“It was the first time I had ever felt a sound like that, and the songs were just intense but easy to hum and listen to. I wasn’t able to make such an analysis at the time, but I felt that I had come across something extraordinary.”
> Notes before reading:
➤This chapter is from Kaoru’s first book “Dokugen" released on October 2015. It is placed after Chapter 35 (the last chapter), not part of “Ongaku to Hito” magazine. You can purchase the book 👉here.
➤The title is written in Kanji as “憧人” (Akogareru Hito), which means “The person I admire”. (Actually, I’m not sure if this is how it’s pronounced 😅)
➤I first translated this chapter into Traditional Chinese in 2021, but later I found that there was no English version, so I decided to translate it again into English.
➤The translation is divided into three parts (I didn’t expect it to be so long in English…). This is the first part. 👉 part 2. & part 3.
➤In this part, Kaoru talks about how he got to know the music of X JAPAN (it was called “X” back then), and how much he loved HIDE that he started playing guitar and wanted to form a band.
➤Repost and share are welcome.🙌 This is the first time I have translated so much words into English, so please feel free to correct me if you spot any mistake or any confusing parts😊
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All right, now it’s time to write about this.
As the title says, it’s about someone I’ve admired for a long, loooooooooooong time.
As the title says, it’s about someone I’ve admired for a long, loooooooooooong time.
He is the guitarist of the band, which I first knew in middle school. I’ve written before, the first time I heard of them was recommended by a classmate, who was really into noise music.* At that time, I honestly did not accept the intense sound I had never heard before at all. However, there were a few songs on the album that I liked, and I had those songs dubbed onto tape and listened to them over and over again.
After that, the band’s debut album was released on April 21, a few days after I entered high school. Somehow I ordered the band album that was totally unacceptable when I first heard it and bought it on my way home from school.
As I wrote before, I still vividly remember the first time I heard that album. I went home, sat in front of the radio cassette without taking off my uniform, opened the CD, held the booklet in my hand, and within minutes after I pressed the play button—the word “shock” could not be used to describe what I felt. Then, for about an hour, I fell into a feeling I had never felt before and I couldn’t sit still. I wanted to tell someone how I felt as soon as possible. Despite these thoughts, I couldn’t leave the album behind and ran out, but stayed home and listened to it over and over again from that day on.
Intense and beautiful.
It was the first time I had ever felt a sound like that, and the songs were just intense but easy to hum and listen to. I wasn’t able to make such an analysis at the time, but I felt that I had come across something extraordinary. The visuals, which had only been seen as people in bizarre outfits, even came to seem super cool because of the great songs after I heard the sound, making me want to go to the live concert.
After looking up the magazine, I found out that they were having a live show in Osaka a few days later. The tickets were sold out, but I still wanted to go to the venue. I wanted to feel the atmosphere even a little bit, so I headed to the venue with all my money (5,000 yen). The venue was the former Osaka Kosei Nenkin Kaikan medium hall. There was a park in front of the venue, and I was nervous because there were a lot of people dressed in rocking styles, but not necessarily in cosplay. There were also many people selling scalped tickets, which were highly sought after. Since it was impossible to get a ticket, I went to the stalls that were selling goods. As the time for the show was approaching, the crowd around me was gradually dispersing. I saw some people putting their ears against the wall to listen to the sound leak, so I thought I’d give it a try when the show started, but I found someone who gave me a ticket and I ended up watching the live show!
That live was……………of course, X’s live.
Of course, the guitarist I saw there was HIDE-san.
Seeing HIDE-san at this live changed my life.
Of course, the guitarist I saw there was HIDE-san.
Seeing HIDE-san at this live changed my life.
To be honest, I thought X were monsters when I first saw them. Especially HIDE-san looked like an alien, not a person from this world.
After watching such a live show, I started searching for magazines with X on them. Even when I was at school, I wanted to go home early and listen to X’s songs. I got deeper and deeper into them, wanting to listen to them all the time, wanting to touch X all the time.
Then, I really wanted a Mockingbird, the same guitar HIDE-san had, so I saved up my pocket money and New Year’s money, and then went to a music store in Shinsaibashi Amemura, Osaka. I went to this music store because I had read in a magazine that they had Mockingbird guitars there, but in fact they did not, and I was told to make a reservation. I still wanted one, so I ordered it on the spot, but after that I didn’t hear from them for a while. Six months later, when I thought maybe it had been forgotten, the shipment finally arrived and I got the Mockingbird. I was so happy that I kept touching it.
From there, I watched X’s live performance in Kansai many times, and I also went to the Tokyo Dome live several times. I recorded all the TV shows with X on them; through the help of my friends, I also found and got videos of TV shows outside of Kansai. HIDE-san didn’t look like an alien on TV, he was kind of cute.
I never thought I’d be so addicted to them. There was nothing in my eyes but X and HIDE-san.
At that time, I heard that if you wrote a letter to HIDE-san and sent it with a return postcard, you would receive a reply, so I started writing immediately and sent the letter. I wrote about how I started playing the guitar after seeing HIDE-san, and that I wanted to form a band someday. Then, what a surprise!
A reply came back!!!!!!!!!
A reply came back!!!!!!!!!
(To be continued...)
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> Words from the translator:
When I first listened to X JAPAN’s music, my feelings were similar to what Kaoru described. At the same time, I love HIDE as much as Kaoru does, even though I’m born in a world without HIDE.💗
*About the classmate who recommended noise music to Kaoru, you can read Chapter 2 of Dokugen. Here are two translations by different translators: (tumblr)
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part 2. & part 3.
Repost and share are welcome, please make sure to credit or leave a message down below.👐 Feel free to correct me or discuss. (I'll be editing the content from time to time, so please use the link instead of pasting it directly :){alertWarning}
#讀弦 #translation #Kaoru translation #dokugen #akogareru hito #English post