Translation: The Zoo of the Ghosts (Happy End)

Takashi has said that, with Yudemen, he was learning as he went. Hosono has called his Yudemen songs practice runs. Ohtaki was busy stretching his mimetic muscles, emulating Stephen Stills on some songs and Neil Young on others. And Suzuki was busy just having a blast. Everyone was focused on craft, and didn't expect the album to be as influential or controversial as it was. And certainly nobody expected to make a timeless masterpiece the following year. Nowadays, Takashi talks about Kazemachi Roman with amused regret: "I would've liked to mess around more before making an album that good. We were all surprised by how good it was... too good."

Yudemen is the sound of unfettered messing around. It's rough and can be awkward, but it's energized by the excitement of four young musicians in a recording studio, two of them for the first time. They all believed in the band they had formed, and were eager to discover what they could create together.

The Zoo of the Ghosts (Hosono/Matsumoto), which opens Side B, is typical of that spirit. It's also a bit of a dry run for the following year's Metamorphosis of the Kurayami-Zaka Flying Squirrel, in that Ohtaki sings harmony with Hosono on every line of the verses.

:::

This is not a city of ghosts.

This is not a city of horror.

This is not a lonely city.

The place where we currently reside

is a city full of people and their problems.

You're sipping black tea.

My throat is parched

from laughing so much.

It's as dry as a fountain pen.

I grope your body

so as to feel a connection

though I know

we can't actually touch.

It's the kind of habit

a ghost picks up.

You and I exist,

and at the same time we don't.

We talk about freedom

and plaster up the walls.

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