The mind boggles at the series of meetings that must have occurred to result in the decision that this was a good idea. A 12-inch single of “Damn Dog”… but not a remix or extended version… and on the other side, absolutely nothing. In order to promote the movie Times Square and Robin Johnson, a sleeve with no pictures at all. The only single release of a song written and performed just for film, released exclusively to the Belgian market. It seems like overkill while simultaneously being half-assed.

Belgium did get its own version of the European poster, and at least one promotional magazine article. I guess this is just one more inexplicable piece of evidence of the high hopes RSO had for Times Square worldwide, when the decades since have shown that they had no real clue what they were trying to sell, or to whom.

It’s the UK version of the Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated” single as released by RSO as a Times Square soundtrack tie-in. I might have bought it anyway, just for the fantastic illustration on the front of the picture sleeve. Luckily for me, the back of the sleeve reproduces the soundtrack album cover, so it’s a legitimate Robin Johnson collectible as well as a Ramones collectible.

The cover reproduced seems to be, however, a variant I don’t have anywhere else, where Nicky’s lapel button, which usually bears a picture of Johnny LaGuardia, is blank red, but not the featureless red of the Canadian version. This one has a light reflection painted along its upper rim, like the one that appears on the versions with Johnny on it, except no Johnny. It’s like an intermediate version that hasn’t been finished. I still don’t understand why there are so many different variant covers, all centered around what if anything is pinned to Nicky’s lapel.

“I Wanna Be Sedated” had been taken from 1978’s Road to Ruin. The b-side of the single, “The Return of Jackie and Judy,” was taken from the Ramones’ current album at the time, End of the Century, and wouldn’t have been entirely out of place itself in the movie’s soundtrack.

I’ve previously made mention of the Spanish release of this single, of which I have a photo but not the actual item.