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… was the title of the soundtrack sampler released in Japan.

Page 3 of the "Times Square" Screenplay by Jacob Brackman, 1979, 129 pp  Text:  2 CONTINUED NICKY Why don't you droolers go back in there and mind your own business. The ROADIE kicks the laundry cart.  NICKY crouches. She is half his size. NICKY (her voice trembling) Touch me and you're dead. They laugh at her. With a single motion she unflicks a switchblade and rakes the roadies' arms and stomach.  They are shocked They hesitate. NICKY rushes at the other and slashes out at his legs.  She speaks so fast it sounds like gibberish. NICKY Unsung, undone, only one place left to run.  Shaking, aching, can't stand waiting . . . The black guys freeze.  They know they have a lunatic on their hands. NICKY laughs, delighted at their confusion. EXT   THE SKYLINE OF MANHATTAN                               PRE DAWN A dark establishing shot of the city.  A hot summer night just before daybreak. We hear the intimate, unhurried voice of JOHNNY LAGUARDIA, a late night FM radio personality. He hums the famous "Dragnet Theme," JOHNNY (voice over) Dum da dum dum, dum da dum dum dummmm! There are eight million stories in the big city . . . A long beat.  A sigh. CONTINUED
The picture sleeve is very thin paper, practically newsprint. The image is one used in the film strip on the UK soundtrack sampler. Unfortunately, I cannot read Japanese, and Google Translate does a very bad job of translating Japanese; I also have little confidence in the accuracy of the OCR program I used, which certainly contributed to Google’s poor translation. I can say that the notes consist primarily of a long synopsis of the film, a far more breathlessly detailed one than appeared on the UK sampler. And, like the UK sampler, the synopsis writer seems to have been working from an early screenplay draft: Google translates the paragraph describing the opening scene as “But, it was called a police car came immediately pop out who the shop, it will be what about that girl one of the 15-year-old, and brandishing knives also vain take the presser, and she had been admitted to hospital existence for regulating bell of mental disorder as a habitual of youth crime.” “Brandishing knives” would seem to refer to the original screenplay, in which Nicky pulls a knife to defend herself against some “roadies” at Starship Discovery One; the movie replaces the knife with a crowbar, and the roadies with Elizabeth Peña and the boss’s car.
 

The rest of the notes are brief descriptions of the artists, with an extra emphasis on Roxy Music. The tracklisting also has a special emphasis on Roxy Music.
 

There are a full twelve tracks on this sampler, but only six songs. “Same Old Scene” appears a total of four times: it opens and closes Side One, leads off Side Two, and is Track 4 on Side Two. “Help Me!” is track 2 on Side One and tracks 3 and 6 on Side Two. And “Rock Hard” is Side One’s track 4 and Side Two’s track 2. These are the three songs that make up Side Two of the US sampler; of these, only “Same Old Scene” appears on the UK version.

The other three songs are the ones performed in the film: “Damn Dog,” “Your Daughter Is One,” and “Damn Dog (Reprise-The Cleo Club).” They only appear once each. Norman Ross’s writing credit is again absent from “Damn Dog,” but is present on “Your Daughter Is One.”

If anyone is willing and able to translate the liner notes, I’d be very grateful. Meanwhile, we’re stuck with Google Translate, which can really only get across the gist of Japanese and not its detail. It does, however, occasionally come up a wonderfully evocative turn of phrase:

“Fly to take the plunge into the darkness, zombies!”

I do standing jump to the new world with sauce!

“See you in Times Square at 12:00. Miscreants go painted black around the eyes…”

… singleness of purpose, was now a star that was born out of the girls…

There’s also a fairly good chance this was actually released in 1981.

(Edit, 21 April 2017 – No, there isn’t. Even though the film opened in Japan in 1981, the Japanese edition of the soundtrack was released in 1980. So this sampler must have come out before then.)

 

 

Times Square-DJ Copy, RSO MI 4124; Japan, 1980; promotional soundtrack sampler; long-playing record (AAT 300265802) with picture sleeve (AAT 300266823) (work);
Times Square-DJ Copy Japan RSO MI 4124 sleeve front_1080px.jpg, Times Square-DJ Copy Japan RSO MI 4124 sleeve rear_1080px.jpg, Times Square-DJ Copy Japan RSO MI 4124 label side 1_800px.jpg, Times Square-DJ Copy Japan RSO MI 4124 label side 2_800px.jpg (images)
 
TIMES SQUARE, p. 2
Screenplay by Jacob Brackman
1979

 

 

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The full opened outside of the 2-sided promotional poster. As this was designed to be looked at while being opened and then turned to the other side, the sections comprising the folded outside are upside down. Text: THERE'S NOTHING TO DO BUT PLAY MUSIC AND SCREAM YOUR LUNGS OUT. TIMES SQUARE ROBERT STIGWOOD PRESENTS TIMES SQUARE STARRING TIM CURRY TRINI ALVARADO ROBIN JOHNSON PETER COFFIELD HERBERT BERGHOF SCREENPLAY BY JACOB BRACKMAN STORY BY ALAN MOYLE AND LEANNE UNGER DIRECTED BY ALAN MOYLE PRODUCED BY ROBERT STIGWOOD AND JACOB BRACKMAN EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS KEVIN McCORMICK AND JOHN NICOLELLA ASSOCIATE PRODUCER BILL OAKES R RESTRICTED UNDER 17 REQUIRES ACCOMPANYING PARENT OR ADULT GUARDIAN SOUNDTRACK AVAILABLE ON RSO RECORDS AND TAPES AN EMI RELEASE DISTRIBUTED BY AFD EMI RSO® Records Inc. AFD ©1980 Associated Film Distribution DESIGN: SEININGER & ASSOCIATES PRINTED IN U.S.A. THERE'S ONLY ONE WAY AND THAT'S RUNNING AWAY AND HANGING OUT AND SETTING YOURSELF FREE. TIMES SQUARE THE ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK FROM THE MOTION PICTURE 2 RECORD SET FEATURING MUSIC BY "ROCK HARD" - SUZI QUATRO "TALK OF THE TOWN" - THE PRETENDERS "SAME OLD SCENE" - ROXY MUSIC "DOWN IN THE PARK" - GARY NUMAN "HELP ME!" - MARCY LEVY & ROBIN GIBB "LIFE DURING WARTIME" - TALKING HEADS "PRETTY BOYS" - JOE JACKSON "TAKE THIS TOWN" - XTC "I WANNA BE SEDATED" - THE RAMONES "DAMN DOG" - ROBIN JOHNSON "YOUR DAUGHTER IS ONE" - ROBIN JOHNSON & TRINI ALVARADO "BABYLON'S BURNING" - THE RUTS "YOU CAN'T HURRY LOVE" - D.L. BYRON "WALK ON THE WILD SIDE" - LOU REED "THE NIGHT WAS NOT" - DESMOND CHILD & ROUGE "INNOCENT, NOT GUILTY" - GARLAND JEFFREYS "GRINDING HALT" - THE CURE "PISSING IN THE RIVER" - PATTI SMITH GROUP "FLOWERS IN THE CITY" - DAVID JOHANSEN & ROBIN JOHNSON

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