Happy End (1973 album)

Happy End
Studio album by Happy End
Released February 25, 1973
Recorded October 6 – 19, 1972
Studio Sunset Sound Studios, Los Angeles, California
Genre Folk rock
Length 29:41
Label Bellwood Records
Producer Happy End, Van Dyke Parks
Happy End chronology
Kazemachi Roman
(1971)		 Happy End
(1973)
Singles from Happy End
  1. "Sayonara America, Sayonara Nippon"
    Released: February 25, 1973

Happy End is the third[1] and final album by Japanese folk rock band Happy End. It was produced by Van Dyke Parks and features Lowell George and Bill Payne of the band Little Feat as session musicians.

Background and recording

The album was recorded at Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles in late 1972. Van Dyke Parks, known for his collaborations with Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys, produced the album. In 2013, Parks stated that the band walked in unannounced while he and Lowell George were working on "Sailin' Shoes" and asked him to give them the "California Sound". He initially refused saying he was busy with sessions for his own album Discover America, but accepted when George noticed a suitcase full of new one hundred-dollar bills with Happy End's manager.[2]

Although Haruomi Hosono later described the work with Parks as "productive," the album sessions were tenuous, and the members of Happy End were disenchanted with their vision of America they had anticipated.[3] A language barrier along with opposition between the Los Angeles studio personnel and the band was also apparent, which further frustrated the group.[4] Eiichi Ohtaki recalled that Parks was drunk during production and tried to lecture them about Pearl Harbor and World War II.[5] These feelings were conveyed in the closing track "Sayonara America, Sayonara Nippon" (さよならアメリカ　さよならニッポン, "Goodbye America, Goodbye Japan"), which received some contributions from Parks and George.[2] As Takashi Matsumoto explained: "We had already given up on Japan, and with [that song], we were saying bye-bye to America too—we weren't going to belong to any place."[3]

Happy End officially disbanded on December 31, 1972, two months before the album was released on February 25, 1973.[6]

In 1974, Shigeru Suzuki returned to Los Angeles to record his first solo album Band Wagon and once again worked with Lowell George, Bill Payne, Dick Hyde and Kirby Johnson.

Track listing

Side 1
No. TitleLyricsMusic Length
1. "Fuuraibou" (風来坊, "Wanderer")Haruomi HasonoHaruomi Hasono 3:31
2. "Hisamezuki no Sukecchi" (氷雨月のスケッチ, "A Sketch of 'Ice Storm Month'")Takashi MatsumotoShigeru Suzuki 3:05
3. "Ashita Atari wa Kitto Haru" (明日あたりはきっと春, "It Will Surely Be Spring Tomorrow")Takashi MatsumotoShigeru Suzuki 4:00
4. "Mukazejoutai" (無風状態, "No Wind")Haruomi Hosono, "parrot" lyric inspiration by Takashi MatsumotoHaruomi Hosono 3:18
Side 2
No. TitleLyricsMusic Length
5. "Sayonara Toori San Chiban" (さよなら通り３番地, "Goodbye No. 3 (Street Address)")Takashi MatsumotoShigeru Suzuki 3:13
6. "Aiaigasa" (相合傘, "Sharing An Umbrella")Haruomi HasonoHaruomi Hosono 3:05
7. "Inakamichi" (田舎道, "Country Road")Takashi MatsumotoEiichi Ohtaki 2:39
8. "Soto wa ii Tenki" (外はいい天気, "It's Nice Out")Takashi MatsumotoEiichi Ohtaki 2:18
9. "Sayonara America, Sayonara Nippon" (さよならアメリカ　さよならニッポン, "Goodbye America, Goodbye Japan")Happy EndHappy End, Van Dyke Parks 4:33

Personnel

Happy End

Session musicians and production staff

References

  1. ↑ their first album is also entitled Happy End but written in Japanese (はっぴいえんど)
  2. 1 2 Limnious, Michalis (2013-05-22). "Versalite artist Van Dyke Parks talks about the Beats, Horatius, Sinatra, Pythagoras, Ry Cooder; and 60s". Blues.gr. Retrieved 2016-01-05.
  3. 1 2 Bourdaghs, Michael K. (2011-10-18). Sayonara Amerika, Sayonara Nippon: A Geopolitical Prehistory of J-Pop. Columbia University Press. pp. 176–177. ISBN 978-0-231-53026-2. Retrieved 2013-08-18.
  4. ↑ Hayward, Philip (1999). Widening the Horizon: Exoticism in Post-War Popular Music. John Libbey Publishing. p. 120. ISBN 978-1-86462-047-4.
  5. ↑ "MUSICIAN FILE 大滝詠一徹底研究II (Eiichi Ohtaki in depth II)", ミュージック・ステディ (Music Steady), 15 May 1984, pp. 43–76
  6. ↑ "Top 100 Japanese pops Artists - No.4". HMV Japan (in Japanese). Retrieved 2016-01-06.
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