Pretty In Pink, Drink The Sea, and Steal My Sunshine E120

We revisit Pretty in Pink at 40 and admit the movie’s plot is fine while the soundtrack is legendary. We trade takes on Ducky, Blaine, Spader’s chill menace, WLIR Screamers, and how a film’s music can outlast its script.

Then we fast-forward to a blistering live night with Drink the Sea at the 40 Watt in Athens, where Peter Buck, Barrett Martin, and Alain Johannes stitched songs to cinematic visuals and welcomed Mike Mills for a thunderous take on R.E.M.’s The One I Love.

• Red Hot Chili Peppers Aeroplane chart note
• Ramones estate ownership and legacy control
• Lincoln Lawyer needle-drops and sampling talk

Learn Something New or
Remember Something Old

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Reach out to us at musicinmyshoes@gmail.com

Transcript

Kicking Off And Setting The Stage

SPEAKER_02 0:12

Got to feel it in it out.

Pretty In Pink Turns Forty

SPEAKER_01 0:22

Hey everybody, this is Jim Boge, and you're listening to Music in My Shoes Podcasting Worldwide. That was Vic Thrill kicking off episode 120. I'm thrilled to be here with you. Let's learn something new or remember something old. So, Jimmy, 40 years ago, the movie Pretty in Pink was released February 28th, 1986. 40 years, really tough to believe that, you know, it's that long ago.

SPEAKER_00 0:49

Yeah, but kind of, I mean, it's it's an old movie.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

It is an old movie. I actually watched it again because I wanted to see. Um so before I even talk about it, I was not a big fan of the movie Pretty in Pink.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Yeah, I wasn't really either.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

But I liked the music. I liked a lot of the songs that were being played. I liked the soundtrack and the other songs that didn't make the soundtrack.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

The movie wasn't bad, but is a lot of John Hughes' movies, I feel like, I don't know, maybe as a guy, like they appealed more to guys and girls, and this one felt like it like more girls liked it than guys.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

I would agree.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

And by the time this came out, I had been out of high school two years, so now, you know, I'm starting to drift away a little bit from those teenage angst movies, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

I was still a junior in high school and it wasn't really high on my list.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Oh, so you're just throwing that around that you're younger than me.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

Yeah, exactly. It worked. Well, you were throwing it around, you're older than me. Like you're a m Mr. College guy.

Plot Tropes And Team Ducky

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Oh, I was definitely not trying to tell you that I was older by any means. So, you know, you talked about it being, you know, John Hughes' film. It's the classic boy and girl on opposite sides of the tracks, you know, the train tracks, the cliche, I guess you would say. Yeah. Boy gets girl, boy listens to his friends, he loses the girl, boy realizes you have to make decisions for yourself and not your friends. Boy gets girl back. I mean, this is a billion different movies, right here, you know, the same premise. Oh, yeah, the girl's best friend is a guy whose name is Ducky, and he wants to be her boyfriend, also. So you get the whole and poor Ducky. Yeah, the whole trifecta there, you know.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

And they throw him a bone at the end. He gets with like the girl that has no soul, right? You know, like, oh yeah, she's pretty, but didn't we establish throughout the movie that she's not a good person?

SPEAKER_01 2:50

Whoa, whoa. You're you're just jumping the gun here, Jimmy. I'm sorry. You can't you just want to get to a minute with Jimmy or something.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

No, I'm just I'm upset that Ducky got the shaft.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Well, it depends how you look at it. Depends how you look at it. Let's start with Fine, I identify with Ducky, okay? God. I didn't see that. So are you gonna be wearing that funkadoodle kind of hat and those glasses?

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Yes, and and pantomiming try a little tenderness.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

There you go. That's very good. For someone uh that didn't like the movie that much, you do remember it. So Molly Ringwald is Andy, uh, the main character. Yeah. And she drove a 1959 Carmen Gear. And that car, they actually had to dent it up because they didn't want it to look like she was rich. Oh, right. But in my mind, like not many people had 1959 Carmen Ghears. Like, you know, it kind of was like, whoa. So they painted it pink, they put some dents in it, they made the interior look a little, you know, older, shabby, and so forth. But again, to me, if you're driving that car, like you had a little bit of money because that was a good-looking car.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

Yeah. It could have been like an old Beetle would have been maybe better.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

Yeah, I agree with you on that. I do. John Cryer of two and a half men fame, and I know he was in a ton of stuff. I really just know him from two and a half men and pretty in pink. I don't know him from a whole lot of stuff. I know he's done some of those um um, I don't know if it's Marvel comics or, you know, some of those superhero men or I don't know. Oh, really? Yes. And I don't know which ones he's done or been in or what he's played, obviously, because I'm just rambling on here. Uh Andrew McCarthy is in there as Blaine.

