Fast Times: The Soundtrack
Michelle Newman 0:00
Stacy, both times she's in a swimsuit. In this movie, wears swimsuit bottoms and a sweater vest. I thought it was like a terry cloth sweater vest, kind
Carolyn Cochrane 0:10
of sure dish thing.
Unknown Speaker 0:13
Hello, there's a song that we're singing. Come on. Get happy.
Kristin Nilsen 0:22
Hola, me. Welcome to the pop culture Preservation Society, the podcast for people born in the big wheels generation who grew up in a time in which avocado was just a color
Michelle Newman 0:40
we believe our Gen X childhoods gave us unforgettable songs, stories, characters and images, and if we don't talk about them, they'll disappear like Marshall will and Holly on a routine expedition.
Carolyn Cochrane 0:52
And today, we'll be continuing to save the ultimate early 80s tribute to adolescents by taking you through the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High song by memorable song, I'm Carolyn,
Michelle Newman 1:05
I'm Kristen and I'm Michelle, and we are your pop culture preservationists, as we stroll
Unknown Speaker 1:12
along together, holding hands,
Unknown Speaker 1:20
walking along,
Carolyn Cochrane 1:30
things. Welcome back to part two of our discussion about the classic film that absolutely nailed its depiction of early 80s, adolescents, Fast Times at Ridgemont High written by Cameron Crowe and directed by Amy Heckerling. We talked about it so much last time, and I think it can be summed up very much like this. So film critic Jeremy Smith says, though it freely indulged in the kind of raunchiness its target audience had come to expect from this subgenre. Director Amy Heckerling and screenwriter Cameron Crowe generally keep the film grounded in a painfully relatable world of teenage angst, and when he writes painfully relatable That, to me, hits the nail on the head, even though
Kristin Nilsen 2:21
I'm sure a lot of people listening right now are like, What do you mean? Painfully? It's a super funny movie. I love it. Watch it now
Carolyn Cochrane 2:27
exactly, and that's exactly what I talk about in last week's episode. That melancholy, and that's perfectly summed up here, painfully relatable. So how did they do that so successfully? Well, for one, both Cameron Crowe and Amy Heckerling were just barely not teenagers. She was just 27 and he was 24 when they started making this movie. That still blows my mind. We talked about that last week, and we think of our own kids, and I'm like, Oh my gosh, so that their age really had to help with the authenticity of this brain. But also this movie is full capital, F, U, L, L. It is full of music. 24 songs actually in total, and some of those songs are burned into our brains, inextricably paired with a scene from this movie. And that music helped this movie speak to us in the language that we were speaking at the time, there is a masterful blend of 80s New Wave and 70s classic rock, and there is no doubt that the soundtrack to Fast Times at Ridgemont High is one of the things that makes this movie a classic. Yeah,
Kristin Nilsen 3:33
indeed. And it's interesting that those two people who were so young were working with a lot of people who were not so young, and we will learn as we move on, that that may have presented some problems. Yeah, before they even began filming in October 1981 Billboard magazine announced that one of the movie's producers, Irving Azoff, that could be one of the older people I was referring to, would be
Michelle Newman 3:59
what clues you in His name,
Kristin Nilsen 4:03
no teenage Irvings in 1982 Irving there just weren't there were no 20 year old Irvings. And I'm surprised
Michelle Newman 4:10
I didn't have an uncle, Irving. Remember, I had great uncles, Fitch, you and Marvin. I'm surprised I didn't have an uncle. No Irving.
Kristin Nilsen 4:17
So they announced that Irving Azoff would be issuing a double album soundtrack to accompany the film. And Azoff bragged that it would be quote a superstar collection of entertainers writing all new original material for the soundtrack. The artists who will write and perform original songs for the movie are Jackson Browne, original members of the Eagles, the Go Go's, Sammy Hagar, Michael McDonald, Stevie, nicks, Tom Petty poco quarter flash, Todd Rundgren, Bob Seger, Billy squire, Ringo Starr and the whispers. Some of that came true, some of it did not. And not coincidentally, Irving Azoff was also a record producer with his own recording company and. He saw this movie as a vehicle for his artists. Yeah, and
Michelle Newman 5:04
so, as you might imagine, that didn't sit well with Amy Heckerling, the movie's director, nor with Cameron Crowe, who just happens to be the former Rolling Stone journalist turned screenwriter for fast times, if you can imagine, 27 and 24 they each had a very different vision for this movie that did not include artists like the Eagles. This was the 80s, and this was a new and exciting time for music. It was changing. Music was changing rapidly, and they didn't think their movie about teens in the 80s should sound like radio from the 70s. Good point, right? Well, Azoff, though, was looking for his fourth double album hit soundtrack in as many years, which started with the soundtrack for the 1978 movie FM, which peaked at number five and went platinum and in 1980 so just a couple years earlier, he packaged the soundtrack for wait for it, Urban Cowboy, which went to number three and also went platinum, using mostly artists under contract to him. Remember, he has his own recording company. They created so much music for that movie that they released another album called Urban Cowboy. Two brilliant so you're right a year later. Now, sadly, though Fast Times would not be his fourth hit album, Fast Times soundtrack peaked only at number 54 that's kind of low, especially, yeah, part of the reason for that might be what some of you already know, that the music you heard in the movie may not have been included on the soundtrack. Some of the most memorable scenes in this movie are cemented in your mind because of a song, right? And it's very possible that that song that you love, that you associate with that great saying was not on the record. And
Kristin Nilsen 7:05
I was one of those people that bought that soundtrack and went, huh, this is not what I remember at all, and I probably never listened to it again. I didn't give it much thought. I didn't dig into it. There was no internet, so I didn't go Google it. Why is x song Not on this album? So why? Why was so much of the memorable music not included on the soundtrack available to us in record stores? Well, like we said above, Irving Azoff music was not the vision that Amy and Cameron had for the movie hacker. Ling has said she hated the music coming from Irving Azoff, but she was forced to use it. Ouch. That's even like in the DVD commentary. Basically, she's just like out there with it. And one reason that their visions clashed was because Amy and Cameron were in the business of making a movie, not a soundtrack, and they pursued music by other artists to complement their scenes, instead of just supporting Azoff clients, this wasn't business for them. It was art. Amy was a punk and new wave fan, and if it were up to her, Fast Times may have sounded a lot more like the John Hughes movies we know from the 80s. Cameron Crowe had relationships from his time at Rolling Stone, and there was no way he wasn't going to tap into that to create the perfect scene. And a lot of those artists who agreed to be in the movie said no thanks when it came to being on the soundtrack, possibly because of restrictions by their record label, or the chintzy deal possibly offered to them by Irving Azoff, it's getting very sticky.
Michelle Newman 8:39
I mean, listen, I'm just, I'm I'm creating an image now of Irving, in my mind. He's got a cigar, by the way,
Kristin Nilsen 8:47
totally does.
