Moving in Stereo: Fast Times at Ridgemont High!

Today I am going to deviate from politics to cover the lighter side of things.

A few days ago I was watching television and came across one of my favorite movies, “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”, a classic starring Sean Penn, Robert Romanus, and of course Linda Barrett who played Phoebe Cates, who is most memorable from the pool scene. If you have seen this movie, you know what I am talking about. If you have not seen this movie, it is worth watching.

I love this movie, particularly because it is something I can relate to from my days in high school. In fact, if there was a character from this movie that I was closest to, it would have to be Mark Ratner. I was a quieter kid and was, well, a lot like Mark Ratner. But I knew my fair share of Mike Damone’s and Jeff Spicoli’s, and of course there were the teachers I had that were like Mr. Hand and Mr. Vargas. We definitely had our Phoebe Cates’ and Stacey Hamilton’s as well.

A few of us even pulled a Jeff Spicoli a few times back in high school and had pizza delivered to the school. One time, it was delivered to class similar to how it happened in the movie. Granted, it was towards the end of senior year, but we still did it. We also did other stupid shit too, a lot of which I am not going to mention here, but trust me, it was decent.

The beauty of films like this (as well as any other John Hughes film) is the realism that came with these movies. Everyone can relate to the characters in these movies on some level, which makes them all the more memorable.

I must say the music is fantastic, and I encourage you to get the soundtrack if you can. Some of the music is so-so, but there are some major songs on there are SEVERELY underrated and underplayed. The following is a list of some of the songs from the movie, and each of them are solid tracks. Ones with asterisks are missing from the official soundtrack, so if you burn the CD instead of buying it, you can add them. This is 80s at its finest. For a full track list, check it out at Amazon.com.

“Raised on the Radio”-Ravyns
“Somebody’s Baby”- Jackson Browne
“Love Rules”-Don Henley
“Waffle Stomp”- Joe Walsh
“Fast Times (The Best Years of Our Lives)”- Billy Squier
“I Don’t Know (Spicoli’s Theme)”- Jimmy Buffett
“Fast Times at Ridgemont High”- Sammy Hagar
“Moving in Stereo”- The Cars***
“We Got the Beat”- The Go-Go’s***
“American Girl” – Tom Petty***
“Life in the Fast Lane”- Joe Walsh***
“Kashmir”- Led Zeppelin***

Definitely check out this movie if you haven’t yet, and GET THE MUSIC. I promise you will enjoy it. Most of you were born in the 80s anyway, so this should be of your era anyway!

The Mang

Conservative Capo of Youngstown