Cars, Casting, And Character Takes

SPEAKER_00 4:43

Now we've gotten to the crux of the matter. I can't stand Andrew McCarthy. There you go. Why is that? I don't know. I just always thought he was like the most punchable guy in the brat pack.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

The most punchable.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

Yeah. Oh my lord. I didn't like the way he acts. He just seemed like he was he was always kind of full of himself. I don't know. I just didn't like him.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Wow. Well, what about James Spader, who played Steph?

SPEAKER_00 5:09

I know. And he was supposed to be the bad guy. He was the one that was uh the bigger snob, right? Mm-hmm. Blaine was the one that was trying to date the girl. You know, they were the Richies, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:20

The Richies. Again, for someone who doesn't like the movie, you know a lot about it. I didn't say I never saw it. Um So I'm a big Blacklist fan. I think Blacklist was on TV for maybe 10 years, something like that. I don't know exactly. Seven, eight, nine, ten years. James Spader was, you know, the main character in it. Red, and he was this bad guy, you know, who kind of worldwide criminal figure. You know, everybody knew who he was in the underworld. And in my mind, Steph, this character that he played, is Red when Red was a kid. Oh, yeah, okay. Like it just carries right over in my mind that we know what's what uh Red was like as a young Steph.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

Yeah, he played it so well.

SPEAKER_01 6:13

Yeah, you know, he's got that certain style of how he plays, you know, characters. And I don't know if you know this, but he he's got that thing where he can look at something and photograph, you know, photographic memory, but there's a name for it. And he can memorize scripts. So he's really quick with all of that because he can memorize it. I think he's a really good actor. I really like him. I think he plays these characters that are perfect for him, and I enjoy watching him.

SPEAKER_00 6:44

I'm sure he's a nicer guy than his characters. I don't know about that.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

Really? I mean, I don't know. I did I'm not saying I have any idea. I just don't know. The only time I see him is acting as one of those characters.

SPEAKER_00 6:58

Aaron Ross Powell Yeah, he's never been one that does a lot of interviews, I don't think.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

No. So John Cryer, if we go back to him, that's another person in this movie. I think Ducky can be Alan from Two and a Half Men as a younger kid.

SPEAKER_00 7:17

Okay. All right.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

You know? And I think he acts a lot like Anthony Michael Hall in this movie. There's a lot of stuff that I see from like 16 candles that I see in Pretty and Pink that Anthony Michael Hall now transpires over to John Cryer. So what I liked about the movie most of all was the music. You know, I just said that. So it had WLIR Screamers of the Week from the Pretty and Pink soundtrack, first week of February, If You Leave, by OMD. That went on to be uh Billboard's number four song in May of 1986.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

And I've said before, I I'm not a fan of that song, but then you showed me that OMD actually had some better music.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

Bauhaus Staircase before that, yeah. No, that actually when we I told you about that, that had just come out. So that was uh 2023.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

Oh, that was new OMD.

Spader, Blacklist, And Acting Styles

SPEAKER_01 8:13

Yes. So that was either late 2023, early 2024. But they have a lot of good stuff. I'll recommend some stuff for you so that you can learn about OMD. Maybe you'll like them better if you call them by their full name. Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark. Second week of February, left of center, Suzanne Vega is WLIR, Screamer of the Week. Yeah. And finally, the third week of February, three weeks in a row, Shell Shock by New Order, WLIR, Screamer of the Week. Again, for those of you that don't know, that's the best new song that came out that week as voted by listeners of WLIR radio on Long Island. Back in the day, the station that I used to listen to. But don't forget, we talked about back in October, Echo and the Bunnymen, Bring on the Dancing Horses was a Screamer of the Week, October 85, and that song was written specifically for Pretty and Pink. They just released it earlier than the movie.

SPEAKER_00 9:16

Oh, I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_01 9:18

Yeah. So the song Pretty and Pink, the movie Pretty and Pink, I love the original 1981 song. Yep. I really dislike the re-recorded version that came out in 1986.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

I agree. And I don't even know if it's re-recorded. It's just remixed, I think.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

No, I think they re-recorded it.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

Did they re-record the whole thing?

