Happy End

Kazemachi Roman (Wind City Romance) is Happy End's second album and often cited as their finest. The band set out to create a musical portrait of Tokyo before the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, naming the A-side "Wind" and B-side "City." The lyrics by drummer Takashi Matsumoto paint a wistful landscape of the old city and the changes that took place there:

hitoke no nai
    (deserted and alone)
asa no koh hee ya de
    (in a coffee shop in the morning)
hima wo tsubushitetara
    (killing time was all I was doing)
hibi wareta garasu goshi ni
    (then, through the broken glass)
matenrou no kinuzure ga
    (i saw the skyscrapers' rustle)
hodou wo hitasunowo mitan desu
    (filling the sidewalk)
-- "Kaze wo Atsumete" (Gathering Wind)

inaka no shiroi azemichi de
    (the country side, on a white dirt road)
hokorippoi kaze ga tachidomaru
    (dusty wind comes to a halt)
jibeta ni petan to shagamikomi
    (squatting flat on their feet)
yatsura ga bi-dama hajiiteru
    (them's flicking glass marbles)
-- "Natsu Nandesu" ('Tis the Summer)

Musically, Happy End sounds very much like the West Coast folk rock of the 60s (the band's leaders, Hosono and Otaki, wanted the band to sound like Buffalo Springfield). The record does sound pretty dated (unfortunately, the poor sound quality of the re-issued CD I am listening to doesn't help here) even compared to their contemporaries such as the Doors, Zeppelin, Hendrix and the Beatles, but it certainly is a convincing work by accomplished musicians. There are some genuinely timeless melodies and riffs here, such as the folkie "Kaze wo Atsumete" (recently made popular again by the Lost in Translation soundtrack) and the Allman Brothers-esque "Hanaichimonme." The humorous word-play found in "Aiueo" (Love Hunger, or the Japanese ABCs), "Taifu" (Typhoon) and "Haikarahakuchi" (High-Color Fool, "high-color" being a Japanese expression meaning "modern style") is quite refreshing and unconventional for the time, I imagine. The band's intricate, sometimes hard-edged playing, anchored by Hosono's bass and Matsumoto's beats, create a genuine groove over which the enigmatic Japanese words glide somewhat hypnotically. I found myself putting it on repeatedly and daydreaming about the city I'd never known but long for.

Happy End broke up in 1973, but its legacy far outlived its short career. As the later generations kept discovering and re-discovering Happy End's genius and emulated its music and style, the band's members continued forging ahead with their unique visions, some in mainstream popular music and some in the fringes, spreading their influences in every corner of the industry. Today, virtually all musicians in Japan can be said to be influenced by Happy End and its members' later works. Japanese punk of the 80s was a natural progression of the movement URC started in the 70s. Hipsters such as Flipper's Guitar and Pizzicato Five styled themselves after the pop sensibility and twisted humor of Hosono and Otaki (Pizzicato Five debuted on Hosono's label, and Cornelius has collaborated with Hosono's latest unit). Even pop idols like Hikaru Utada and Ayumi Hamasaki can't escape from the influence of Happy End; its members virtually created the whole genre as it sounds today. Just typing the members' names in the search field of Amazon Japan turns up anywhere from 40 to 300 works each.

Hosono and Suzuki formed a new band called Caramel Mama, which became band/producer unit Tin Pan Alley. Many star singers of the 70s and 80s such as Yumi Arai (later known as Yumin) and Akiko Yano started with Tin Pan Alley. Hosono went on to found Yellow Magic Orchestra and now puts out works by emerging artists from his own label, as well as releasing new works with fellow ex-YMOer Yukihiro Takahashi as Sketch Show.

Otaki became a solo artist and then a label owner and producer. He also had a side project called Sugarbabe with Tatsuro Yamashita. His solo album Long Vacation (1981) featured the former Happy End members in supporting roles and was a respectable commercial success.

Matsumoto became wildly successful as a lyricist. A list of songs to his credit reads like a greatest hits selection of Japanese pops, and heavy hitters such as Seiko Matuda and Kinki Kids might owe part of their success to his lyrics. Matsumoto also often collaborated with his former band members on their later efforts.

Sketch Show, Haruomi Hosono's latest unit. Their catalogue

Kazemachi Chronicle: a two-disk anthology of music by the members of Happy End from the 70s to the 90s.

HAPPY END PARADE - tribute to Happy End: a compilation of Happy End covers by today's artists such as Spitz, Yasuharu Konishi (Pizzicato Five), Keiichi Sogabe (Sunny Day Service), Original Love (with Jim O'Rourke), My Little Lover and Kururi.