TM Network -- Come On Everybody

 

Hello, J-Canuck here. Hope you are enjoying the weekend. Commenter and occasional contributor Fireminer has kindly given us another article...this time, on TM Network. Please enjoy!

Given the breadth of TM Network’s career, it’s certain that Kayo Kyoku Plus won’t run out of material covering them anytime soon. Well, I guess it’s my turn to put another brick in the wall. This is their single “COME ON EVERYBODY” released on November 7, 1988. It came from the album “CAROL ~A DAY IN A GIRL'S LIFE 1991~”, which was released on December 8 of that year.

The first thing you’ve got to give to “COME ON EVERYBODY” is its killer intro. Tetsuya Komuro (小室哲哉) sure loves to make a statement right out of the gate. The song itself is sonically simple, but I want to draw you to the fact that it was recorded and produced at the AIR Studios in London, the United Kingdom. The famous Steve Nye (Fleetwood Mac, Japan, Frank Zappa, etc.) produced this song and the rest of the album.

Komuro’s one-year excursion to Britain is known for its influence on his music, which resembled contemporary Eurodance a lot more. You can hear The Human League in “COME ON EVERYBODY” in particular – though The Human League’s influence on English dance music was so profound that it was hard for anyone not to take after them. Who knows, had Komuro settled in London, I could fully see him composing for artists like Sinitta.

“COME ON EVERYBODY” – alongside with “Self Control” – was latter remixed and used as the background track for the Famicom video game “TM Network: Live in Power Bowl” (TMネットワーク ライブ イン パワーボウル). It’s a bizarre game, with the player travelling from the year 1999 back to December 22, 1989 to prevent an apocalyptic global nuclear war. How will you do that? By making sure TM Network gets to a concert for world peace on Christmas Eve.

Another notable detail about “COME ON EVERYBODY” is that it was performed at the 39th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen as the remix “COME ON EVERYBODY '88 FINAL MEGA-MIX”. It's a pretty fun remix. For the NHK performance the guitarist was Tak Matsumoto (松本 孝弘) of B’z fame, and the drummer was Kaoru Abe (阿部 薫).

The album “CAROL ~A DAY IN A GIRL'S LIFE 1991~” is just simply a fascinating topic that I want to get into at a future date. The short story is that it’s a concept album about a British girl who travelled to another world and defeated the demon king that had stolen every sound there was in daily life. Also come from the album are the singles “Seven Day War” (pretty interesting for a TM Network’s track) and “BEYOND THE TIME ~Beyond the Möbius Universe~” (BEYOND THE TIME (メビウスの宇宙を越えて) (the greatest Gundam song ever made, serving as the ending theme of the cinematic tour de force that is “Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack” (機動戦士ガンダム 逆襲のシャア))./.