SPEAKER_01 9:44

Yeah, they re-recorded it because they then ended up taking a bunch of the music that they would play throughout the movie, kind of as background music. So yeah, they re-redid it.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

The saxophone is really out front, and the production just doesn't have that feel of the old one.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

Yeah, I think it's missing that rawness. I think it's this clean, shiny, hey, look at me. And I don't like that about the song. I love the song. I think the song is a great song.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

Me too.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

Um, but just that whole cleaned up mid 80s pop version just doesn't do it for me at all. No. So also on the soundtrack was uh Round Round Bluey Sum, Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want by The Smiths. And there was other stuff too, but those are some of my favorites. And, you know, again, I think the movie to me is really about the music part. You look at Molly Ringwall, you know, her character, Andy, works at a record store, tracks records, and Annie Potts is her boss that runs the place. And Andrew McCarthy comes in, Blaine, because he's trying to, you know, get with uh Andy.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

That's not a name, that's a major appliance. I've never seen the movie.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

So anyway, so Andrew McCarthy comes into the record store and then picks up a record that I'm assuming he did it on purpose. It was a Steve Lawrence album that came out in 1981. Actually, it had the theme from New York, New York was the first song on that record. And I guess he picked it up to show her, hey, do you think this is good just so that he could have a talking piece and get to talk to the girl? But there's a club that's in the movie, and it's got bands playing, and um the rave ups, they're one of the bands that play. And uh um Positively Lost Me, which is a great song, not on the soundtrack, but I love that song. I think it's so good.

Ducky, Cryer, And Brat Pack Links

SPEAKER_00 11:57

So uh a little bit of John Hugh's trivia here. In Sixteen Candles, Molly Ringwald has the rave ups written on her notebook cover. Really?

SPEAKER_01 12:07

Yeah, I did not know that.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

That was the first time I'd heard of them. Like, oh, I should check that band out.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

Learn something new. I like it. So Ducky's studying with Andy, and she goes to another room, and he starts singing the 1970 John Lennon song Love. And that's where he goes, Love is real, real is love. And that's off the first John Lennon Plastic Ono band album. So somebody had to know that song. Like you don't just, you know, that song doesn't come upon you. You have to know that song and decided, oh, that would be a great song to put in for him to sing. She's in another room, and I think she hears it through like the vents or something. So he doesn't know that she hears him singing it.

SPEAKER_02 12:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

But it's a perfect song for the scene. Like they really pick out good songs for the scenes of the movie that I don't particularly like. Yeah, no. Um, you talked about lip syncing, uh, try a little tenderness. I mean, you know, it's pretty good, you know. But you know, I watched that scene a couple of times, and it looks like Annie Potts is setting the record up on purpose for him to do that, but then she acts like really surprised when he starts to do it. It's also got Dweezel Zappa. Now, I know Molly Ringwald, she dated him. I don't know if it was during Pretty in Pink or they met there and that's when they started dating. But he plays a friend Simon, and at the record store behind the counter, there's actually a Dweezel Zappa, like a little mini poster. It doesn't have his face, but it just says like Dweezel and some stuff. So I thought that was kind of cool.

SPEAKER_02 13:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

So the high school that they used in the film was also used in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie.

SPEAKER_02 14:02

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

Gross Point Blank, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and it's the outdoor athletic fields for the movie Greece. So you remember when John Travolta's trying to be a jock and get all dressed up? That school, that's the athletic field.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

They're on the bleachers and they're singing Tell Me More and all that?

The Soundtrack That Stole The Show

SPEAKER_01 14:24

That's it. That is exactly it. So the ending actually changed. They actually had filmed an ending, and the audiences hated it. And so they ended up redoing the ending.

unknown 14:38

Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

Because Ducky didn't end up with anybody. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

In the original ending, Ducky ended up with Molly Ringwall. So Ducky and Andy were together.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

Trevor Burrus, that would be kind of the traditional way.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

Like the good guy gets the girl, but the book was that way, also, is what I've heard. I've never read the book. Audiences hated it. And so they redid it, but John Cryer was, even though he was a young guy, was like, no, man, this is the way he needs to be. And they redid it where he now uh Blaine, Andrew McCarthy, the punchable guy, as you said, he ends up with Andy.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

Yeah, it was kind of a surprise.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

It was a surprise. It was a surprise even watching it all these years later. So, Jimmy, at the beginning of the episode, you mentioned about Ducky getting another girl. That's kind of how they made it all seem worthwhile in the movie. Right. Because Andy went with Blaine. That girl was Christy Swanson, who ended up going and being in the movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was her first role.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

Amazing.

