ROCK STAR

  • Lyrics & Music: Kazuya Yoshii
  • Arrangement: The Yellow Monkey

Original Lyrics

I…makes…feel…Rock Star!

…Shock!

不思議な力を秘めた言葉のテレパシー
新しい過去から君への 招待状
ときめきうなされるのは 陽気のせいだろう
頭はさからえない

真面目な君が恋して求めるのは
情熱, 吐き気,ノイローゼの 禁断症状
A型の道徳愛好家なんて特に注意さ
頭はさからえない 調子いいかい?

ロック・スターになれば羽根が生えてきて
ロック・スターになればたまに夜はスウィート

骨に全ての願いを込めても
幻覚が足りない
君の目をちょうだい 調子いいかい

君もロックン・ロール・スター
魅力的なロックン・ロール・スター

ロック・スターになれば羽根が生えてきて
ロック・スターになればたまに夜はスウィート

空に向けて欲をさらけ出せば
現実は死なない君は目をそらせない

骨に全ての願いを込めても
幻覚が足りない
君の目をちょうだい 調子いいかい?

死んだら新聞に載るようなロック・スターに
死んだら新聞に載るようなロック・スターに
死んだら新聞に載るようなロック・スターに
死んだら新聞に載るようなロック・スターに

死んだら新聞に
死んだら新聞に
死んだら新聞に
死んだら新聞に


Romanized Lyrics

I…makes…feel…Rock Star!

…Shock!

fushigi na chikara wo himeta kotoba no telepathy
atarashii kako kara kimi e no shoutaijou
tokimeki unasareru no wa youki no sei darou
atama wa sakaraenai

majime na kimi ga koi shite motomeru no wa
jounetsu hakige neurosis no kindan shoujou
A gata no doutoku aikouka nante toku ni chuui sa
atama wa sakaraenai choushi ii kai?

rock star ni nareba hane ga haete kite
rock star ni nareba tama ni yoru wa sweet

hone ni subete no negai wo komete mo
genkaku ga tarinai
kimi no me wo choudai choushi ii kai

kimi mo rock n roll star
miryoku teki na rock n roll star

rock star ni nareba hane ga haete kite
rock star ni nareba tama ni yoru wa sweet

sora ni mukete yoku wo sarake daseba
genjitsu wa shinanai kimi wa me wo sorasenai

hone ni subete no negai wo komete mo
genkaku ga tarinai
kimi no me wo choudai choushi ii kai?

shindara shinbun ni noru you na rock star ni
shindara shinbun ni noru you na rock star ni
shindara shinbun ni noru you na rock star ni
shindara shinbun ni noru you na rock star ni

shindara shinbun ni
shindara shinbun ni
shindara shinbun ni
shindara shinbun ni


Translated Lyrics

I…makes…feel…Rock Star!

…Shock!

The telepathy of words that hid a strange power
An invitation to you, from a new past
Your excited groaning in your sleep is probably because you’re in a good mood
You can’t go against your own head

The things that you, ever so serious, love and desire
Are passion, nausea, and symptoms of neurosis withdrawal
Be especially careful of type A moralists
You can’t go against your own head; Are you doing well?

When you’re a rock star, wings sprout from your back
When you’re a rock star, the nights are sometimes sweet

Even if you wish with everything you’ve got
The illusion just isn’t enough
Lend me your eyes; Are you doing well?

You’re a rock ‘n’ roll star too
An attractive rock ‘n’ roll star

When you’re a rock star, wings sprout from your back
When you’re a rock star, the nights are sometimes sweet

If you lay your desires bare to the sky
Reality doesn’t just die, you can’t turn your eyes away

Even if you wish with everything you’ve got
The illusion just isn’t enough
Lend me your eyes; Are you doing well?

A rock star that’ll be in the newspaper when they die
A rock star that’ll be in the newspaper when they die
A rock star that’ll be in the newspaper when they die
A rock star that’ll be in the newspaper when they die

In the newspaper when they die
In the newspaper when they die
In the newspaper when they die
In the newspaper when they die


Notes

Rock Star - Heesey and Emma Mic Share (Jaguar Hard Pain Tour, 1994)
Heesey and Emma sharing a mic for the backup part (Jaguar Hard Pain Tour, 1994)

An extremely fun and high-tempo number, Rock Star takes the tone of the album back up over even what it was at with Fine Fine Fine. This is very high up on my list of favorites for this album, and it shines especially brightly when it’s performed live since it’s always a crowd favorite. It relies less on guitar and more on keyboards and Annie’s expert drum fills, making this a little lighter and pop-ier than anything we’ve heard on the album so far, without sacrificing any of the excitement. And as a pop-rock song it’s incredibly well crafted: The backup vocal part gives you something to sing along with even if you don’t know the rest of the words, the melody is very clear and infectious, and the song even closes with a different vocal melody that acts as sort of a secondary chorus.

