July 25, 2024

Translation: Party (Haruomi Hosono)

Party started life as an instrumental theme song to a baseball tournament out in Hosono's new neighborhood of Sayama. 

Later, two fellows supposedly named Ryoko Suzuki and Yasushi Nakayama added lyrics. I don't doubt that the lyrics aren't Hosono's, but given how little information exists online about either figure, and given that the Nakayama fellow is credited all over Eiichi Ohtaki solo albums — but nowhere else — and given the Happy End members' fondness for pseudonyms (remember Bannai Tarao?), these two lyricists might actually just be Shigeru Suzuki and Eiichi Ohtaki indulging a runaway fondness for random English.

There's lots of word games and puns (for instance, "oh doll-up" is a near-homonym for the Japanese word for "dance," and the word I translated as "buoyant" in "buoyant moods" is a near-homonym for "boogie-woogie"), probably all put there to make sure Hosono would have fun singing. 

The text is OTT, so I've taken a different approach than usual. The words Hosono sings in English are capitalized. Hopefully, reading my "translation" will give you a feeling as bizarre as the average Japanese listener in 1973 would've had when they flipped their Hosono House LP to Side B.



:::



Today, there's a house PARTY.
Where's she from, that girl with the PONYTAIL
and BOBBY SOCKS and RED SADDLE SHOES?
She's SUZIE!
She's DANCING enthusiastically!
She's the one everyone wants.

That girl is dancing with her SWEET LIP KISS.
That girl is CHIC.
That girl is gleaming.
That girl's a CANDY KID tonight.
KISS angry SUZIE.
She's the one everyone wants.

Dance, dance, OH DOLL-UP PARTY.
Buoyant moods and BOOGIE-WOOGIE MUSIC.
Dance, dance, OH DOLL-UP PARTY.
Buoyant moods and BOOGIE-WOOGIE.

    Today, there's a house PARTY.
    Where's she from, that girl with the PONYTAIL
    and BOBBY SOCKS and RED SADDLE SHOES?
    She's SUZIE!
    She's DANCING enthusiastically!
    She's the one everyone wants.

    Dance, dance, OH DOLL-UP PARTY.
    Buoyant moods and BOOGIE-WOOGIE MUSIC.
    Dance, dance, OH DOLL-UP PARTY.
    Buoyant moods and BOOGIE-WOOGIE.


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