Taking inspiration from one of the most powerful cultural contexts for music IN THE 80S: THE FILMS OF JOHN HUGHES, we’ve created our own 80s movie soundtrack. We stay largely British, and we take a couple of those songs Hughes used, but stay more on the side of those he very much could have. WITH DIF JUZ, COCTEAU TWINS, THE DURUTTI COLUMN, THE RAILWAY CHILDREN, THIS MORTAL COIL AND THE MIGHT LEMON DROPS!
John Hughes’s seminal coming-of-age movies are a thing of 80s pop culture legend. A triumvirate of undisputed classics - The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off contain all the hallmarks: a motley cast of adolescents, the ups & downs of teenage life in American high schools, family homes, rich kid cars, nightclubs and the like. These movies have colourful characters, moments of sheer unadulterated joy, moments of excruciating embarrassment, points of conflict and points of emotional desperation. They contained all forms of early love: unrequited, infatuated, misguided and ultimately transient.
In other words, the life of all teenagers and therefore, the lives of all of us. All this came soundtracked to perfection and so perfectly of its time. Hughes and his music supervisors of the time, notably Tarquin Gotch, paid more attention to the music as an integral part of the storytelling and paved the way for other directors who were to do the same such as Tarantino, Cameron Crowe and Danny Boyle. Gotch was previously a British record executive and his influence is clear - those movies - with their all-American feel, were littered with the British electronic pop and indie bands of the time. In particular he was influential in rooting out new up & coming UK indie bands like Echo & The Bunnymen, whose moody, dreamy sound was perfect for Hughes’s themes. Most famously in 1985, a song by the then relatively little known (in the USA that is) Scottish band called Simple Minds was the chosen as both the opening and closing title track for what turned out to be Hughes’ most famous film The Breakfast Club. It helped ‘Don’t You Forget About Me’ claim an immortal place in popular culture. The life-giving power of its placement in the movie is evidenced by that track’s 320 million Spotify streams (nearly 10 times more than The Minds’ next biggest tune Alive & Kicking). Both bands are of course, still going even if sporadically in the Bunnymen’s case. Another John Hughes favourite, The Psychedelic Furs - of Pretty In Pink fame - have recently made a return after many years. Try their single Don’t Believe to see how classic songs from the Hughes era can still sound contemporary.
Anyhow, all this is by way of introduction to our Alternative Movie Soundtrack playlist. There are plenty of John Hughes movie soundtrack playlists on the streaming services, so we have no purpose here to add to those. Instead, taking inspiration from one of the most powerful cultural contexts for music that decade, we’ve created our own 80s movie soundtrack. We stay largely, but not exclusively British, and we take a couple of those songs Hughes used, but stay more on the side of those he very much could have. The plot to this movie?
A young man’s life is turned Inside Out when he meets a German Girl. Every Beat Of The Heart is like when Birds Fly, and from their first Screen Kiss it all (Feels Like) Heaven, until a classic early conflict point in our film, when the Blue Bell Knoll makes itself known. At this point, perhaps the film takes a turn towards the mysterious, and our hero becomes The Missing Boy, The Ghost in You perhaps. If that makes no sense, it all will when we it’s time to Bring On The Dancing Horses.
Well, perhaps the plot needs work, but you get the gist...some songs seem made to soundtrack the process of growing up. In the student halls of Aston University in Birmingham back at the end of the 80s, whenever my hall-mate and good friend Mike ‘Doctor’ Vesey (later referred to only as The Doctor) would strike up the Mighty Lemon Drops’ Inside Out, the opening credits would roll and the movie would start to play in my head:
“Waiting for the last train. Standing in the pouring rain. Thinking, wishing, hoping that you'll never feel the same again.
”Lying wide awake at night, sleeping in the morning light. Doing all these things the lord shouldn’t be ashamed of them.”
We were probably getting ready for a night on the tiles, would be a couple of beers in to our pre drinks session and well, as with all young people prepping for a big night out, the world was spinning fast and the night ahead was full of possibilities. When I hear the track now it all comes right back. Only music can do that. And perhaps, movies too. Inside Out was The Mighty Lemon Drops only hit, but their first three albums, including 1988’s World Without End, are an essential 80s listen.
As for The Blue Bell Knoll, well, no student life would be complete without those sessions listening to it in the pitch black of the dorm room, probably on the comedown from the big night, or maybe just dreaming about what lay ahead. Nothing sounded like The Cocteau Twins at the time. Has anything since? Elizabeth Fraser’s ethereal vocals and alternative language were truly original, but were also perfectly accompanied by the musical maestro talents of Simon Raymonde and Robin Guthrie. The music they created is something of a Murakami novel (or Ishiguro for that matter) in that it could gently take you into other worlds, other realms. And it was very cinematic. While they had no substitutes, they had peers, such as Vinny Reilly and Bruce Mitchell’s project The Durutti Column, who were among the first artists to be signed to Factory Records. Also, This Mortal Coil, the collective led by Ivo Watts-Russell, founder of 4AD records which was home to The Cocteau Twins (along with many other artists featured in this 80s series). All three bands are featured here along with a lesser-known Dif Juz (again signed with 4AD) which was founded by Dave and Alan Curtis (the latter having been connected earlier with Duran Duran).
The gems on this particular collection are too many to mention. After the opener of Inside Out, the fact that our movie soundtrack quickly covers the ground that is The Lotus Eaters, The Railway Children, The Icicle Works, Fiction Factory and Thomas Dolby will have you deeply immersed as you would be in any Hughes film, even if this one leaves more to your imagination. Everything on here will bring images to mind from what you hear, and any director working today seeking inspiration from the brilliance of 80s cinematic pop need look no further. When the right music is fused with movie scenes, true magic happens - for now let that magic happen inside your head - and enjoy growing up all over again.
Next: Eric Karsenty was born just before Hip Hop and grew up with it like a brother. His soundtrack documents the genre in the 80s and it is ACE!