Part of what makes Yagami Toll!!
YOU CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT LISTENING TO THIS!!
Translation: w_b
Inoue Yousui
Album [Koori no sekai] released December 1st, 1973 was the first rock/new music album in Japan to sell a million copies.
Album [Shoutaijou no nai Show] released March 25, 1976.
Album [Gaido no inai yoru] released November 20, 1992.
When did you start listening?
It was my older brother's influence. However, growing up Yousui Inoue-san's folk music left little impression on me. The first album that I truly found amazing was this one here, "Shoutaijou no nai Show". I heard it when it was first released so I must have been around fourteen, in my second year at middle school. Around the time "Shoutaijou no nai show" was released my entire generation had gotten into new music. What I remember most was the commercial for that album. It surprised me when I saw it, back in the second grade of middle school. It was just like this album cover. I was convinced it was a still shot when all of a sudden, Yousui-san that you see here on the cd jacket took up and left. *laughs* That commercial left a deep impression on me, when I saw it I didn't know what in the world it was about! *laughs* And it was really cool. The drummer then was Murakami "Ponta" Shuuichi-san. And on bass was the great master himself, Takamizu Kenji-san. So when I finally listened to the album it left every bit as great an impression as the commercial. I believe this was the mood they were going for on the album but I had the feeling I was listening to a jam session, because the musicians who had come together were excellent, because they worked with a head arrangement (1). Yet after listening I didn't quite know what to make of such a strange universe. The songs were avantgarde, the arrangements sounded like a collage of sounds. What especially surprised me were "Makura kotoba" at the beginning of the album, and "Musubi kotoba" at the end. They're both the same song. But "Makura kotoba" is the simpler of the two while "Musubi kotoba" ties both songs in a grand finale. But at the core they're the same. They used these songs in a commercial, recently. The "asaki yume~" line. How cool it is that they used a song from 30 years ago in a new commercial.
Some of your memories?
In 92 a roadie acquaintance of mine, Asami, let me visit a recording session for the "Gaido no inai yoru" album. That's an album on which Yousui-san did covers of his own songs. I had the honor of visiting the place he was recording at. In the recording booth he and his band played and recorded all in one shot the drums, guitars and vocals. They redid the same songs over and over, all of them. It was quite the studio live and surprised me when I saw that. Also, back then Yousui-san had a collection of polaroids on the wall, he said he'd take one of any person who came to have fun with him while he was recording. So he took one of me and Asami as well. *laughs* He really is a terrific guy. We've never really met but he has an amazing character and is incredibly talented. He's my senior, he's very charismatic, very warm and caring......honestly, compared to him I'm a novice. It hadn't yet been 5 years since Buck-Tick's debut and yet he knew about us. Truly, what an amazing person Inoue Yousui is.
(1) A head arrangement takes place when musicians give arrangement instructions to each other verbally rather than having them written down. Most often it might take place during a jam session.