32 thoughts on “Songs!

  1. California Dreamin’ has made me sad since the first time I heard The Mamas and The Papas performing it. Today I’ll go with the Beach Boys’ cover.

    Note to Mr. Shilling: You can add to your list of warnings that the embedded player doesn’t survive when the post is edited.

    1. I should note that one of my biggest epiphanies of the past year was listening to that mash up and realizing that the killer on the road whose brain was squirmin’ like a toad was the man from Mars who was eatin’ cars. They had both witnessed the same events.

  2. I’d like to share Miyuki Nakajima’s “HALF,” a story of lovers who missed their chance to be together and swore to meet again in the next life, only to miss their chance again. Unfortunately, her label has her music locked down hard, and other than a few of her recent songs, none of it’s available on YouTube. My next choice is a song Nakajima wrote for Shizuka Kudoh in 1998. Honestly, Kudoh’s kind of a weak singer, but she had brilliant songwriters backing her, first Tsugutoshi Gotoh and later Nakajima.

    The title, “Setsu-getsu-ka,” literally means “snow, moon, and flowers.” It comes from a phrase in a poem from the classical Chinese poet Bai Juyi (“When I gaze upon the snow, moon, and flowers, that is when I miss you the most.”), and refers to sublime natural beauty. Anyway, this isn’t a sad song, but for some reason it makes me feel sad. The lyric’s superficial silliness serves to deepen its portrayal of the intensity of young love. I’m not really doing Nakajima justice, but here’s rough translation:

    Between the waves of the sheets,
    I searched for you, hoping I might find you.
    I want to be with you, and though I hold you tightly,
    I want only to be with you more.

    No matter where you go, I can find you.
    When I ask you, you don’t understand.
    Here I am, you laugh; I want to be with you more, I insist.
    You, who know nothing!

    Chorus:
    Snow, moon, and flowers
    It is a loving heart which never yields.
    Snow, moon, and flowers.
    But only grows ever stronger

    If you would grant me a wish,
    I want only one thing:
    Grant me freedom.
    Grant me the freedom to love you.

    Quickly, set me free!
    Quickly, do not tie me down!
    Set me free from a future without you,
    And set me free from loneliness.
    You, who know nothing!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDxi0p9ojnY

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