Ryuichi Sakamoto -- Sweet Revenge（スウィート・リヴェンジ）

 

Currently in the holiday tunnel between Canada Day and America's 4th of July, it's been a rather "stand-by" day in terms of the weather. It looks like something might erupt but it's been holding off for the past few hours. 

I was inspired to give this song by Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）a shot considering what I read in preparation for yesterday's "Kayo Kyoku Plus" article on Kazuhiko Maeda's（前田和彦）"epitone" yesterday. In short, Maeda wasn't a huge fan of The Professor's June 1994 album "Sweet Revenge" and Maeda showed his disappointment by not listening to Sakamoto's radio program for a few years in the late 1990s. I don't have a copy of "Sweet Revenge" but according to J-Wiki (with the original source being a "What's In?" interview), it covers bossa nova and hip-hop, a pretty interesting juxtaposition of genres to say the least. There was one sentence that I was struck by in the article that I was able to translate and it was "It is technically Sakamoto-like, but it is an easy-to-understand work."

Not sure if that was a genuine compliment or a backhanded one, but I am wondering whether Maeda had been disappointed with "Sweet Revenge" on that point. But perhaps I can agree that the Professor's fans may not appreciate watered-down Sakamoto. Anyways, the song here is the title track and it's neither bossa nova nor hip-hop. It's actually more like the easy listening music that I remember Sakamoto recording for the public at large in those 1990s. 

"Sweet Revenge" is an introspective and melancholy piece that had actually been played during part of the ending credits for Bernardo Bertolucci's movie "Little Buddha" from 1993 for which Sakamoto had created the soundtrack. Once again, according to that "What's In?" interview, the composer's initial attempt at the song had Bertolucci stating "Make it sadder!" for which a re-working of it by Sakamoto had the director blurting out "It's too sad! There's no hope in it!". The Professor blew a gasket and the final product was created with the title incorporating some of that revenge against Bertolucci. Not sure whether the director was finally satisfied. I'm good with it, though, despite Maeda's dissatisfaction with the album as a whole.👍

Interestingly enough, within the same J-Wiki article, the origins for the album title of "Sweet Revenge" came from somewhat less frustrated origins. It had initially been suggested to go with "So sweet So radical", inspired by a female staff member in the A&R division of Virgin Records who felt that Sakamoto's bunch of tracks both had sweet and radical elements with the former represented by pop music recorded by singers such as Whitney Houston and the latter represented by rap music. However, The Professor wasn't sure of the alliteration but wanted to keep the basic feeling of that suggestion, so "Sweet Revenge" was born.