No clichés, just melodic hooks, honest lyrics dripping with wit and power-pop, and alt-rock harmonies from the heart. That’s Love Junk. The debut from The Pursuit of Happiness (TPOH), released 35 years ago, resonates still; many critics consider it one of the Top 100 best first records ever made. It’s ironic that many compositions on this best-selling album ruminate on age since the band’s frontman — barroom poet Moe Berg — had yet to reach 30 when he penned these songs. And, like the rest of TPOH, he was not yet fully mature.
The band never officially broke up. Members left and a few new members joined over the years. TPOH took its first hiatus in 1996, but since then have regrouped on a regular basis to play shows when the spirit arises or the audience calls.
With Love Junk celebrating its 35th anniversary, the time is nigh to shed some light on this Canadian classic. For the latest Record Rewind, Berg, along with drummer Dave Gilby and original bassist Johnny Sinclair, reminisced about the luck that led to this record’s success and still helps pay a few bills more than three decades later.
“It is hard to overstate how important luck is to becoming successful,” Berg reflects via Zoom, with a framed copy of the Love Junk platinum record hanging behind him. “A lot of things are about right place, right time, and just stupid luck.”
To understand TPOH’s journey — and luck’s role, one must first know the backstory. Berg grew up in Edmonton, Alta. and came to music naturally as his father played in country bands. During his teenage years, and into his early 20s, Berg was an indie trailblazer; he fronted a trio of new wave and post-punk bands: Modern Minds, Troc ’59, and Facecrime.
“That’s what the punk movement was all about,” Berg explains. “In that scene everything was DIY; no club owner wanted anything to do with punk music, so kids became their own managers and promoters. Bands also pressed their own records. Modern Minds did that. We were not going to wait for a record company. If you wanted to make a record you did it yourself.”
St. Albert, a rural suburb of Edmonton, is where Berg first learned to play guitar and collect records, but from an early age, once music became his focus, the goal always was to leave this sleepy town behind one day. Even Edmonton, circa 1984, had given everything when it came to opportunities to advance his music career. “I reached a point where I said, ‘if I’m going to do this, I need to be in Toronto,’” Berg says.
So, in 1985, Berg and Gilby, who played with Moe in his Edmonton bands, packed up their lives, loaded their meagre possessions — Gilby actually sent his drums ahead on a Greyhound bus — and they hit the highway east. Once settled in the big city, the roommates discovered a vibrant arts scene; they also found some other like-minded musicians to form a new band (bassist Johnny Sinclair and vocalist sisters Tamara and Natasha Amabile). TPOH was born.
Berg arrived in Toronto with a pocketful of songs already written like “She’s So Young” and “I’m an Adult Now.” Both were regulars in the band’s set list from its earliest shows and were later Love Junk’s two biggest selling singles.
Like bands before — and since — TPOH honed its sound by endlessly playing live at every club and bar throughout the city: places like the Cameron House, the Cabana Room, and The Rivoli, where they made their official debut as The Pursuit of Happiness. In between working day jobs, and seeing other bands perform, they played and rehearsed constantly.
“I remember the first time I went to a show at the El Mocambo,” Gilby recalls. “I was blown away that every night in Toronto I could see a band … I realized right then that this is where I belonged. I owned a cheap van that we loaded with all our gear and we played anywhere and everywhere that would hire us … we were hungry. I miss those days!”
HIP-HOP INFLUENCE AND THE BIRTH OF “I’M AN ADULT NOW”
Nearly 40 years later, Berg vaguely recalls writing the lyrics for “I’m an Adult Now” — the single that started it all for TPOH. It was a summer afternoon in 1985 and the musician was still living out West.
“Some people reading this may not believe it, but there was a time when people did not have cellphones,” he says. “If you are a songwriter, you are always writing songs … stuff is percolating in your head and you are constantly ruminating on stuff. One day, I was wandering St. Albert and this idea arrived. The lyrics came fast and piled up in my brain.
“Today, people will sing or record a voice memo on their phones when that happens, but before cellphones we called home and sang the lyrics on our answering machines,” Berg continues. “I did not even have that, so I rushed home, grabbed a piece of paper and pen and started writing down all these lyrics.”
Berg was listening to a lot of hip-hop, especially a show on the local radio station CJSR called The Black Experience in Sound hosted by Teddy Pemberton (Cadence Weapon’s late father). A buddy who worked in a neighborhood record store also often shared with him the newest rap releases like Grandmaster Melle Mel and the Furious Five. These listening tastes influenced Berg’s approach on this song.
“When the lyrics were coming, as I was writing, I thought about just saying them,” he says. “It’s not a rap song, but those early hip-hop records gave me the idea that I could just talk and tell a story without actually singing.”
LADY LUCK AND MUCH ADO ABOUT MUCH
TPOH formed in Toronto at a seminal time. Beyond the lively music scene and proliferation of places to play, the group benefited from the recently launched music video TV station: MuchMusic. The “Nation’s Music Station” played an integral role in the success of TPOH; “I’m an Adult Now” was the lead actor.
