I'd begun feeling my way into Kazemachi Roman and was committed to exploring Hosono more or less chronologically, so in addition to Eiichi Ohtaki's first solo album, Happy End's third, and then Hosono House, I loaded up most of the first disc of the 20th Century Box (a selection of the songs Hosono wrote for others (it's six 76-minute CDs long and still not exhaustive)). Later on, a partner-in-crime would hit me up with the complete download, but at the time I had to make do with a makeshift and incomplete collection of YouTube rips — I'd been putting it together, trying to match the tracklist.
I ran into problems really fast. The song Thank You, which opens the 20th Century Box, wasn't available as such. The tracklist specified the "Single Version" but I could find neither single nor album versions online. There was a live version, though, so I thought, "It's the right song, anyway," and ripped that and slotted it in the playlist.
Turns out that live version (from 1976, with a certain devilishly handsome man on drums, see bottom right) kicks the studio version's ass. The 1971 recording is elegant enough, to be sure, with a great sense of space, excellent vocals (Hosono sings lead and Kosaka harmonizes, unless you're listening to the Single Version on the 20th Century Box, in which case it's all Kosaka), and characteristically stellar drumming from Takashi Matsumoto, but all in all it's a little hesitant; in the live version, YT goes straight for the jugular. And the harmonies still rule.
Day and night, lying in bed or taking dizzy walks around the hospital, I listened to the live Thank You over and over again.
The lyrics (a masterpiece of passive aggression and retrospection, in the same fucking song — I love you, Positively 4th Street, but) are by Haruomi Hosono. The lovely, elegiac melodies and interesting chord choices are his work too. Hosono has written an unfair proportion of the best songs I have ever heard.
When Hosono's Happy End bandmates heard this song — which Hosono donated to Apryl Fool frontman Tadashi (Chu) Kosaka, for Kosaka's 1971 debut solo album, of which Thank You is the title track — they complained, "What the hell were you thinking, not bringing this to us?"
Indeed, Hosono regretted it a little himself. The thing is, Kosaka was on contract to record a solo album, and was finding it difficult to write enough songs of his own to fill the album, so he asked his best friend Haruomi for help. Said best friend agreed readily and lightly, as he would; but in the process, he wrote Thank You and, as happens sometimes, blew himself away. It was the first song he'd written that he felt 100% happy with. It was the gateway to Kazemachi Roman. It really should have been a Happy End song — Hosono felt — but it was too late, he'd already given it to Kosaka, and Kosaka liked it.
By the way, Hosono was big into hot springs at the time.
(...where would I be without this miracle?)
:::
Thank you for all your whims and caprices. Thank you.
Thank you for constantly spouting nonsense. Thank you.
For all of your flattery and sarcasm, I say thanks, thanks.
The only words that ever leave my mouth are thank you.
Thank you for your bald-faced lies. Thank you.
Thank you for your snorts of laughter. Thank you.
For all of your flattery and sarcasm, I say thanks, thanks.
The only words that ever leave my mouth are thank you.
Well, how about that?
While pretending to be
as receptive and as absorbent
as the earth we walk on,
I've only been turning into
more and more of a fool.
Thank you for all of your advice. Thank you.
Thank you for your kind consideration. Thank you.
They may resonate from the bottom of a heart that's turned to stone,
but the only words that ever leave my mouth are thank you.
Well, how about that?
While pretending to be
as receptive and as absorbent
as the earth we walk on,
I've only been turning into
more and more of a fool.
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