Michelle Newman 8:48
I can imagine Amy Heckerling at 27 with Cameron. They've, they've hit it off. They have the same vision for this art. But then she has to go into meetings with Irving with the cigar. And he's looking at her, like, Who are you this? I have a little album soundtracks under my belt, and I can, I know how this works. I know how to put together a soundtrack. You
Kristin Nilsen 9:10
know how much money I've made in the last 10 years? And
Michelle Newman 9:15
he's like, you know, you know, kid, I would keep my also Irving were suspenders, and he has a big belly, and, yeah, he sweats sweats when
Carolyn Cochrane 9:34
he talks. Still, you guys, I kind of think that the soundtrack worked okay, because I think that Amy and Cameron maybe were clever enough to go, Okay, here's what he's giving us. Let's see how we can make this work. Because I think that the mix of the current artists of the day and the season artists worked because it reflected the musical shifts that were happening during these times, right? I mean, those 80s easy time, yeah, the seven. Yeah, rockers were trying to figure out what to do in this new new sound in this new decade, and so I think that is reflected well in this movie. So yeah, and
Kristin Nilsen 10:10
you just, and you just said, how you know, the whole reason we're here today talking about this is because the music had a role in making us connect with the characters and making us remember this movie for 42 years, and so even though this was not a match made in heaven, clearly it worked for us
Carolyn Cochrane 10:41
42 years later, we can still identify that song as having come from Fast Times, and this is just evidence of how much the music used in this movie is one of the reasons we connected with it so hard. And I just want to say again, the benefit of this podcast is getting to go back with my 50 something year old eyes and analyzing the scenes. And I was able to, like, pull up the lyrics for some of these songs and put that into the scene. And wondering, also at the time, you know, were we getting some subliminal messages? Like, I don't know that I could have told you the words to especially some of those Background songs, but was part of our brain hearing those anyway, because it really does tell part of the story that isn't actually verbalized in the scene, but you know what's going on, and this
Kristin Nilsen 11:30
time around, watching it, it did help me go a layer deeper on what was happening in the scene in a way that I wasn't able to perceive when I was 15, right? Yeah,
Michelle Newman 11:39
I think is that's really interesting. This whole subliminal thing, they ended up, you know, planting little easter eggs. There's a Bruce Springsteen bumper sticker on Brad's car. Watch the scene in demone's room and notice the posters on his wall. This is where Amy's and Cameron Crowe are getting in some of their bands. Also, you know, Demone is a ticket scalper, right? So the kids come up. They want Van Halen tickets. They want Blue Oyster calls. But this is a way that they were able to kind of put these bands and other musicians in strategically to kind of get their way too. Yeah,
Kristin Nilsen 12:15
that was so on purpose, especially now that we know the story. Amy Heckerling was not just trying to put her stick in the ground. What is she doing? What is the
Michelle Newman 12:25
stake? Her stake? Her No, plant her flag. Steak.
Carolyn Cochrane 12:28
Yeah, yeah, okay,
Michelle Newman 12:32
because it goes back something
Kristin Nilsen 12:37
like that, yeah? But at the same time as giving a flavor to the movie, and
Michelle Newman 12:42
she actually says, with Damone, I was very, very, very specific. That's three berries because it was Pete Townsend and Buzzcocks and Elvis Costello and people that I love. I loved ska, I loved punk, I loved New Wave. So Damone represented all of the things that I was in love with. So she basically just dumped it all on Demone, right? Everything,
Kristin Nilsen 13:05
yeah, totally worked. And remember when he's telling rat about the five point plan, his arm is around a cut out of Debbie Harry. Debbie Harry, yes, mall records in the mall, and that mall record store is, did you guys notice no
Michelle Newman 13:19
licorice pizza. Oh, yes, of course. I wrote that down when I was watching Yes, it's licorice pizza.
Carolyn Cochrane 13:25
So why don't we walk through some of these songs and where they appear in the movie? So we'll kind of go chronologically and we'll talk about how some of these captured the story and helped really the narrative progress. I
Michelle Newman 13:58
music. So the movie opens with, we got the beat by the Go Go's. And honestly, you guys, is there a more 1982 song? Always? Perfect. Perfect. Yes. So we open with this song that had been released just one year earlier on the Go Go's album, beauty. And the beat and was still so hot and so played on radio that when you hear those intro beats right as the movie opens and you see, the first thing you see is the exterior of a mall. You know? Well, I know this movie is a home run for me, at least, like I could have stopped it right there and been like, I loved that movie. It had the go good and the mall, I was happy. But really this song as the backdrop of all the mall things, and in all caps, all the mall things in quick cuts is perfection. I mean, from the quick cuts of the kids outside one. Girl is lacing up roller skates outside the mall like she was gonna skate home. We see Hot Dog on a Stick the mall movie theater. The mall movie theater was central, right? Yeah, yeah. And just the whole atmosphere.
Kristin Nilsen 15:15
I saw Bea Dalton, and I just about started to cry. Bea Dalton's just in the back. I'm like,
Michelle Newman 15:22
I know Cameron Crowe says we had to have we got the beat. It was the soul of the beginning of the movie. The whole movie, you can say, is an elixir brought on by We Got the Beat. Which I love that, because I feel like it's so true. It's such a movie Up. Yeah, it is Poppy and peppy, and it's great, but tragically, this is one of those songs that is not on the soundtrack, which my opinion, Irving, yeah, I just think of how many more albums, soundtracks, they would have sold with the inclusion of just even that one song, just that one song, I don't remember owning the Fast Times album, and I guarantee you, if we got the beat had been on it, I would have bought it, even though I already had had it. Yep, hence
Carolyn Cochrane 16:08
why it was only 68 number 68
Kristin Nilsen 16:11
and it goes on forever, you guys. They don't just play the intro to We Got the Beat. They play almost the whole song, walking us through the mall. And in that moment, they introduce us to every character, every setting, we get to know exactly where we are and who the people are and what this movie is going to be about. And they were lucky to get this song, because, like you said, it was a huge song. It had gone platinum. It must have cost a lot of money to put it in the movie. And this was a low budget film. It was only four and a half million dollars to make this movie. So I wonder how much of that went to get we get the Okay, next up, we're still at the mall. The next few songs are all going to be background music at the mall. And so these are the songs that you may not have even noticed. And the next one is, I'll leave it up to you by poco This is on the soundtrack, and it's our first example of a song that would have driven Amy Heckerling crazy, because poco is best known for the song picking up the pieces in 1969
Unknown Speaker 17:13
Well, there's just a little bit of magic in the country,
Kristin Nilsen 17:22
which is a lifetime away from 1982 but notably, the band included Timothy B Schmidt, who was also a member of the Eagles, Irving Azoff client, so I'm not we're not even gonna play the song, because it's not that great of a song, and you don't even hear it in the movie. So who cares? I Who cares? The next song in the in the mall is love. Is the reason by Graham Nash. This is also on the soundtrack. This is another great example of a song that would have really irritated Amy and Cameron, with no disrespect to Graham Nash, if you were making a movie aimed at teens in the early 80s, Graham Nash, a four year old folky from the late 60s, would not be the perfect fit, right? No disrespect, wonderful music, but for other people, right? Not teenagers. In the early 80s, the
Carolyn Cochrane 18:28
I have a theory, though, about the Graham Nash song and some other songs we'll talk about in a little while. Okay, and that is I, when I when that was playing. I knew the voice, okay, I didn't know the song, but I recognized Graham Nash's voice, and it gave me there was kind of like a comfort and nostalgia, like I recognized it, and it gave me, I don't want to say, a funny feeling in my tummy, but kind of that, and I probably remember hearing it when my parents were playing it, or, you know, we're talking About that mid, early 70s, Crosby Stills, Nash, and so I some of those songs, again, to me, are strategically in places where I don't even need to hear the words. I just got a feeling when I heard these distinctive, recognizable voices. It's
Kristin Nilsen 19:13
an interesting because you've pointed out that it did work for us, and maybe part of is because of what you've just said. And so you're right. They had to figure out how to do it. So I think that's why some of them are just at the mall so quietly that you cannot even hear them. Yeah,
Carolyn Cochrane 19:26
this is true,
Michelle Newman 19:27
yeah. And I agree. I listeners. There's another link we're going to put in this week's Weekly Reader and in the show notes from Screen Rant. And it's great. It has every song that you hear in the movie and what scene it appears in in order, and when those I'll leave it up to you. And love is the reason, when I was watching the movie, I was like, kind of had one eye on my computer, like, where is that song? Sometimes they're like, so low, and they might be like, 10 seconds, yes, and that's quick.
