Right: what you're hearing is Haruomi Hosono on bass, Shigeru Suzuki on guitar (good luck picking him out, though; hint: right channel!), Masataka Matsutoya on keys, and Tatsuo Hayashi on drums.
Knowing that Caramel Mama's here will make you listen more deeply. So it's good that you know that now. Because, if you're like me, your first few listens will get submerged in the orchestral folk-pop bombast. Persevere! It's really a good song! The melodies are sophisticated, the harmonies addictive. There are cool brass and clarinet parts. The arrangement is overdramatic, no doubt about it, but what's happening lyrically up in that sky above the sea is dramatic too — as is the song's personal drama, even if the way Matsumoto gets it across is characteristically subdued.
And here's the really cool thing: this song may be the grand finale of the entire Town of Wind concept.*
If my interpretation is on point, the question remains: who's this "you" ? I can't figure it out, and if or when I do, the translation may need editing, but for now, here it is even so, with its central piece missing — which ("central piece missing") is itself, come to think of it, an appropriate metaphor for the end of Happy End: the songwriter alive & well — better at his art than he'd ever yet been, actually — but the context in which he thought his art would flourish, gone.
— well, sort of... the year this song came out (1973) was also the year Yoshitaka Minami and Takashi Matsumoto released Heroine of the Skyscraper. And that's a huuuuuge album.
:::
Knowing that Caramel Mama's here will make you listen more deeply. So it's good that you know that now. Because, if you're like me, your first few listens will get submerged in the orchestral folk-pop bombast. Persevere! It's really a good song! The melodies are sophisticated, the harmonies addictive. There are cool brass and clarinet parts. The arrangement is overdramatic, no doubt about it, but what's happening lyrically up in that sky above the sea is dramatic too — as is the song's personal drama, even if the way Matsumoto gets it across is characteristically subdued.
And here's the really cool thing: this song may be the grand finale of the entire Town of Wind concept.*
There aren't a lot of references online to either these words or their music, but in one of them, someone calls this the story of somebody who escapes the Town of Wind. I don't see textual evidence for that per se, but I love the image.
My present understanding is that this is the song in which Takashi washes his hands — or, as the metaphorical case may be, his oil paints — clean. Hosono killed the band Matsumoto gave his heart to — alright, so that's the end of that. No leftover sentiment. Let's wrap things up.
If my interpretation is on point, the question remains: who's this "you" ? I can't figure it out, and if or when I do, the translation may need editing, but for now, here it is even so, with its central piece missing — which ("central piece missing") is itself, come to think of it, an appropriate metaphor for the end of Happy End: the songwriter alive & well — better at his art than he'd ever yet been, actually — but the context in which he thought his art would flourish, gone.
— well, sort of... the year this song came out (1973) was also the year Yoshitaka Minami and Takashi Matsumoto released Heroine of the Skyscraper. And that's a huuuuuge album.
But however you arrange your Matsumoto lore, 1973 certainly marked one crucial ending.
Would Hosono have made a Well, You Know, It's Summer-like masterpiece out of these words? Of course he would've, why even ask? But this was the world after Happy End and before Seiko Matsuda. There weren't a whole lot of Hosono/Matsumoto songs written in the years between 1973 and 1982.**
Would Hosono have made a Well, You Know, It's Summer-like masterpiece out of these words? Of course he would've, why even ask? But this was the world after Happy End and before Seiko Matsuda. There weren't a whole lot of Hosono/Matsumoto songs written in the years between 1973 and 1982.**
* at least until its unforeseen revival on Shigeru's 1975 album Band Wagon.
:::
The morning sky
seems made of molten dreams.
The only cloud in sight
is as nimble
as a flying fish.
The fishermen have yet to
bring their boats back to shore,
but it doesn't matter.
I'm letting my oil paints
dissolve in the water
as I carry on waiting
for you.
The striped patterns
that the waves form
as they gently reach the shore
close me in like slatted shutters.
The sand keeps crumbling
underneath my feet,
but it doesn't matter.
I'm letting my oil paints
dissolve in the water
as I carry on waiting
for you.
I'll wait right here
until your wine-dark shadow
softly overlaps
my purple one.
The sea tilts —
bleeding like the evening twilight —
and dissolves in the sky.
The clouds have ignited
and fallen to earth,
but it doesn't matter.
I'm letting my oil paints
dissolve in the water
as I carry on waiting
for you.
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