(The Origins of) My Epic 80's Movie Music Mix

So, my birthday had just passed a few weeks ago. And while most people humbly don't like to make a big deal out of it, I most definitely wanted to celebrate! If anything, to take my mind off the fact that I am feeling and getting older. Usually, I just want to do something small and geeky with some close friends, so this year I opted to encore what I'd done last year. Rent out the Jumpcut Cafe and screen a film print of one of my favorite movies with a small group of people. Last year's feature was 'BETTER OFF DEAD.' This year was 'BACK TO THE FUTURE,' mainly because when I asked my buddy Mike Williamson (who screens 16mm prints from his collection monthly at the Jumpcut for his Secret Sixteen event) he said, "well, what are you favorite movies of all time?" "TEEN WOLF and EVIL DEAD 2!" "Oh. Well I have BACK TO THE FUTURE and ARMY OF DARKNESS?" And while I'm sure ARMY OF DARKNESS would've been a lot of fun, I opted for BTTF because I hadn't seen it in ages and I wanted to keep my birthday 80's-centric. (Besides, there's always next year.)

I can't explain it, but I just have so much love for that time period. Sure, I primarily grew up as a teenager in the 90's, but that later half of the 80's from around 85-89 was when I became a hardcore movie fanatic and soaked in as many comedies and horror films of that era as I could. It was the golden age of the video store. It was also the golden age of HBO where you'd seen weird, oft-kilter movies like 'ONE CRAZY SUMMER' or 'MAKING MR. RIGHT' or 'JUST ONE OF THE GUYS' on a regular basis. The mere possibility of a discussion popping up these days that revolves around the movies I love of this period gets me ridiculously excited. Any chance I get to talk about Savage Steve Holland or Michael J. Fox or John Hughes, it makes me enthusiastically very happy.

Ever since FEARnet shut down earlier this year, I've been trying to find little things to do that make me happy. One hobby that has resurfaced from my teenage years is record shopping. About two years ago when my current roommate Brendan moved in, he brought along with him a really great turntable set-up. Once we were up and running, I arranged to have any vinyl I had left in New York shipped here and I continued my collection, primarily focusing on soundtracks because they're fairly easy to find, but also because they tend to be fairly inexpensive! I love soundtracks, especially for 80's movies because a lot of those tracks aren't available in any other medium. Not on iTunes or even CD's. And sometimes you'll hear a few notes of a song or catch a few lyrics and immediately be transported into the world of the movie it's from. And because of this, I made it a quest to track down as many 80's movie soundtracks as possible.



With my birthday fast approaching and not a whole lot on my plate to do, I decided to hook up my laptop to our turntable so that I could digitize a handful of these records that aren't available any other way by using a program called Audacity. (Which by the way, I used to record all the DEXTER & THE FOLLOWING podcasts.) I wanted to rock out to EG Daily's "One Way Love (Better Off Dead)" in my room or pump my fist up in the air to Mark Safan's "Win In The End" from the original TEEN WOLF soundtrack in my car! (I mean, have you ever listened to the actual words of that song? Freakin' amazingly written. Will include at the end of this post.*) And as I was in the process of doing this, I started to formulate a playlist in my head. I began assembling in my mind what the perfect mix tape would be for these particular songs. Essentially I wanted to listen back to a list of tunes that evoked my innocent and untainted love of all these movies I discovered in my formative years.

And so I began my epic 80's Movie Music Mix. As is the case with most mixes, I desperately argued with myself on what order would be the most appealing. Well, if I have "Eye of The Tiger" on there, I have to follow it up with "You're The Best," right? And if I'm putting a track from THE KARATE KID on there, I might as well go right into a track from THE KARATE KID 2 next! At one point, there was a good 4 or 5 song stretch that was so full of win, I started to get excited and feel like I should sign up and win a tournament or something. Hearing all these songs together made me smile and laugh, but also inspired me! And so, I wanted to share this feeling. I mean, that's the point of mixes to begin with, right? You want to be able to express yourself or share something you're experiencing that you can't describe in words. And so you use other peoples words and music to get that message across. I figured it would only cost me about $20 bucks to buy a spindle of blank CD-R's and a batch of envelope sleeves and one afternoon of my time to burn them all. I was going to do it. I was going to make by hand a shit-ton of mix CD's and hand it out to every friend I crossed paths with on my birthday.