Kristin Nilsen 19:59
Yes, and then it's on the soundtrack. Yeah?
Michelle Newman 20:03
Irving, check we got, you know,
Carolyn Cochrane 20:06
yeah, I did it. Irving, the next song is one we all love and know, and that is American Girl by Tom Petty, okay, this song, sadly, was not on the soundtrack album. So if you bought the soundtrack album to hear We Got the Beat and American Girl, you would have been sadly disappointed. This song was originally released in 1976 on Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers debut album called Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, they're self titled album, not know that I know. How about this fact it was released as a single and it didn't even chart in the United States in 1976 here we go. It didn't even come on the charts for us until 1994 because it was released as the second single on Tom Petty's greatest hits album, and it only peaked at number 68
Michelle Newman 20:58
minute I know by this because that that's crazy, but don't you've
Carolyn Cochrane 21:04
known it for my life, yes, but when I realized originally 1976 I thought, well, I don't think I know it from 1976 so I think in my mind, because of the movie, I've known it my whole life, because of the movie, Even though it wasn't released on the soundtrack, so you couldn't have heard it again, really, until 1994 so
Kristin Nilsen 21:25
it was planted in your brain in a single instance in the movie theater, and you carried it with you until it started being played on the radio again, maybe in 1990 1994 Yeah,
Michelle Newman 21:37
four.
Kristin Nilsen 21:38
I know, blowing my brain a little bit. It is crazy
Carolyn Cochrane 21:41
to think that the song was ranked number one on Billboard's list of Tom Petty's greatest song. So they're saying this is the number one song that he ever released, and he originally released it in 1976 when no one listened to it. But yet, like you said, we feel like we've known it forever, perhaps because it accompanies what I consider the most one of the most iconic scenes in this movie. Talk about all the things that you learn in this scene when this song is playing, and how it is used so effectively and placed so well. Okay, American girl plays on that first day of school scene. So we've got the instrumental before any lyrics start. Oh my gosh, you guys, if you just freeze some of those scenes, you're kind of getting this pan of the front of the school and everybody ready to, you know, kind of go in and you see different outfits, and people are like, doing each other's hair. There's a girl that's reading the pearl. If you I remember having to read the pearl. It's a job for, okay, oh, it's John Steinbeck. It's like a classic Yes, yes book that I'm thinking, yeah, it's a classic high school book. And I'm thinking it was on her summer reading list, and she didn't read it because it's the first day of school, and she's going and she's carefully trying to go through it really fast. And then when the lyrics start,
we're in the building, okay? And right when they say, well, she's an American girl. I can't sing. But right then we get Jennifer, Jason Lee on the screen and we know, okay, she's an American girl, and this is going to be the story is going to revolve around her. They don't have to say that. You just know. And we're all of a sudden in this high school, all American high school hallway, where all, again, these things that you recognize are happening, one being, one of my favorites is when rat is getting a drink from the water fountain and it sprays all in his face. Oh my gosh. Do you guys remember when that would happen? When you'd lean over and someone would have, like, stuck a piece of paper or something in one of the little spouts, and all of a sudden you your face and your hair would be drenched. But I want to talk about the clothes in Stacy
Kristin Nilsen 23:59
and Jennifer. Jason Lee is the Stacy character,
Carolyn Cochrane 24:03
yes. So you really kind of get to see what she's wearing, and it is almost a fair isle ish, like sweater with a button down Oxford underneath it. I am raising my hand because that could have been my I mean, it was my uniform. But even if I wasn't going to school, it was what I would wear out to the football game or to the movies. So I was probably wearing it while I was watching the movie. I was probably wearing that outfit. For
Michelle Newman 24:27
me, the most iconic part of her outfit is the barrettes she wears the burette totally. Yes, they came in all different colors. It looks almost like a plastic oval and has a little stick in it. And you go under your hair and then up back and clip it. And she wears those several times in the movie,
Kristin Nilsen 24:45
I want to go back to the song for just a second, because remember, okay, what is, what is happening during American girl could be the source of everybody's number one stress dream, and that is Stacy. What. Walking around the high school with her schedule, trying to find her classroom. And then sometimes I'll lose my schedule, and then I don't know where it is, and then I have to go to the office to get a new one, but I can't find the office, so I'm watching her, and I'm like, sweating. I'm like, this is where it all comes from, and I'm still dreaming about it, right?
Carolyn Cochrane 25:18
It is an all American feeling that so many of us have had that we continue to dream about it.
Kristin Nilsen 25:24
So really, in the first two scenes of the movie, you are getting the two slices of life, of teen life in the 80s, you get a full song of the mall, and you get a full song of the first day of school in high school. Yes, I
Unknown Speaker 25:38
music?
Michelle Newman 25:49
Well, the next song we're going to talk about is the song Carolyn asked earlier, do you have a song that you associate with Fast Times? And for me, this song, since 1982 has always been the fast time song, and that's somebody's Baby by Jackson Browne.
So to set the scene, Stacy is sneaking out of the house after her mom tells her good night. She's fully clothed under her covers. She gets in Ron the stereo guys car. And if you remember Ron the stereo guy is much older, and she's told him that she's like, 19 or something like that. She is actually 14. And they go to this place called the point, which is really just a baseball dugout. Yeah, the romantic feel of somebody's baby, it's almost juxtaposed by Stacy losing her virginity, spoiler alert, on a bench in a dirty dugout. You guys. There's no foreplay of any kind or caring. By Ron the stereo man, I might add, and as it happens, we see her looking as the sex happens, we see her looking up at the graffiti on the ceiling. She's almost disassociating. And it's so heartbreaking and so terrible. Yet I also feel it's a brilliant use of point of view by Amy Heckerling, because that scene is making us feel uncomfortable, right, which I'm sure was her intention. Somebody's baby was the only hit from the soundtrack, and they say it was the movie that helped drive the chart success of this song, which I get, I think that this is a song many people associate you can see her climbing out the window as it's going doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo Okay,
Kristin Nilsen 27:50
and that's so interesting, because it is. He's here for a lot of reasons, because Jackson Brown also is a frequent collaborator with the Eagles. The Eagles, yes, right, he wrote their biggest hit. I think this song is so brilliantly placed because it's, like you said, it's a very sweet song, and it's called somebody's baby, and it's telling you what the stakes are. All Stacy wants is to be somebody's baby. That's what she's here for, and that's what we're gonna watch her try and get. Unfortunately, what she doesn't know is that she's not gonna be Ron the stereo guys, baby. And so that's kind of sad. And the way they're setting her up in her room, and her mom comes in and tucks her in. She's a little girl. She's her mom's baby. She's somebody's baby. And then the mom leaves the room and she sneaks out of the house. She's growing up, and she's trolling around in the middle of the night while and then Ron, the stereo guy's gonna pick her up, the juxtaposition of that mommy tucking her in and then going to Virginia
Carolyn Cochrane 28:57
Kristen.
