Column: Just don't get with your mom

"Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads"

I don't know what to talk about today.

Frankly, I can only think of a few topics I really want to talk about right now, and I just don't have enough time or energy to do a whole piece on noise/experimental music without sounding like an idiot.

Conversely, I doubt most of you want to sit through a teary-eyed blog entry about my favorite mid-'90s emo bands.

I guess I'm just adjusting to the whole "column" concept.

I'll be perfectly honest, Back to the Future is on right now, I'm late in submitting this, and all drive has been sapped. Perhaps a flux capacitor and a dog named "Einstein" are just what I need to get back on track.

Speaking of Back to the Future, I've always wondered why they choose Huey Lewis and the News to provide that movie with its soundtrack. Don't get me wrong, the thing kicks. I spent an afternoon with a friend from high school a few years ago driving around D.C. blasting that thing as loud as possible.

"It don't take money! / Don't take fame! Don't need no credit card to ride this train!" If there is one thing you can't deny, it's that Huey Lewis and the News provided some of the best corporate butt-rock of the '80s.

So why don't we make this week's installment about Back to the Future? In addition to being perhaps one of the most flawless movies of the past 30 years (seriously, both Back to the Future and Back to the Future II are near perfect. The third one, well, not so much.), these films feature some of the best examples of guilty pleasure rock of the past decades. The first installment featured Huey Lewis and the News heavily, including two new at the time singles, "Power of Love" and "Back in Time."

Say what you will about Lewis and the fact that his music is about as challenging as a two-piece jigsaw puzzle, he and the News personified the age of stylish five o'clock shadows and corporate greed better than anyone else except Phil Collins.

Van Halen also features heavily in the first movie, if not in actual songs, then at least in plot development. Marty McFly's band that tries out for the talent show, the Pinheads, are a decidedly glam-rock band that seem to take a whole lot of influence from 1984 era Van Halen. (They are also asked to leave the stage by an incognito Lewis, who tells them "You're just too damn loud.")

Also, let's not forget how Marty convinces his dad, George, to ask his mother out - he blasts "Eruption" on a hapless Crispin Glover and freaks him into submission.

Obviously, the big musical moment of the first film comes when Michael J. Fox belts out "Johnny B. Goode."

While sociologists can debate the racist undertones of this scene, as it seems to suggest that Marty McFly was the principal influence on rock pioneer Chuck Berry ("You know that new sound you's looking for?"), the rest of us can stand in slack-jawed awe of Fox's absolutely unreal solo.

Marty provides a thrilling 30-second history of rock guitar. He goes from cuddly rockabilly, to freaky psychedelic blues, to finger tapped metal soloing.

This is probably the most important scene in the movie as it not only provides a means for Marty to leave the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance and meet Doc to get back to 1985, but also predicts every major movement in rock music from 1955 on.The influence and scope of Back to the Future is infinite. It is the 2001: A Space Odyssey for our generation, only without the obtuse plot development and preachy moralizing.

In 20 years, they will make this film series required viewing at every major film school in America. At the very least, it gave me something to write about this week.

Nicholas Feeley is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He welcomes comments at feeleyn@bc.edu.