Roll of the Dice: Growin’ Up

The irony was there at the outset.

Long before “Hungry Heart” and “Born in the U.S.A.,” Bruce Springsteen was pairing lyrics that said one thing with music that said the opposite, with a wink that conveyed confidence one wouldn’t expect from a struggling 22-year-old singer-songwriter.

We can hear it all the way back on his very first album, and we can see it even earlier.

That remarkable performance was captured on film more than a half-century ago, just a few weeks before Springsteen’s 23rd birthday. His eponymous band dissolved just weeks earlier, and he was deep into recording sessions for his first album, still months away from record store shelves.

But many of the songs that would see release on that first album were already in the can, including the one Bruce performed in that clip from that August night in 1972.

In fact, “Growin’ Up” was among the earliest songs written and recorded for Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.  Its musical roots date back at least to early 1972 and an abandoned song called “Eloise” that features a familiar melody set against a very different set of lyrics.

It wouldn’t take along for him to discard those lyrics. Although they were much in keeping with his style up until that point, Bruce was starting to write more stylistically, breaking out the rhyming dictionary and embracing staccato alliteration, internal rhymes, and clever turns of phrase that dared the listener to keep up.

Some songs, like “Blinded by the Light” and “Spirit in the Night” were so dense with alter egos and coded circumstance that they almost seemed written solely for their cast of characters. Others, like “The Angel” and “Mary Queen of Arkansas” seemed more like “Eloise,” sophisticated lyrical poetry that bordered on (some say ventured into) pretension.

“Growin’ Up” stands out for its approachability. It’s no less flamboyant than any other track on Greetings,  but Bruce shows just enough lyrical restraint for the casual listener to grok what he’s singing about, if only they pay close attention.

“This is a song about growing up,” Bruce says in that 1972 performance above.

He’s lying, of course.

If “Growin’ Up” is a song about growing up, then it’s a song we’d expect from Peter Pan dragged kicking and screaming into adulthood, or by Calvin, not long after being forced to give up his stuffed tiger.

Because “Growin’ Up” isn’t about growing up at all. It’s about refusing to grow up–something that Bruce made obvious every night on stage with a shaggy dog story that only grew shaggier with each retelling.

Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. is the only Springsteen album that doesn’t have a title track, but “Growin’ Up” meets the criteria in every way but titular. With its brazen lyrics and brash confidence, it announces Bruce’s arrival and introduces him as an artist ready to tackle grown-up themes without letting go of his youthful rebelliousness. It’s no wonder that it was covered almost immediately by David Bowie (a cosmic kid in full costume dress if ever there was one), although it wouldn’t be released for another 17 years. “Growin’ Up” sounds like the autobiography of every kid who ever took up the guitar and dedicated his life to rock and roll.

It was a perfect song for Bruce to audition for John Hammond with in May of 1972, and Hammond was so taken with the song and its writer that he had Bruce record a demo for Columbia Records the very next day. (That demo would see release decades later on Tracks and 18 Tracks.)

The song wouldn’t be complete, however, until Bruce arranged it for a band–namely The Bruce Springsteen Band, which hadn’t yet officially broken up at the time of recording. The core of the band (Vini Lopez on drums, Garry Tallent on bass, and David Sancious on piano) provides the backdrop for Bruce’s vocals and acoustic guitar, but it’s Sancious who provides the magic  that makes “Growin’ Up” take flight.

Transposing the song’s simple but instantly identifiable riff from guitar to piano made all the difference. When Sancious (and then later, Bittan) plays those opening notes, we’re instantly teleported into a cinematic flashback. On guitar, the riff is wistful; on piano, it’s playfully nostalgic in a way that sets us up perfectly for what’s to come. It’s so effective that it almost makes the muddy, amateurish production (which plagues the entire album) sound intentional, a vintage piece from decades earlier.

And yet beneath its playfulness, there’s a lot of seriousness. It’s as if Bruce is answering the question, how do you grow up without growing up? 

