psych furs "pretty in pink"original version debate

[nightshadea]

We were watching mtv classic and they had 80s block and they showed version number 2 the version they rewrote for the “pretty in pink” movie

And I made the comment "wow they pretty much made a new song out of that one " and she said theres another version ? and looked it up on you tube and was shocked

now heres the debate were having in the original version … was the girl an escort or just really easy ? because she said sounded like it was a sort of an “Alison” (by elvis Costello ) type of song where the singer feels sorry for a easy airhead …I always thought she was getting paid/taken care of

What yall think ?

[Arkcon]

For me, the song was very '80’s, about a girl who just slept around. I assumed she was a very young yuppie – like Meg Ryan in Working Girl but even more naive. Just trying to fit in. Like practically all popular music, the topic is essentially the same: sex, drugs, trying to fit in and not succeeding at it, except … well, someone wrote a song about you, so someone cares, at least that much. Or are they the naive one, for thinking they can make a difference?

The Pretty in Pink song, as it relates to the film, is just the refrain, isn’t sheeee, pretty in pink. Then you see Molly Ringwald, pouty and cute and sad and … Just something the director wanted to tug at us. We’re not really meant to equate the song with the film.

[ftg]

I had always assumed it was about a transvestite (or other trans person or persons). “Loves to be one of the girls.” Pink being the color code for women.

“He’s walking around in this dress that she wore”

OTOH, checking suggests another interpretation: Pink = naked.

[nightshadea]

@ftg

I had always assumed it was about a transvestite (or other trans person or persons). “Loves to be one of the girls.” Pink being the color code for women.

“He’s walking around in this dress that she wore”

OTOH, checking suggests another interpretation: Pink = naked.

wow I never thought of the trans angle before…

[engineer_comp_geek]

This is what Richard Butler (the lead singer for the Furs) had to say about the song’s meaning:

@Richard Butler

The song was about a girl who kinda sleeps around, and thinks it’s really cool and thinks everybody really likes her, but they really don’t. She’s just being used. It’s quite scathing.

He also had this to say:

@Richard Butler

A few years later, Molly Ringwald took it to John Hughes and said, ‘I love this song, we should use it for a movie.’ He took it away, listened to it, and wrote Pretty In Pink, which totally got the whole thing wrong. It was nothing like the spirit of the song at all. It’s really hard to say whether it was damaging for us. I suppose we got tied in with the story of the film, and if that’s what people thought the story was about, and didn’t look much further than that, they were getting a very false impression."

So one of the guys that actually wrote the song doesn’t think it has anything to do with transvestites. He would probably be amused to hear that interpretation of the lyrics.

The girl isn’t an escort. She’s just easy.

The quotes are from a 2010 interview in Mojo magazine, by the way. I’ve read older quotes by Richard Butler that said essentially the same thing, so he has at least been consistent in what he says about the song.

ETA: Another quote by Richard Butler:

@Richard Butler

The idea of the song was, ‘Pretty In Pink’ as a metaphor for being naked. The song, to me, was actually about a girl who sleeps around a lot and thinks that she’s wanted and in demand and clever and beautiful, but people are talking about her behind her back. That was the idea of the song. And John Hughes, bless his late heart, took it completely literally and completely overrode the metaphor altogether! I still like the song.

[nightshadea]

of course the “version 2” it didn’t help matters…

[engineer_comp_geek]

I always liked their Talk Talk Talk album (though Forever Now was my favorite album of theirs). I knew the changed Pretty In Pink a bit for the movie but I never really paid much attention to what the changes were. I always listened to the album version.

[pulykamell]

@engineer_comp_geek

I always liked their Talk Talk Talk album (though Forever Now was my favorite album of theirs). I knew the changed Pretty In Pink a bit for the movie but I never really paid much attention to what the changes were. I always listened to the album version.

Yeah, I never really paid attention to the movie soundtrack version of the song, so I just checked it out on Youtube. It’s a bit more 80s mainstream pop in terms of sound, and the riff even has what sounds like a saxophone on it. The guitars also sound a bit wimpier/poppier and the vocal is a bit more forward in the mix.