Penny Lane, my girl!
The name may bring a few things to mind for you. Some classic rock lovers may immediately think of the beloved Beatles and their song "Penny Lane." If you're like me, you immediately think of the 2000 Cameron Crowe classic film, "Almost Famous." Penny Lane is the main actress of the film, giving every teenage girl the desire to travel back to 1973.
Penny Lane, played by a young Kate Hudson, is not your typical role model. She is a wild child, free-spirited 16-year-old. In the film, "Almost Famous," she makes questionable decisions, reckless mistakes and thrives on what life has to offer.
If you are not familiar with the film, I will give you a bit of a back story. In Almost Famous, the opportunity of a lifetime crosses a 15 year-old's path. William Miller, played by Patrick Fugit, is a young rock journalist who lands an assignment from Rolling Stone Magazine to go on tour and write about the emerging rock band, Stillwater. Along the way, he meets "band-aid" Penny Lane and her posse backstage at a show in San Diego. Penny Lane has history with the main guitarist of Stillwater, Russell Hammond, played by Billy Crudup, which leads to her and her friends joining the 1973 Almost Famous Tour.
Along the way, you learn about the mysterious aura that surrounds Miss Penny Lane. William falls in love with Penny (no shocker, there,) but she is rekindling an old summer love with Russell. Over the course of the tour, you learn more about Miss Lane and the instability in her life. Throughout the movie, she is seen popping bottles, dancing around naked, making love to Russell, jamming at the side of each stage and carelessly loving every moment of it. At the end of the film (SPOILER ALERT) she realizes Russell has a wife and overdoses on Quaaludes in the Plaza Hotel. William saves her life, gets to know the real Penny Lane and sends her back to California safe and sound.
She sounds like a real winner, huh? The sarcasm in that sentence was real. But, Penny Lane is still who I strive to be similar to as I enter my young adult years. She may not have had her life in order, but she had some ideas absolutely correct.
Penny Lane enjoyed life to the absolute fullest. She was a teenager and went on tour with a rock band in the 1970's across the country in a bus. Now, that is a story to tell your grandchildren one day. She did not care about people's opinions of her. She was wild for a reason. She was a free spirit, going wherever the wind took her. This is something that is hard for all of us to do.
Penny Lane rarely took life seriously and just lived. This is something that is so admirable to me because in society today, most people take things seriously. Sometimes, it's okay to let your hair down. It's okay to put the phone down and fully live in the moment. Penny Lane taught me that you can be whatever you want to be, just have fun on your way there.
“I always tell the girls never take it seriously, if you never take it seriously you never get hurt, if you never get hurt you always have fun, and if you ever get lonely just go to the record store and visit your friends.”
