Go Go B-T Train

Happy cherry blossom (and tulip) season! The weirdness of the world continues apace, but thank god that never stopped the flowers from blooming. On the one hand, the stuff that's going on right now in Ukraine (and Afghanistan, and many other places) is terrible, and we're also sending our thoughts and prayers to our many friends and readers in Russia - we know you are not your government, that many of you are praying for peace just as much as the rest of us, and that the sanctions are hitting a lot of people who are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time (just like the people who are getting hit by the bombs). We hope all you readers in every part of the world join with us in praying for world peace everywhere. Because really, we are one human family. Can y'all imagine a war between the black cats and the ginger cats? Maine Coon vs. Siamese? Persian vs. Siberian? Bengal vs. Scottish Fold (oh god, we really went too far there, pleez y'alls bless and sanitize us with some of your holy water, for we have sinned...) but seriously this shit is ridiculous. Human beings are human beings are human beings, and your prayers matter. Let's blast a cotton candy sparkle unicorn rainbow of peace so hard across this world that the cherry trees up and decide to bloom an encore for us! (...while in the meantime, secretly eagerly awaiting what kind of trenchant saltiness Mr. Sakurai has in store for us this time, because let's face it, if there's going to be one good thing about yet another stupid, pointless war, it's going to be listening to Mr. Sakurai getting operatically and theatrically Very Very Angry.)

In any case, we beg your apologies on making you wait so long, but spring is doing us a world of good, physically and mentally, and so we are at last pleased to bring you the translations and notes for "Go Go B-T Train" and "Koi." We will be posting them on NOT Greatest Site as soon as we figure out how to revamp it on a new platform to our liking. In the meantime, you can enjoy the translations here on Blog-Tick. If you appreciate our work and would like to support us, please do buy us a Ko-Fi. Also, if you're looking at this on your phone - Blogger's phone interface doesn't support the background and font colors we like to use. For the best visual experience, we recommend that you view this post on your PC. As usual, the English translations of these songs are singable with the original melodies.

Go Go B-T Train

Lyrics: Sakurai Atsushi

Music: Imai Hisashi

And so the dream continues Baby

I'll show you pomp and circumstance

And now the boarding bell is ringing

You, too, get on and come with us

This is a one-way journey only

A beautiful trip

It's time to kiss the earth good-bye

With you, two-lips (1)

Deep in my heart now

Oh light my fire

Run run on B-T Train

Running on love now (2)

Go rumble Baby (3)

Oh fly, my B-T Train

And so the dream continues Baby

La la la off to everywhere

Clickety-click clackety-clack (4)

Over the fields into the dark

Go blow a kiss out 

To the steamwork crescent moon (5)

We'll kiss the Universe good-bye

Tulips with you (1)

Deep in my heart now

Oh light my fire

Run run on B-T Train

Running on love now

Rumble on Baby (3)

Oh fly, my B-T Train

Running on love now

Running on love now

Run run on B-T Train

Rumble on Baby

Go go on Baby (3)

Oh fly, my B-T Train

And so the dream continues baby

La la la off to everywhere

Note on the title: Many long-time Buck-Tick fans probably saw the title of this single and on first blush assumed it was a case of Mr. Sakurai picking up Imai's working title for the demo song and running with it. Not so! Mr. Sakurai was at pains to tell all the magazine interviewers (who also initially assumed that the title had been authored by Imai) that the "Go Go B-T Train" concept was all his own. He said, "I heard the lumber of a train in the demo tape," and further elaborated that he thought very carefully about which words to use, and deliberately settled on "train" rather than the likes of "express," because he wanted to evoke an old-fashioned, clickety-clack, driving through the endless countryside, stopping at every station, we'll get there when we get there kind of feeling, rather than kowtowing to the speed-is-king "innovations" of modern life. He said that writing this song was his re-commitment to taking the project of Buck-Tick as far as it can possibly go, "until it disintegrates into scrap." He went on further, saying "maybe this wording sounds lame, but I don't care." 

