V04-T11 Paper Balloon Bomb

.....Most volumes in this compilation series include cover songs and every other one (or thereabouts) may have a non-English cover of an English language original. This is the rare occasion of a foreign language original.

Volume 4: "THE LITTLE BROWN ONES ARE THORAZINE, GEORGE", track 11

• 02:59 "PAPER BALLOON BOMB (Junnosuke Kawaguchi, Hiroto Kohmoto)
• performed by The Blue Hearts
• original source: LP TRAIN TRAIN Meldac Records MEL-50 (Japan) November 23, 1988
• and my source: CD BLAST OFF! Juggler Records JTD-2 (US) 1991

.....I'm going to default to my original 1994 liner notes for this one:

....."I don't know if Blue Hearts are supposed to be any relation to Purple Hearts, a pill of choice among British mods in the 1960's, but the band seems to understand the value of properly abused amphetamines.

....." Japanese pop music generally is almost the worst in the world. (Indian pop beats it, at least.) Most of the charting acts are openly groomed, corporate-sponsored 'idols', their careers laid down in print before they've even touched an instrument or used a microphone. Typically, the Japanese think nothing of this. No one even bothers pretending that musical prowess enters into the equation. The Blue Hearts are a glorious exception. Other tracks show they've spent a lot of time listening to the Ramones. That's a sure mark of someone who has learned to play by trial and error (the best way, really). The CD comes with lyrics in Japanese and English, so if you're really interested in a translation it's no problem.

....."The only other release from Juggler Records that I could find was JTD-1, a six song compilation of Blue Hearts' singles. Both of these CD's are in the cut-out bins, but make great listening despite the language barrier."

.....Okay, it's 2011 again. After 17 years, some updating is in order.

1. J-pop is still around, of course, but while Japanese radio may still sound like the second half of any given season of American Idol played at the wrong speed, the internet has given the beleaguered Japanese public so many other choices that it's debatable if even half the population has even heard this year's domestic top ten. And Indian pop has improved considerably, mostly in the last decade.
2. The two principles in The Blue Hearts dissolved the group a little more than a year after I made this compilation, then formed High-Low. In the past decade they reorganized again as Cro-Magnon, at least according to Wikipedia.
3. For the moment, the offer stands regarding the lyrics. I recently confirmed that I still have the same copy of the CD.
4. I still haven't found any other titles on the Juggler label.

.....In the next entry, punk by way of Sun Ra.