Rock Ramblings: Huey Lewis and the big summertime news

By Medicine Hat News on February 15, 2018.

By now, you’ve likely heard “the News” coming to Medicine Hat this summer. As in, Huey Lewis and The News, live on stage for the Saturday night show at this year’s Medicine Hat Exhibition and Stampede.

I love this, probably more than I should.

One of the reasons I love it is because it’s Huey Lewis AND THE NEWS! Not “Huey Lewis and some nameless musicians who can play the songs we all remember from way back when.” So many bands break up over time before the lead singers try to keep their careers going by making a slight change to the band name, and replacing old members with new faces behind the instruments. But, it’s never quite the same. Not true with this group.

Now into their 38th year together, Huey Lewis and The News have been making it hip to be square for as long as I can remember, and that brings me to the second reason I love this concert announcement.

Those who know me know I’m more a movie person than a music person, which is likely why my first reaction to hearing 105.3 Rock was presenting this show was, “I loved them in Back to the Future!” The soundtrack of that movie is my first and lasting memory of hearing Huey Lewis and The News, as is true for a lot of the music that has stayed with me over the years.

Stealers Wheel “Stuck In the Middle With You” always conjures up images of Michael Madsen’s “Mr. Blonde” strutting his stuff in Reservoir Dogs. Kenny Loggins “Danger Zone” instantly puts you in the air with Maverick and Goose in Top Gun; and, we all become a young Wayne and Garth cruising the streets in Wayne’s World from the moment those first unmistakeable harmonies from “Bohemian Rhapsody” hit our ears.

From “Eye of the Tiger” in Rocky III, to ACDC’s “Who Made Who” in Maximum Overdrive, and Harry Belafonte’s “Day-O” in Beetlejuice, music is one of the most important characters in so many movies. Eighties movies, anyway, judging from my list! So, what am I missing from the 90s, 2000s and today? What music made the movies for you? Let us know on our Facebook Page, then go watch “Back to the Future” again, and enjoy a buttoned-up Huey Lewis critiquing Marty’s performance of their first No. 1 hit, “The Power of Love”É it was just too darn loud!

I trust that won’t be a problem come July 28 at the Stampede Night Show.

Chrissy Cruickshank is a creative writer at 1053rock.ca

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