I think one of the hardest tasks a songwriter can have is writing convincingly in the collective voice. Anytime I hear a "we" that apparently means to include me, I think, "Who the fuck are you to speak for me? Speak for yourself." But Takashi nails it.
In fact, The Drifters' Elegy (Yanagida/Matsumoto) doesn't mean to include me at all, it pushes me away. But the song's poetry is so beautiful, and the speaker so arrogant in his antagonism, and his plight so romantic, that I wish I was one of that "we."
:::
Let's go! — though our gang is shabby and broken.
Let's go! — wearing worn-out, badly-fitting shoes.
The blistering summer's clear sky
has been blown high up by the wind.
Let's go, come on!
As far as the far end of that sky.
Hey! Tear yourself away from that cute girl.
Tell her that we're drifters
and that there's no falling in love with a drifter.
Wherever we go, the wind drives us away.
Let's go! — riding the first train of the morning.
Let's go! — aboard the last train of the night.
The heartless autumn's crimson sky
violently vomits fire.
Let's go, come on!
To the town with its skin burned off.
Hey! Tear yourself away from that cute girl.
Tell her that we're drifters
and that there's no falling in love with a drifter.
Wherever we go, the wind drives us away.
Let's go! — riding a rickety city bus.
Let's go! — clattering down the city streets.
The dark winter's ashen sky is behind us,
and the whole world covered in snow.
Let's go, come on!
— smiling like a bunch of nihilists.
Hey! Tear yourself away from that cute girl.
Tell her that we're drifters
and that there's no falling in love with a drifter.
Wherever we go, the wind drives us away.
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