GROWING UP

Okay, it's my birthday, so here are a couple songs about growing up. The first is from that old honey-baked ham William Shattner. I knew him in childhood as Captain Kirk. Here he sings a song that's schmaltzy to begin with, and makes it even schmaltzier. The Captain really pours on the cheese in his sentimental version of "It Was a Very Good Year." He's probably been smoking that Romulan ganja.

The second clip is the Garden State's own Bruce Springsteen performing a song called "Growin' Up." Here you have it all: love, hate, joy, confusion, loss of innocence, delusions of grandeur, self-loathing, despair, and utter ecstasy. In other words, growing up. Here the boss plays it quietly, without the bombast and glockenspiels, and I like it that way.