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VIDEO: "Say Anything" featuring "Anything, Anything (I'll Give You)" by Something Corporate
"What I really want to do with my life - what I want to do for a living - is I want to be with your daughter. I'm good at it." -Lloyd Dobler
So coming off of a whole week of updates centered around one of the crowning glory stories of the 1980s, it can't hurt to stick with the 80s theme a bit longer, right? Especially when it comes to a timeless role for one of my all time favorites, John Paul Cusack.
Since bursting bursting on to the scene in the early 1980's in Sixteen Candles, John Cusack has managed to carve his niche as the everyday red blooded American male over the course of the last 2 and a half decades. After finding his way into other quintessential '80s films like The Sure Thing, Better Off Dead..., and One Crazy Thing, his star was only just about to rise.
As the decade came winding to a close, another future Hollywood heavyweight in Cameron Crowe was coming off huge success from his debut script for Fast Times At Ridgemont High and preparing to direct his first movie, Say Anything. With '80s heartthrob Kirk Cameron and Christian Slater vying for the lead part, and future Hollywood mega-star Robert Downey Jr. having been offered the role as well, the high school story of the everyman was about to take shape.
Even though some of the most bankable stars of the time were interested, Crowe was already showing some of his future Oscar winning sensibilities: He knew there was only one actor that could bring the every-man touches to Lloyd Dobler necessary for the film to take off and connect to audiences. And really, who else would it be?
John Cusack's portrayal of Lloyd Dobler is the kind of performance that pop culture icons are made of. Infact, on some level, most of the movies since have had bits and pieces of what made Lloyd such a relateable character, even if those subsequent future characters were decidely more conflicted. The frenetic uncertainness of life and gaping emptiness that eventually drive LLoyd are the same things that consume future Cusack character stablemates like High Fidelity's Rob Gordon, almost as if we were watching the same character at different points in his life.
If it weren't for Lloyd Dobler, there's a pretty good chance we wouldn't have gotten to see the subsequent iconic Cusack roles such as Martin Q. Blank, or Rob Gordon, or even David Gordon. If that were the case, I wouldn't be able to say anything here. But I'll be damned, Lloyd Dobler lives on.
So in trying to find an appropriate track for summarizing the "Legacy of Lloyd", we're going with a bit of the old-meets-new(ish) approach. The song "Anything, Anything (I'll Give You)" by Dramarama is one of those songs that fills a wide gap, coming straight from alternative radio play in the '80s but retaining enough staying power that to this day, it is among the most requested all-time songs from The World Famous KROQ radio based out of L.A.. A few years back, the band Something Corporate did a cover of the track for one of the Punk Goes Acoustic albums, putting their pop-punk stamp on the alt-classic track, and providing the prefect backdrop to Say Anything.
And with that, it's time for some new material. Without further ado, Dizzle presents Say Anything featuring "Anything, Anything (I'll Give You)" by Something Corporate. Do it for Lloyd!
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