Implicit in the train motif is the image of a circus train, carrying the performers from city to city, extending Buck-Tick's long-running Parade metaphor. (For great examples of this trope in action, see the song "Casey Junior" from the Disney film Dumbo (no relation to Cayce Pollard) and Erin Morgenstern's novel The Night Circus.) It feels slightly poetic, if bittersweet, that this re-commitment to the band's creative enterprise came at the exact time that Mr. Imai broke his hip and the planned fall (haha "fall," haha) 2021 tour to support this single had to be cancelled as a result. "The Buck-Tick train broke a wheel and had to stop for repairs," Mr. Sakurai quipped to multiple news outlets. "But we'll keep on chugging as soon as we're able." Every time Mr. Sakurai has stepped up in taking more creative authorship in the band's work, it has resulted in a great leap forward in the band's creative output, so, Imai's pain aside (take care on those goddamn boots, Imai!) maybe this was a blessing in disguise. "Maybe this sounds strange, but it seem that you've become the wholesale promoter of Buck-Tick these days," journalist Ishii Eriko remarked in her interview with Mr. Sakurai in the October 2021 issue of Ongaku to Hito. "I know what you mean," Mr. Sakurai responded. "I felt a little like I was one step below the idea that Buck-Tick=Imai Hisashi. But, from long before now, I've been coming to understand that Imai does Imai, and I do me. In that sense, I feel I'm much more instrumental in promoting the band than I was in the early days."

1) In Japanese, the word "churippu" or "chuurippu" can mean "trip," "two-lips," or "tulip." Sakurai openly stated that he used this wordplay to tie the song together, and I have endeavored to preserve the triple meaning in my translation. Judging from the imagery in the music video, I think we can safely assume that "trip" refers not only to a physical trip, but to a psychedelic or psychological trip. Two-lips obviously refers to a kiss (as is echoed by the tulip imagery and the red lips imagery on the single jacket and in the music video.) 

In flower symbolism, tulips have long been a symbol of perfect, unconditional love in Turkish and Persian folklore, centering around variations on a folktale of the perfect love between Farhad (usually represented as a commoner tradesman, such as a stonecutter), and Shirin (a beautiful woman generally represented as being above Farhad's social station). Various permutations of the tale exist, but most end in tragedy, with red tulips blooming on the site of the lovers' spilled blood, symbolizing their everlasting love for one another. (Side note: wouldn't it be nice to live in a world of "and then they lived happily ever after" instead of "our spilled blood turned to tulips, which are indeed lovely, but, wouldn't it have been nice if we could have stayed alive to enjoy love instead of being martyrs for it?" Just sayin'.) Sakurai used this same trip/tulip wordplay in the lyrics to "Kick ~Daichi wo Keru Otoko~". Underlying the entire metaphor is Sakurai's lifelong thesis statement that life is an endless journey in search of ever-deeper love.

2) The phrase here, "ai wo moyase," literally means "burn love," but Sakurai clarified in the magazine interviews that he means this in the context that the B-T Train runs on by burning the love of the fans as fuel. The burning bouquet of tulips in the music video would seem to suggest an additional interpretation, that love is a trip, and it's better to go for it (burn it) than to hold anything back, because life, whatever we might wish, is always a journey of no return.

3) The word here, 「轟轟」 ("gou gou,") means "rumbling" or "roaring," but Sakurai ties it together as a word play with "go go," evoking the rumble of the B-T Train as it go-goes on over the tracks. I have attempted to preserve the dimensions of this wordplay by altering my translation of the various lines where this phrase appears. Use of the phrase "gou gou" can also be seen in Imai's lyrics to "Igniter," on the album No. 0. There is, of course, also a nice tie-in here with the use of the word "go-go" in relation to nightclub performance, and by extension rock shows, a meaning which Imai has used with relish in his songs with his side project Lucy, "Anaconda a Go-Go" and "Lucifer a Go-Go." (And, by loose extension, Lucy's "Gaga Disco" and Buck-Tick's "Dada Disco," as well as "Les Enfant Terribles.")

4) As mentioned in the note on the title, Sakurai stated to multiple media outlets (Ongaku to Hito, Rock & Read, The Majestic Saturday Night, etc.) that he deliberately used the word "train" rather than "express," in order to evoke a slow, old-fashioned, clickety-clackety train. He stated that the band might not be able to go fast, but they will keep going for as long as they can, "until we turn into a pile of scrap metal." He also waxed poetic to several magazines about his love of train travel, and his desire to get on a train and be whisked away to destinations unknown, stating that the "train," for him, held a romance and promise that the "express" didn't, and he wanted to preserve this in Buck-Tick's music to the very last.

5) This tongue-in-cheek steampunk reference underscores the image of an old-fashioned steam train, as opposed to a state-of-the-art superfast electric train of the kind that are common in Japan. The word here, "jouki jikake," meaning "steam-powered," was also used by Imai in the lyrics to "Once Upon a Time," on the album Arui wa Anarchy, to refer to a steampunk Sphinx. It would appear to be a Buck-Tick in-joke, perhaps a concession to the fact that Sakurai took over this song wholesale from Imai, who is a known steampunk fan.

