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ohtani's jacket

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  1. After Happy End broke up, they continued to work together and contribute to each other's solo albums and projects. 

    The drummer and lyricist, Takashi Matsumoto, went on to become one of the most successful lyricists in Japanese music history, winning numerous awards and penning more than a hundred top 10 hits. 

    The multi-talented Haruomi Hosono went on to shape the sound of Japanese pop for decades to come, inspiring both City Pop and Shibuya-Kei, while also pioneering electronic genres with his work with Yellow Magic Orchestra. His immediate work following Happy End's break-up was a style called Exotica, which basically drew on the music of the South Seas and turned it into pop tunes. 

    Here's an example:

    And his electronic work:

    Eiichi Ohtaki was arguably the most successful of the members. He mostly worked in the City Pop genre, which is a loosely defined genre that basically refers to urban sounding pop music. His 1981 album, A Long Vacation, was a huge commercial and critical success, and is regarded as one of the greatest Japanese records of all-time,

    Here's some footage of him singing the lead single from that album:

    Shigeru Suzuki wasn't as successful as Hosono or Ohtaki, and eventually became a prolific session musician, but he did release some cool solo stuff in the 70s:

     

    • Like 2
  2. I started exploring Japanese music a few years ago having wrongfully assumed that it was bad.

    I started with Happy End, who were pretty much the Japanese equivalent of The Beatles. They were the first act to sing their songs in Japanese. Up until then, Japanese rock was mostly covers of Western songs or sung in English. They were only together for a few years from '69-72, but each of the members went on to become important figures in the Japanese music industry. Their album, Kazemachi Roman, is often regarded as the greatest Japanese rock album of all-time. 

    Some of you may be familiar with this song from Lost in Translation:

     

    • Like 2
  3. Spoiler

    1977

    I quite liked the choices for 1977. A lot of good songs there. I was happy they included some Fela Kuti.

    1977 was arguably the peak year for punk. There were a lot of great bands putting out records in '77 -- Television, Wire, Ramones, The Clash, The Sex Pistols, Richard Hell & The Voidoids, X-Ray Spex, The Saints, The Damned, The Adverts, The Strangers, Heartbreakers, Buzzcocks, and Dead Boys. And that's just stuff that a guy like me knows. If you're hardcore into punk, there's probably all sorts of awesome shit out there.

    Of course, the book can't include it all. It's interesting seeing which tracks they pick. I thought they chose the wrong track for someone who's never heard Television. Venus and Prove It were better singles from them.

     

    Of the tracks they left out, I think Mannequin is the song with the biggest rep. At least in the circles I move in:

    They already included some Ramones, but this is one of my favorites:

    I fucking love The Jam era Paul Weller. Don't get me started on Jam era Paul Weller. I had a British co-worker once who could not understand my fixation.

    These would have been my picks for the book:

     

     

    And just in case you think disco killed funk and soul:

     

     

     

     

     

    I feel like the book needs some Roy Ayers. This is as good as any:

    This is smooth:

    Once this gets going, oh boy:

    Marvin:

    I was only familiar with the Richie Havens version of this song, but this is the original and possibly the record of '77:

     

    • Like 1
  4. Wuthering Heights is one of the best pop songs ever, IMO. I think the book is wrong about Bush not liking the novel. What she didn't like were her vocals on the track. She ended up re-recording them in the 80s, which is sacrilege if you ask me, but it's her song. 

    I know I Feel Love changed music and everything, but am I the only one who likes Love to Love You Baby better? Probably. 

    At least they chose a Neil Young song with a glorious solo. 

    Curt, I think that Yes song is from their Going for the One album. The one that has Awaken on it. 

  5. Spoiler

    1976

    The list seems to be gravitating toward punk and reggae at this point, which is understandable. I do think it's strange how every now and again they include a song that is so well known you'd have to be from another planet, or spent your life living under a rock, to have never heard, then completely ignore the likes of Fleetwood Mac. 

    I feel like they didn't represent Funkadelic or Parliament. Maybe there is a George Clinton song later. They probably should have included Maggot Brian or One Nation Under a Groove, but I still like the more party oriented Parliament stuff:

    Great solo track from Bootsy:

    A sampler of some the funk from 1976:

     

     

     

     

     

    This sounds like a 60s tune, but it's a beautiful song:

    This was a UK group that sounded every bit as good as their American counterparts:

    How was this not on the list? One of the all-time great disco anthems:

    I really think some Flamin' Groovies should have made the list:

    Nick Lowe too:

    A YouTube comment says this sounds like the Beach Boys and Zappa's love child:

    I guess the New York Dolls have come and gone on the list, but I always liked this song:

    This has a hard edge to it:

    Early Pere Ubu single:

    This fascinating piece of pop music is definitely a song you should hear before you die:

    Blondie will no doubt be on the list, but this is fun anyway:

    Sufficiently noisy:

    Cherry bomb!

    Heart should have been on the list, too. For shame.

     

    • Like 3
  6. My first exposure to that Eno song was from The Son's Room, an Italian film about the grief a family endures when their son suddenly dies. It's impossible for me to separate it from the emotions in that film, but I have a friend who swears it's an uplifting song. Funny how people can hear such different things from the same piece of music. My wife hates the piano line and always told me to turn it off. 

  7. 1975

    1975 was another weakish year, but if you dig a little deeper there's always some cool shit to be found:

    One funky ass joint:

    Latimore, again!

    I'm pretty sure there's a remix of this I like more, but still a great tune:

    The book really needs some afrobeat:

    I promised myself I'd start including more Japanese songs:

    And why not a song from my home country:

    I really like this Roxy Music tune:

    David Allan Coe's loving parody of country music:

    Early hip hop:

    Dub classic:

    These guys are underrated as fuck:

    I love Jonathan Richman. Here's the 1975 version of this song:

    Roky's back!

    This has a relentless groove:

    Epic:

    Amazing track from a great artist:

    Best soul track of 1975:

    Infectious:

     

  8. On 6/22/2020 at 3:03 AM, Curt McGirt said:

    To explain this one: "Gloria" was originally a Van Morrison song, which is how he could have covered it, and I suppose it wasn't released until '79.  Just FYI.

    I listened to this today. It was recorded in October 1968 and released as an EP along with The Essential Jimi Hendrix Volume Two. Pretty cool. Like Patti Smith's version, Hendrix changes the lyrics. It sounds like he's making them up as he plays.

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