. This disc comes in a plain slimline jewel case with no artwork.

Live 1975-1985 Digest CD track list

01- THUNDER ROAD [Live 18 Oct 1975 (early show) version]
02- 4TH OF JULY, ASBURY PARK (SANDY) [Live 31 Dec 1980 version]
03- GROWIN' UP [Live 07 Jul 1978 version]
04- IT'S HARD TO BE A SAINT IN THE CITY [Live 07 Jul 1978 version]
05- BECAUSE THE NIGHT [Live 28 Dec 1980 version]
06- RACING IN THE STREET [Live 06 Jul 1981 version]
07- WAR [Live 30 Sep 1985 version]
08- BOBBY JEAN [Live 21 Aug 1985 version]
09- BORN TO RUN [Live 19 Aug 1985 version]
10- NO SURRENDER [Live 06 Aug 1984 version]
11- JERSEY GIRL [Live 09 Jul 1981 version]

Credits

Thanks Jake (ol'catfishinthelake at BTX and Greasy Lake) for the lyrics help.

Available Versions

List of available versions of GROWIN' UP on this website:

Page last updated: 19 Sep 2010