Go Go B-T Train

作詞：櫻井敦司

作曲：今井寿

夢の続き Oh Baby 派手に魅せてやろう

君も乗りなよ　さあ　発車のベルが鳴る

片道だけの素敵なTRIP

サヨナラネ地球　アナタトチューリップ

この胸に　火を付けて　走れ B-T TRAIN

愛を燃やせ　轟轟 On Baby　飛ばせ B-T TRAIN

夢は続くよ Baby　ランランラン　何処までも

ガタガタ & ゴトゴト　野を越え　闇をゆけ

蒸気仕掛けの　三日月投げキッス

サヨナラネ宇宙　アナタトチューリップ

この胸に　火を付けて　走れ B-T TRAIN

愛を燃やせ　轟轟 On Baby　飛ばせ B-T TRAIN

愛を燃やせ　愛を燃やせ　走れ B-T TRAIN

轟轟 On Baby, Go Go On Baby 飛ばせ B-T TRAIN

夢は続くよ Baby　ランランラン　何処までも

Go Go B-T Train

Lyrics: Sakurai Atsushi

Music: Imai Hisashi

Yume no tsuzuki Oh Baby     hade ni misete yarou

Kimi mo nori na yo     saa     hassha no beru ga naru

Katamichi dake no suteki na TRIP

Sayonara ne chikyuu     anata to chuurippu

Kono mune ni     hi wo tsukete     hashire B-T TRAIN

Ai wo moyase     gougou On Baby     tobase B-T TRAIN

Yume wa tsuzuku yo Baby     ran ran ran     doko made mo

Gatagata & gotogoto     no wo koe     yami wo yuke

Jouki jikake no     mikazuki nage kissu

Sayonara ne uchuu     anata to chuurippu

Kono mune ni     hi wo tsukete     hashire B-T TRAIN

Ai wo moyase     gougou On Baby     tobase B-T TRAIN

Ai wo moyase     ai wo moyase     hashire B-T TRAIN

Gougou On Baby, Go Go On Baby     tobase B-T TRAIN

Yume wa tsuzuku yo Baby     ran ran ran     doko made mo

Love

Lyrics: Sakurai Atsushi

Music: Hoshino Hidehiko

For so long I felt it, you see

I felt it deep within me...

It was somebody who you knew

I knew you (1)

Please, oh won't you show me your face?

Please show me your smile

Oh please, I want you... to call... my name

I burn

With romance (2)

A dream

A fantasy

But now you say it's time to sleep, tired from dancing, ah

From the pure-white tips of your toes, the blood dripping, ah 

You're already climbing the Stairway to Heaven, ooh (3)

And so now I go it alone

Oh I'm all alone now

Out into the new-falling rain

Like everyone

Do you have the courage to go

To walk through the darkness?

I told you that I'm not afraid

I told you... a lie...

I burn

With romance (2)

My dream

Disintegrates

But now you say it's time to sleep, tired from dancing, ah

Out from my circling arms, I feel you slipping, ah

You're already knocking on Heaven's Door, ooh (4)

Dancing, dancing, dancing, you - you are love

Delicate, so delicate like watercolor, my romance (5)

Dancing, dancing, dancing, you - you are love

Delicate, so delicate dissolves my romance (5)

Note on the title: Japanese has two main words for "love," "ai" and "koi." Japanese teachers tend to say that "ai" can mean any kind of love, including cosmic love, familial love, romantic love, and all shades of love in between, while "koi" tends to mean specifically romantic love. When this single was released, various media outlets (such as Ongaku to Hito, Rock & Read, and Chiwaki Mauymi's radio show The Majestic Saturday Night) asked Sakurai what his personal view was on the difference in meaning between "ai" vs. "koi." He said that for him, "ai" was something existential, heart's-blood deep, while "koi" could be something lighter and more innocent. 

He said that in this song, he was trying to capture a feeling of youthful purity, platonic, rather than sexual, and that he was trying to sing the part of a pure, gentle, innocent character. He went on to state that a number of people in his orbit have recently passed away, and while on the one hand he felt it wasn't his place to tread on the grief of others or to overly aestheticize death and grief, he nonetheless made the decision to write these lyrics as a sort of vicarious expression of the grief that the people around him were experiencing. He also stated that it was in part inspired by the yearly summer melancholy he feels in August, around the time of the anniversary of the atomic bombings. 

However, for various reasons, we suspect that this song is in large part about one very specific person. Who it is, we're not at liberty to say. Let's just leave it that it was someone who was very, very close to one of the Buck-Tick members, not Sakurai, also a personal acquaintance of Cayce, and much, much too young to go. Our two cents: this song is a truly beautiful send-up to the memory of the person in question. Sakurai was not overstepping bounds here. He was doing this person a great honor.