Kristin Nilsen 28:58
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Carolyn Cochrane 29:12
Next song we're going to talk about is raised on the radio by the ravens, which is on the soundtrack. The Ravens were a local band based in Baltimore, the scar smoking Irving Azoff, he got a demo that was passed along to him by the manager of the cars when
Unknown Speaker 29:38
the DJ broke to play. If
Carolyn Cochrane 29:44
you remember, the scene is when Brad is washing his car. I want to read you the first stanza, and it says, I was raised on the radio, just an all American boy. I found my favorite toy, and I think I. Again, like American Girl. Here we are seeing Brad do what to me a lot of guys were doing, if they had their own car, that was their toy, that was and washing it was like the ultimate we were a generation that was raised on the radio, the generation now, you know, I mean, they think the radio is Sirius XM and where you get to like your genre and everything. So again, the lyrics really help tell the story and propel it forward. And we learn a lot about Brad just in that scene where nobody is talking.
Michelle Newman 30:30
This is also the scene while this song is still playing, where we learn that Stacy and Brad are brother and sister, and this is the first time we see that. And I thought that was so cute too, for that song to be playing, because it is like they were raised on the radio, and you can tell right away it's established that they have a very sweet relationship. You know? She gets the flowers from Ron, the stereo guy, yeah, I'm assuming. And she's like, Oh my gosh, you have to hide these please. You know, don't let mom and dad know. And he takes them from her, and he's going to help her out. So I think just the song, it's just a cute it's just a really cute, feel good scene between those two, with him with his car, and then him and Stacy. And the song is perfect.
Carolyn Cochrane 31:10
And also, you guys, do you remember how important, like, we would buy a different radio to put in our car, like you would go to the audio place, and they would install a radio and take out, like, the one that came with the car, which might have just been Yes, or a tape deck, like those were separate items. And you could get, like, I A pioneer that was, like, one of the big, expensive ones.
Kristin Nilsen 31:34
I bet Ron, the stereo guy, knows. Well,
Carolyn Cochrane 31:37
I bet he does. I bet he does. Yeah, that the radio that was a big deal, and the woofers and the speakers and the things you get, like, extra buffers,
Michelle Newman 31:45
yes, subwoofers And the tweeters,
Kristin Nilsen 31:49
the woofers and the tweeters got
Speaker 1 32:02
my the
Kristin Nilsen 32:09
next song that we hear in the movie is called uptown boys, and it is on the soundtrack this Carolyn is going to be one of those songs you go, huh? This sounds a little bit familiar what is going on. So this is when Demone is delivering his five point plan for picking up women with rat. He's he remember, he's the Linda to right to rat. He's the one who's sort of teaching rat how to do these things he's so unfamiliar with. And we're to believe that Demone is really suave and deboner, as we used to say, which he is not. I'm
Michelle Newman 32:44
glad she said, as we used to say, because in my head, I was like, do I correct her?
Kristin Nilsen 32:51
Nope, Sue even debona. So it plays very quietly underneath. You hardly even notice it, but if you listen very carefully, it sounds just like Carole King.
And you're like, oh, my god, is that Carole King? No, it is not. It is not Carole King. It is Louise Goffin, Carole King's daughter. No, yes, it is, yes, it is Louise Goffin is the daughter of Jerry Goffin and Carole King. She was the youngest artist on the soundtrack for fast times, and her debut performance was when she was just 17 years old, opening up for Jackson Brown.
Carolyn Cochrane 33:42
I said it in last week's episode that it seemed I don't want to say ancestral. What's the word? I just very it's like, co
Michelle Newman 33:49
mingling, yeah, like, yeah. There
Carolyn Cochrane 33:51
was a lot of that, so
Kristin Nilsen 33:53
many, so many connections. She also sang something else that you guys will know, that a lot of people will know, that people feel very strongly about. She sang the theme song for the Gilmore Girls with her mother.
Michelle Newman 34:05
I'm a huge Gilmore Girls fan, and it's so cute because that they sang that's Carole King's song as solo artist, but that she had her daughter sing with her, and it's a show about another
Carolyn Cochrane 34:16
mother's nurse. It's very cute. When
Speaker 1 34:17
you leave, I will follow
Speaker 2 34:24
anywhere that you tell me to if you need, you
Kristin Nilsen 34:33
need next is one of the biggest controversies in the entire soundtrack, slash not soundtrack. The song is cashmere by Led Zeppelin. This is the next scene in our movie. It is not on the soundtrack. So if you recall Step Five of Demone five point plan for picking up women is when you get down to making out whenever possible. Put on side one of Led Zeppelin four the next. Scene opens immediately after he says that, and it's rat and Stacy in rat's older sister's car, and cashmere is blasting on the stare.
This is their first date, and he's trying to implement demons advice. But what Led Zeppelin fans around the world will tell you very loudly and annoyingly is that cashmere is not on Led Zeppelin for it's on physical graffiti. I never in 10,000 years would have known that. I just would have been like, oh, it's Led Zeppelin. So Led Zeppelin wasn't really down with letting people use their music in the movies. So 24 year old Cameron Crowe used his Rolling Stone connections to help them agree, let's massage this agreement. But for some reason, they were only able to get cashmere. That's the only thing they could get. So I have to wonder, why didn't he just change the dialog to say, Listen to side one of physical graffiti. I don't know.
Michelle Newman 36:05
I don't know. I think it's kind of funny, because I think it's kind of it goes in rats character that he heard demon. He's like, either he messed it up, he mixed it up, or he doesn't have that one. So he just hears Led Zeppelin. Any Led Zeppelin will do, he's so he's so anxious about this date, and he's so he wants to impress her so badly. And
Kristin Nilsen 36:25
Cameron Crowe agrees. He's like, this is the point people rat is not savvy. Like Damone. He's like, enough already. People quit your bitchin because people are still, to this day will be like, Mr. Crow I just wanted to point out an inconsistency in your movie for YouTube. And he's like, shut your face. And he says, yeah, it's a joke, you guys, that is the point. Rat isn't a player. He's gonna whiff the details. And
Carolyn Cochrane 36:51
I think that's also the time where I'm first getting a clue that demon doesn't know what he's talking about. Like, you know, we think he is all suave, but really, that's the make out song you're gonna choose. Like, have you ever really made out with anyone? I'm thinking you don't really know what you're talking about. To moan.