THE FINAL TRACK LISTING IS AS FOLLOWS:

1. The Power Of Love by Huey Lewis & The News (BACK TO THE FUTURE - 1985)
2. Back To School by Jude Cole (BACK TO SCHOOL - 1986)
3. They're So Incredible by Revenge (REVENGE OF THE NERDS - 1984)
4. One Way Love (Better Off Dead) by EG Daily (BETTER OFF DEAD - 1985)
5. Win In The End by Mark Safan (TEEN WOLF - 1985)
6. Eye Of The Tiger by Survivor (ROCKY III - 1982)
7. You're The Best by Joe Espisito (THE KARATE KID - 1984)
8. Glory Of Love by Peter Cetera (THE KARATE KID PART 2 - 1986)
9. La Bamba by Los Lobos (LA BAMBA - 1987)
10. (Don't You) Forget About Me by Simple Minds (THE BREAKFAST CLUB - 1985)
11. In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel (SAY ANYTHING - 1989)
12. What Does It Take by Honeymoon Suite (ONE CRAZY SUMMER - 1986)
13. Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now by Starship (MANNEQUIN - 1987)
14. St. Elmo's Fire (Man In Motion) by John Parr (ST. ELMO'S FIRE - 1985)
15. Meet Me Half Way by Kenny Loggins (OVER THE TOP - 1987)
16. Put A Little Love In Your Heart by Al Green & Annie Lennox (SCROOGED - 1988)
17. Dead Man's Party by Oingo Boingo (BACK TO SCHOOL - 1986)
18. Batdance by Prince (BATMAN - 1989)



I'm fairly content that I was able to squeeze the above selected tracks onto a 74 minute blank CD. I'm proud of the flow and feel of the whole thing. Sure, I messed around with it a lot. In retrospect, I might not have doubled up on 2 tracks from BACK TO SCHOOL, but I was just so in love with the idea of Dead Man's Party back to back with Batdance (the obvious closer) that I couldn't resist. I also had a few other oddities in my initial version such as Dan Aykroyd & Tom Hanks rap performance of "City Of Crime" from DRAGNET (1987) and The Fat Boy's "Baby, You're A Rich Man" from DISORDERLIES (1987), but that's what iTunes playlists are for! On iTunes, your mixes can be as long as you like. And so, I handed out that above stack to all my friends on my birthday, and they all reacted with surprise but also appreciation. "Wait... it's YOUR birthday. Shouldn't we be getting you something???" Nah, I wanted to share something that would spread positive vibes and have people think of me in that way.

And it worked beautifully! A few days later, my buddy Andrew Kasch and his wife Annette had given birth to their first baby daughter and he posted a pic stating that her first listen on the way home from the hospital was my 80's Movie Music Mix. My Killer POV co-host Elric texted me a few days later to say the mix was "cinematic sweetness." After posting about it on Facebook, a handful on non-local friends started asking about it, and I couldn't help myself! I made a few additional copies and started mailing them out to people. My friend Christina in Florida told me she got a little teary-eyed when "Put A Little Love In Your Heart" popped up towards the end because of how much she loves SCROOGED. (Me too! It's my Christmas Eve tradition!) And so, mission accomplished.

One of the beautiful things about making mixes and sharing music is that you have the power to touch people. Make them feel good. Spread positive vibes. Inspire and encourage them through words & music and in this case, the love everyone around my age shares with these particular movies. Think about it, that stack of CD's up above didn't even exist in any way, shape or form a few weeks ago. And now I've spread them not only across my local friends here in Los Angeles, but across the darned United States as well! So if you have the opportunity and time to share something that means something to you with the people you care about, just do it. It's worth it. It makes a difference. After all, that's the power of love...



*I was down to zero
Still an unsung hero
Waiting for my ship to come to shore

I stood empty handed
Like a seagull stranded
Watching all the other seagulls soar

I was slowly losing hope
Twisting frayed ends of the rope
In a suicidal fantasy

I was going to extremes
Losing sight of all my dreams again
I never thought I'd win

I was blinded by the pain
Running wild through the rain
In a parody of extacy

I was inches from the edge
Fingers clinging to the ledge again
I never thought I'd win

Win in the end
I'm gonna win in the end
Win in the end
I'm gonna win in the end

Got to keep my cool
I am not the fool
Everyone expects to play me for

I could change the pattern
Steal a ring from Saturn
Forge myself into a man-of-war

I am equal to the task
I won't hide behind the mask
What you see is what you'll get from me

I am stronger than they think
They can force me to the brink again
But now I know I'll win

Win in the end
I'm gonna win in the end
Win in the end
I'm gonna win in the end

I will steal the thunder
Rolling out from under
Every cloud that's clashing in the sky

Like a true defender
I will not surrender
Why should I lie down for them and die?

I am equal to the task
I won't hide behind the mask
What you see is what you'll get from me

I am stronger than they think
They can force me to the brink again
But now I know I'll win

Win in the end
I'm gonna win in the end
Win in the end
I'm gonna win in the end