Translation: Shooting Star City (Chu Kosaka)

One of two new Hosono/Matsumoto songs on Horo, Shooting Star City is the result of an alchemical process. Hosono reused the verses from Tanger by Apryl Fool, the first band he and Takashi played in together (famous for pulling the great reverse-publicity stunt in which they announced their break-up the same day their debut album came out), rewriting the bassline into the kind of glorious show-stopping thing you expect from him in 1975 and adding a new funk-soul chorus. Takashi, for his part, transplanted elements of the unreleased Happy End song Drifting Clouds into an indoor setting, making the characters' situation less earthy, more urbane-sophisticated. Their interaction is a whole lot less meaningful this time around (Drifting Clouds is one of my favorite lyrics of all time), but still touching.

Shooting Star City isn't one of Horo's standouts.* I didn't like it much at all for months — but there came one midsummer day when, climbing our neighborhood hill in midsummer while listening to this song through headphones, I decided to sing along...

There is a category of song that can leave you cold if all you're doing is playing it, but blossom into beauty when you sing it. Strange to consider, isn't it? — that some songs are meant more for fellow singers to indulge in than for your average, non-musician listener? Chadwick Stokes has written a lot of songs like that.

The bassline and arrangement of Shooting Star City are fantastic no matter what, of course, but if you're like me, then to enjoy the vocal you'll have to put yourself in Kosaka's shoes.

* Edit, two days later: as I was writing that line, I was thinking about how subjective music can of course be, and wondered whether there are in fact listeners who rate this song highly. And what would you know, today I stumbled on a review in which someone called Shooting Star City not just their favorite song on Horo, but the song that singlehandedly launched their lifelong love of music.



:::

Your skin is pale fire 

where it's lit by the moon.

The city spreads out

from your billowing skirt.

I'm eternally in love.

It's with you I'm in love. 

I'm dozing off with my head in your lap

and we'll stay just that way until morning.

The curls of your hair

and your lips

are weaving dreams.

The submarine from H. G. Wells

floats by outside the window.

I'm eternally in love.

It's with you I'm in love.

Captain Nemo is playing 

the Hammond organ.

Shooting stars are falling

like rain over the city.

I hold you as you tremble

and that's how we cross the night.

I'm eternally in love.

It's with you I'm in love.

It's so warm in your arms.

I'm almost asleep.

I'm eternally in love.

It's with you I'm in love. 

I'm dozing off with my head in your lap

and we'll stay just that way until morning.

(Back to: List of Translations)