"You have exactly 8 hours and 54 minutes to ponder the error of your ways."
John Hughes wrote this line in the breakfast club. He started out by selling jokes to comedians and doing copywriting for a company in Chicago. He wrote articles for the National Lampoon a comedy magazine spinoff from the Harvard Lampoon. It contained these comedy stories and parodies. Some of the best were written by John Hughes. The story "Vacation '58" was later made into a movie called the National Lampoon's Vacation.
It was the John Hughes movies that I remember most as a kid in the 80s. Movies like Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Breakfast Club were classic and defined an era of burn out kids. Perhaps that's part of what defines the X generation as a forgotten generation. No one really cared about these kids didn't really care for no one's praise.
Sure there was groups of jocks and brainiacs and freaks but mostly there was a basic apathy from teens that John Huges picked up well in the breakfast club. When Saturday morning put them in detention together it just took a couple puffs and some good music for them to realize that they are not that different from each other.
Simple Minds
Don't You Forget About Me
This is a song I heard too many times in shopping malls hanging out in front of Montgomery Wards. It's iconic in its relationship with the movie. His voice with the pumping drums has a punk new age feeling. The voice puts shivers on my spin. I guess that's because the group is from Glasgow, Scotland. What also surprised me is they started in 1977 and they are still on tour today and have just released a new single called "Act Of Love".
Their music is still haunting with a pumping beat more than 40 years later. My mind is blown that they can stay together and make music together for so long. I wonder what it is that keeps them together for so many years and what keeps them so healthy that they can still put out a good show.
But I'm not leaving yet until I add one more:
Karla DeVito
We are not alone
It's that silly dance in detention hall. The coming of age song gives us a sense of identity. Karla is from the suburbs of Chicago and has a strong voice. She has performed on Broadway but an even more interesting thing in her resume is that she sang background vocals for the Blue Oyster Cult. I haven't heard anything from them in a while.
Things look clear in black and white
The living color tends to dye our sight
Like dynamite
Just imagine my surprise
When I looked into your eyes and saw
Your disguise
If we dare expose our hearts
Just to feel the purest parts
That's when strange sensations start to grow
We are not alone
Find out when your cover's blown
There'll be somebody there to break your fall
We are not alone
'Cause when you cut down to the bone
We're really not so different after all
After all
We're not alone
Flying high above the sky
The battles down below look simplified
With no place to hide
But on inspection of the dust
I came upon this thing called trust
It helps us to adjust
Just imagine my surprise
When I looked into your eyes
I knew right then I'd never let you go
We are not alone
Find out when your cover's blown
There'll be somebody there to break your fall
We are not alone
'Cause when you cut down to the bone
We're really not so different after all
After all
We're not alone
Not alone
After all
Not alone
If we dare expose our hearts
Just to feel the purest parts
That's when strange sensations start to grow
We are not alone
Find out when your cover's blown
There'll be somebody there to break your fall
We are not alone
'Cause when you cut down to the bone
We're really not so different after all
After all
We're not alone
We are not alone
Find out when your cover's blown
There'll be somebody there to break your fall
We are not alone
'Cause when you cut down to the bone
We're really not so different after all
After all
After all
Yes, they are very silly. They are goofy songs for goofy kid's movies from the eighties. But they were something I could relate to and see that I was not the only weirdo in the universe. At that time movies and music were the way that we could connect.
Today we are beyond that. Now I am a teacher and have to find a better way to help students than forcing them in detention. Now I can play songs for students to connect and when I am finished at the end of the day I can write a blog about it. The next generation doesn't have to be the forgotten generation.
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