Songs about adulthood
September 26, 2020 11:06 PM Subscribe
I'm looking for songs about the experience of being an adult / adult life
Not becoming an adult. No coming of age songs, please.
This question is prompted by the song Local Construction, which is thus far the only song I've encountered that made me feel completely Seen, in the endless repetitive activities of adulthood that you hope are slowly building up into something lasting, and also in how constantly cars and houses break down, and how both they and yourself keep not being quite good enough but you just keep working at them, but also, just, again, the constant repetitive details of being an adult.
So I want more songs like that, please. Extra points if, like that one, they manage to be at least sort of redemptive about the whole thing instead of dreary/oppressive.
Not becoming an adult. No coming of age songs, please.
This question is prompted by the song Local Construction, which is thus far the only song I've encountered that made me feel completely Seen, in the endless repetitive activities of adulthood that you hope are slowly building up into something lasting, and also in how constantly cars and houses break down, and how both they and yourself keep not being quite good enough but you just keep working at them, but also, just, again, the constant repetitive details of being an adult.
So I want more songs like that, please. Extra points if, like that one, they manage to be at least sort of redemptive about the whole thing instead of dreary/oppressive.
I'm An Adult Now by The Pursuit of Happiness
"I can't take any more illicit drugs
I can't afford any artificial joy
I'd sure look like a fool dead in a ditch somewhere
With a mind full of chemicals
Like some cheese-eating high school boy"
The best!!!!!!!
posted by markbrendanawitzmissesus at 11:45 PM on September 26, 2020 [12 favorites]
"I can't take any more illicit drugs
I can't afford any artificial joy
I'd sure look like a fool dead in a ditch somewhere
With a mind full of chemicals
Like some cheese-eating high school boy"
The best!!!!!!!
posted by markbrendanawitzmissesus at 11:45 PM on September 26, 2020 [12 favorites]
Mary Chapin Carpenter has some excellent songs in this vein. For example, "Middle Ground":
For years she's lived on her own
In a corner of the city
Twice a year she gets back home
Playing catch-up with the family
She tells her folks what they need to know
Her mother says she's much too thin
Her sisters ask about her beau
Her dad inquires, how's business been
She's thirty-three this time around
She's always been real good at listening
Her sense of humor never lets her down
Except sometimes there's something missing
Hey, middle ground
A place between up and down
She could be safe and sound
Oh, to know middle ground
For years she's been on her guard
She's kind of tense around the shoulders
She wonders why she works so hard
She counts the days 'til they promote her
She'll take a weekend now and then
To stay in bed and watch the reruns
She'll turn the phone off when guilt sets in
But Sunday always kinda leaves her let down ...
posted by cnidaria at 11:48 PM on September 26, 2020 [6 favorites]
For years she's lived on her own
In a corner of the city
Twice a year she gets back home
Playing catch-up with the family
She tells her folks what they need to know
Her mother says she's much too thin
Her sisters ask about her beau
Her dad inquires, how's business been
She's thirty-three this time around
She's always been real good at listening
Her sense of humor never lets her down
Except sometimes there's something missing
Hey, middle ground
A place between up and down
She could be safe and sound
Oh, to know middle ground
For years she's been on her guard
She's kind of tense around the shoulders
She wonders why she works so hard
She counts the days 'til they promote her
She'll take a weekend now and then
To stay in bed and watch the reruns
She'll turn the phone off when guilt sets in
But Sunday always kinda leaves her let down ...
posted by cnidaria at 11:48 PM on September 26, 2020 [6 favorites]
Maybe not quite what you're looking for, but I think of Chris Knox's A Song To Welcome The Onset Of Maturity as a song about adulthood and the maturity that you reach well after the ~20 year old experience.
Most of The National's later works fall into the adult life category for me - what falls into the spectrum of "indie dad-rock." Maybe you won't end up as a rock star, but you'll slip out to the park with your spouse with a little vodka in your lemonade while knowing you're going to pay the baby sitter a bonus.
