Bringing a Western Beat to Japan

Shonen Knife covers Acca Dacca’s Who Made Who

For some reason, Japanese artists covering Western songs has also held something of a fascination for me.

I’m not really attuned to hit charts, nor really have been.

And music isn’t one of my great loves, though I have an appreciation for pretty much any type of tune.

Perhaps my liking for the out-of-the-ordinary stems from the Aussie DNA, which seems to have a likeness for the novelty song, with national and international No. 1 hits during my lifetime Down Under including the likes of I’ve Been Everywhere, A Pub with No Beer, A Redback on the Toilet Seat, Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport, Rak Off Normie, The Newcastle Song, Farewell, Aunty Jack, C’mon Aussie C’mon, Shaddup You Face and Australiana, and, of course, rockin’ Sister Janet Mead, the Catholic nun who parlayed a funky Lord’s Prayer into becoming a global sensation, to name but a handful. Even AC/DC, Australia’s most successful act in history in terms of record sales, started off as something of a comic band with Angus Young wearing his schoolboy outfit and songs such as The Jack and She’s Got Balls.

Last weekend I fell into a rabbit hole of Japanese artists’ covers of Western songs, which I planned to write up.

Then, as I delved deeper and found out more, I branched out into those covering in Japanese, those in the original language (mostly English) and those mixing two or more languages.

That led down an even deeper hole where my focus got switched to Japanese artists’ covers of Australian artists.

And, typically, now I have run out of time before I can find enough focus to stick to the original topic, so it’s bits and pieces of everything and nothing really clear.

I can at least take solace by being on brand in that regard, anyway!

But if I can manage to consistently update this blog in the future in a way I haven’t been able to for the past nine years, there will be a lot more related matter on this topic.

Beat Crusaders cover Acca Dacca’s Thunderstruck (Unfortunately, the video is only viewable outside of Japan)

If you absolutely want to, you might be able to view the link from inside Japan by clicking here.

Related content: Oz Rock Legend Malcolm Young Dies 　豪ロック伝説的な人マルコム・ヤング氏が死去

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