Bradley's Buzz

The Valley Girl Mysteries

THE VALLEY GIRL MYSTERIES
It will come as absolutely no surprise to anyone who knows me, that I am completely in love with the movies, TV and particularly the music of the 1980s – the ME decade that gave us so much to frown at but so much to dance to. In particular, it’s the early 80s that I truly love. The new wave music of 1980-82, the Romantic movement of 1983-1985 and after that I started sporting a mullet and it all went downhill.

But when I reflect back on the early 80s I love so dearly, it occurs to me, what if.. what if I had been 16 in 1982 and living in the LA area, like I had so desired (though at the time I was only say about 4 or 5 .. really) but the question remains who would I have been? Would I have been the Val dude with my collar up, my hair feathered and my deck shoes untied? Or would I be the nocturnal Hollywood kid hopping buses to get to the latest shows at the Roxy? What a perplexing dilemma.

Last night, I took out my treasured Valley Girl DVD; a movie that made me want to live in Los Angeles when I was but a wee tyke. I loved the music, the Josie Cotton numbers, the Plimsouls, the Romeo & Juliet story of the Valley Girl and her Hollywood punky boyfriend. The movie had it all, and still does including a too hot Nick Cage and the ever cute as a button Deborah Foreman who unfortunately never had the career she deserved.

When the movie was released there was a little pressed soundtrack album that came out. Because of rights, they could only use 6 songs from the soundtrack. But with the wonderful world of re-releasing Rhino Records unleashed not one but two soundtrack companions. For some reason, they opted to also throw on songs that were never in the movie but figured the Val gals would’ve listened to, and in one even stranger move both the soundtracks left off “Electric Avenue”, a song featured in the party scene when Julie and Randy first meet. It’s another perplexing question that bugs me all these years later.

Incidentally, when I rode the Greyhound into Los Angeles (as my VW had been hit by a dump truck and I was carless), as soon as I thought we were near the valley, I put in my little cassette of the soundtrack into my headphones and jammed to the beats of Bonnie Hayes and the Wild Combo’s “Girls Like Me” a la the very beginning of the movie. It was fun, it was loud, it was exciting, it was so gay!

But the mystery of the Valley Girl music continues. While watching my DVD last night more or less in attempt to figure out where all these 80s songs played out in the film, I realized there was yet another mystery to one of my favorite movies – it’s again in the party scene where Randy breaks in and waits in vain for Julie to come into the bathroom.

When I was a kid, the movie played on TV all the time and of course they edited out Elizabeth Daily’s boob shot but I realized they also redid the music. What I remember is the song “Who Can It Be Now?” playing on a rather extensive endless loop while Randy peers over the shower stall as party goers come in to get high, have sex and the what nots that teenagers do at house parties.

But as I watched my DVD, I realized this version isn’t playing “Who Can It Be Now?” but “Systematic Way” by Josie Cotton from her much overlooked album Convertible Music. Now being a much bigger Josie Cotton fan than running out to buy the latest Men At Work album, this is a very pleasant surprise, but yet leads me to wonder – what the heck is going on? Or what the heck went on?

Knowing a little about how a film is made, I know that Deborah Foreman, Nicholas Cage nor any extra “party goer” even had music playing while shooting the scene, they will be of no help to me. (As I talk to them all the time you know…)


But the greatest and most perplexing mystery still remains …. Sure, my constant questioning of who I would be is big, as is the replacement of Josie Cotton by Men At Work, but the most outrageous thing we need to know about beloved Valley Girl is what the heck happened to Deborah Foreman’s contributions to the DVD.

If anyone has the DVD they know it is shock full of extras including new interviews with singers and stars of the movie. Even Nicholas Cage stopped in at the Viper Room (where the interviews were filmed… trivia note: the bar Randy takes Julie to in Hollywood was the same bar the GoGos filmed their video “Our Lips Are Sealed” at, and though the old name is beyond my reach at the moment it is now Johnny Depp’s Viper Room – just one block up from my house!)

Where was I? Oh yes, so even Nick Cage took time out of his ever busy action adventure life to stop in and reminisce about Valley Girl. But Deborah Foreman was a no show. THE Valley Girl of the title was not there to tell us all about her big break, her fun loving character, her uber cuteness… nothing.

Now prior to the release of the video Deborah Foreman had an official website and she was in the career of making, designing and selling painted furniture. She was very open and vocal with her fans and would answer personal emails. Then suddenly her website was gone, then the DVD came out and there was no Deborah Foreman!

I was aghast! I was in the thralls of a mystery. Now recently, Deborah’s website is back up and her current career is doing web designing. But alas, she has yet to address the big mystery of where she was, what she was doing and why she wasn’t in the DVD interview.

Perhaps she’s peeved that it isn’t her face on the cover of the movie VHS or video, or soundtrack – who the hell is that chick anyway? And don’t tell me it’s Randy’s old girlfriend (who it just might be that actress) but why isn’t it Deborah? I must know…

I have half a mind to call Ms. Foreman up and schedule an estimate to do my web page design just to solve one of these Valley Girl mysteries once and for all… Perhaps then she could tell me if I would’ve been a Val Dude or a Hollywood kid.

posted by swivek @ 7:54 PM