MaryEllenLeRoy: The Fantatstic 90's, Music, and "Pretty in Pink"

All my musical interest started with 3 things: "Pretty in Pink", Brad Breek, and skateboarding. I have already written in previous posts about my fascination with the movie "Pretty in Pink". I will say again that it changed everything for me. It especially changed music for me.

Until I bought the "Pretty in Pink" sound track I was listening to Amy Grant, Petra, Wilson Philips and anything else my parents bought for me. My sister and I would get the BMG music club labels in the mail and laugh and laugh at all the funny band names like The Dead Milkmen, The Cure, Psychedelic Furs and "10,000 Maniacs. We had no idea. After we watched "Pretty in Pink" for the first time we decided to pool our allowance and buy the soundtrack at out local music store Camelot.

I don't really remember that trip to the mall. I do remember many trips after that though. I saved my paper route money and bought whatever tapes I could that were from the sound track. I have owned 5 copies of the "Pretty in Pink" soundtrack since then.

New Order

The Smiths

I am not exactly sure when I met Brad Breek but my earliest memory of him is 7th grade science class. He was my lab partner. He wore really baggy pants and half of his head was shaved. I thought he was the best thing that ever happened, even though he had a crush on my friend Laura. I used that crush to my full advantage to have conversations with him everyday. Brad was and probably still is a skateboarder.(I haven't spoken to him in several years so I am not sure.) He was the first skateboarder I ever met and introduced me to all things awesome and all the music that went along with it. I still love skateboarders and I am married to the hottest one that ever was.

Because of Brad I started subscribing to TransWorld magazine. I still can't believe my mom let me have that. HA! I guess she never read it. I spent a lot of time looking at the music ads. It's were I first learned of Ned's Atomic Dust Bin, Pearl Jam and Fugazi. I really can't believe my mom let me listen to all that! Ha again!

Pearl Jam

I loved the 90's. It was a really fun time for me. I spent a lot of time trying to be different and enjoying the attention it brought. At that time everyone kind of looked the same, not like now. All of the misfits hung out together regardless of school, style, drug use or age. We just loved being with other kids that inspired us. There really wasn't any other outlet for us but music. One of my favorite memories from that time is Brad Breek sitting in the hallway at school with his Walkman playing the drums along to Rush on his knees.