Sunday Song Lyric

There are lots of songs about movie stars; even more that make reference to them.  But songs about somewhat-obscure movie characters? They’re fewer and farther between.  For this reason, “Veronica Sawyer Smokes,” the title of a track on the new AFI album, Crash Love, caught my eye.  Veronica Sawyer, ’80s teen flick afficianados may recall, is Winona Ryder‘s character in “Heathers,” a somewhat dark, teen film from 1989 that mocked conventional sensibilities, in particular the contemporary obsession with teen suicide. (The top-charting song in the movie is Big Fun’s “Teenage Suicide (Don’t Do It)”).  So what did AFI do with Veronica Sawyer?  Here’s a taste:

Oh I saw you every time I closed my eyes,
In the Hughes film I had scored, produced and starred in, in my mind.
I could recite you, well, I’d written every line . . .
But you strayed far from my flawless script on which I’d spent a lifetime

Appropriate stuff for a melancholy ’80s-retro, teen angst-oriented riff.  Does it matter Winona Ryder was never in a John Hughes film?  Anyhow, here’s the song, and a live performance.

Categories: Sunday Song Lyric    

    2 Comments

    1. fishbane says:

      He’s a small act so far, but Alex Sniderman has what I believe to be the quintessential Jodie Foster song. Snippet:

      Jodie
      Saw you on the cover of a magazine
      Foster
      Like the beer they drink in Australia
      Jodie
      What would you do if I said I loved you?
      I promise no President would get shot

      It’s been so long
      Since I saw you off the screen
      Your hair is like the fire
      On a burning cross in a Klansman’s dream

    2. Sunday Song Lyric says:

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