Founded in 1982, X-Japan is probably the one and only visual kei band that's ever appealing to me. Till today, those devilishly eccentric looks and rhythms still haunt me: Toshi's voice that both suppresses and reveals disgruntlement and desolation, Yokishi's incredible talents in creation/production, Hide's amazing skills, and the tacit understanding between Pata and Heath that completes the whole band with a torrent of spine-tingling and emotion-surging performance. The most typical presentation: Red.
As for JC and me, it was in the third month we fell for each other. The spring in '98, a couple days after we celebrated my birthday, we were both shocked by Hide's death. As the reunion of the band became more and more of a mission impossible, I also found Toshi's voice gone hoarse, the pitch was not as sharp as before, as if it echoed with the rocky relationship between JC and me. Ten years have passed, even though the mystery of Hide's death would possibly remain a puzzle, JC and I are thrilled for the new album and world tour of the reunited X-Japan.
But anyhow, listening to their songs always makes me feel certain luxurious vibe of life: my stomach taut, my eyes twitched with excess moisture and my heart quivered. It has been the tension and the sad aspersion of how possible I am still entitled to a splurge of wasting my life and time whereas Hide's has ended abruptly.
Spring 2008, X Japan attacked again, without fancy makeups and striking hairdos. In three nights of concerts: Night of Recklessness, Night of Destruction and Night of Creation, Yoshiki presented the song "Without You" which he dedicated to Hide (1964-98). A new song as it may be, my eyes involuntarily turn tearful with Toshi's singing in tremor, accompanied by screams of passionate audiences. Ironically, the death that prompts a live reunited performance and a new creation is also the death that makes me feel alive, along with Yoshiki's new songs and the band's revival.
This particular song, Tears, is among one of my favorites. It is said that Yokishi wrote this song as a (self-cleansing?) gesture of getting over his father's suicide, a tragic find by young Yokishi (at 4) which scarred him for life.
Tears
Artist: X-Japan
Album: Dahlia.
何処に行けばいい 貴方と離れて "Wherever we go is okay,"You said.
今は過ぎ去った時流に問い褂けて Now what may have been has been stopped by time.
長すぎた夜に 旅立ちを夢見た On that night that was too long, I had a dream where you left me.
異國の空見つめて 孤獨を抱きしめて Staring at a foreign sky, I hugged my loneliness.
流れる淚を 時代の風に重ねて My fallen tears are piling up on the winds of time.
終わらない貴方の 吐息を感じて At the end, I feel your breath.
DRY YOUR TEARS WITH LOVE
DRY YOUR TEARS WITH LOVE
Loneliness your silent whisper
Fills a river of tears through the night
Memory you never let me cry
And you,You never say GOOD-BYE
Sometimes our tears blinded the love
We lost our dreams along the way
But I never thought you'd trade your soul to the fates
Never thought you'd leave me alone
Time through the rain has set me free
Sands of time will keep your memory
Love ever lasting fades away
Alive within your beatless heart
DRY YOUR TEARS WITH LOVE
DRY YOUR TEARS WITH LOVE
流れる淚を 時代の風に重ねて My fallen tears, are piling up on the winds of time.
終わらない悲しみを 青い薔薇に変えて This feeling at the end, makes my blue rose change.
DRY YOUR TEARS WITH LOVE
DRY YOUR TEARS WITH LOVE
流れる淚を 時代の風に重ねて
終わらない貴方の 吐息を感じて
DRY YOUR TEARS WITH LOVE
DRY YOUR TEARS WITH LOVE
DRY YOUR TEARS WITH LOVE
DRY YOUR TEARS
English Translation: Shiraishi Mayumi
Were I not to be rid of death, let me feel the vibe in tears or in laughters. Thus I pray.