Party on, Wayne!

I think it's high time we pay homage to one of America's biggest cultural icons of all time. I speak, of course, about the movie "Wayne's World". Now, you may be thinking, "but Laura, while this movie was indeed quite funny at the time, as well as being one of the only successful SNL movies ever, can you really say that it's contributed to American society in any real and concrete way?" You're right - I have no way to back that up.

But that's not what I'm saying! Go with me on this: you're driving in your car, and a popular song comes on. You instantly equate it with the first time you heard it, or when the song ever meant anything real to you. THIS is what Wayne's World (WW) brought us. Whenever I hear any of the songs from Wayne's World, I immediately think about that scene in the movie. As both the first time I'd ever heard these songs and the colorful way they were presented, it's pretty much the only thing I think of for the duration of the song. As strange as it is, I really can't think of many movies where this happens - at least not at such a consistant level. Here are several examples:

Let's start with the most obvious choice: "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen.

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Here's a link to the scene in the movie. I'd like to just post the youtube video here, but youtube hasn't yet caught up with the "Blogger Beta" phenomenon. But that's another issue. In this scene, Wayne and his friends are driving through town listening to this song. That's about it, but I still think about it everytime I hear it. And I don't know about you, but I always have the sudden urge to headbang. I don't recommend it, though. One time when I was a young teen I was rollerblading and listening to it. I decided to try headbanging, and wound up losing control of the blades and flipping over onto my back. I lost all my air and couldn't breath for a while. Scary stuff, that bohemain rhapsody.

Another popular fav from the movie is Jimi Hendrix's "Foxy Lady".

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In this scene, Garth fantasizes about aproaching his dream girl, who works the counter at his favorite doughnut stand. Ridiculous, yet I think of the quotation fingers (which I thought was his trying to show that he had fox ears when I was a kid) every time the song comes on. Wayne's girlfriend in the movie, Cassandra, is the lead singer of a screechy rock band called Crucial Time. Their purpose in the movie is to cover popular rock songs to add to the soundtrack. It worked very well and introduced such songs to Generation X as The Sweet's "Ballroom Blitz" and Jimi Hendrix's "Fire"/Gary Wright's "Dreamweaver".

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So, there you go. Wayne's World has contributed to our generation's understanding of popular music and culture. I know I'm not the only one who feels like this, either. In preparation for this post, I spoke with at least three or four other people whom all confirmed my thoughts. And you can't fight science, people. Just a thought, but is it sad that we had never heard of these important, classic rock songs until Wayne's World came around? Does that constitute poor parenting on our folk's fault? Well, better late than never, I say.