"That's How People Grow Up"
(Morrissey/Boz Boorer)

 

These words are transcribed without permission the way they appear in the "Years Of Refusal" album. Additions to the printed lyrics are in darker text while omissions are striken out.

I was wasting my time
trying to fall in love
disappointment came to me and booted me
and bruised and hurt me
But that's how people grow up
that's how people grow up
I was wasting my time
looking for love
someone must look at me and see their sunlit dream
I was wasting my time
praying for love
for a love that never comes
from someone who does not exist 1
But And that's how people grow up
that's how people grow up
let me live before I die
...not me, not I
I was wasting my life
always thinking about myself
someone on their death-bed said: 2
"there are other sorrows, too."
I was driving my car
I crashed and broke my spine
so, yes, there are things worse in life
than never being someone's sweetie 3
That's how people grow up
that's how people grow up
that's how people grow up
that's how people grow up
as for me, I'm OK
for now, anyway.

 

1 On the 2007-2008 Greatest Hits tour (with the exception of its first leg) Morrissey often slightly changed this line to "someone who doesn't really exist" or "someone who doesn't even exist", or to the same variations with 'somebody' instead of 'someone'. In the summer of 2008 and in 2009 he sang "somebody who doesn't exist".

2 Early on the 2009 Tour Of Refusal Morrissey sometimes sang "somebody on their death bed said".

3 On the 2007-2008 Greatest Hits tour and on the 2009 Tour Of Refusal Morrissey often changed this line from "someone's sweetie" to "somebody's sweetie".