Fun fact: Sakurai is the one whistling during the instrumental break. He told Rock & Read that the whistling was originally Director Tanaka's idea, and at first, whistling in the studio made him (Sakurai) so nervous that, in his words, "I went home and practiced so much I made myself sick... my lips were swollen from me licking them too much."

1) This line is ambiguous. Depending on interpretation, it could mean "you knew someone," or "I knew who you were." Sakurai may be evoking the feeling we sometimes get when we meet someone important in our lives, that we already know the person, even though we've only just met - or sometimes, the feeling we get before we meet someone important, a sense of premonition that someone who will be very dear to us in the future is about to walk into our lives.

2) The literal translation of this line is "I burn with love," but I translated it as "romance" instead, in order to underscore the airy, youthful quality Sakurai said he was aiming for with his word choice of "koi."

3) "Stairway to Heaven," released in 1971, is the most famous song by the classic English rock/metal band Led Zeppelin, and widely regarded as one of the most influential rock songs of all time. It's impossible to overstate how enormously influential Led Zeppelin were on Buck-Tick's generation of rock musicians in Japan. Yagami Toll is a particularly enthusiastic Led Zeppelin fan.

4) "Knocking on Heaven's Door" is a song by American singer-songwriter and Nobel Laureate Bob Dylan, originally released in 1973. The song was most famously covered by Eric Clapton and Guns N' Roses, but was also covered by dozens of other well-known artists, including Nick Cave, Patti Smith, Paul Simon, Lana Del Rey, Roger Waters, and Nina Hagen.

5) This line literally means "delicate, delicate, blurring, my love." I translated it the way I did to better evoke the visual quality of the word "nijimu," which implies something wet spreading, oozing, or blurring. Sakurai used the word "nijimu" earlier in the song to describe oozing blood, but "nijimu" is also often used poetically to describe slowly welling tears (or the way that fallen tears can blur writing, pictures, etc.) I chose the word "watercolor" because of the connection with tears, and because I felt it fit with the general light, ethereal atmosphere of the song, and with the band's stage performance of the song at the DIQ 2021, in which Sakurai sang the song wearing a women's furisode juban (under-kimono), as if expressing a lost youth, and the color of the ephemeral cherry blossoms, which bloom and fade so quickly.

恋

作詞：櫻井敦司

作曲：星野英彦

ずっと前から　そう　わたしの中に..

あなたが誰かを　知っている

お顔を見せて　　ねえ　　笑って見せて

私の名前を　　呼ん　で　　欲し　い

恋　　焦がれ　　　夢　　幻

あなたは踊り疲れて　眠る　ああ

真っ白な爪先　血が滲む　ああ

天国への階段　　登ってゆく

ひとりでゆくのさ　ひとりきりだよ

降り出した雨に　誰も

暗闇を歩く　勇気はあるかい

怖くは無いよと　わた　し　　嘘　を

恋　　焦がれ　　　夢　　破れて

あなたは踊り疲れて　眠る　ああ

わたしのこの両手　すり抜ける　ああ

天国への扉を　叩いている

踊る　　踊る　　踊る　　君は　　愛

淡く　　淡く　　滲む　　僕の　　恋

踊る　　踊る　　踊る　　君は　　愛

淡く　　淡く　　滲む　　僕の　　恋

Koi

Lyrics: Sakurai Atsushi

Music: Hoshino Hidehiko

Zutto mae kara     sou     watashi no naka ni...

Anata ga dareka wo     shitteiru

Okao wo misete     nee     waratte misete

Watashi no namae wo     yon   de     hoshii

Koi     kogare     yume     maboroshi

Anata wa odoritsukarete     nemuru     aa

Masshiro na tsumasaki     chi ga nijimu     aa

Tengoku e no kaidan     nobotte yuku

Hitori de yuku no sa     hitorikiri da yo

Furidashita ame ni     dare mo

Kurayami wo aruku     yuuki wa aru kai

Kowaku wa nai yo to     wata  shi     uso     wo

Koi     kogare     yume     yaburete

Anata wa odori tsukarete     nemuru     aa

Watashi no kono ryoute     surinukeru     aa 

Tengoku e no tobira wo     tataiteiru

Odoru     odoru     odoru     kimi wa     ai

Awaku     awaku     nijimu     boku no     koi

Odoru     odoru     odoru     kimi wa     ai

Awaku     awaku     nijimu     boku no     koi

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To all of you who've written to us - thank you so much for your correspondence and support. We will write you back as soon as we are able. More translations and news coming soon.

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