A track from his debut album, Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J., "Growin' Up" is about Springsteen's adolescence. We learn that he was a rebellious kid, very self-assured, and good with words. His primary adversaries were his high school, where he wouldn't conform; his home town of Freehold, New Jersey, where he felt stifled; and his father, a factory worker who wanted him to get a real job instead of pursuing music.
"Growin' Up" is a live favorite that Springsteen performed at most of his concerts in the '70s and '80s. As his discography grew, it often got bumped for other songs, but he still squeezed it in from time to time.
Bruce would often lead into the song with stories of his youth that got more florid over time. In the early years, he would sometimes stop in the middle of the song and tell a story relating his life to Peter Pan, the boy who wouldn't grow up.
This was one of the songs that convinced Columbia Records to sign Springsteen. In 1972, he got an audition with John Hammond, who had also signed Bob Dylan to Columbia. What was supposed to be a short meeting turned into a two-hour audition, with "Growin' Up" as one of the highlights.
The musicians on this track are David Sancious (keyboards) Vini Lopez (drums) and Garry Tallent (bass), all members of Springsteen's band, which didn't have a name at this point. On their next album, they were christened The E Street Band, named after the street in Belmar, New Jersey, where Sancious grew up. Tallent never left the band, but Lopez was only around for one album and Sancious left after the second album to form a group called Tone. In a
Songfacts interview with Sancious, he explained how he worked up songs with Springsteen. Bruce would play the song on piano, then they'd sit on the bench and play it together until Sancious took over with Bruce watching. "Those are not harmonically complex songs," he said. "They're more verbally complex."
The song shows up on most of Springsteen's compilations. The version on his boxed set Live 1975-1985 was recorded at the Roxy in 1978. Springsteen intros it with an entertaining rant about growing up in New Jersey. "When I was growing up, there were two things that were unpopular in my house," he says. "One was me, and the other one was my guitar."
David Bowie recorded "Growin' Up" in 1974, but his version wasn't released until the 1990 CD issue of his covers album
Pin-Ups. Bowie's rendition features Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones on guitar.
Around this time, Bowie also recorded another song from the album, "
It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City," but didn't release that one either. This was a major bummer for Springsteen, who could have used the cash - 1974 was a tough year for him financially, as he put a lot of money into his band and was struggling to pay them.
This was used in the 1999 Adam Sandler movie Big Daddy, and also in the 2007 film Gracie.
Springsteen uses "Growin' Up" when he tells his life story through his songs. It's the opening number of his Springsteen On Broadway show, which debuted in 2017. At these shows, he would perform solo and talk about each song and how it relates to his life. His patter for "Growin' Up" goes something like this:
"I come from a boardwalk town where everything is tinged with just a bit of fraud. So am I. In 1972 I wasn't any race-car drivin' rebel, I wasn't any corner street punk, I was a guitar player on the streets of Asbury Park, but I held four clean aces: I had youth, I had a decade of hardcore bar-band experience, I have a great group of musicians and friends who really knew my playing style, and I have a magic trick. Now, I'm here tonight to provide proof of life to that ever-elusive, never completely believable, particularly these days, us. That's my magic trick. And like all good magic tricks, it begins with a setup."
