Ye Olde Hit Parade: I'm An Adult Now

Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs from each year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).

1988: The Pursuit of Happiness - I'm An Adult Now

Ah, the great '88. It was jam-packed with newsworthy events, with the Soviet Union crumbling, George H.W. Bush becoming president, Iran-Contra indictments, James Brown leading police on a crack-fueled car chase and Sonny Bono becoming mayor of Palm Springs, Calif.  

As for yours truly, I finished my junior year at UNH in the spring. The summer was spent doing a reporting internship at the Peabody (Mass.) Times, a daily newspaper about 45 minutes from home. It was a great experience, although it took a while for my editor to let me do anything interesting because the last intern couldn't handle the pressure and quit early. I loved the job and it cemented the fact that this was what I wanted to do with my life. Of course, I was only making $57 a week after taxes, so I continued working night crews at Market Basket on the weekends so I'd have some spending money at school. In the fall, I went back for my senior year, living in the same off-campus apartment. Thanks to my internship, I only needed to take three courses to graduate, but I spaced them out over the full year and took some fun stuff to fill out my schedule. I continued to work at the school paper, but instead of serving as editor-in-chief, I opted to step back a bit and become a staff writer. This meant I could stay involved but not have to spend as many hours there as I did the previous year. I also turned 21 that fall, so I could finally drink legally in bars.

Musically, it was a fun year as well. The alt-rock revolution continued to grow slowly. I enjoyed new music from U2, Jane's Addiction, the Pixies, Living Colour, the Church, the Smithereens, R.E.M., and the Waterboys, among others. Older rockers did well, with new releases from Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards and the Traveling Wilburys, along with big releases from Metallica, Public Enemy and Run DMC. On the pop side of things, Bobby Brown had a huge year, as did George Michael, Terence Trent D'Arby, Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston.



But for me, the biggest song in my world was "I'm An Adult Now," by Canadian power pop act The Pursuit of Happiness. They combined big riffs, catchy choruses and a gruff male singer backed by girl group harmonies. The song was actually released two years earlier, but re-recorded for their debut album Love Junk. Aside from the obvious fact that I had just turned 21 about a month before the album came out, I totally dug the sarcastic lyrics and world-weary outlook. And it didn't hurt that they were Canucks. The video got decent airplay on MTV's 120 Minutes and on the Boston rock stations, but the song wasn't a huge hit. The following January, I went with my friend Arthur to see TPOH open for Duran Duran at the Worcester Centrum with plans to interview frontman Moe Berg after the show for our college paper. They played a blistering set in front of a half-empty arena of Durannies, who were only interested in the headliners even though they were definitely in a down period. Sadly, when we went backstage afterwards, TPOH had already left; apparently, their manager didn't let them know about the interview.

The song was a good precursor for what I would end up really getting into over the next decade: Loud, snotty, punchy indie rock. Bring it on!

Honorable mentions: The Pursuit of Happiness - "Hard to Laugh"; Jane's Addiction - "Mountain Song"; Pixies - "Where Is My Mind"; Living Colour - "Cult of Personality"; Living Colour - "Middle Man"; The Church - "Under the Milky Way"; Robert Plant - "Heaven Knows"; Smithereens - "Only a Memory"; Jimmy Page - "The Only One"; Keith Richards - "Take It So Hard"; U2 - "Desire"; Metallica - "One"; The Waterboys - "Fisherman's Blues"; R.E.M. - "Orange Crush"; Fine Young Cannibals - "Johnny Come Home"; The Godfathers - "Birth, School, Work, Death"; Camper Van Beethoven - "Eye of Fatima"; Public Enemy - "Don't Believe the Hype"; Neneh Cherry - "Buffalo Stance"; Rob Base & DJ EZ-Rock - "It Takes Two"; Bobby Brown - "My Prerogative"; Terence Trent D'Arby - "Dance Little Sister"; Morrissey - "Suedehead"; The Sugarcubes - "Birthday"; The Dead Milkmen - "Punk Rock Girl"