25 Cents (the end is near) from "Nostalgia Kills"
Do any of you know or remember "Times Square", the 1980 movie?
It was a total box office failure and had a lot of problems, but I loved it.
One thing truly great about it is that it was one of the first girl buddy movies. There weren't many girl buddy movies until then. Also, it kind of suggested, although it just danced around it, that there might have been a homoerotic component to the relationship. It was the story of girl connected in an uncertain way, with an other-side-of-the-tracks theme, and the potential of this odd romance -- and it was punky. Plus it had Tim Curry in it!
Steve Cosson, the actor and director who founded the Civilians, the great project in what he calls "investigative theater," came to me and Robin Eaton with the idea to write a stage musical version of Times Square. Hell yes! As I was working on it, I started to feel like I was one of the characters -- I felt like I was the innocent girl from Connecticut who runs away to bad New York City and falls into a crazy life with a crazy bad girl. The songs were written for the characters, but they were written for myself, too, because I saw myself in the characters, and I saw the characters in myself.
The song "25 Cents" is the closing song in the show, so it's all about the end arriving -- nostalgia kills. The end of romance, the end of an era. It's also a love song for the city I remembered when I first visited New York City.
Before getting off the bus at Port Authority, I was warned to hold onto my purse very tight and close, as well as to not talk to strangers who were probably there to either pickpocket, sell me drugs, turn me into a prostitute. or take out my kidneys. This was 1980.
Despite the imagined and real danger, I was transfixed. This was amazing! This was just like Taxi Driver or Kojak! Five years later, I got the nerve to actually move to the big city.
side note: I still have both kidneys.
THE END IS NEAR THE SIGNS ARE CLEAR
THE ALLEY CATS HAVE DISAPPEARED
THEY FORESEE THE WRECKING BALLS.
OUR SACRED HALLS, THEY ALL WILL FALL
BID FAREWELL TO THIS NOBLE BOOTH
AKE MY HEADPHONES OFF AND RAISE MY GLASS TO
HOT SPUR MASSACRE DOUBLE PLEASURE
TWENTY FIVE CENTS. TWENTY FIVE CENTS
MY CUP OF COFFEE AT THE HOWARD JOHNSON
TWENTY FIVE CENTS TWENTY FIVE CENTS
THE PEEP SHOW LOVELIES THE PUSSYCAT PALACE
TWENTY FIVE CENTS * TWENTY FIVE CENTS
THEY’RE COMING HERE TO CLEANSE OUR SOULS
WITH DYNAMITE BLASTS LEAVING DEEP DEEP HOLES.
SAY GOODBYE TO YOUR DEALER YOUR PIMPS AND FREAKS THERE’S REAL FOLKS NOW COMIN’ THROUGH OUR STREETS
SAY GOODBYE TO:
A WORLD OF FUN, SHOCKING VIOLENCE
FOR TWENTY FIVE CENTS * TWENTY FIVE CENTS
PUT YOUR QUARTER IN THE SLOT
AND YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE
TWENTY FIVE CENTS * TWENTY FIVE CENTS
LIVE LIVE LIVE TRIPLE X
THE BOY ON THE CORNER WITH HIS MARILYN DRESS
WARMTH IN THE SUBWAY IS GETTING COLDER
THIS JUNK DOG’S HEART BEATS A LITTLE SLOWER
NOW THEY’RE TELLING ME WHICH SONGS TO PLAY
IT’S TIME FOR ME TO JUST FADE AWAY
HOT SPUR MASSACRE DOUBLE PLEASURES
TWENTY FIVE CENTS * TWENTY FIVE CENTS
MY CUP OF COFFEE AT THE HOWARD JOHNSON
THE PEEP SHOW LOVELIES THE PUSSYCAT PALACE.
TWENTY FIVE CENTS * TWENTY FIVE CENTS
PUT A QUARTER IN THE SLOT AND YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE…
Sobule/Eaton