Takashi has said that he gave the lyrics of The Metamorphosis of the Flying Squirrel at Kurayami-zaka to Hosono first. But he was dissatisfied with Hosono's setting, so he offered them to Ohtaki instead. Similarly dissatisfied with Ohtaki's attempt, Takashi returned them to Hosono, and finally the version we know today was born.
Kurayami-zaka is a part of Tokyo that fits inside the limits of what Takashi called "Kazemachi" — the Town of Wind — by which he meant the Tokyo neighborhoods in which he had grown up. By the time Takashi was twenty years old and writing these songs, that old Town of Wind had changed beyond recognition, largely on account of the 1964 Olympics. Kazemachi Roman was conceived partly as an elegy for that area of Tokyo as it once was.
Kurayami-zaka had — within what was then living memory, as the song attests — been lightly forested, and flying squirrels had in fact lived there.
Hosono does the lead vocals, but Ohtaki, mixed slightly lower, sings harmony on every swiftly-passing word. These are my favorite harmonies on any song not by just this band but by anybody.
:::
The place is Tokyo, Azabu-Juban.
:::
The place is Tokyo, Azabu-Juban.
The time, early afternoon.
The cicadas are singing in chorus
at Kurayami-zaka.
Bright eyes gleam out
from inside a dark cloak.
The monster appears in broad daylight!
The flying squirrel!
The flying squirrel!
Oh, oh,
the flying squirrel...
The butterflies flutter, flutter, fluuuutter.
The bats flap, flap their wings.
Clouds that clearly cannot be trusted
go streaming by.
In the black soft serve
a mouth splits open
right up to the ears,
and a weary voice says:
"Hey. It's been a while."
The flying squirrel!
The flying squirrel!
The flying squirrel!
Oh, oh,
the flying squirrel...
Come to think of it,
the last time we met
was in the old story
my grandmother used to tell.
To say now, "I'd like to hear a thing or two
about what you've been through,"
and to take your hands in mine —
yeah, that's just a pipe dream too.
The flying squirrel!
Oh, oh,
the flying squirrel!
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