The next song that we hear is Love rules by Don Henley, yes, it was on the soundtrack and written specifically for the movie. I chose this song to tell you guys about because it was that voice. Oh, and of course, I recognize Don Henley's voice because of the Eagles. So the scene that this is playing in is when Stacy takes Mark rat to her house. After their date, they come back to Stacy's house, and she brings him into her bedroom. She's gonna show her his photo, her photo album. Meanwhile, she's put on a robe. She's taken off.
Kristin Nilsen 38:08
She puts on her but come on in, let me, let me put on my bathroom. But you know what? Maybe it came from love American style, because they were always gonna slip into something more comfortable. And so maybe true she thinks she's doing, Yeah, but how would rat feel when suddenly she comes out in her bathroom? Well, I
Carolyn Cochrane 38:26
think we kind of see it on his
Michelle Newman 38:29
face Exactly,
Carolyn Cochrane 38:30
yeah. And if we remember the earlier time where she's with a guy and knowing that something is going to happen, it is very like we've said before, dirty we're in that dugout and all that stuff. She's going to make this like love American style that she sees on TV. This is going to be this romantic moment. So notice, it's a different song. And again, lyrics. Lyrics matter people. And here is the first few lines of that song. Every day you pass her in the hall, you just pretend that you don't see her at all. You want to tell her how much you care. You want to call her, but you just don't dare. Love rules.
Kristin Nilsen 39:11
Ooh, Love rules. That's totally, that's rat in a nutshell, exactly, exactly. Crush on her. He
Carolyn Cochrane 39:17
does. And as we know in the scene as it goes on, she's kind of initiating stuff. And it gets to the point where it could go a little farther, and all of a sudden, rat remembers his sister needs the car back by a certain time, and he, you know, gets nervous, which, let's face it, that was a lot of guys. Most guys probably wouldn't want to admit it in high school. In those situations, it's it can be intimidating, and
Kristin Nilsen 39:43
he's just paralyzed. He just gets paralyzed. Exactly what she doesn't know, you know, Stacy again, is taking Linda's advice and going about trying to be somebody's baby the way that Linda says she does it with her adult boyfriend, her man boyfriend in Chicago. What she doesn't know is. Rat doesn't go at Linda's speed. Well, right?
Carolyn Cochrane 40:03
And I think subliminally maybe, and I don't know again if we heard these consciously, these words, but we get the feeling Mark sees her differently. He doesn't want to just do this act and be done and check that box. The rules of love are different than the rules of let's just do it in a dugout, kind of a thing
Kristin Nilsen 40:22
that being said, How uncomfortable were you during this scene? Oh, gosh. Oh. Just
Michelle Newman 40:27
as uncomfortable at age 55 watching it last week as I was when I watched it at 13. And so many things are so weird, like, that's that's when the character of Stacy started turning for me. I talked about this last week at age 1314 when I'm not seeing her as I do now, as an adult, I was then sort of seeing her as like she was putting him in this awful position. Now I see, I see everything she's going through, and I see what she was longing for and what she thinks is right, because of having talked to Linda like you just said, Carolyn, you know, rat doesn't move at Linda's speed. Well, we learn throughout this movie that neither does Stacy Right,
Carolyn Cochrane 41:03
right? I think we see it in the photo album. Part is kind of odd, but you also see where they really bonded over like their middle school or elementary school teacher, like they have this moment of connection. It's really cute, and I feel like, oh yeah, that's what they're trying to tell in this scene, is that there's this connection, and it doesn't have to be all about let's go. And that's when she seemed the most natural. And as
Kristin Nilsen 41:35
the viewer, you want it to stay in that place. Like that would have been such a successful interaction if they had stayed in that place, but instead, Stacy wants to try and make out with him, and that's where rat is paralyzed. He's like, Oh, I don't know what to do, but as an adult now watching it when she starts to make out with him, I'm like, oh, Stacy, you just ruined it. You had such a beautiful moment with him, and you were gonna be somebody's baby if you had stayed in that moment. But instead, you pushed the envelope, because you think that's how you get to be somebody's baby.
Carolyn Cochrane 42:03
This is true, and that's what we thought. That wasn't that far fetched. I mean, let's exactly that's the message that, even if we didn't have Linda's in our lives, I feel like that's the message the media and, you know, the things that we were consuming at the time was yet sending to us.
Kristin Nilsen 42:17
So the next two songs, this is very interesting. There are two eponymous songs in this movie called Fast Times and Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and both of them are dumb. The first one is the first one is called Fast Times at Ridgemont High. It's by Sammy Hagar, and it is on the soundtrack. So despite the name Fast Times at Ridgemont High, this doesn't feel the least bit like a theme song at all. It's not anthemic. You can barely hear it. It's weird to have an eponymous song that doesn't even get featured at all. And all I can figure out is that it was intended to be a theme song, but Amy and Cameron hated it and buried it. So the next one, right? Don't you think they're like, this is a dumb song. We're not gonna even feature the next one is called Fast Times. It's by Billy squire. This one is better as far as eponymous songs go. It's at the big football game, and it gives you a very high school Friday Night Lights feeling like, yay. Look at us. We're in high school. We're living our best lives. Everyone wants to kill Lincoln. That's the other team. Kill isn't
Carolyn Cochrane 43:19
that funny? Did you guys notice that like kill Lincoln and then their button set, assassinate Lincoln? Oh,
Kristin Nilsen 43:28
no. Okay, that's clever. Clever. That's clever. But it's still kind of weird to put your song in the middle of the movie at the point that in a moment that is not important to the plot at all. This football game has nothing to do with the plot. So these two kind of lamish songs make me wonder what happened to the other eponymous song called Fast Times, that was written and recorded for the movie that didn't. Not only did it not get on the soundtrack, it didn't even get in the movie at all. It was written by Nancy Wilson and performed by Hart Nancy Wilson, who would go on to be Cameron Pro's wife didn't get in the movie or the soundtrack, but she eventually did put it on one of Hart's albums in 1982 called Private audition.
Michelle Newman 44:16
The next song is included on the soundtrack. It's called Never surrender, and it's by Don Felder. And probably the reason it's included on the soundtrack is because Don Felder played the mandolin for who
Unknown Speaker 44:31
the Eagles,
Michelle Newman 44:35
one of two mandolin players, I might add two. So never surrender, is the song that's playing when rat and Damone stop by Stacy's without invitation, I might add, to hang out with her and Linda by the pool, and Stacy lets them in, but Linda is just from immediately not having it like they're so immature. What is happening and the. Song, never surrender. It's making a funny nod to the fact that rat is trying to get another shot with Stacey, after what we just heard, he had to leave very quickly make up a lie and hightail it out of her bedroom when she made a move on him. You
I will say this scene bothered me at age 1314 and it still does now, and it's because the guys are so juvenile and amateur. Their version of flirting is to cannonball in and splash the girls and, you know, all that stuff. So Linda, rolling her eyes all the just like, up on her elbows. Like, now this song is play. It's very quick, but that's a scene that I always remember. So I wanted to talk about it. And I also would like us to talk about Stacy's swimsuit. If we could better do that, ladies and listeners, you know, we can all picture Linda's swimsuit, and Kristen's going to talk about that in a minute, so I'm not going to go there. But Stacey, both times she's in a swimsuit in this movie, wears swimsuit bottoms and a sweater vest. I thought it was like a terry cloth sweater vest.