No Lonesome Tune by Townes Van Zandt has a hint of what I think you're getting at as does In Spite of Ourselves by John Prine.
posted by Candleman at 11:53 PM on September 26, 2020 [3 favorites]
Most of The National's later works fall into the adult life category for me - what falls into the spectrum of "indie dad-rock." Maybe you won't end up as a rock star, but you'll slip out to the park with your spouse with a little vodka in your lemonade while knowing you're going to pay the baby sitter a bonus.
No Lonesome Tune by Townes Van Zandt has a hint of what I think you're getting at as does In Spite of Ourselves by John Prine.
posted by Candleman at 11:53 PM on September 26, 2020 [3 favorites]
We Don't Do That Anymore by The Sidewinders.
posted by chocolatepeanutbuttercup at 1:50 AM on September 27, 2020
posted by chocolatepeanutbuttercup at 1:50 AM on September 27, 2020
Tex Perkins’ Real Love:
And it ain't in the kissesposted by Fiasco da Gama at 3:20 AM on September 27, 2020
It ain't getting your wishes
It's doing the dishes
Thats real real love
Coming around Again by Carly Simon
posted by crocomancer at 6:13 AM on September 27, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by crocomancer at 6:13 AM on September 27, 2020 [2 favorites]
Courtney Barnett's Depreston, about house hunting in the suburbs of Melbourne:
You said we should look out further,
I guess it wouldn’t hurt us.
We don’t have to be around all these coffee shops.
Now we’ve got that percolator,
never made a latte greater.
I’m saving twenty-three dollars a week.
posted by btfreek at 7:05 AM on September 27, 2020 [1 favorite]
You said we should look out further,
I guess it wouldn’t hurt us.
We don’t have to be around all these coffee shops.
Now we’ve got that percolator,
never made a latte greater.
I’m saving twenty-three dollars a week.
posted by btfreek at 7:05 AM on September 27, 2020 [1 favorite]
Jackson Browne - Running on Empty
I think this captures the feeling of how never-ending responsibilities can lead to a loss of perspective on one's overall purpose.
Looking out at the road rushing under my wheels
Looking back at the years gone by like so many Summer fields
In sixty-five I was seventeen and running up one-on-one
I don't know where I'm running now, I'm just running on
Gotta do what you can just to keep your love alive
Trying not to confuse it, with what you do to survive
In sixty-nine I was twenty-one and I called the road my own
I don't know when that road turned into the road I'm on
If it takes all night, that'll be all right
If I can get you to smile before I leave
Looking out at the road rushing under my wheels
I don't know how to tell you all just how crazy this life feels
Look around for the friends that I used to turn to to pull me through
Looking into their eyes, I see them running too
posted by Chuck Barris at 7:43 AM on September 27, 2020 [4 favorites]
I think this captures the feeling of how never-ending responsibilities can lead to a loss of perspective on one's overall purpose.
Looking out at the road rushing under my wheels
Looking back at the years gone by like so many Summer fields
In sixty-five I was seventeen and running up one-on-one
I don't know where I'm running now, I'm just running on
Gotta do what you can just to keep your love alive
Trying not to confuse it, with what you do to survive
In sixty-nine I was twenty-one and I called the road my own
I don't know when that road turned into the road I'm on
If it takes all night, that'll be all right
If I can get you to smile before I leave
Looking out at the road rushing under my wheels
I don't know how to tell you all just how crazy this life feels
Look around for the friends that I used to turn to to pull me through
Looking into their eyes, I see them running too
posted by Chuck Barris at 7:43 AM on September 27, 2020 [4 favorites]
Regina Spektor - Older and Taller
And you retired just in time
You were about to be fired for being so tired from hiring the ones who will take your place
All the lies on your resume have become the truth by now
And the things that you never did have become your youth, somehow
You know everything by now
"Enjoy your youth" sounds like a threat
posted by eponym at 7:47 AM on September 27, 2020
And you retired just in time
You were about to be fired for being so tired from hiring the ones who will take your place
All the lies on your resume have become the truth by now
And the things that you never did have become your youth, somehow
You know everything by now
"Enjoy your youth" sounds like a threat
posted by eponym at 7:47 AM on September 27, 2020
Carly Simon's That's the Way I Always Heard It Should Be. Jenny and Johnny's Big Wave. Both a little depressing, but then... 🤷🏻♀️
posted by carlypennylane at 9:22 AM on September 27, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by carlypennylane at 9:22 AM on September 27, 2020 [2 favorites]
On the lighter side:
Help! I'm Turning Into My Parents
posted by mefireader at 9:58 AM on September 27, 2020
Help! I'm Turning Into My Parents
posted by mefireader at 9:58 AM on September 27, 2020
Greg Brown has a bunch of songs that are on theme with this: Spring Wind is a fave, and Who woulda thunk it is about the way your outlook on life changes.
