HOSONO’S JOURNEYS ON THE MUSICAL SAUCER 1

Volume 1 of our Journey’s on the Musical Saucer series with Haruomi Hosono which featured writings on Hosono’s returns to places once encountered during his rich musical career and travels.

Van Dyke Parks: “Don’t give the steel pan to Hosono.”

On October 4, 1972, Haruomi Hosono flew to Los Angeles to record overseas for the first time with his popular 70′s Japanese rock group, Happy End. Back then, it was rare for Japanese musicians to go to LA for recording. The Sunset Studio was the gathering place for the ‘hip’ guys, so after hearing about me Van Dyke Parks came along. He ended up producing “Sayonara America, Sayonara Nippon” for me. He guided us with great wisdom, it was great.

After returning to Japan, Hosono listened to “Discover America,” “I was totally taken in. It was fantastic, especially the Calypso. “Jack Plance,” sung by Mighty Sparrow. You know, the song ends halfway through. It is such a bummer. In those days I was attracted by the music for the soap opera Hollywood films of the 1930′s and 1940′s. When I noticed Van Dyke was already creating such wonderful nuance I realized that we shared the same feeling.”

Hosono was born in 1947, and Van Dyke in 1943, and because Hosono was the first musician to sing rock music in Japanese and Van Dyke collaborated in recording “Good Vibration” by the Beach Boys they were both recognized as members of similar musical circles. Later on, Hosono went back to LA with the Japanese folk singer Wataru Takada.

“We worked very closely with Robert Greenridge, who was a steel pan player, and I sweet talked him into making me a steel pan for $300.” Steel pans are native to Trinidad and Tobago. Hosono purchased a paint pan, which is basically a painted cut-out drum. As soon as he came back to Japan Hosono released his third album “Taian-yoko” and in its title song he is playing the steel pan. “I was really happy, but I understand that Van Dyke didn’t like what he heard. I was told that he got angry and said something like, ‘don’t take American ethnic music instruments out of the United States.’ Nonetheless, I heard that he hung my ‘Tropical Dandy’ album on the wall of his house. I just think we were both curious about each other.”

How could someone think that Caribbean steel pans are a American instrument? “In Japan we had been ‘fantasizing’ about the pans from records for a long time. But in the case of Van Dyke, he had been ‘living’ the pans since his childhood, in the midst of a very international music scene in Hollywood. He was in the show ‘The Swan’ as a child actor, and ‘Calypso’ was a popular show at the time too, so he considered all that as American music.”

In July 1988, Van Dyke Parks came to Japan. Hosono was on stage with him as a bassist for the ‘Discover America Orchestra.’ “He called me to his room. He let me listen to a piece of music on a walkman. It was the music source for his 5th solo album ‘Tokyo Rose,’ which he was still working on. I thought to myself, ‘This lacks craziness’ but told him it was good. He seemed happy and embrassed. He was blushing. I realized at that point for the first time how good a guy he truly was!”

This article originally appeared in Paper Sky Number 6 (New York Urban Green: The City is a Jungle).

Originally, Hosono is from Minato, Tokyo.