A third something comes from Jamaica.
The fourth album is the self-titled Specials. In terms of genre, it is Ska.
Seikou: After Fleetwood Mac, The Specials are the second foreign band I have seen live. They were supposed to play a show in Japan at Nakano Sunplaza, but they cancelled the show and moved it to a small live house in Shinjuku. In the 80s, there was dub, hip-hop, and ska, and all kinds of music with bouncy beats were running side by side. Sometimes the hip-hop guys became more ska-oriented, and sometimes the other way around, and I personally found the in-between interesting. If you trace the origin of ska music back to Jamaica, I am always on the lookout for a third type of music to emerge from Jamaica (laughs).
The Specials have had an influence on fashion, haven't they?
Seikou: I come from a reggae background, but it's a so-called mod style.
Malcolm McLaren, the fifth one, is also talked about in the context of fashion, and he is also an important figure as a pioneer in hip-hop.
Seikou: Yes, yes.Search for pictures of this guy's funeral. They are so cool.Personally, "Duck Rock" is one of the five greatest albums of the 20th century. This is the kind of stylish hip-hop that young kids today don't know about and that only existed in London. It's a great album with a lot of African music mixed in, and the man who produced the Sex Pistols shifted to the hip-hop side. There is even an episode that Hiroshi Fujiwara was with Malcolm and he called him "TINNIE PUNX" and that's how TINNIE PUNX was born.
Seikou: I've never met him, but I'm still in love with his taste. This album is so stylish that it is not too much to say that it is a transition of the whole 80's. Besides the music, Keith Haring painted the cover art.
Is the sixth record from Japan?
Seikou: This is "Y.O.K.O.H.A.M.A." by George Yanagi & Rainy Wood. Mr. Yanagi was rocking the blues in Japanese. Incidentally, when I was in high school, I was listening to late-night radio and a DJ named Rat Boy introduced two blues songs by Southern All Stars before their debut, and when they came on, I was blown away. The Japanese was totally on the blues. I was like, "When is this guy going to make his debut?" I was waiting and waiting, and then he debuted with a Latin song called "Selfishly Sinbad," and I thought, what a joke (laughs).
So it was Keisuke Kuwata.
Seikou: That's right. When I heard Kuwata's blues songs, I thought he was doing George Yanagi's way of putting words on them. Southern All Stars is an evolution of Kuwata's style, but people tend to forget about George Yanagi's presence. This George Yanagi & Rainy Wood sings about a slightly damp scene, but the Japanese language is beautifully carried by the music, which is a fusion of songs and blues. I think it is unfair that Mr. Yanagi is not appreciated as much as he deserves. I think it's amazing from a historical point of view that the Japanese language is on Western music at this level of perfection, and I feel that if you dig deeper, you will come up with many ideas.
