petra haden “i don’t want to grow up”
from:petra haden & bill frisell, 2003
Tom Waits wrote and recorded this song on Bone Machine in 1992. His delivery, and Jim Jarmusch’s video of it offer a catchy lament by a twisted old dude (although he was only 41 at the time). A few years later the Ramones covered it as a upbeat punk banger. Holly Cole whispered through it as a sultry and fragile plea on her 1995 Waits cover album. But it took Petra Haden to bring it to life for me. Her 2003 version with Bill Frisell cleans it up and recasts it as an age-appropriate protest song. As pure as the snow-driven wind. Frisell’s harmonic textures provide a perfect support system.
-Bill Boehm-
“Well, when I’m lyin’ in my bed at night, I don’t wanna grow up
Nothin’ ever seems to turn out right, I don’t wanna grow up
How do you move in a world of fog, that’s always changing things
Makes me wish that I could be a dog
Well, when I see the price that you pay, I don’t wanna grow up
I don’t ever wanna be that way, I don’t wanna grow up
Seems like folks turn into things that they’d never want
The only thing to live for is today
I’m gonna put a hole in my TV set, I don’t wanna grow up
Open up the medicine chest, and I don’t wanna grow up
I don’t wanna have to shout it out
I don’t want my hair to fall out
I don’t wanna be filled with doubt
I don’t wanna be a good boy scout
I don’t wanna have to learn to count
I don’t wanna have the biggest amount
And I don’t wanna grow up
Well, when I see my parents fight, I don’t wanna grow up
They all go out and drinking all night, and I don’t wanna grow up
I’d rather stay here in my room, nothin’ out there but sad and gloom
I don’t wanna live in a big old Tomb on Grand Street, ooh!”
