Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young on the Finally Friday Freakout

Reality isn't what it use to be. It never was. One time my reality was of things and people that did not exist. They kept me sane until I could step out on my own. Batman, The Monkees, The Avengers. If there were super powers involved I was good to go.

Sometime a person can be fed up to here with reality that they seek illusion. This week two scenes from an movie illusion posing as reality. Once upon a time there was a movie called Streets of Fire.  It came out in 1984 and got it trashed by the critics. It also had the misfortune of being released at the same time as Star Trek, The Search for Spock.   It didn’t do very well in the U.S. and hit the vapors quick.

Many years later I’m in a record store or maybe it was Woolworth’s and I see the cassette selling real cheap. I take a chance because I recognized some of the names. Damn fine soundtrack.  Later on I see a chopped up version on local TV but I still haven’t got a clue.  Here is what I know. I know I wore that tape out, especially on long bus rides home from dead end jobs in the dark of night.

This is a movie with a kick ass soundtrack. It is a movie by Walter Hill with excellent visuals and a great cast. I won’t know if it is a good movie or not until I get the DVD later this week. This is the scene from the movie – SPOILER ALERT - if you plan to watch the movie stop here and I’ll catch you next week.

Reality – The actress is Diane Lane.

Illusion: She is lip syncing to a vocal performance by Holly Sherwood. The name of the song is Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young.

You might have know the name Dan Hartman. Number of hits in the 1980’s.  One of his songs “I Can Dream About You” in also in this movie.

Reality: The actors who portray The Sorels dance but do not sing.

Illusion: Neither does Dan Hartman. In the movie, the vocals were handled by Winston Ford.

Reality: The commercial released version of the song is recorded and performed by Dan Hartman. I can’t embed the video but you can check out the and pay your respects to Dan who passed away a few years ago.

If you would like more info on this cult film that will probably be hail as an under appreciated classic you can check out the Wikipedia page. Now I’m not saying the movie is great. The television station chopped it up so bad I couldn’t make heads or tails of what was going on.  On Roger Ebert’s site you might find the only positive review of the movie from a movie critic at that time.

The music? Might-y fine, with a special shout out to Maria McKee’s Never Be You.

Later, Gater.