July 29, 2024

Translation: Fortune, Come In! Demons, Get Out! (Haruomi Hosono)

Songs like Fortune, Come In! Demons, Get Out! are why albums are tied with novels for my favorite art form. 

Had this come out as a non-album single, it'd feel like a novelty track — bright and playful, with a killer band, but you wouldn't listen and feel touched. 

If it appeared on Bon Voyage Co., you'd feel it was par for the course, and maybe file it alongside Black Peanuts in the "delightful/silly genre exercise" drawer.

But on Hosono House, it stands out as the one song that looks forward to the Tropical Trilogy (which I can only say with the benefit of hindsight; back in 1973, Hosono himself had no idea he'd move further in this direction). 

And when its tracklist companions are Rock-a-Bye My Baby, I'm Sort Of, No Fixed Abode / Jobless / Barely Making Any Money, Love is the Color of Peach Flowers, The Rose and the Wild Beast, and Sharing an Umbrella, it does become touching. In the context of Hosono's situation and state of mind that year, the novelty factor drains right away.

The song title, by the way, is a reference to the Setsubun festival.



:::



Come on in, come on in
through the gate
and indoors.
Come on in, come on in
through the gate,
god of fortune.

Here comes the answer to all my prayers. 
Demons, get out!
So lovely a sight that I'm speechless. 
Fortune, come in!

Please come in, please come in
through the gate
and indoors.
Please come in, please come in
through the gate,
god of fortune.

I had my palm read.
I have no luck to speak of 
I was born under
an evil star.

That's why I need you to
come on in, come on in
through the gate
and indoors.
Come on in, come on in
through the gate,
god of fortune.


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