Between releasing mystical pentacle-inscribed original guitar models, designing a line of skater clothes for Buck-Tick sk8trfanbois, amd making sexyfaces at shrieking fangirls during his "Mermaid" guitar solos, Hide seems to be really busting out of his shy awkward guy mold lately and putting on the rock-star trousers full time. It seems that the heat is now officially on in the who-has-the-biggest muscles contest between Sakurai and Imai, so perhaps we can look forward to Hide joining in (though here on Blog-Tick we're rooting for Team Yutaka.)
In the meantime, here's a list of every Buck-Tick song Hide has ever written, in chronological order, beginning with "Desperate Girl," the earliest Buck-Tick song credited to Hide, that incidentally is a track off Buck-Tick's third album, Seventh Heaven. However we can see, as we scroll down the list, that Hide may be a late bloomer but what he lacks in crazy fangirls who don't have bob haircuts or wear librarian glasses, he makes up for in fantastic pop ballads, two-chord acoustic guitar style.
Desperate Girl - a song about crazy fangirls!
Feast of Demoralization - this one has lyrics by Yagami Toll!!!
Pleasure Land - Hide even wrote the lyrics to this one. The first Buck-Tick song with lyrics by Hide, and Hide's first major epic fail. Sorry, fans.
Dizzy Moon - Featuring Toll's best lyrics ever. In his pain boozy style.
Sabbat - only one of Buck-Tick's best PVs ever...watch it now.
Narcissus - Wonderful interplay between the guitars, wonderful catchy melody. Now just imagine if Hide had written those lyrics.
"Just like this, all by myself
I am kissing the body reflecting at me in the looking glass
The only one that I love
Is myself, just myself
Ah naked alone I am dancing"
Henshin (Reborn) - Hoshino Hidehiko's a yowling wolf! You have to watch the Satellite Circuit live video of this song to fully appreciate the meaning behind the backup vocals.
Angelfish - There's something fishy about this one.
Jupiter - "Jupiter" is incidentally also the name of Hoshino Hidehiko's Mexican wrestler alter-ego.
Yuuwaku - The sax for you is actually guitar synth for you.
Dress - Without this song, there would be no BT fangirls, would there? Yemitza from Venezuela, I'm talking to you. FYI Hide's keeping a low profile here on the synth strings.
Rokugatsu no Okinawa - "Hide's blackest moment," according to a black Jamaican guitar player friend of mine. Exiled to the status of b-side. Exalted to the status of permanent set list fixture when Buck-Tick plays in Okinawa. In the future, to be rearranged for the Hoshino Hidehiko reggae band.
Kimi e - The inspiration for the anime Wolf's Rain. Probably.
Rakuen - The song with which Hide beat Imai at their "let's piss off conservative Muslims and force them to re-issue our CD case in a different color" game.
Hosoi Sen - Sakurai stole this one from Hide and ran away cackling in a voice like a subwoofer.
Misshitsu - Another two-chord clean guitar dreamy love ballad Hoshino classic. The PV for this one contains two of the weirdest trends in Buck-Tick PVs: Sakurai thrashing around while tied up on the floor, and Sakurai's face projected over Sakurai's face. Hide, however, never lost his cool.
Chocolate - It's about drugs, kids. "Chocolate." In the rest room. The chocolate in Lizard Skin Shojo was drugs, too.
IN - The most laughably blatant sexual song title Buck-Tick has ever chosen. At least they had the sense to censor "Kimi no Vanilla."
Rasenchuu - This one was about drugs too!!!!!111
Chouchou - The gateway to Hide's industrial club music period.
My Baby Japanese - The epitome of Hide's industrial club music period. AND THEY STILL WON'T PLAY IT LIVE.
Asylum Garden - If you've never heard this song before, listen to it. Buck-Tick doesn't get better than this.
Miu - In three sweet acoustic 12-string chords, Hide's guitar tells the whole sad ballad of how Imai and his Higuchi henchmen caught the soul of Sakurai Atsushi in a camera and projected his face all over himself till his organs fell out of a suitcase and he went to a white and windy heaven place and sang a song. And Hide lived to tell the tale. And set everything on fire. In fact, Buck-Tick won an award for this PV.
Trans - Two more sweet acoustic guitar chords to send you on the galaxy express over the moon.
Death wish - Underrated, yet amazingly catchy. Listen to that bassline, and strange jumpy drum rhythm.
Megami - If you don't cry when you hear it, you're not yet old enough to be a Buck-Tick fan. Two more acoustic guitar chords to make you cry.
Barairo no Hibi - Catchy, catchy pop.
Shanikusai Carnival - Hoshino Hidehiko successfully forces Sakurai to learn to sing in falsetto.
Brilliant - The day Hide became a Koenji hipster. FYI, if you are a hipster planning on visiting Japan, definitely visit Koenji.
Gensou no Hana - The Hide acoustic ballad to end all Hide acoustic ballads.
Black Cherry - Buck-Tick's first song with the lyrics partially credited to Hide. Which part of the lyrics are Hide's remains a mystery, but I'm betting on the title, and the line "eating it like a dog lost in ecstasy."
