A Footloose Retrospective

by: Don The Legend

I think I’ve come grips that “Footloose” is a classic 80’s movie.  It’s not that I didn’t consider it a cult classic which it is, but part of being an 80’s classic (to me at least) is you gotta have an 80’s soundtrack, or at least one song associated with your movie that screams the 80’s.  First about the movie itself.  The concept of a small mid-west town that out laws music and dancing till a city kid comes to town to shake things up screams of some movie exec who was on a classic 80’s cocaine fueled bender when they thought that up.  But damn near everything 80’s seems corny by today’s standards which is what makes it awesome really.  Today with social media canceling people out or kids posting damn near everything and shocked that they can get in trouble for it, the 80’s reminds us how we were able to hide all our stupidity behind closed doors and fool ourselves into thinking the worst we could ever do was dance illegally.

“But damn near everything 80’s seems corny by today’s standards which is what makes it awesome really.”  

As for the soundtrack, I think Kenny Loggins is an 80’s god.  I dare you to go out and start blaring “Footloose” or “I’m Free” and I guarantee there’s gonna be some toe tappin’ and head bobbin' by the people that pass by, even ever so slightly.  That or they’ll call the cops on you for disturbing the peace but dammit, it’s Kenny Loggins!! Becoming someone’s jail-wife is worth it!  I haven’t even gotten to “Let’s Hear It For The Boy” or “Dancing In The Sheets”, even more classics!  Loggins is like a glass case of 80’s that you have to break every so often to envelop yourself in that wonderful 80’s cheese that he perfected in his music.  Don’t forget his work on the Top Gun soundtrack, especially “Playing With The Boys”.  I’ve looked up that video on YouTube and each time I have to watch it shirtless with some Johnson & Johnson Baby Oil by my side in case the urge hits me to grease up (which it usually does).

I know some of you are thinking “The 80’s wasn’t really all that.” Maybe, but know this, “Ghostbusters”, “A Nightmare On Elm Street”, “Gremlins”, “The Terminator”, “Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom”, “Beverly Hills Cop”, “Red Dawn”, “Sixteen Candles”, “Police Academy” just to name a few, ALL came out in 1984.  We’re lucky if we can get three really good films out in a year these days and I just listed off NINE classic movies. NINE! AND we’ve got some CLASSIC 80’s songs in those soundtracks like Ray Parker Jr’s “Ghostbusters” and Harold Faltermeyer’s “Axel Foley”.

 “Ghostbusters”, “A Nightmare On Elm Street”, “Gremlins”, “The Terminator”, “Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom”, “Beverly Hills Cop”, “Red Dawn”, “Sixteen Candles”, “Police Academy” just to name a few ALL came out in 1984”

I say all of this to come back to one central point I want to leave you with, how the hell did “Green Book” win an Academy Award?

Craig Sjodin/ABC