Takashi has said that, when Happy End fans have interviewed him over the decades, they often find their nerves soothed by the sound of his voice, so familiar to them, after all, from Yudemen's last (and, as far as I'm concerned, best) track.
When I was getting into the band last year, my Japanese was rather worse than it is now, and I thought Takashi was telling a story about and/or narrating a conversation between two tribes of people, happy and unhappy ones. This story or parable was one of the reasons (daily increasing in number) that I felt a need to accelerate my Japanese learning. Except it turns out it's a monologue, not a story — though, maybe still a parable. I think it's a valediction to Yudemen's angst, clearing the way to Kazemachi Roman's confidence and thoughtful nostalgia.
One day, shortly after completing the album, the members of Blue Valentine were in a car together, driving down some Tokyo street, when Hosono suddenly said to the others: "Hey, you know what we should do? Change our band name to Happy End."
The track title typography emphasizes the three syllables いいえ (meaning "no")in the name "Happy End" (はっぴいえんど), presumably as an answer to the rhetorical question Takashi's poem (almost) ends with.
:::
You know, I thought I had forgotten long, long ago
how to pretend to be happy, or joyful,
or lonely, or sad, or in pain.
But now, though I seem to be walking in darkness,
just fumbling my way along,
I think my fingertips sometimes sense
the touch of the thirsty wind upon them.
And at such times, I ask myself —
hey, could it be that you're merely pretending to be blind?
Say — are you really all that unhappy?
Happy end.
Happy end.
Happy end...
(No.
No.
No...)
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