Currently Listening To

@soulcompromise , I didn't see it but based on IG story post, I think Dj Dan did a live stream charity set.

 

Oh! He is among my favorites! I will look into it.

@guerillabedlam, I keep not getting notifications when people @ me. What do you think I should do? I think it's broken.

 

It's not working for me either, I did it for the color juxtaposition and the autofill of your screen name. I guess I could've randomly quoted you to alert you or went for an even brighter color on the color picker.

 

Chris de burgh!

 

I'll sail this ship alone - Beautiful South

 

I love Tsugaru Shamisen----I have probably posted about it here before. It is a style of shamisen that was played by bohemian Japanese musicians who wandered around Japan during the Warring States period when the country was embroiled in a samurai civil war. Tsugaru probably refers to the region it came from, but it is also a slang term for opium. Tsugaru shamisen is played hard and fast so it uses thicker strings than the traditional shamisen.

I was introduced to Tsugaru Shamisen by a Japanese hippie friend of mine who was once part of a Japanese performance troupe. This was back when I was living in Japan in the 1980's and found the Japanese rock scene to be too mechanical and lacking any soul. I was amazed at the heart and soul in Tsugaru shamisen and wondered why Japanese rock musicians did not build off of that. Back then it was considered old fashioned and relegated to random samurai films and TV shows. Today it has been rediscovered and numerous musicians are experimenting with it---or I should say, over the last 15 years or so. Thereis one tsugaru shamisen riff that I know the Beatles stole in there song Give Me Money. My guess is that Yoko Ono introduced it to them.

I also love Yoko Nagayama. I would let her carry my baby. Yes, I would bring her to America and keep her in an apartment not far from my house (on the false pretense that I have big recording contracts for her, but they would never materialize and I would just keep her locked in the apartment, as a mistress, pregnant with my child). I'M JOKING! (But man what a fantasy... just look at her!) Back when I lived in Japan I knew her as the sexy but silly J-pop singer that became popular singing a Japanese version of the Pop song, Venus. But about 15 years ago I discovered that she rebuilt her career singing enka with tsugaru shamisen. There are many versions of Yoko singing this song, Jonkara Onnabushi. In some she is accompanied by a shakuhachi (bamboo flute). I love these different versions but unfortunately Sony always seems to pull them, or they disappear with the explanation that there are no rights to play outside of Japan. I always get pissed off. This version has been around for a long time. Hopefully it doesn't get pulled:





It is about a young female musician following some guy that she is infatuated with around Japan playing her tsugaru shamisen as she goes. He doesn't show much love to her, and she wanders the cold winter streets, playing so hard the strings could break, her fingers grow stiff. At one point she sings that spring for her is too far off (which is a double entendre that she hasn't had sex for too long of a time). the song ends with her singing, "I want you."