Carolyn Cochrane 46:19
Kind of sure dish thing.
Michelle Newman 46:20
This scene comes on, and I say to my husband, I was like, is she wearing a sweater vest? What is she wearing?
Kristin Nilsen 46:28
And it's in contrast to Linda's swimsuit, which is form fitting, and this is not form fitting, whereas Linda is dialed, Stacey is not dialed, right?
Carolyn Cochrane 46:39
These are moments where we see that she's still maybe kid like, like, maybe she doesn't even care what she's wearing.
Michelle Newman 46:46
Yeah, I think it was done very intentionally to make sure that Linda stands out and that
Kristin Nilsen 47:00
oh, the next song we hear in the movie is the most egregious omission on the soundtrack. This does not appear on the soundtrack, and it is to the sadness of everyone who bought this album, mostly the boys, I'm guessing. So, yeah, we're still at the pool. Hmm, that's your clue. We're at the pool.
This is it? This is the big moment, right. Here it is when Phoebe Cates emerges from the pool in a way that is too beautiful to even describe. It defies description, like it's filmed so beautifully, and she's sprinkled with this glistening spray from what I don't know Is it a hose? Like, where's the spray coming from? It's and the song is atmospheric as like, and I, and I can't hear this song without envisioning this scene. It defines the scene. Oh, have I said the name of
Michelle Newman 48:16
the song? Just about to say, and what song was that Christian?
Kristin Nilsen 48:20
This song is moving in stereo by the cars, and it defines the scene. I don't know how to listen to this song without this scene. Is it even a good song without this scene? I don't even know. The song has become synonymous with watching somebody sexy do something sexy, and it's been parodied like crazy. It's been used to indicate sexy time for voyeurs in so many TV shows, including The Family Guy, One Tree Hill, Stranger Things, parenthood, scrubs, alias, the sopranos and more. And the song itself was never a single. It's buried on an album somewhere, and the reason is that it doesn't follow regular song structure. It's really a sonic experiment, and it's exploring the stereo spectrum of sound going back and forth between the right and left speakers, which is moving in stereo. Hence the name of the song, and it's known among audio files as being one of the best songs to listen to with headphones, because you'll hear the song coming in and out of each of the headphones never released as a single, so there's no chart history, but it was popular on rock radio stations, but it is iconic. Thanks to Phoebe Cates
Carolyn Cochrane 49:31
and Judge Reinhold,
Kristin Nilsen 49:32
he had a little bit to do, a little bit to do with it, as we know, as we discussed, yes, you guys time, yeah, yeah.
Michelle Newman 49:42
I want you to. I did this a couple days ago. I want you to watch that scene. Sorry, listeners, I'm asking you to watch this, but turn down your volume. It is so different. Oh, so when she gets out of the pool and you just hear that instrumental, that's what I. Feel like that's that's just as much what makes that scene effective as is her beautiful body getting out of that. And the way she just, like, tips her hair back and then just slowly looks over at him, try it with no sound, and it's just sort of like, Oh, wow. Take so much away from it.
Unknown Speaker 50:22
You family,
Michelle Newman 50:42
I Okay, and then the next song we're going to talk about is called the look in your eyes, by Gerard McMahon. This song is not on the soundtrack, and it's used so quickly in the movie. This is what's playing behind Stacey and demones Secret hang the first part of it when they're sitting at her kitchen table. The lyrics of the song suggest a longing and connection that the two cannot fight. But I really, I never bought it. I always felt like she just wanted to find someone to do it with, like I never really bought that she liked him, and Damone is clearly uncomfortable being there with her. It's like he's and you can see at the table, he's already feeling guilty because rat's his friend. But you know, the hormones of a he can't say, 16 year old boy, I start to get cringey. In that
Kristin Nilsen 51:26
I get totally cringey. And this song actually has a very bittersweet sound to it, and I think it's because this is a conflicting scene. She wants so badly to be somebody's baby every change baby, you like the
Speaker 3 51:40
wind in my heart. Like I've come to know you so well.
Kristin Nilsen 51:56
This is how she's going to do it. She's She just went out on a date with rat. Now she's going to try and have sex with rat's friend. We're all uncomfortable. Demon is like, Oh, I really want to do this, but he's my friend. I think the bittersweet feeling to that song is because that's part of the growth experience. It's not Danger, danger, it's all you guys. I'm sad. I'm sad. Yeah, and then when they're actually doing it. This is when somebody breeze of somebody's baby.
And it's just quickly, and it's quickly because Demone prematurely ejaculates, so it doesn't go very far. If you don't, if you don't listen for it, you'll actually miss it. But it's important. And again, is this subliminal? Is it re This is reiterating her wish to be somebody's baby. So in both sex scenes of the movie, they're playing somebody's baby, because she thinks this is how you make that happen, except it's very clear that that's not gonna happen, especially when Demone like and then I suppose I should really act that
Unknown Speaker 53:02
out. Special
Michelle Newman 53:09
Patreon content pay to see that Kristen
Kristin Nilsen 53:13
well and they make it very, very clear to moan like. He, you see his, he keeps his socks on. They have a shot of just their feet, you know, like in the in the formation that feet would be when you're having sex, and Demone has his socks on, and his feet just sort of start shaking, like you're like, Oh no, this isn't gonna that's very long. Interesting fact,
Carolyn Cochrane 53:41
there was actually a nudity, a full nudity scene with him nude, and they cut it because it wouldn't have got, it would have gotten an extra
Kristin Nilsen 53:49
raining, yeah, but they can show it, yeah, it's naked scene. It's so naked. There's so much Jennifer, Jason Lee, it's like, full on boobs. She's just lying there, and it's not comfortable at all, and it's, yeah, why doesn't that get the X rating? Only he would get the X rating. You know what it is? It's not, she doesn't look nude. She looks exposed.
Carolyn Cochrane 54:14
Yes, that's a great that is a great way to describe that scene. And
Michelle Newman 54:19
I feel exposed watching I feel even now and I did them too. Totally different feeling than you feel watching Phoebe Cates, absolutely,
Kristin Nilsen 54:26
yes,
Michelle Newman 54:27
that's a good way to put it. That's there's a big difference. Huge
Kristin Nilsen 54:30
difference. Did you guys get the feeling when Demone and his socks, when he gets up quickly and runs away? Did you have the thought, Huh? I think he was a virgin. Oh yeah, totally Yeah. That was, oh yeah. It was, they don't tell you this in the film, but you're thinking, this is his first time, and here he's getting, giving rat all of this,
Carolyn Cochrane 54:50
right? Same with Linda. You know, what actually has Linda done when she's giving all this advice? No, yep. But these two night more naive characters are. Looking to these other characters for all the information, which is all wrong and they don't even know what they're talking about.
