Happy End - Kazemachi Roman (1971/2023) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

Kazemachi Roman (Japanese: 風街ろまん, Hepburn: Kazemachi Roman, literally "Wind City Romance") is the second album by Japanese folk rock band Happy End, released on URC Records in 1971. In this concept album, Happy End attempted to paint a musical picture of Tokyo before the 1964 Summer Olympics, through which sweeping changes transformed the city forever.

OK Music's Naoto Kawasaki notes how Eiichi Ohtaki and Shigeru Suzuki did not contribute to "Kaze wo Atsumete", with Haruomi Hosono playing the bass, guitar and organ and providing its vocals while Takashi Matsumoto plays the drums. Suzuki is also absent from "Kurayamizaka Musasabi Henge", which Kawasaki felt was inspired by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

Bannai Tarao, a fictional detective who has appeared in many Japanese crime thrillers, is credited on several of the album's songs. Ohtaki even opens "Haikara Hakuchi" by saying, in English, "Hi, this is Bannai Tarao. Haikara (lit. "High-collar" or "Western fashion") is… Beautiful." This song was the B-side to Happy End's single "Juuni Gatsu no Ame no hi" off their first album, though this album version is different.

Matsumoto thought "Hana Ichi Monme" was a representative song of Happy End, and it was released as a single. Its B-side was "Natsu Nandesu", which Ben Sisario of The New York Times described in 2017 as having "echoes of Neil Young."

Kawasaki believes the ending of "Haru Ranman", with its uncredited banjo, mimics the end of Buffalo Springfield's 1967 song "Bluebird".

"Aiueo", the album's last song, is a 30-second fragment in which Ohtaki sings the gojūon, accompanied only by his acoustic guitar. The song's title is a pun: "aiueo" is the order of pronunciation in Japanese, while ai ue (愛飢え) translates as "love hunger".

TRACKLIST

1. Happy End - Dakishimetai
2. Happy End - Sorairo no Kureyon
3. Happy End - Kaze Wo Atsumete
4. Happy End - Kurayami-zaka Musasabi Henge
5. Happy End - Haikarahakuchi
6. Happy End - Haikara Byuuchifuru
7. Happy End - Natsunandesu
8. Happy End - Hanaichimonme
9. Happy End - Ashita Tenki ni naare
10. Happy End - Taifuu
11. Happy End - Haru Ranman
12. Happy End - Aiuewo



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