Rock Star - Yoshii and Emma (Smile Tour, 1995)
Yoshii and Emma (Smile Tour, 1995)

The lyrical content perfectly matches the tone of the music too. The song seems to be centered around chronicling the rock star life cycle: The thrill of attaining that status and the euphoria that comes with it, to wanting more and more, all the way to the rather disappointing end of just being a name in the newspaper when you die. It may even be a look at the perception of being a rock star versus the actual reality of it. And since this album owes no small debt to David Bowie’s concept album “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars”, it very well could be piggy-backing on the idea of Ziggy’s rock n’ roll messiah type personality as well.

Rock Star - Yoshii and Fans (Punch Drunkard Tour, 1999)
Yoshii within reach of the crowd (Punch Drunkard Tour, 1999)

“Ziggy Stardust”! It all came completely from “Ziggy Stardust”!! I was really aspiring to create something like that album, my outlook on the rock that I liked was very narrow, and I was very fanatical about it. I’m also very fanatical about Bowie, and anyway, I was very into “Ziggy”.

Kazuya Yoshii, So Young
Rock Star - Stage (Mekara Uroko 10, 1999)
Part of the stage during the performance at Mekara Uroko 10 (1999)

I think the real highlight of the lyrics isn’t the rather well worn theme though, but rather the interesting phrases peppered throughout: “The things that you, ever so serious, love and desire are passion, nausea, and symptoms of neurosis withdrawal”, “If you lay your desires bare to the sky, reality doesn’t just die, you can’t turn your eyes away”, and even just the simple “You can’t go against your own head”. And they’re all so singable!

Rock Star - Emma and Heesey (Mekara Uroko 8, 2001)
Heesey and Emma jamming together (Mekara Uroko 8, 2001)

All that said, I’m not really sure how this song ties into the story of Jaguar. Everything up until this point you could more or less guess at, but this just seems to be a song on the album that doesn’t have to do with all of that. I suspect that much like “Ziggy Stardust”, this is meant to be a bit more of a loose concept album though. With Ziggy, Bowie came up with the story after most of the songs were already written. And Yoshii himself has said in not so many words that he did the same:

Rock Star - Yoshii Gag (Super Japan Tour Yokohama, 2016)
Yoshii doing the gag motion to the camera for the “hakige” (“nausea”) lyric (Super Japan Tour Yokohama, 2016)

I acted out the story for Jaguar Hard Pain (which is one of the spirit of a man who died during war in 1944 resurrected in a 1994 Tokyo) over the course of a year-long tour, and it was right around then that I was really into theatre. I often went to Shimokita to see plays, so the influence of that on me at the time was pretty strong.

Kazuya Yoshii, In Search of Lost Love (Ushinawareta Ai wo Motomete)
Rock Star - Annie (Super Big Egg, 2017)
A smiling Annie (Super Big Egg, 2017)

I should also mention that the spoken intro part did not appear in the lyrics booklet, and what I have here is simply a guess. It isn’t even my own guess, but rather one from a Japanese Yahoo Answers question. It sounds about right to me though.

Rock Star - Yoshii and Heesey (Super Big Egg, 2017)
Yoshii and Heesey (Super Big Egg, 2017)

Rock Star is a live favorite, usually always involving Yoshii strutting around the stage in the Mick Jagger-esque fashion during the intro, shouting to the crowd that tonight they’re all rock stars too. It’s appeared on many set-lists: The Jaguar Hard Pain tour (1994), the Smile tour (1995), the Four Seasons tour (1996), the Sicks tour (1997), the Punch Drunkard tour (1998/1999), Mekara Uroko 10 (1999, the first time that I’m aware this song was done with a full brass section), Mekara Uroko 8 (2001), a couple of shows in Yokohama during the Super Japan Tour (2016), the second night 30th anniversary Super Big Egg Tokyo Dome concerts (2017, again with a brass section. I may be biased because I was at this concert, but I think this is the best performance of it ever), and Mekara Uroko 28 (2017). I’m not as much of a fan of the Jaguar Hard Pain era performances, since that was from before they toured with a keyboardist. And the keyboard is a big part of what makes this song exactly what it is. Yoshii will often do little ad libs during the outro as well: You’ll add in the names of well known Japanese newspapers Yomiuri Shinbun and Aasahi Shinbun, by turning the lines into “shindara Asahi ni, shindara Yomiuri ni”.

Rock Star - Yoshii Walk (Mekara Uroko 8, 2001)
Yoshii during Mekara Uroko 8 (2001)

(A live performance of Rock Star which apparently doubles as the official music video as well)