Kimono my house

[David Hopkins]

Of course Eri Chiemi's English pronunciation is excellent, and she's merely 
imitating Rosemary Clooney's original, which is written to sound Italian 
(?), something like the 1920's hits, "Where you work-a, John?" or even "Yes, 
We Have no Bananas." Ability to pronounce English properly (i.e. American 
accent) seemed to be important in fifties and even a bit later Japanese pop 
music. It has completely disappeared today, of course.

Southern All-Stars are a different case since Kuwata writes his own lyrics! 
The so-called English of Komuro Tetsuya would be worth comparison here, if 
you can stand the music itself. Matsuda Seiko's English use would be 
related, but I think her English pronunciation is also quite good now. And I 
don't associate her with "cover" versions of originally English songs. What 
about  contemporary Japanese "rap" which rhythmically imitates English by 
using a really contorted pronunciation of Japanese? This is real 
appropriation! This whole issue of English in pop music is fairly often 
dealt with over on the JASPM list

Dick Mine and Dick Lee are not the same! I did see Dick Lee perform live at 
Shitennoji Temple, Osaka's 1400th anniversary a few years ago. At the time I 
was travelling with and translating for Fugazi's first Japan tour and we all 
enjoyed the show very much (although probably not in the way he hoped we 
would....)

sorry for the ramble.
David Hopkins