Kristin Nilsen 55:07
Yeah, they're just you guys
Michelle Newman 55:08
how much, how much truth is in that though Cameron Crowe right, writing those two characters because and he had gone to the high school we talked about this last week and witnessed this. But I go back now and think about the girls in all years of my high school that we looked up to as kind of the ones who were the Linda's, right? How much of their persona and what they were putting out was just all smoke and mirrors,
Kristin Nilsen 55:30
right? How much of it wasn't? Yeah, exactly. And I
Michelle Newman 55:35
wish I could go back and tell little Michelle that I know
Kristin Nilsen 55:37
Right, right? I
Carolyn Cochrane 55:39
don't know that. I realized then, when I saw it, that they were frauds, like I wonder if I don't think I don't either. Yeah, I pick up on that, or not, not
Michelle Newman 55:46
at all. Oh no, no, I but I don't know that I got that in the first watch of it. It might have been later I just loved her, and you still just wanted to be that cool girl, even if you were gonna be a liar, if you wanted to be her. And if
Kristin Nilsen 55:59
you think about it. This is, and I've said this several times in this podcast, this is the business of high school. This is what our job is in high school as we become sexual beings. And it's no different from having a new job, right? When you have a new job and you don't know how to work the cash register, all you want is to get some experience so you can be at ease with using the cash register. And you're so nervous until you get that experience. And so in high school, you do look to everybody like they do there. How come they're so they use the cash register so easily, and they know how to they know how to give change, they know how to return.
Michelle Newman 56:37
They push the buttons with such confidence, and when the drawer pops out, they know just what to do. They know how to push it back in their fingers come
Kristin Nilsen 56:49
it's true. It's just, it's all about being nervous because you don't know how to do it. You just, and you just wish to be on the other side of that experience so you wouldn't
Carolyn Cochrane 56:58
and you think you're the only one that doesn't know how to do it, when, in reality, these people obviously don't know how to do it right either.
Michelle Newman 57:07
Listeners, I hope you appreciate how the three of us, once again, can take an episode about the music and the soundtrack of a movie, and we've now turned it into an entire like discussion and dissertation of what being a girl in high school is like, or boy? Yeah,
Kristin Nilsen 57:26
it's true. Yeah. Because the boys are, they have the same fear too. They just kind of get to the other side. Oh, if I could just get to the other side. Everybody else,
Michelle Newman 57:33
demon is scared out of his skin.
Kristin Nilsen 57:38
Okay, the next scene where we have a song is so funny. The song is waffle stump. It is on the soundtrack. It is by Joe Walsh from the Eagles, the Eagles. He's from the Eagles.
This song is perfectly placed. It's got kind of this dorky Honky Tonk bounce to it while Brad is driving along in his pirate hat to deliver some fish sticks to an office. And he thinks he's all that when this cute girl in a convertible comes driving up next him to check him out, and he's like, yeah, you can keep looking. Keep looking, yeah, like He winks, but he forgets he's got his big old pirate hat on, and she's sort of like laughing, and he thinks she's flirting. She's laughing his damn pirate hat. So this is one of the best fun facts of this movie. The girl that's in the car laughing at him during Joe Walsh's waffle stomp is Nancy Wilson from heart, who was Cameron Crowe's girlfriend at the time. How many times have I seen this movie and I never picked that out? She's it's not even fleeting. I'm looking right at her. And I never went, Hey, that works a lot like Nancy Wilson, never.
Michelle Newman 59:07
It's very reminiscent to me of the scene on vacation when Chevy Chase first is flirting with Christie Brinkley.
Kristin Nilsen 59:12
It is. It's the same scene. It's the same scene. Yeah. You.
Carolyn Cochrane 59:38
Our next song is sleeping Angel by Stevie Nicks. And yes, we are lucky enough to get this on the soundtrack. It was actually supposed to be on her debut album, which was called Belladonna, that had been released the year before in 1981 but that's a song that had gotten, you know, chopped, so to speak. But again, lyrics matter people. So this song is playing in a scene. Where Stacy is waiting for Damone to pick her up to take her to the clinic to get an abortion, because when they were together, that one little moment in time in the pool house, she got pregnant, he reluctantly agreed to help pay and then he would drive her to the clinic. So this song sleeping angel is playing while Stacy is waiting outside on the sidewalk for Demone to pick her up and drive her to the clinic. And she's looking up and down the street and his car isn't coming, and she realizes he's probably not coming,
Speaker 4 1:00:35
but never hold me down your ass. The song
Carolyn Cochrane 1:00:52
is really somber, and so you kind of get the feeling this is like one of the more serious scenes in the movie. So she goes inside when he hasn't come to pick her up, and calls him at home, and his mother answers the phone, and he she said, Oh, hold on. Oh, he can't come to the phone. He's in the garage with his dad. All right, I want us to just take that for a moment and realize this is very kid like so she's calling him, and he's in the garage with his dad. And right when that is playing, these are the lyrics, take me sleeping Angel. Catch me when you can real. Love affairs are heavy spells for a woman and a man, and right when she is making that call, you hear the line very distinctly for a woman and a man, and at the same time, you're hearing his mother say, Oh, he's in the car in the garage with his dad, like you're realizing these are kids like, this is not a woman, boy and
Kristin Nilsen 1:01:50
a girl, not right, exactly. Oh, and again,
Carolyn Cochrane 1:01:54
this is another song that I recognized the voice right away. And I would have recognized it right away in 1982 and I think again, I got that feeling in my tummy. All those Stevie Nicks songs kind of give me the same feeling. They're not like the go, Go's or anything, the feeling that I get when I listen to Stevie nicks' songs and her voice. Immediately I felt that way in this scene, and it just perfectly paired for me.
Kristin Nilsen 1:02:20
I get the same feeling I get from this song as I do from landslide, yes.
Carolyn Cochrane 1:02:25
What is that feeling? I guess we don't have to come up with a word for melancholy. It's,
Kristin Nilsen 1:02:28
it's melancholy, not just sadness. It's like a bittersweet feeling, yeah, and it's, there's another important part of this song prior to him not coming to pick her up. You see demon on the phone calling all of because he's a scalper, and he's calling all of his clients, and he's shaking people down for money like you didn't pay me for those Van Halen tickets. I need. Okay? I need because he needs his $75 for his half of the abortion. He is trying to be a grown up in that moment, and you see him failing, because nobody is going to shake, is going to cough up any money. And when he's not able to get it, he just sort of gives in, and that's when you see, well, he's still just a boy. He can't solve this problem. He tried for a second to be a grown up, and it didn't work. So he's just going to go out in the garage and hang out with his
Carolyn Cochrane 1:03:17
dad. Yeah, come to the rescue. Judge Reinhold, yeah, and everybody probably knows what happens later on, but yeah, that that Big Brother little sister relationship in this movie. I always wanted a big brother, and I always wanted to be like that, like, you know, yeah, he'd be, you clean the pool, I take out the garbage, but at the same time, he really loved me and would have my back and and think
Kristin Nilsen 1:03:41
of how serious that is for your for a big brother to come upon his 15 year old sister and realize that she is going to the abortion clinic, and he's not mad either. He's not coded this to you, would you like, kind of what you would assume somebody would do? He's really more like, let's just take care
Michelle Newman 1:03:58
of her. That's right. And then
Kristin Nilsen 1:04:01
it's over. It's over.
