No One Ever Grew began life as a slightly goth-orientated track, which I used to play at live venues with a solo-guitar-and-vocals setup. It was steadily embellished over time, until it reached the format it's in here, with a more pop-focused and produced sound.
The song was sparked by a fantastic quote I heard a couple of times in the media ("No one ever grew by being measured"), which chimed perfectly with the experiences I'd been having in corporate environments. Everything was about targets and measurement, to the point where people barely had room to breathe. The song seeks to expose the nonsensical nature of making a numbers game and an assessment out of literally everything, and points out that the people who made the most valuable contributions to life, were not being micromanaged into oblivion.
The main guitar part was played on a 1960s Gibson Melody Maker.
LYRICS
VERSE
It takes no more than forty-five seconds to determine what a man is like
In less than a minute the evil can kill you and the brave can save your life
But one mad place in the land of the blind there's a whole new set of rules
Grades and assessments, authority behaving like a fool
CHORUS
No one ever grew, by being measured
No one ever grew, by being measured
No one else but you, can further your endeavours
VERSE
Hendrix didn't get a GCE in electric lead guitar
And Shakespeare didn't get a manager's permission to practice as The Bard
Da Vinci didn't have a supervisor trashing his self-esteem
So give me space, and I'll do something you could never dream
CHORUS
No one ever grew, by being measured
No one ever grew, by being measured
No one else but you, can further your endeavours
We can get fame for fifteen minutes but the interview takes twelve weeks
We even go through exams to determine if we're fit to clean the streets
But all machines have a smaller brain than the system mastermind
And system designers are only experts in system design
CHORUS
No one ever grew, by being measured
No one ever grew, by being measured
No one else but you, can further your endeavours
VERSE
We could spend our lives doing good for the world but there really isn't any time
We're too busy trying to prove we're fit for purpose and toe the figgin' line
The catalogue of failure in the world is much too long
But failure's only failure when somebody says you're wrong
CHORUS
No one ever grew, by being measured
No one ever grew, by being measured
No one else but you, can further your endeavours
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