Monster - This song is about getting high on cocaine. It's also an excellent demonstration of Imai's live synth samples.
Cabaret - Hide inspires Sakurai to take on a female persona.
Ijin no Yoru - Hide inspires Yutaka to slap dat bass.
Passion - The best song on the whole album. There. I said it. No, it wasn't Muma.
Utsusemi - The best part of this song is those bells at the very end.
La Vie en Rose - Listen to those guitar chords!
Cream Soda - Fun fact: for some reason the lyrics page for this song was the most-visited page on NGS for a matter of months.
Snow white - A song about getting high. Notes. As in, Hide forces Sakurai into falsetto once again.
Katte ni Shiyagare - Hide does The Doors. And learns how to sing backup vocals at last.
Message - Hide epically fails.
Motel 13 - Hide does Hendrix.
Voo Doo - Yes, Buck-Tick has played this song live. It sizzled like steak sauce.
Kyouki no Deadheat - Hide and Cube Juice team up for Buck-Tick's most unforgettable synth-organ video game theme song ever. Incidentally, a friend of Blog-Tick thought this song was entitled "Kyouki no Deadbeat" at the time of its first release.
Yougetsu - Hide's best song, and the pinnacle of all his life achievements. The single version, not the album version. Two more sweet chords!
Pixy - Hide does Goldfrapp and jungle pop. Whoo! Hah!
Mugen - Hide does Gackt, and fails.
Yumeji - Hide does Hide, and pwns. PWN HIDE PWN. (For extra credit, find me a screencap to pair with that caption.)
Mermaid - Hide does sex on the beach, and gains a lot of new fangirls. Seriously, kids, keep an eye on this guy...he's on fire.
This concludes my Hide special for today, but if he makes any maverick moves, I'll keep you posted. In the meantime you can buy his new crystal star necklace which is now being sold by custom order on Buck-Tick's website. If you have 15000 yen to burn.
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...Yemitza and Cindy from Venezuela- I never thought you would ever mention Yemitza somewhere this way xp.
ReplyDeleteBut why do you think "Passion" is better than "Muma",which is such a hell-feeling, hot song? I guess in Passion everyone was just envious of Becky ;-D
Great summary, had to laugh a lot again,thanks!
@ Juli - Passion is just a more interesting song than Muma, which is one of Buck-Tick's most repetitive, pedestrian, forgettable works. If Muma had been recorded by Ke$ha it would be playing on top ten radio right now. Ditto Hamushi no You ni but that's neither here nor there.
ReplyDeleteI agree about Muma. Structure wise, its the same chorus over and over again. Its insane. But the chorus feels pretty strong though. Ye, Hide wrote some of B-T's best songs. Dress, My Baby Japanese, Rakuen, Yougetsu etc. I thought Mugen was pretty okay for a upbeat song..
ReplyDeleteHide-san's songs are by far my faves, at least they are my faves to cry by, unless it's one of his sexy/rough ones which make me dance and lift up my shirt alone in my mirror, lol. TMI!!! I disagree about Message and Mugen. Message may sound sorta schmaltzy, but I thought it worked well the subject matter. And who couldn't love a song about a "symphony of love" or waving from kanata? I, for one, certainly felt "all that space."
ReplyDelete~ ~ *waves from Kanata!*
Okay...Hide rocks! Loves 95% of those songs. Utsusemi, rokugatsu, passion, ....le sigh.
ReplyDeleteThis entry made my day.<3 I don't get why Death Wish doesn't get enough love; it's Brilliant! Ditto at Passion and yess, Mugen is fail(anything reminding gackt even remotely is fail, let's be real).
ReplyDeleteYup. Hide has written most of my favourite B-T songs. I can never resist his ballads (no, not even Message. Ridiculously sentimental as it may be, I still really enjoy it.)
ReplyDeleteJupiter
Yuuwaku
Dress
Rakuen
Miu - (Probably my no.1 favourite B-T song of all time.)
Trans
Barairo no Hibi
Brilliant - (This was the first B-T song to make me cry. o.O)
Gensou no Hana
Black Cherry - (Definitely one of their sexiest songs, in my opinion.)
Cabaret
Utsusemi
Cream Soda
Snow White
Katte ni Shiyagare
Kyouki no Deadheat
Mermaid
Mugen - (Yes, really. So sue me. *laugh*)
OOooh, I adore Sabbat PV. It's weird at first, but the sight of Sakurai running with his hair flying behind him....*sigh*. Thank you for this post, just make a playlist of Hide's song based on this post, lacking only Yumeji and Mermaid. Oh,one more, your description of Miu PV is the most spot on description I'd ever read anywhere on the internet. Suddenly the PV makes sense, of course in a very humorous way. You and your humor are truly brilliant.
ReplyDeleteWhy didn't I read this before? lol My love goes for Hide. He wrote most of my fave songs by far. :D
ReplyDelete...AND Passion was my fave out of the album also. ^^