TPOH had already recorded a four-song demo tape in a friend’s basement on a 16-track to help land gigs. One day, they were brainstorming other ways to market the band and get to the next level, when Nelu Ghiran — a friend who was a director and had worked for the National Film Board — suggested they make a music video.
“He said this in the same way you might say, ‘let’s go play pinball,’” Berg recalls.
The Pursuit of Happiness figured that regardless of how the video turned out, it would be a fun experience. So, they gathered some friends, found a cameraman, and shot a low-budget video for “I’m an Adult Now” in various locales along Queen and Yonge streets. Once completed, in mid-December, they dropped it at MuchMusic, hoping they might play the video a few times. Enter ‘Lady Luck.’
“We all went home for the holidays and when we returned to Toronto we discovered that over the two weeks we were gone, MuchMusic had started playing our video in regular rotation,” recalls bassist Johnny Sinclair, who now lives in Saskatoon and plays in several bands, including Universal Honey and Tucker Lane. “All of a sudden things were different … it’s crazy the impact that video had.”
People were going into Toronto record stores and asking for copies of the “I’m an Adult Now” single by The Pursuit of Happiness. Of course, there were none available — yet.
A MAJOR LABEL DEAL AND 10 DAYS IN THE CATSKILLS WITH RUNDGREN
Following the “I’m an Adult Now” video’s success, the band had local retailer The Record Peddler press a 12“ single that quickly sold out. WEA Canada eventually picked up the single, increasing distribution. Berg also hired an established music industry manager to help the band land a record deal. The duo flew to Los Angeles and New York and met with many of the major labels before inking an agreement.
“We had started negotiating a deal with Elektra Records out of New York and were close to signing that deal when it got scuttled because of me,” Berg says. “We played a gig in Manhattan and I was in a mood. I didn’t think the audience was respecting us enough and said what I thought, at the time, were innocuous comments about them and their city.
“Looking back, I’m not proud of what I said, nor was the president of Elektra who was in the audience that night. He left me a voicemail calling me a ‘star of immense proportion,’ but since I had insulted him as a New Yorker, the deal was dead.”
Moe learned a valuable lesson to temper his comments, and not long after, TPOH signed a publishing deal with EMI Publishing and a record deal with Chrysalis. When it became time to record Love Junk, Berg was asked for a wish list of producers he might like to work with. For a lark, he suggested one of his musical heroes: Todd Rundgren. Somehow, this dream also came true.
The band was playing a Winnipeg dive bar when the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame musician called Moe for the first time.
“That’s the type of thing you fantasize about when you are a kid,” Berg recalls. “Everybody has a fantasy of who they would like to meet, want to talk to, etc., when they grow up. For me, that was Todd Rundgren.”
What was not part of the childhood fantasy was Rundgren telling Berg he was a “terrible guitarist,” but Berg was too overwhelmed talking to his hero to take offence.
“He encouraged me to practice, which I don’t think I did,” Berg laughs. “But, in the studio, he affected the sound of my guitar on Love Junk … he also helped our band define our sound and figure out who we were. That’s one of the greatest things Todd gave us … an identity.”
Love Junk was completed in just 10 days. With Rundgren at the controls and the band in top playing shape, it was quick work at Utopia Sound Studios on his property in Lake Hill, NY, near Woodstock. Other records born in this famed studio include: Living Room Suite (Harry Chapin), Hallowed Ground (Violent Femmes), I Came to Dance (Nils Lofgren), and War Babies (Hall & Oates).
In a Toronto Star piece from five years ago, Rundgren said: “I can say with a fair degree of certainty that no one has done a record to compare with it since. The coed lineup, the stunningly honest lyrics, the sheer aggression — (it) just doesn’t happen that often.”
Reflecting on the making of Love Junk — the songs and those early TPOH days — Berg is filled with nostalgia and gratitude.
“It’s odd looking back,” he concludes. “Certain songs, like ‘I’m an Adult Now,’ and ‘She’s so Young,’ when I wrote them, I was a very young man. I hear them and sing them now and it’s like I’m speaking to my younger self and I think: ‘what’s wrong with you?’ ‘Why are you so obsessed with getting older and looking back on youth?’ That said, they are almost more poignant now than when I wrote them because aging is real for me.
“I’ve never been one of those people that resent the success of certain songs,” Berg adds. “Some artists don’t want to play their hits. Not me, I’m so grateful that I’ve been able to have a life in music that is largely based on the success of those hit songs.”
Record Fast Facts:
Record: Love Junk
Artist: The Pursuit of Happiness
Released: October, 1988
Label: Chrysalis Records
Producer: Todd Rundgren
Sales: Platinum (100,000)
Band: Moe Berg (vocals, guitar), Kris Abbott (guitars/vocals), Leslie Stanwyck (vocals), Johnny Sinclair (bass), Dave Gilby (drums)
Track List:
1. Hard to Laugh
2. Ten Fingers
3. I’m an Adult Now
4. She’s So Young
5. Consciousness Raising as a Social Tool
6. Walking in the Woods
7. Beautiful White
8. When the Sky Comes Falling Down
9. Looking for Girls
10. Man’s Best Friend
11. Tree of Knowledge
12. Killed by Love
13. Down on Him (CD bonus track)
