- Lyrics & Music: Kazuya Yoshii
- Arrangement: The Yellow Monkey
Original Lyrics
砂時計の悪戯を 手品みたいに呼び戻して
飾りたてた骸骨とラスト・ダンスを
世界中が快楽と狂気の間を行ったり来たり
最後に試行錯誤の愛撫を散りばめながら
破壊されて灰だけのユニヴァース
残されたステージの上で君と水玉のメイク・ラブ
Ah Move on, just one night paradise…
Sally, I love you 真珠色の革命を残し Pearl light songs
Sally, I love you 死神の彫刻を壊し Pearl light songs
アスファルトに刺した忘却の注射器を
君が抜きとる 脱落天使の胸騒ぎ
刻まれてるゴージャスなハプニング
穴のあいたスクリーンの中で君と血まみれのディープ・キス
Break down, just a killing paradise!
Sally, I love you 泣き笑いのロード・ショウ見つめ Pearl light songs
Sally, I love you こなごなに崩れた Remember!
淋しがりは激しいジョークを欲しがるのさ
君は素敵
空の上で始まるオーケストラ
Paradise…
Sally, I love you 真珠色の革命を残し Pearl light songs
Sally, I love you プライドがオペラを歌う Pearl light songs
Sally, I love you Sally, I love you
I remember……
Oh I remember
Sally, I love you Sally, I love you
I remember……
Oh I remember
Ah, change’s coming, change’s coming…
Romanized Lyrics
suna dokei no itazura wo tejina mitai ni yobimodoshite
kazaritateta gaikotsu to last dance wo
sekai juu ga kairaku to kyouki no aida wo ittari kitari
saigo ni shikou sakugo no aibu wo chiribame nagara
hakai sarete hai dake no universe
nokosareta stage no ue de kimi to mizutama no make love
Ah Move on, just one night paradise…
Sally, I love you shinjuiro no kakumei wo nokoshi Pearl light songs
Sally, I love you shinigami no choukoku wo kowashi Pearl light songs
asphalt ni sashita boukyaku no chuushaki wo
kimi ga nukitoru datsuraku tenshi no mune sawagi
kizamareteru georgeous na happening
ana no aita screen no naka de kimi to chimamire no deep kiss
Break down, just a killing paradise!
Sally, I love you nakiwarai no road show mitsume Pearl light songs
Sally, I love you konagona ni kuzureta Remember!
samishigari wa hageshii joke wo hoshigaru no sa
kimi wa suteki
sora no ue de hajimaru orchestra
Paradise…
Sally, I love you shinjuiro no kakumei wo nokoshi Pearl light songs
Sally, I love you pride ga opera wo utau Pearl light songs
Sally, I love you Sally, I love you
I remember……
Oh I remember
Sally, I love you Sally, I love you
I remember……
Oh I remember
Ah, change’s coming, change’s coming…
Translated Lyrics
Taking back all of the tricks played by the hourglass, like magic
I have one last dance with a decked out skeleton
The whole world is going back and forth between pleasure and madness
As they stud themselves with the caress of trial and error, in the end
In a broken universe that’s nothing but ash
I make a polka dotted love with you on stage, the only thing that’s left
Ah move on, just one night paradise…
Sally, I love you; Pearl light songs, leaving behind a pearl light of revolution
Sally, I love you; Pearl light songs, breaking apart a sculpture of The Reaper
You pull out the syringe of oblivion that
Pierces the asphalt, with the uneasiness of a fallen angel
These georgeous happenings are being etched into history
Sharing a bloody and deep kiss with you in a screen full of holes
Break down, just a killing paradise!
Sally, I love you; Pearl light songs, gazing at a road show of smiles and tears
Sally, I love you; It’s all broken into tiny pieces, remember!
Lonely people are the ones who want violent jokes
You’re so wonderful
An orchestra starts playing high above the clouds
Paradise…
Sally, I love you; Pearl light songs, leaving behind a pearl light of revolution
Sally, I love you; Pearl light songs, pride sings them as an opera
Sally, I love you, Sally, I love you
I remember……
Oh I remember
Sally, I love you Sally, I love you
I remember……
Oh I remember
Ah, change’s coming, change’s coming…
Notes
This song’s full title is “真珠色の革命時代(Pearl Light Of Revolution)” (“shinuiro no kakumei jidai”), which translates more directly into “Pearl Colored Revolution”. “Pearl Light Of Revolution” is a much better choice!