SPEAKER_01 15:50

Isn't it amazing? It's like this big whole round circle. Vicious circle. I love it. Love it. She's pretty in pink, isn't she? Pretty in pink, isn't she? I got to see the band Drink the Sea at 40 watt in Athens GA, February 16th, 2026. And it's got Peter Buck from REM, Barrett Martin from Screamin' Trees and Mad Season, Alan Johannes with 11, Queens of the Stone Age. A few years he was with Queens of the Stone Age, them Crooked Vultures, Duke Garwood. He played with Mark Lanigan, who was in Screaming Trees that I mentioned about Barrett Martin. And then with Lizette Garcia and Abby Blackwell. And I'll tell you, it was fantastic. It truly, truly was. Like this is a group that set out to make really good songs and to make songs that they all like. And I think that's why each one of them was picked. They've all worked together, you know, many times, many albums. It was fantastic. That's all I can say. I mean, it really, really was good.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

I saw a little clip that you uh took that maybe they played an REM song.

WLIR Screamers And OMD

SPEAKER_01 17:18

They did. They had uh Mike Mills, he came out to join them, and they did the one I love, so it was pretty good. Um it's always good to hear an REM song, and it's it's good when two of the REM members are being, you know, partaking in it. So, you know, I will tell you that the atmosphere was really cool. I talked to a bunch of people that I didn't know, and um people were really excited for the show. People really like a a lot of people knew a lot about a lot of the band members. Like they just were intelligent on what was happening. And again, this is not a band that was just put together, oh yeah, let's just put a band together, let's just do something. I mean, there's a lot of work and a lot of thought that went into the songs. I think they did 26 songs, if I'm not mistaken, no opening band. It was almost two and a half hours straight through. It had uh film going on behind that was from taken from all over the world that they picked for individual songs. It was done by a guy from PBS. So it really was super cool. I really enjoyed it. That is. Yeah. A couple of the songs that are on the album. They had an album, I think it came out November 2025. Outside Again, House of Flowers, Bembe for Two, Sacred Tree, The Strangest Season. I mean, there's a ton of songs. It's really good. It's got this super cool vibe. They did Long Gone Day by Mad Season. We talked about the one I love, Hanging Tree, Queens of the Stone Age, is what they ended up the show with.

SPEAKER_02 19:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

But um, if you get an opportunity, I really recommend people should listen to. It's a double album that came out, and it is just something that is not the norm or what you would think, and it's great. I really enjoy it. Awesome. Really do. Hey, Jimmy, let's revisit some more music in my shoes. Okay. Red Hot Chili Peppers, Aeroplane, peaked at number eight on Billboard Alternative Airplay, February 24th, 1996. Dave Navarro on guitar, part of that one hot minute album sound. Flea's daughter and her classmates and the kids singing at the end of the song, which I always thought was kind of cool. I like that. Songbird Sweet and Sour Jane, and music is my arrow plane. I really like the words and the way that they combine them throughout the entire song. I just think it's really super cool. Tick, tick, tick. It's Minute with Jimmy. It's time for a minute with Jimmy, Minute with Jimmy, Minute with Jimmy. It's time for a minute with Jimmy, Minute with Jimmy, Minute with Jimmy.

Echo, Psychedelic Furs, And Remakes

SPEAKER_00 20:14

Well, just giving a little update on one of my favorite bands, the Ramones. So Ramones, uh, most of the original members are gone now. And the estate of the Ramones has been held by two people. So it's Joey's brother, Mickey Lee, and Johnny's widow, Linda Cummings Ramone. So they had 50% each of the Ramones. You know, if you buy a Ramones shirt, they're the ones that are getting the royalties from that, right? If people are deciding they're gonna do uh, you know, Ramon's reunion or something, they're the ones that have to give the okay. And Netflix was gonna do a docudrama with Pete Davidson playing Joey Ramone, and Mickey Lee is the one that wrote the book that it's based on. Well, Linda didn't want to do it and she owned 50%. Well, guess what? Linda bought Mickey's 50%. Linda now owns the Ramones Isn't it funny?

SPEAKER_01 21:20

And I don't mean funny as in ha ha, I mean just funny how that can happen. That through time, this entity that was these four people that made the music and came up with the words and came up with the music and came up with the look of what they wanted to be, and came up with what songs they wanted to cover and how they were gonna do what they did, and then in the end when they die, it gets owned by other people, and then there's wheeling and dealing because everybody can agree. On something that they had nothing to do with in the first place.

SPEAKER_00 22:04

Yeah. And I think it's also uh kind of fitting that from the word go in the Ramones, literally from the first time that they ever played a gig, Johnny was the one that said he went home that night and he decided this is my life. I need to treat this like a business. It's the first thing that I've ever, you know, really seen a future in, and I'm gonna be the business person in this band. And he ran the books the entire time. So it kind of makes sense that his wife, you know, somebody in his family would be the one that owns the financial end of the Ramones now.

SPEAKER_01 22:41

She learned it well.

