Screen13

TIMES SQUARE - THE ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK (1980)

...or, how it's interesting that one soundtrack captured a time and place more than the film itself.


C/O MEMORY
Possible reasons: Over-Production, Short lived chart run, no break through the mainstream, under preforming film

Label: RSO

Released: September, 1980

Genre: Now Playing at the Dollar Theater + Punked and Popped Out

Special Future Influence Award!



To The Cut Out Kids of the Early 80's with little to spend but lot to choose from back through the Early 80's, this seriously was an introduction to another world, beyond Christopher Cross and Dan Folgenberg (listeners, you had to be there to understand). Released on RSO as a New Wave answer to Saturday Night Fever, this instead quickly turned into one of those albums that was talked about in interest although some songs and it's connection to the infamous Red Cow more connected with Disco and Eric Clapton hushed a lot of mouths for a while. Clearly you did not want to admit that you own an album that has even one Bee Gee on it despite it having some classics by bands like the Ruts, The Cure, Talking Heads, The Ramones, Roxy Music, and more let alone a stunning original song written for the film by XTC.

Like the film, today, this has a following of it's own and seen as one of the Soundtracks that was hipper than the film with said song with a Bee Gee being that skip track...back then we either had to fast forward the cassette or get up and pick the needle up from the record or just bear it.

...but you won't get that irritant here, just the good stuff! I promise!

Thankfully, there's film clips! This is a great one featuring Talking Heads' "Life During Wartime".



Flawed but great, Times Square was one of the more interesting films of 1980 and the story surrounding it's production from Late 1979 to 1980 is a little more interesting than the film itself, one of the first to feature New Wave and Punk, with a story using the memoirs of a mentally disturbed woman on the streets. At one point in the production, this was led by Alan Moyle's Direction which started a career that led to more notable films like Pump Up the Volume but then Robert Stigwood got all in a "Fever" about it and decided to make room for more music. The reviews were mixed, the New Wave/Punk anti-authoritarian nature of it's leads was not a positive selling point for the theaters, and it wound up on TV very quick, but the soundtrack was mainly a different story.

The story is simple: two runaways from a mental institution - Nickey, a street kid and Pamela, a well to do who's father is an environmentalist wanting to clean up Times Square - decide to make an abandoned warehouse their home, cause major concern in the city to find them, and form a band, The Sleez Sisters (The misspelling is right here) to make some noise and to play for their favorite DJ (played here by Tim Curry) who is in the eyes of the well to do, causing some jealousy in Nickey although they stay together until the end when the by now famous Nickey jumps from the marquee of a Times Square theater and gets carried away by fans in a blanket. Robin Johnson is Nickey and Trini Alvarado is Pamela, and both seriously act very well and blend in with the surroundings of filth while hints at lesbianism between the two are all around, although the Director's vision had more of it that was cut out for commercial reasons.



While the decisions seriously bleed the film of it's potential, there still is quite a bit of grit and anger through the film, and most of the music in it is a good reflections of what was going on at the time. The soundtrack is possibly all that many people got of this film as it had a very quick run in the theaters, although many later caught it on Cable (As an R Rated film, it certainly would not play well on regular TV), but then again considering what happened, it was possibly for the better - clearly one of the original songs for the film, "Damn Dog" (Performed at a point in the film before The Sleeze Sisters are formed), is a cult favorite even winding up being covered by Manic Street Preachers. To be very fair, it connected with a lot of rebellious kids of the day, including me, and in retrospect, it is one of the better films featuring the legendary dangerous days of Times Square's 1980s and it's double soundtrack certainly had to have had influenced many who could not be there at that time with a strong mix of music with only a couple of weak tracks here and there.





ONTO THE ALBUM...SIDE ONE

Side One starts with the classic Suzi Quatro's Rock Hard, which also was on the album of the same name released at the same time (BB Chart #165 - just when the soundtrack was about to peak at #37). Sadly, this was a little too much for radio to take on, and of course it was the days that women who rocked seriously were not taken seriously by many (In fact, it took a long time for Joan Jett to get anywhere after the split up of The Runaways). Maybe it rocked a little too hard for the radio if you listen to the chant close enough at the end of the chorus as it sounds like someone in the band was saying something else...



Next, after a the Pretender's great "Talk of the Town", there's Roxy Music's "Same Old Scene" from Flesh and Blood, yet another C/O album and one that was starting to fall on the US charts and then Gary Numan's "Down in the Park". Numan would release Telekon around this time, and it would also turn into another US C/O find after it's quick rise and fall on the charts peaking at #64 stateside just when this soundtrack was climbing. You know things are going well, until...

