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.