Last week, there was the news on the death of singer-songwriter Shinji Tanimura（谷村新司）, and now I have to unfortunately report on another departure from this mortal coil of another figure in the Japanese music industry. The announcement was made today on October 24th that the vocalist of the rock band BUCK-TICK, Atsushi Sakurai（櫻井敦司）, had passed away on the 19th from a brainstem hemorrhage during a concert that night. He was 57 years old.
Almost three years ago, I posted an article on BUCK-TICK's first major single "Just One More Kiss" which had been released in October 1988. It would be a little more than a year before their follow-up single "Aku no Hana" (Flowers of Evil) was released in January 1990. Based on "Les Fleurs du mal" by French poet Charles Baudelaire who was apparently a favourite of Sakurai's, the song seems to be the perfect theme for any isolated and angry goth shut-in or a rocking vampire.
Written by Sakurai and composed by guitarist Hisashi Imai（今井寿）, "Aku no Hana" became BUCK-TICK's first and only No. 1 hit although many of their other songs would get into the Top 10, especially in the early to mid 1990s. Selling around 300,000 copies, it would go Platinum and end up as the 52nd-ranked single of 1990. An album also titled "Aku no Hana" was released in February that year which hit No. 1 and became the 20th-ranked album, going Double Platinum.
My condolences go to Sakurai's family, friends and fans. Among the family that he has left behind is his son, Akutagawa Prize-winning author Haruka Tono（遠野遥）.
So tragic and sad... what a great band!
ReplyDeleteYeah, Sakurai was just a few years younger than me. Way too early.
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