https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=25&v=MhJgpwS2bJk
Bruce Springsteen – Freehold at Summerville Theatre in Summerville, Boston MA on February 19, 2003
Growin’ Up. I’m not gonna do that again. But uh, [chuckles], Growin’ Up was uh, that was pretty, pretty straight ahead, that was just sort of the youth that I imagined for myself that I probably didn’t really have, except on occasion, you know. It was just one of those things once again just sort of a, an imagined youth I suppose, you know? But it, it, it caught something in it, maybe it was just a sense of fun, fun I was having with the words and, and uh, uh, the freeness I was having with language at the time just made me feel young, right? When you back to those songs they still feel fresh, you know? And those are the ones I always thought, would say, “Man, I didn’t listen to that record for long time after I made it,” you know. And I thought like I’d used up all the words and that was it, I wouldn’t ever, [chuckles] I was done now. But uh, uh, that whole song once again, that one line, from Growin’ Up was uh, “key to the universe, find the key to the engine of an old parked car.” That was the line for me that, that, that, that, that made the song a success It meant that if you try hard enough, you can find it anywhere, you know. If you’re, if you’re willful enough, you can find it anywhere. And so that was, that was that song. That was a song I wrote when I was about 22 years old, now I am going right to a song covering the same territory that I wrote when I was about 50 [chuckles]. And uh… this is the same, the same territory that, that song covered with about 30 years extra, you know. Let’s see what I have, see how I did, alright, let’s see, alright. I was going back to my, my Catholic school when they were… they needed help, they’re building uh… uh… they had a building project that was going on and I, I felt I’d held a grudge long enough, you know what I mean [chuckles – cheers] Now I was gonna, I was gonna let it go. So uh… so I said “alright,” and I went back and I played in the school gym and uh… and all the nuns and the, and the priests where there, and there was even a couple of them that came back from wherever they go when they’re done to that night, you know, and everything was pretty merry, but uh… I wrote this song for dedication, for, to cover the things that were wrong. Here we go.
The Fat Angel Sings 