Mr. Children -- Everybody Goes

I used to remember the CG official music video that went with Mr. Children's 7th single, "Everybody Goes" along with the hurried rock beat of the song and Kazutoshi Sakurai's（桜井和寿）repeated "Everybody goes, everybody fights" without getting too deep into the lyrics. But getting into them now, it was obvious that Sakurai, who had also provided them, was making his statement on life in contemporary Japan.

The subtitle that goes with the song is "Chitsujo no Nai Gendai ni Drop Kick"（秩序のない現代にドロップキック）that can be translated as The Drop Kick to the Chaotic Generation of Today. Sakurai sings of the typically harried company man from the boonies who is giving his usual 9-to-9 (or more) to the corporate machine, and then leaps forward in time to give that warning about what his wayward daughter may be up to. After years of watching news on topics such as enjo kosai and karoshi, I've gotten the impression that Mr. Children may have been keeping their collective eyes on the news as well. Certainly another image I got from listening to the song is seeing all those working people running around Tokyo like ants searching for that sugar pile.

"Everybody Goes" was released in December 1994. It hit No. 1 on Oricon and managed to sell over a million copies, and becoming the 21st-ranked single for 1995. It is also a track on the band's 6th album, "BOLERO" which came out in March 1997. The album also was a No. 1 for Mr. Children and became the 2nd-most successful release of the year, selling about 3 million copies. Sakurai also composed the music with help from producer Takeshi Kobayashi（小林武史）. Kobayashi launched his own band, My Little Lover, in 1995, and the lead vocalist, Akko, was part of the backing vocals for "Everybody Goes".

The song was to have been the coupling song for previous hit "Tomorrow Never Knows", but the buzz around "Everybody Goes" was so good that it was hastily made into its own single. Fine decision.

Shibuya Crossing
It's where everybody goes!