posted by euphoria066 at 10:51 AM on September 27, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by euphoria066 at 10:51 AM on September 27, 2020 [1 favorite]
Iris Dement's Easy's Gettin' Harder Every Day comes to mind, but that's gotta be one of the saddest songs ever, so definitely on the dreary/oppressive end of things.
posted by niicholas at 3:05 PM on September 27, 2020
posted by niicholas at 3:05 PM on September 27, 2020
Seventeen by Sharon Van Etten. The way I interpret it is that she’s seeing a teenage family member or acquaintance and reflecting on how her life is different now that she’s an adult.
posted by matildaben at 6:21 PM on September 27, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by matildaben at 6:21 PM on September 27, 2020 [1 favorite]
Decade and One by Vienna Teng
As the white went down
I thought of the child upstairs
I thought of the God upstairs
That I couldn't believe
I thought of the chosen man
Asleep on his side of the bed
How green becomes wood
In a family tree
posted by WowLookStars at 6:35 AM on September 28, 2020
As the white went down
I thought of the child upstairs
I thought of the God upstairs
That I couldn't believe
I thought of the chosen man
Asleep on his side of the bed
How green becomes wood
In a family tree
posted by WowLookStars at 6:35 AM on September 28, 2020
Cat Stevens “Father and Son”
posted by banishedimmortal at 6:48 AM on September 28, 2020
posted by banishedimmortal at 6:48 AM on September 28, 2020
Smart Brown Handbag writes songs about adulthood including traveling for holidays (greetings from the longest weekend) and co-parenting hand-offs as a divorcee (get the girl) and renting a car (ungrateful after all) .
Turnpike Troubadours have songs about a house fire (the house fire) and a attending a funeral (the funeral).
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:28 AM on September 28, 2020
Turnpike Troubadours have songs about a house fire (the house fire) and a attending a funeral (the funeral).
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:28 AM on September 28, 2020
No bonus points for this one, but Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill really resonates with me as I care for an aging parent. I imagine it would fit for other challenging caregiving roles as well.
posted by monkeys with typewriters at 6:00 PM on September 28, 2020
posted by monkeys with typewriters at 6:00 PM on September 28, 2020
Not a Kid Anymore by Wonderboy / Robbie Rist
(Full disclosure: that album, Abbey Road to Ruin, was originally released on Racer Records, a little indie label I ran 20-some years ago. I negotiated the return of all Wonderboy rights to the artists when I wound down the label, and I no longer have any financial interest in any Wonderboy albums. I remain a gigantic Wonderboy fan.)
posted by kristi at 1:33 PM on September 29, 2020 [1 favorite]
(Full disclosure: that album, Abbey Road to Ruin, was originally released on Racer Records, a little indie label I ran 20-some years ago. I negotiated the return of all Wonderboy rights to the artists when I wound down the label, and I no longer have any financial interest in any Wonderboy albums. I remain a gigantic Wonderboy fan.)
posted by kristi at 1:33 PM on September 29, 2020 [1 favorite]
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