This became one of the band’s early flagship songs, despite not being a single, and I think it’s obvious why. This song works in just about every way a ballad can work, and has The Yellow Monkey’s signature all over it. I praised This Is For You for the simplicity and emotion in its writing, depicting a series of vignettes that told pieces of a story. This represents the opposite but just as strong and remarkable side of Yoshii’s writing, that he’s become so well known for: Heavy levels of abstraction and obscurity that make for fantastically poetic lyrics. Though we’ll see better examples of this later, this is incredibly good for so early in his career. Sure it has some slightly odd English in it, but it works in general since it’s just used as accents throughout the song. And as far as I know, Yoshii has never gone on record to say who “Sally” is, if she’s even a real person at all. My guess is that he just liked how the name sounded.
Unlike most of the songs on this album so far, I don’t really think that Pearl Light of Revolution is about anything in particular, but rather it was written to create an atmosphere and a feeling. Yoshii mentioned in an interview that he wrote this when they were going through the process of being signed to their first major record label, and it was full of feelings that he had about finally being able to break out of his old life and into one that he’s always wanted. He also mentioned that this was probably him trying to write The Yellow Monkey’s version of a song called “Tumbling Down” by an English glam rock band called Cockney Rebel, that he really liked the lyrics to. The similarities in abstraction are pretty clear when you line the two up, but in mimicking a favorite glam rock ballad of his, Yoshii managed to create what may be the perfect glam rock ballad.
After releasing “Bunched Birth”, we were ready to move on. I wrote a song called “shinjuiro no kakumei jidai (Pearl Light of Revolution)” before our major label debut album (though that’s the one we’d end up recording it for), but escaping from my previous crappy life was just the motivation I needed to get it out there at that point. It’s also right around when I first met my wife. Now that we’d gotten signed, I figured it was about time to starting acting like a decent human being. Then we had a concert to announce that we’ve been signed to a label (On 12/14/1991 at Shibuya La.mama), at which I unseemly wept as I sung “Pearl Light of Revolution”. Why did I do that? It was probably just all of my feelings welling up…and me gaining the confidence that something new was really beginning within myself. Happiness from change, feelings about the past, and all sorts of different emotions.
But there’s this song called “Tumbling Down” by an English glam rock band called Cockney Rebel that has really great lyrics! It’s a beautiful song, and I really felt that was exactly what glam rock should be. I think this was me trying to make The Yellow Monkey’s “Tumbling Down”.
But the lyrics aren’t all that makes this song. This is the one of the first (or at least more noticeable) appearances of an organ in a Yemon song, and it will certainly not be the last! Organ would gradually become more and more integral to Yoshii’s writing in The Yellow Monkey, and later on his solo career as well. It really sings out in Pearl Light Of Revolution just as much as any guitar part, if not more so. Emma’s guitar solo is also one of his more simple solos he plays, but it feels like it has so much more emotion behind it than most of the others. In just about every performance of this song that I’ve seen, Yoshii will come up next to Emma as he’s playing the solo and mock play it himself, usually getting a laugh from Emma.
Pearl Light Of Revolution doesn’t have as many recorded performances as you might think for what an early flagship song this was for the band. They performed it as a concert-ender during the Nippon Budokan date on their Smile tour in 1995 (at which he acknowledged it had been a long time since they played it before going into the song), and also during their initial final concert at the Tokyo Dome in 2001. Apart from those performances, it seemed to be reserved exclusively for Mekara Uroko concerts (a series of concerts in which the band focuses on playing mostly older material), given that it’s been played at nearly every single one. In fact the performance of this song at Mekara Uroko 7 (their first concert of this nature, held 7 years after their debut) was their first time performing this (or any other) song live with an orchestra, and Yoshii still cites this as possibly the greatest personal moment for him during his career.
Apart from the version that originally appeared on The Night Snails And Plastic Boogie, there’s also a completely re-recorded version that appeared on the 2017 collection of re-recorded songs entitled “The Yellow Monkey Is Here”. They’re both very listenable, but the re-recorded version is probably the one to go with for the better sound quality if nothing else. It also features a much more heavy orchestral involvement throughout the entire song, whereas in the original version there wasn’t much of an orchestral presence until the final proper chorus (after he sings the line about an orchestra).
