The Ramones had already done enough by 1978 to be considered legends. “I Want To Be Sedated”, “Sheena Is A Punk Rocker”, and “Blitzkrieg Bop” all arrived within two years of each other and remain crucial punk additions to America’s great songbook.
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By the time The Ramones released Adios Amigos, the world was a very different place than when they arrived in 1976. A lot had changed, including the band’s lineup. But The Ramones as a cultural institution endured. Their cover of Tom Waits’s “I Don’t Want To Grow Up” distills the stubborn will of a band that rarely deviated from its look or sound for 20 years.
About “I Don’t Want To Grow Up”
The title suggests a kid avoiding responsibility. But after observing how unhappy the adults are, the narrator would rather stay young or become a dog than face dreary adulthood.
Tom Waits’s original, written with Kathleen Brennan, appeared on his 1992 album Bone Machine. His version sounds broken, like an older man mourning his fading youth. But in Joey Ramone’s voice, there’s still a trace of innocence to the sentiment.
How do you move in a world of fog,
That’s always changing things?
Makes wish that I could be a dog.
Many trade happiness for stability and security. But the child only sees symptoms. So when Ramone sings about people who become something they dislike, it’s through the lens of a child wanting to avoid misery. It reminds me of Don Henley noticing “a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac” in “The Boys Of Summer”. The lost dreams, ideals, and optimism.
You might think, “These punks just need to grow up.” But the whole point of punk rock is to reject the status quo. Also, Ramone’s pop delivery makes the stubbornness feel lighter and less like some snotty kid shirking future responsibility.
Seems that folks turn into things
That they never want
The only thing to live for is today.
‘¡Adios Amigos!’
The Ramones said goodbye, literally, on Adios Amigos. After years of infighting and commercial disappointment, the band’s 14th and final studio album arrived in 1995, two decades after its groundbreaking debut.
Stylistically, the album isn’t far removed from where they began. This was a group utterly unconcerned with changing trends or chasing the pop-punk success of the bands they inspired.
For The Ramones, “I Don’t Want To Grow Up” couldn’t be a more perfect way to begin the final album. Here we are. Same as it ever was.
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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