How do you enter the world of adulthood without losing the vitality of youth? How do you fit into a world that asks for conformity without sacrificing the rebellion demanded by rock and roll? The famous real-life introvert and on-stage extrovert tells us how it’s done:

Well 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 and I walked on a crooked crutch
I strode all alone into a fallout zone, 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

Before we even dive into the meaning of the lyrics, let’s take a moment to appreciate their artfulness. Bruce wastes no time at all before diving into alliteration with “stood stone-like,” and internal rhymes abound (stone-like and midnight, pain and rain, alone and zone, clouded and crowd… almost every line has rhymes within rhymes).

As for the content, it’s pretty clear: the masquerade is Bruce’s stage persona, and midnight is when we’re most likely to find him, backed by his night brigade of a band. By day in his secret identity, he writes from painful experience and insecurity; at night, on stage, he rebels and rises above, despite the discouragement of the authority figures around him.

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
And I pushed B-52 and bombed ’em 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, ooh, growin’ up

The second verse treads similar ground, albeit more playfully.  (The connective thread between jukebox graduate, B-52, and bombing with the blues ranks among the best of Bruce’s early lyrics.) Again though, there are some almost-hidden confessions to be appreciated: he never once gave thought to landing. Bruce had no Plan B, which is probably a major reason why he never needed one.

Notice also the contextual switch from “clouded wrath” of the crowd to the “clouded warmth.” Bruce writes of two different crowds. In the first verse, he faces the wrath of authority and community, those who reject or dismiss his aspirations. In the second, he bathes in the adoration of his audience whose only demand is more.

It’s interesting, though, that Bruce colors both of them as “clouded.” Neither sees or appreciates his true self, so he remains apart from both.

The final verse places Bruce firmly on the precipice of adulthood, establishing roots in his community even as his alter ego gains a national following.

I took month-long vacations in the stratosphere and you know it’s really hard to hold your breath
Swear I lost everything I ever loved or feared, I was the cosmic kid in full costume dress
But my feet they finally took root in the earth but I got me a nice little place in the stars
And 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 pulled up
Ooh, ooh, growin’ up

Going out on tour as a rising rock star probably feels a lot like an extended vacation in the stratosphere–it’s easy to lose your grounding, your sense of home and identity. Bruce hadn’t yet reached anything resembling any level of commercial success, but with a record deal finally in the bag, he could smell it and taste it.

Yet in the final lines of “Growin’ Up” there are hints that Bruce’s narrator may not have made it big after all. He’d finally set down roots, and he now finds escape in his old junker of a car instead of on stage. But at least he’d had his glory days, and he can revisit them (his nice little place in the stars).

Even now, though, when he looks back on his experience, he has no regrets. He made it through his youth without compromising or conceding, and he’s content with where he is now. It’s the kind of present one wishes for when it’s still one’s not-too-distant future.

We never do get any sense of our narrator’s age–he could be fifty, thirty, or twenty. But we get the sense that he has plenty of growin’ up left ahead of him.

With over 600 performances to date, “Growin’ Up” remains one of Bruce’s most-performed songs. (Although it certainly got a big boost in that regard from Springsteen on Broadway).

Its simple structure and personal lyrics render “Growin’ Up” almost infinitely malleable. Bruce has played it with the E Street Band hundreds of times, and it frequently appears in his solo set lists too, arranged for guitar, piano, and even ukulele.

During his 2006 tour with the Sessions Band, Bruce dramatically reinvented “Growin’ Up” to fit that tour’s folkier sound.

In any incarnation, “Growin’ Up” remains a fan favorite, forever fresh for its appeal to each new generation of aspiring rock stars, the luckiest of whom even get a chance to sing it with Bruce on stage.

“Growin’ Up” is about holding onto youth even as age pulls you inexorably forward. It holds up to this day as a reminder to those of us who did the bulk of our growin’ up long ago that there’s always more to do in front of us.

Don’t forget to pull up.

Growin’ Up
Recorded: June 27, 1972
Released: Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (1972), The Essential Bruce Springsteen (2015), Chapter and Verse (2016)
First performed: May 2, 1972 (New York City, NY)
Last performed: September 4, 2021 (New York City, NY)

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