Michelle Newman 1:04:25
Dance. So our next song is speeding by the Go Go's, and it is included on the fast time soundtrack, and only on that album. This song, I think, is played perfectly when Damone, who now just to catch everyone up now, Linda has found out that Damone didn't show and to take her so this is the song. So she writes, what does she write on his car? Why am I thinking now on his car? Can we all just talk about Damone drives a gremlin? Oh, my God, we had a grill. One when he gets to school, he finds out that his locker has been vandalized with graffiti, and the words little prick have been sprayed across it by Linda, we can assume in retaliation, like I just said, because he ghosted Stacey when she had to have an abortion. And here's a sample of the lyrics. It says, I can't explain the way I feel every time I get behind the wheel, the rush of blood comes as the power surges and my right foot urges the car to push on through the night.
So you're getting this great soundtrack for the retaliation of Linda.
Kristin Nilsen 1:05:44
This is about female rage. And I love knowing those lyrics, because you can see that's exactly what I felt about Linda, is that she was gonna put the the accelerator down and she was gonna vandalize his car, and she was gonna vandalize his locker, and she couldn't stop she's got her foot down. There's no break. She's not breaking right? She's just going through all the stop signs because she's so mad at that little prick. You
we're coming to the end of the movie now, and we're at the graduation dance where there is a cover band doing a cover of Life in the fast lane by the Eagles. But this is this place where we're all gonna make up everybody. It's kind of like, you know, everything happens at the dance. I music. So now that everybody made up at the graduation dance, and everybody's good, everyone's cool, now we're back at work at Perry's pizza at the mall. This is our coming of age moment, and the song we hear is so much in love, by Timothy B Schmidt, of course, from the Eagles and the Eagles. This is on the soundtrack, and it is our theme. This is the theme. It's so sweet. Stacy has figured out that she really wants a nice relationship, a nice guy to treat her nicely, and that might be rat
Unknown Speaker 1:07:18
as we stroll along together. Long,
Unknown Speaker 1:07:25
together,
Unknown Speaker 1:07:34
holding hands.
Kristin Nilsen 1:07:42
This song plays as she reestablishes for him at Perry's pizza in her little uniform, in her little fast food uniform that she does like him, and they wave to each other from across the food court. It's so high school.
Speaker 1 1:08:01
So this is
Kristin Nilsen 1:08:06
actually a cover of a doo wop song that was originally released in 1963 it's been covered by tons of people. I didn't know this, as far as I knew, the only time this song was ever performed was in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and I didn't know it was a member of the eagles that was singing it, because this also doesn't sound like an eagle song. So I don't even,
Carolyn Cochrane 1:08:26
I don't know Timothy B Schmidt is. Should I know
Unknown Speaker 1:08:29
who that is? Doesn't matter.
Kristin Nilsen 1:08:32
He's in the Eagles. I think Timothy B Schmidt went back and forth between a lot of bands, like Jackson, brown and the Eagles and poco. He was in all of those bands and probably managed by Irving a days off. It's hard to say that name this song. I can't believe it. This song only went to number 59 in my head. This is a hit, but it's not. It went to 59 and Billy Joel has said this tune was the inspiration for his 1984 hit the longest time.
Carolyn Cochrane 1:09:01
Yeah, it's the same. Now the similarities right for sure, yep.
Kristin Nilsen 1:09:08
And now after we after all of our people have come of age, everything has come together. Everybody's apologized to everybody, even Spicoli has passed Mr. Hand's class after Mr. Hand comes to his house and gives him, like a little, like a little one on one tutoring. It's all good. Everyone's gonna graduate. It's all good. And now it's time to say goodbye to our cast. And Amy hagerling fought and fought so hard for this last song to ride us out of the movie. And that is goodbye, goodbye, by by Oingo Boingo, and it is not on the soundtrack.
This is our goodbye song, and it plays on the screen as we get epilogs for all of the characters. The whole story is wrapped up. All we're doing right now is waiting for the credits and they're going to tell us on the screen what happens to everybody. For instance, Mike Demone works at the 711 and is arrested for scalping Ozzy Osbourne tickets. Linda, she now attends College in Riverside, and she lives with her abnormal psych Professor Jeff Spicoli saved Brooke Shields from drowning, and he blows the reward money hiring Van Halen to play his birthday party, and most importantly, rat and Stacy are having a passionate love affair, but still haven't gone all the way.
Carolyn Cochrane 1:10:51
And don't forget, my boyfriend, he became the manager of the mighty Mart.
Kristin Nilsen 1:10:56
The mighty Mart, yes, so it seems like Amy Heckerling fought super hard for this to be the ending of her movie. So she got the opening that she wanted with We Got the Beat and she got the closing she wanted. And then in between, we get the Eagles. So we've gone through we've gone through the whole soundtrack. We've gone through the whole movie. And there are, truthfully, a lot of songs that no one's heard of that we just talked about, but we've made this argument that the music was so important and it helped us bond with the movie. So my theory is that the music we remember so hard that really defined this movie was really just three songs. It's somebody's baby, it's moving in stereo, and the third one,
Michelle Newman 1:11:40
what do you think I'm so much
Kristin Nilsen 1:11:42
in love as we stroll the something to get together? Yeah. And just because there are only three songs to me that I identify as being from Fast Times, that doesn't mean anything in terms of the success of how they use the music in the movie. Because every single song that they used I love the way that they used it. And you know what? I'll take those three songs. I take I'll take them. I love them. That's good enough for me, because those three songs did their job. They did their job. And because we we can hear them today, 42 years later, we are instantly transported to Ridgemont High. And we remember all of our friends. We remember Brad and Stacy and Linda and Demone and rat and Spicoli, and we might even feel a little flutter of what it felt like to be young and in love. Thanks so much for listening today, and we will see you next time. Well,
Michelle Newman 1:12:32
today's episode was brought to you by The Eagles, I'm sure, and by these fine Patreon members who are next level, supporters of our podcast and who we honestly couldn't do any of this without. And today we are saying a special thank you to Barbara, Scylla, Susan, Joanna. Jane. Carolyn, hey, Carolyn. Jen, Cindy. Sharon, Michelle, hey, Michelle, it's not me, Kristen, but I do support our podcast. And Jill, thank you guys so much.
Kristin Nilsen 1:13:09
Betty, in the meantime, let's raise our glasses for a toast, courtesy of the cast of threes companies, two good times,
Michelle Newman 1:13:16
two Happy Days,
Carolyn Cochrane 1:13:18
Two Little House on the Prairie. Cheers. Cheers.
Unknown Speaker 1:13:21
The information,
Kristin Nilsen 1:13:23
opinions and comments expressed on the pop culture Preservation Society podcast belong solely to Carolyn the crushologist and hello Newman, and are in no way representative of our employers or affiliates. And though we truly believe we're always right, there's always a first time the PCPs is written, produced and recorded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, home of the fictional wjm studios and our beloved Mary Richards, Nanu. Nanu, keep on truckin, and May the Force Be With You. You.