I'll never trade anything for my many years in Japan. It was a fun and educational experience and adventure. But at the same time, I have to admit that there were some things that I missed out on, and one of them was "The Late Late Show" with Craig Ferguson. His brand of sudden inspired lunacy was my type of humour and I learned that he had at least some affinity with the legendary German band Kraftwerk, as you can see at 56 seconds of the above video.
Craig and his skeletal buddy traded some Kraftwerk songs' lyrics including "She's a model and she's looking good" which I found out originated from "Das Model", a track from their September 1978 album "The Man-Machine". Man, do I love that Micromoog and Polymoog. It's so Kraftwerkian, hypnotic, glacial and crystalline! Just watching the performance by the guys makes me think that they've just out-sprocketed "Sprockets"!
A couple of years later, in February 1980, Japanese technopop band Hikashu（ヒカシュー）provided a cover of "Das Model" called "Model"（モデル）via their debut album "Hikashu" with leader Koichi Makigami（巻上公一）providing the Japanese lyrics. The synthesizers are there but there is also a layer of twangy guitar which adds the New Wave aspect. Makigami's delivery has that certain holy and haunting quality.
Hikashu's cover is great! It is just impactful and spooky as the original. The serious faces of all performers also add to the atmosphere.
ReplyDeleteI think that was the de rigueur expression on a lot of those New Wave faces on both sides of the Pacific.
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