SPEAKER_00 22:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:43

And if you remember, we had Monty A. Melnick, tour manager of the Ramones. I do remember that. And he talked about the merch. And he talked about even back then it was all Johnny and Joey.

SPEAKER_00 22:55

Yeah, and they would get cash and stuff their pockets and not pay taxes on it.

SPEAKER_01 23:00

Yes. Very, very hey, that was a really good minute with Jimmy. I like that. Thank you. My name was Jimmy. Hey, so Jimmy, I I have a little bit more here, and I apologize, but I gotta get something here to drink. And I just wanted to point out, I'm wearing the shirt that you got me for Christmas that is a beautiful Pepsi shirt.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

It's the uh 1973 logo, I believe.

Deep Cuts, Clubs, And The Rave-Ups

SPEAKER_01 23:21

Yeah, it's fantastic. It looks great on me, I have to uh say that. I love the shirt. It does. And uh I gotta clear my throat a little bit, so that's some crisp Pepsi. You like that? That was good, Jimmy. Almost as good as the shirt. I've been watching The Lincoln Lawyer and it's uh streaming on Netflix. I just finished up season four. And it's got a bunch of good songs throughout I think it was ten episodes. So I thought I would just mention some of them. California Sun by the Linda Lindas, which was originally a Riviera song back in 1964 that the Ramones covered.

SPEAKER_02 24:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:08

And did a great version of that. Well, they're out there having fun in that warm California sun. Paul Weller with Uh-huh, Oh Yeah, Always There to Fool You. Great song. Really, really good song. Neat, Neat, Neat, The Damned. And that started playing, and that just kind of like, whoa, where did this come from? I wasn't expecting that at all. Good song. Steal My Sunshine by Len, a song that reached number nine on Billboard, November 13th, 1999. I know it's up for me.

SPEAKER_00 24:45

If you steal my sunshine.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

Making sure I'm not in too deep. If you steal my sunshine. Keeping versed and on my feet. Ditto. If you steal my sunshine. There you go, Jimmy. That was pretty good.

SPEAKER_00 25:00

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 25:00

I didn't know that you knew that so quickly off the top of your head.

SPEAKER_00 25:02

Just off the top of my head.

SPEAKER_01 25:04

So the song is based on a loop from the 1976 More More More by the Andrea True Connection. Oh. And More More More has been ranked in the top hundred dance songs by like several different sources. Like that is one of the songs that is consistently in the top hundred dance songs of all time. And you remember More More More? More More More. How do you like it? How do you like it? Yeah. If you listen to that l part, that loop, it is I think they just took the and started it from there. It is exactly the loop. It's exactly it by the way.

SPEAKER_00 25:48

It's called sampling.

SPEAKER_01 25:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:50

But they I don't think that they tried to hide it at all. I think that they just were like, whoa, here we go. Let's make a song. I checked it out, and they don't give any credit to anyone else other than themselves, Len. Really? Which Len is a band, it's not a person. It's not like Pink Floyd, the guy that doesn't that doesn't exist. But back to the Lincoln lawyer. Roadrunner, Jonathan Richmond and the Modern Lovers, great driving song. I should have mentioned that. We talked about great driving songs a long time ago. That is definitely one.

SPEAKER_00 26:24

Violets did a cover of that on a Jonathan Richmond tribute album.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

There you go. Roadrunner, Road Runner.

SPEAKER_00 26:30

Mm-hmm. Going faster miles an hour.

SPEAKER_01 26:32

There you go. On the 2021 version of Rolling Stone magazine's 500 greatest songs of all time, it ranks number 77. Wow. Yeah. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 26:44

Kinda is. I like it and everything, but 77 of all time? Greatest songs? Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 26:53

Why don't you look it up?

SPEAKER_00 26:54

No, I believe you. I just want to make sure it wasn't like greatest driving songs written on a Tuesday.

Lennon, Lip Syncs, And Trivia

SPEAKER_01 27:00

I'll look it up while we're ahead of them. You get what you give, the 90 Civ from the New Radicals. And finally, no fun by the Stooges, the Iggy Pop fronted band. No fun to be alone, walking by myself. No fun to be alone in love with nobody else. Well, I'll tell you, it's no fun because that's it for this episode of Music in My Shoes. I'd like to thank Jimmy Guthrie, show producer and owner of Arcade 160 Studios, located right here in Atlanta GA, and Vic Thrill for our podcast music. You can reach us at musicinmyshoes at gmail.com. Please like and follow the Music in My Shoes Facebook and Instagram pages. This is Jim Boj, and I hope you learned something new or remembered something old. We'll meet again on our next episode. Until then, live life, keep the music playing, and thanks for the memory.