Devendra Banhart wrote 'I Feel Just Like a Child' when he was 18, but it wasn't until he was 23 or 24, during the making of the album 'Cripple Crow', that he felt it was right to record it properly. As a teenager, he had demoed it as a slow blues on an unplugged electric guitar, imagining himself as an old blues musician. By the time of 'Cripple Crow', Banhart had found his musical family, including producer-musicians Andy Cabic, Noah Georgeson, and Thom Monahan, alongside artists like Joanna Newsom and Adam Green. They were part of an anti-folk scene labelled 'freak-folk'.
The recording took place in Bearsville, a legendary studio in upstate New York set up by Bob Dylan's manager Albert Grossman. Banhart describes living in a utopian bubble in Woodstock, where music from any era felt available. The group had a hippy ethos of pacifism and egalitarianism, but Banhart was aware it was not the 1960s, adding a parody element to their work. However, 'I Feel Just Like a Child' was genuine, expressing his ability to be naive and idealistic without shame.
For the 'Cripple Crow' version, Banhart added more lyrics, including a homage to Marc Bolan with the line 'From my womb to my tomb', a reference to T. Rex's 'Cosmic Dancer'. The song was written from a child's perspective, with lines like 'I need you to help me blow my nose' and 'I need you to please explain the war', reflecting the idea that adults ruin everything. The line 'I was born thinking all under the sky didn't belong to a couple old white guys' comments on global wealth inequality.
Influenced by Fela Kuti, the song became more of a groove. The band wanted to do something more interesting than a key change, so in the middle of the song, it sounds like everything goes underwater. When someone walked past the studio with a husky, Banhart asked, 'Do you want to howl with your dog?', resulting in a dog being credited on the album. The video, filmed by friends, captures the era, with Banhart often wearing only tiny shorts.
