“Dazed and Confused,” “Boogie Nights” and “Blue Velvet” are all great movies named after enduring songs. But it’s hard to find a movie as intertwined with its musical reference as “Pretty in Pink,” filmmaker John Hughes’ angsty 1986 coming of age classic starring Molly Ringwald. Like the movie it inspired, the 1981 song of the same name by The Psychedelic Furs is short and bittersweet, bristling with the emotional ups and downs of adolescence.
A couple of years ago, founding bassist Tim Butler told me in an interview that Hughes and the producers loved their song — but wanted a cover version from someone else for the movie. “Then they wanted us to re-record it because they said some of the guitar on the original recording was out of tune,” Butler said.
Fortunately they stuck with the flawlessly flawed original, although Butler remembered some early Furs fans weren’t too keen about the mainstream exposure. “We lost some of our original following,” he said. “They thought we sold out. It got us new fans but lost some old ones who said they stopped following us because of the movie release.”
Those stubborn souls missed out because The Psychedelic Furs have put out some great tunes across their 46 years of existence. It’s a shock, in fact, to realize that 2020’s “Made of Rain,” the band’s first studio album in 29 years, is just as vibrant and alive as beloved Furs tracks such as “Heaven,” “Love My Way” and even — forgive us, Jon Cryer and James Spader — “Pretty in Pink.”
“Made of Rain” is unmistakably the work of Tim and his vocalist brother Richard Butler, but from a different time, musically and technologically, and under changed circumstances. “I was listening to the Killers, the Arctic Monkeys and those first two Roxy Music albums,” Tim Butler said, adding, “We all live so far apart, but I’d send a song idea to Richard. He’d throw in some lyrics and make a suggestion like, ‘Speed it up.’ We were still the Furs but with some new influences.”
The Psychedelic Furs perform 8pm Saturday, May 20 at Miami Beach Bandshell. thepsychedelicfurs.com ~ David Rolland