Side One ends with the Skip Track - The duet between Marcy Levy and Robin Gibb that was released as the second single from the film, and the one to score on the charts at #50. To be fair, even this had some connection to the music news of Fall/Winter 1980 as Gibb Brother Andy was charting with a Greatest Hits and "Time Is Time" and that Bee Gee Barry was scoring big with Barbara Streisand on the Guilty album. The song stood out like a sore thumb in the context of the film, but it did reflect the lightweight music of the day although it was not the stuff you wanted to hear.

SIDE TWO

"Life During Wartime" by Talking Heads was already a classic, and there would be an album by this legendary band in a few weeks...although Remain in Light was a different kind of animal than Fear of Music but one that would seriously weave it's own influence. Next, Joe Jackson's "Pretty Boys" was right with his Beat Crazy period which saw the album go to #41 in The US around this time. Then XTC arrive with the great "Take This Town" which was a good way to introduce the listener to a band who would soon unleash their classic Black Sea which was Distributed in the US by RSO (!!!)



The Ramones' classic of classics "I Wanna Be Sedated" and the aforementioned "Damn Dog" wrap up the first disc in grand style.

SIDE THREE

Here's where things get a little up and down, but still good, although the well meaning Proto-Riot Girl "Your Daughter Is One", Pamela's message to her father, gets a little tiresome after hearing repeated swear slander words over and over. Yeah, we all know he used them to cut down the Times Square citizens and you're one of them, we get the point. Still, in the context of the film being played on the radio with the DJ potentially getting into trouble is quite amusing, throwing out any chance of major mainstream success that not even a Bee Gee can bring to the soundtrack.

Getting back to the great stuff, there's The Ruts' "Babylon's Burning", and after a pale version of "You Can't Hurry Love" by DL Byron, there's Lou Reed's "Walk On the Wild Side". Desmond Child, already a hit making songwriter, was still trying to get his project with Rouge off the ground, but The Night Was Not" was not going to do much. It has been mentioned that David Bowie was commissioned to have a song but was not allowed due to contractual reasons...never mind, Bowie would release the classic Scary Monsters around this time.

Although Reed was by then contracted to Arista, RCA, the label Bowie was still on by that time, unleashed a small collection that did not do justice, Rock and Roll Diary, which would slip into the Top 200 by the time the soundtrack was falling down.




SIDE FOUR

Garland Jefferies, known in Europe but only having a small following in the States, sings "Innocent, Not Guilty"; The Cure's "Grinding Halt" is possibly the first many Americans heard them, although Three Imaginary Boys was an album that those clued in already had or had friends that owned it; The Patti Smith Group's "Pissing in the River" adds more NYC sounds to the mix; and, to wrap it up, David Johansen joins Johnson with "Flowers in the City" while a reprise of "Damn Dog" wraps it up.



Here's the finale, featuring more cool Times Square scenery.



As you can tell, this was one hell of an album despite some Stigwood interference. Sadly, during this time, RSO would have some troubles of it's own beyond trying to break this album into the mainstream including a controversial decision to drop the distribution of Curtis Mayfield's Curtom Records (It would later sign to Capitol, but the thrill was gone by that time) and facing not many takers wanting their Rock and New Music, although XTC did well in The US with Black Sea. Then, there was the suit/counter suit between the Gibbs and Stigwood.

The LP would make some waves in The US, peaking in The BB at #37 before a sharp drop off. I guess a gritty tale of outsiders in NYC with a sharp soundtrack of some new music with an edge was not going to be the thing when The Empire Strikes Back and Xanadu were all the rage. Sadly, Johnson would not be a star, contracted to Stigwood and not receiving any more film offers after the boxoffice failure of this film, although she had the get go to find other work and at least a couple of other roles in B films from time to time. Thankfully, at least there's this film that shows her talents in full.

It's interesting how time re-evaluates a film - one day it's a crass exploitation and some time down the road it's something of a nostalgia. Recently, a lot of people have been wondering about the NYC of days past - the sleaze, the theaters on 42'nd street and surrounding areas that played an endless array of European Horror, Martial Arts (usually with Bruce Li or any other Bruce Lee Wanna-Be), Porn, XXX Porn, Roughie Porn, and the odd mainstream movie here and there in between places with live sex acts, the clubs, the beginning of Rap and Hip Hop culture, The Clash at Bonds, and the rest of it all. This soundtrack captured a lot of that energy and the time.

The 42'nd Street of Times Square is no longer, but thankfully most of the music is still an inspiration. The Cut Out Kids of the Early 80's knew already, and for some this was a gateway to more better music.

BONUS!!!

Here's the Manics in their first album glory covering "Damn Dog". Enjoy!



Here's the trailer, featuring "Down in the Park"