Don't Break the Heart of a Poetic Genius

It's a BAD Idea!

I know this is a little off track for me, but sometimes you write the story and sometimes the story jumps up, hits you in the head and delivers an ultimatum.

This is the latter.

I have been putting some different types of music to my weekly Open Track Alliance Posts to show some of the diversity in America and it's musical tastes.

This week I chose Sukiyaki. I have always liked that song. Don't understand it, but I like it. It came out when I was about 12 years old.

I never gave the meaning of the words much thought until a Russian friend asked a question and that got me in my investigative mood. ;-)

Now you talk about a STORY? This one has it all.

Sakamoto, Kyu "Kyu-chan" - b. November 10, 1941. d. August 12, 1985.
Internationally acclaimed singer. Sakamoto made his show business debut in 1960. His biggest hit, Ue o Muite Aruko (I Look Up When I Walk; "Sukiyaki" in the West), was released in Japan in 1961. After its release in the U.S. in 1963, the song's earnestness and melodic beauty proved irresistible despite its incomprehensible lyrics. Against all odds, on June 15, 1963, the song ousted Leslie Gore's "It's My Party" to become the No. 1 popular song in the U.S. "Sukiyaki" remains the biggest international hit by a Japanese popular singer. Credit for the song's popularity also is due to the music by Hachidai Nakamura and the lyrics by Rokusuke Ei, who is said to have written this touching evocation of loneliness after his heart was broken by the actress Meiko Nakamura. Sakamoto also recorded such popular songs as "Shiawase Nara Te o Tatako" and "Miagete Goran Sora no Hoshi o." Tragically, he was killed when JAL Flight 123, a 747 bound from Haneda Airport in Tokyo to Osaka, lost pieces of its tail sections and spiraled downward nightmarishly for 30 minutes (long enough for some passengers to scribble shaky farewells to their families). The plane crashed and burned on a thickly wooded mountain about 60 miles northwest of Tokyo, killing 520 and injuring four, in the worst single airplane disaster in aviation history. Sakamoto's songs remain popular in Japan and overseas. "A Taste of Honey" and "4PM" are among the performers who have subsequently released their own renditions of "Sukiyaki."


Boys and Girls have been breaking up and getting their hearts broken ever since Eve figured out the "Forbidden Fruit" wasn't really the apple.


Most times in the words of Maxims of Hafiz

Blister we not for bursati? So when the heart is vexed, (is not)
The pain of one maiden’s refusal is drowned in the pain of the next.

But in this case the young man did not pick himself up, dust himself off and go get his heart broken by yet one more pretty face.

Oh no, THIS boy wrote a song that was to become the Number One International Hit by a Japanese Singing Artist of ALL Time.

I mean can you just picture the pathos for the poor girl?

She was a actress, possibly with some fame and notoriety of her own.

Now will she be remembered for any professional accomplishments she might have?

Not a chance!

Posterity will remember her as the Woman who BROKE THE HEART of Rokusuke Ei.


I mean just go the the website with the link above!

The click on the MP3s Link to see what I mean.

This song has been recorded by everyone from Bob Dylan to Chet ATKINS!

Selena, the Ventures, Taste of Honey.

You cannot get a broader spread of musical tastes than that friends.

No the poor girl is doomed whether she deserved or not.

Now there is----

"La Belle Dame Sans Merci", by John Keats

The Vampire by Rudyard Kipling

and Meiko Nakamura in Sukiyaki (Ue o Muite Aruko) the woman who broke the heart of Rokusuke Ei.

In the Pantheon of Hard Hearted Cruel Women.

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