The moon went behind a petro-chemical plant
I had a feeling I didn't understand
I was shivering on crutches
More dead than alive
It was Christmas 1985
It was the night they let me out of the home
It was the night I caught the bus on my own
And the city slithered past the windows
Like a film that was only just beginning
I was so excited I nearly missed my stop
It was quarter to ten
I was hopelessly lost
I arrived pretty late
But you didn't seem to mind
We are not the first
But we are golden tonight
Like two little children
Under the covers
Adrift in the night
With the universe above us
And I'll be the dad
And you be the mum
And we'll make out we know what it is that we've done
But whatever it is
I know, that it's only just beginning
Trying so, so hard
To act just like a grown up
And it's so, so hard
And we're hoping that we don't get shown up
Cos everybody wants to grow up
Finally part of the new generation
Finally part of the pub conversation
And somehow this leads to mature life decisions
Like the one that I heard of from Jeremy Sissons
Who said he moved near the motorway
Cos it was good for commuting
And I laughed in his face
Cos I thought he was joking
But then I looked in his eyes
And I saw, he was not joking
No: he was trying
Trying so, so hard
To act just like a grown up
And it's so, so hard
And we're hoping that we don't get shown up
Cos everybody's got to grow up
Everybody?
Are you sure?
So you move from Camden
Out to Hackney
And you stress about wrinkles
Instead of acne
And you forget about Tina
Get in a bad mood
And buy a computer
And soon it will be time
For some more food
And later that first night
I had a dream that a new planet had been discovered
And through powerful telescopes
We could see the inhabitants
And they seemed to be having a really good time
So we built a rocket
And I was on it
They put us in a state of suspended animation
For the duration of the journey
And when we landed on this distant planet
We all woke up
And discovered that we'd all lost our memories
And we looked back at the planet we'd just come from
And everyone there seemed to be having a really good time
But we couldn't return
Because the rocket no longer had enough fuel left in it
Why am I telling you this story?
I don't remember...
Why did Mowgli decide to
Come out of the jungle?
To play doctors and nurses
And aunties and uncles
And cavaliers and roundheads
And tarts and vicars
Playing all night
To get in somebody's knickers
And I am not ageing
No, I am just ripening
And life's too short to drink bad wine
And that's frightening
And it's nearly sunset
And we haven't had lunch yet
And I'm sorry for asking
But are we having fun yet?
It's so, so hard
To act just like a grown up
And it's so, so hard
And we're hoping that we don't get shown up
Cos nobody wants to grow up
One last sunset
One final blaze of glory
And I know it's all about the journey
Not the final destination
But what if you get travel sick
Before you've even left the station
An instrumental version of this track was recorded during the This is Hardcore LP demo sessions in 1997. At that time it was abandoned because Jarvis had difficulty coming up with lyrics. It was revisited and successfully recorded for the album More in 2024. The vocals used for this were recorded in a single take.