Happy End

I'm loving Kazemachi Roman. Is there other stuff worth hunting down?

http://citiesonflamewithrockandroll.blogspot.com/2007/05/happy-end-kazemachi-roman.html

I have Kazemachi Roman and S/T. Both are great.

Is that one in the same vein as Kazemachi Roman? Reminds me of Loaded-era VU, Grateful Dead, Byrds & other west-coast country rock but it's totally it's own thing too.

Nice write up here: http://chinmusicpress.com/blog/archives/2005/09/happy_end.html

Wish I could find more translations of the lyrics.

Yeah, they are quite similar albums. I love them both, but I'm not sure I could tell them apart to be honest (although that probably has a lot to do with the language barrier -- their lyrics, titles, etc. don't stick for me).

I think I like the '73 S/T more than the first one.. a little more transitional Hosono, little less Buffalo Springfeld

I've been feeling brave enough to begin Happy End translations, and goddam was (is? he's written hundreds of songs since, though mostly for hire) Takashi Matsumoto one of the best lyricists ever. Images no one else would come up with. Master of subtle detail. And everything so thick with atmosphere. A bard of the modern city for sure, with a romantic's heart.

The jury's still out on how good he was/remained in his pro years (1974 onwards), but in the Happy End era (1970-1973), Matsumoto was the best lyricist on earth.

Wish I could find more translations of the lyrics.

Fifteen years later, TheNuNuNu to the rescue...

Happy End's HAPPY END aka YUDEMEN (1970)
in which Matsumoto wrote a couple of amazing songs right out of the gate, but mostly just got his apprenticeship over with,

A1 Come On, Spring!
A2 Hide and Seek
A3 Falling Thickly, Piling Up
A4 A Sky You Can't Fly In (lyrics by Hosono)
A5 Remember the Enemy: Thanatos!
B1 The Zoo of the Ghosts
B2 A Rainy Day in December
B3 It's Infuriating (lyrics by Ohtaki)
B4 Morning
B5 Happy End
B6 Happy End (Continued)

Chu Kosaka's ARIGATOU (1971)
a de facto Hosono production (the first); he later recognized these three songs as the germ of his work on Kazemachi Roman

A2 Festival of Mud (lyrics by Hosono)
A5 Thank You (lyrics by Hosono)
B1 Spring is Here (lyrics by Hosono)

Happy End's KAZEMACHI ROMAN (1971)
the legendary one; in which Matsumoto wrote a sort-of concept album about the Tokyo he'd grown up in, demolished when the city was preparing for the ‘64 Olympics

A1 I Want to Hold You Close
A2 Sky-Colored Crayon
A3 Gathering the Wind
A4 The Metamorphosis of the Kurayami-Zaka Flying Squirrel
A5 High-Collar Idiot
A6 High-Collar/Beautiful (an interlude; no lyrics other than what's in the song title)
B1 Well, You Know, It's Summer
B2 A Flower Costs One Monme
B3 May the Weather Tomorrow Be Good
B4 Typhoon (lyrics by Ohtaki)
B5 Spring in Full Bloom
B6 Hunger for Love (aka Eiichi Ohtaki sings the Japanese syllabary)

Sons of Sun's KAIZOKU KID NO BOUKEN (1972)
a one-off psych-folk-rock project led by Hiro Yanagida, a bandmate from Matsumoto, Hosono, and Kosaka's earlier band Apryl Fool -- Matsumoto wrote the lyrics to seven songs, less celebrated but more wistful and personal and (if you ask me) even more beautiful than Kazemachi Roman

A1 Snow-Light
A2 Suburban Train
A4 Dusk
A5 The Pirate Kid's Adventure
B1 Rendezvous
B2 The Drifters' Elegy
B4 The Mysterious Traveling Circus

Eiichi Ohtaki's EIICHI OHTAKI (1972)
Ohtaki's first solo record, with a few Matsumoto co-writes ... bit of a missed opportunity, Ohtaki should've asked Matsumoto do them all

A2 But That Someone Isn't Me
A3 Pinky Swear
B3 The Watercolor Town
B4 Dishevelled Hair
B5 Choo-Choo Train of Love (Part 2)

Happy End's HAPPY END (1973)
recorded after the band had broken up, so things were awkward. Matsumoto was pissed off that the band had broken up at all, and asked Hosono and Ohtaki to do their own writing; Hosono was game, but Ohtaki didn't manage and ended up setting music to two unused Matsumoto lyrics

A1 The Wanderer (lyrics by Hosono)
A2 A Sketch from the Month of Sleet
A3 Tomorrow It'll Surely Be Spring
A4 No Wind (lyrics by Hosono)
B1 #3 Goodbye Street
B2 Sharing an Umbrella
B3 Country Road
B4 How Nice the Weather Is
B5 Goodbye America, Goodbye Japan

plus a couple of Happy End/ish songs that came out much later:

Drifting Clouds
Downpour City

and a great one-off from the spring of 1972, for the band Itsutsu no Akai Fuusen:

Marriage Negotiations

There's a new Happy End EP planned for next year. An archivist discovered a Yudemen-era Ohtaki demo of an Ohtaki/Matsumoto outtake. The idea is to bolster it with two Hosono/Matsumoto (Downpour City linked above, which only record company cowardice kept from release as a new Happy End song, and an unheard song called Cappuccino) and two Suzuki/Matsumoto co-writes that got done over the past few years. None of the three surviving members do much new writing anymore, let alone perform together, so I hope this project comes together... though of course I wish they had enough for a new full-length.

Listening to Dakishimetai. Matsumoto is such an amazing lyricist I keep forgetting how amazing his drumming is.

Every time I listen to Kazemachi Roman or the '73 self-titled, I think, "This is it, this is my favorite album of all time." Obviously they can't both be. And I think the same thing when I listen to any of, like, twenty Hosono releases and half the YMO and Miharuomi albums. Hosono broke the part of my brain that believed in rankings. But it refuses to shut up.

Point being: Kazemachi Roman is my favorite album of all time...

I am now convinced that 抱きしめたい / Dakishimetai / I Want to Hold You Close is the best (or okay okay, "my favorite") rock song ever recorded.

So many of my favorite guitar solos are on this album. Shigeru Suzuki slipped into soft-rock really soon after Happy End disbanded, but back when he was interested in lead guitar, there's no one on earth who did it better.