DS Throwback – Forty Years of Descendents – “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up”

The number of times the Descendents were thrown in my face was ridiculous. If the universe was ever trying to highlight something to me, it was their music. Every punk kid I knew loved them—even a teacher or two. As I was diving more into punk rock, a lot of bands would cover them. I think I heard more Descendents covers before I even owned a Descendents record. From what I could tell I had just missed them after Milo had gone back to being a doctor after the release and tour of Everything Sucks.

My formal introduction to the Descendents was during my freshman year of high school. Despite showing them off in his CD wallet, a friend wouldn’t lend me Liveage. After I went out and got my own copy, I started buying all of their records. I think I started with I Don’t Wanna Grow Up because Milo Goes to College was sold out at my local record store.

As everyone knows, after the release of their seminal Milo Goes to College, Descendents’ lead singer Milo Aukerman did just that—he went to college to study biology.  Yet, the band carried on with Ray Cooper as vocalist, and Frank Navetta and Tony Lombardo remained on guitar and bass, respectively.  Eventually, Bill Stevenson joined Black Flag and went on to record My War and a slew of other records with them, putting the Descendents on hiatus. Eventually, Stevenson wrote some songs that wouldn’t work for Black Flag but would work for the Descendents. Despite being busy with school, Milo would still drop in on the punk rock scene. Bill brought these songs to Milo.

Released on May 15, 1985, I Don’t Wanna Grow Up was the first Descendents album Bill Stevenson produced for the band. During his time in Black Flag (1984–1985), the band released at least five full-length LPs, and Stevenson helped produce four of them with founding member Greg Ginn. When it came time to reunite the Descendents, Milo took time off from school to reassume vocal duties from Ray Cooper, who moved to guitar when Frank Navetta destroyed his equipment and moved to Oregon to become a fisherman. Tony Lombardo returned, but it was his last record with the band.

The album opens with the song, “Descendents,” which is essentially the band’s battle cry. The music was written by Lombardo, with lyrics contributed by the whole band.  Being veterans of the scene, they also had a somewhat storied career at that point. The lyrics address their hiatus but also continue to solidify their self-deprecating humor. While the band downplays its talent and the type of people it attracts, it does a pretty good job describing the scene and lays the groundwork for the band’s continuing quest for ALL (NO, ALL!)

The album’s title song, “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up,” opens with Lombardo’s playful bass line, and Cooper’s guitar joins in on the fun. The only hint of aggression is Bill’s drumming. Lombardo’s lyrics taunt the suits of the grown-up corporate world and show resistance to joining it. While selling out wasn’t necessarily a new concept at this time, more and more people were falling into this trap. As the saying goes, money changes people. There was always this thought that struggling was the only way to keep oneself humble. For a handful of artists, I think that’s accurate.

As with most Descendents albums, there’s a good mix of emotions. One thing I’ve always appreciated about the Descendents is their lyrical honesty. No matter the subject, you’ll get real emotions from the band, no matter how cringey they may be. This is shown in a trio of songs near the end of side one: Bill Stevenson’s song about virginity (“Can’t Go Back”), Tony Lombardo’s “Good Clean Fun,” and Milo Aukerman’s “My World.” While these songs are hardly ever played, I respect that they were included on the album. It wasn’t a new thing for a band whose previous album included the songs “Marriage” and “Jean is Dead.”

Opening with the Bill Stevenson-penned Silly Girl, side two is definitely the yin to side one’s yang. These songs represent that other side of the band. It continues playing on the corny cringe of the Descendents that strikes a chord with us, which is on full display on Milo’s “I’m in Love This Way” and Stevenson’s “Good Good Things.” Neither was a typical song you’d find on a punk rock album, but the Descendents are not your typical punk rock band.

Christmas Vacation, written by Aukerman and Stevenson, is probably the album’s most underrated gem. While not the most popular song from the Descendents, it’s definitely not one to skip. Most of the songs on the second side are mid-tempo songs about relationships that lean more toward pop than punk. Christmas Vacation is no exception. It tells the story of a relationship’s dissolution during those last two weeks of winter break.

While the album has some great tracks, not everything has aged well—specifically “No FB” and “Pervert.” If you scratch hard enough, you can find something problematic in most old-school punk rock albums, but these songs were written by kids; of course, they’re going to be rough. You can’t encourage someone to express their emotions and then condemn them for not having a perfect worldview when they were in their teens or early twenties. There’s a difference between holding those views at that age and failing to evolve beyond them. Wisely, these songs along with others have been purged from the band’s current setlists.

As collaborative as the band is nowadays, it’s weird to not see any Ray Cooper songs on this album. Tony Lombardo and Frank Navetta started a band, the Ascendents, with Ray Cooper while Bill was in Black Flag, but they didn’t get too far. Still, you’d think there would be at least one Ray song in there somewhere.

Given the vast and revered discography of the Descendents, a few songs—”I Don’t Wanna Grow Up,” “Silly Girl,” and “Good Good Things”—still get played. They used to open with “Descendents,” but looking through setlists, it doesn’t seem to be played much nowadays. Regardless, the album (and its cover art) has endured as one punk rock’s classic albums.