The Jacks, originally known as "Nightingale", began their career in 1966 as a folk trio. After jazz drummer Takasuke Kida joined the group they headed into a new musical direction. Vacant World, released in 1968 as Karappo No Sekai (Vacant World) or Jacks no Sekai (Jacks' World) in Japanese, is widely seen as one of the most important Japanese albums. The song "Vacant World" (or "Karappo no Sekai" in Japanese) was famously banned from Japanese airwaves due to lyrical content. The Jacks' musical legacy has carried on in Japan despite the fact that their career was quite short, disbanding shortly before the release of their second studio album Super Session (Jacks No Kiseki in Japanese).
After the breakup of Jacks, singer Yoshio Hayakawa released one acclaimed solo album before retiring from music, only to reemerge again as a solo artist during the 1990s. Drummer Takasuke Kida died in a car accident in 1980. 水橋 春夫 (Mizuhashi, Haruo) Japanese guitarist, well-known in Jacks, and later, music producer. Born February 2, 1949. Died August 5, 2018.
Jacks played in a distinct musical style fused with ambient psychedelic, surf, folk and jazz. The group had a dark, introspective sound with an exploratory, improvisational edge and sometimes headed into moody instrumental excursions. The Jacks typically employed reverb, tremolo and subtle fuzz-guitar and also utilized the vibraphone, organ and wind instruments such as the flute. Lead singer Yoshio Hayakawa sung in Japanese and typically ranged from a low, calm and tranquil voice to throaty, desperate sounding wails. Similarly, drummer Takasuke Kida would follow suit, going from subtle jazzy sounding fills to complicated, offbeat rhythms and manic cymbal crashes.
Personnel
Yoshio Hayakawa – vocals, rhythm guitar
Haruo Mizuhashi – lead guitar, vocals
Hitoshi Tanino – Fender bass, upright bass
Takasuke Kida – drums, flute, vibraphone
Discography
Albums
Vacant World [Jacks No Sekai] (Toshiba Express, September 1968)
Super Session [Jacks No Kiseki] (Toshiba Express, October 1969)
Jacks' Greatest Hits (Toshiba Express, 1972)
Live '68 (H.A.F., 1973 - fan club release)
Echoes In The Radio (radio sessions) (Toshiba Eastworld, June 1986)
Vacant World and Super Session are in print by EMI Japan.
Singles
"Karappo No Sekai" b/w "Iikodane" (Takt/Million, March 1968)
"Marianne" b/w "Tokei Wo Tomete" (Takt Million, May 1968)
"Karappo No Sekai" b/w "Tokei Wo Tomete" (Columbia, September 1968)
"Kono Michi" b/w "Karappo No Sekai" (album version) (Toshiba Express, October 1968)
"Joe's Rock" b/w "Flower" (Toshiba Express, October 1969)
ジャックス - ‘Jacks’ have always been an outsider group in Japanese music, too original to fit under the Group Sounds moniker of the times. Their music was often slow, dramatic and morbid.
In 1965 Yoshio Hayakawa and fellow classmate Suehiro Takahashi were in a folk group called Eri Matsubara and the Folktorio Nightingale [not sure of that first word - kana is フォークトリオ・ナイチンゲール]. After graduation in the summer of 1966, Hayakawa and Takahashi performed as a duo at their university with the name ‘Jacks’. The following year they became a quartet with Hitoshi Tanino playing bass and Takasuke Kida on drums. Takahashi soon left the group so Haruo Mizuhashi joined on lead guitar. Each member would make major contributions to Jacks unique melange of styles:
Yoshio Hayakawa (早川義夫) – vocals, rhythm guitar - Hayakaya’s singing is always expressive and often distraught with emotion; I would guess his vocal style (and lyrical subject matter) owes more to Japanese enka ballads than ‘folk’.
Haruo Mizuhashi (水橋春夫) – lead guitar, vocals - Haruo Mizuhashi definitely plugged into the sounds coming from California in 1967, especially Barry Melton’s playing on Country Joe and the Fish’s first LP Electric Music for the Mind and Body. He makes good use of contrasting delicate passages with discordant stabs of solos and riffs.
Hitoshi Tanino (谷野ひとし) – Fender bass, upright bass - Tanino’s bass playing is original and solid and he was their second most active songwriter after Hayakawa.
Takasuke Kida (木田高介) – drums, flute, vibraphone, tenor saxophone - Takasuke Kida’s jazz-influenced drumming gives a special fury to the songs with wild fills and orchestral effects.
They made at least three appearances on NHK network’s radio show Folk Village, including February and June of 1967 and January of 1968. Seven songs from these shows survive on the LP Echoes in the Radio released in 1986, but I haven’t heard this yet. All these songs would be revisited by the band for studio recordings in the next year.
In the summer of 1967, they did well in a contest sponsored by Yamaha. Whether through attention from the radio show, the Yamaha contest or some other source, they were hired for the soundtrack of Koji Wakamatsu’s film Harakashi Onna (A Womb for Let), a film unavailable on DVD in the U.S. to my knowledge.
In one long session at Meguro Studio on February 3, 1968 they cut twenty tracks for the film. Most of these were released on two LPs released in 1986, Realization and Remains but the complete session is now on CD, Selected Masterpieces by Koji Wakamatsu film music series: Harakashi Onna.
A number of these songs would be re-cut for later single and LP releases: “Marianne” (マリアンヌ), “Gloomy Flower” (裏切りの季節), and “In the Broken Mirror” (われた鏡の中から). “Dm 4-50” would be revisited on the Super Session LP in much abridged form - here the band stretches out with a long solo passage and slower pace.
“Omae wa Hinagiku” (お前はひな菊), “Gone My Yumiko” (由美子はいない) and “Jijoku No Kisetsu” (地獄の季節) would not be revisited in the studio, but each was a feature of their live and radio shows.
“Vacant World” (からっぽの世界 / Karappo no Sekai) is present, but only as an airy instrumental. Instrumentals take up half the session. “Teki Wa Toku Ni” (敵は遠くに) is slow and has a bleating saxophone throughout. “Umi to Onnanoko” (海と女の子) is also a slow instrumental, but nicely atmospheric. In addition there are six instrumentals written by Haruo Mizuhashi, of which “M-19” is one of the best.
Marianne
Jacks Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
With your voice like silver strings ringing
And sounds of laughter and singing
Keep repeating, Marianne, Marianne
Marianne, Marianne
Oh I can tell better than anyone else could
That there`s more to you than just bad or good
Marianne, oh, Marianne
The dawn will be breaking soon
And my voice will fade with the moon
And the sunlight will remind me of you
The song "Marianne" by Jacks is a tribute to a woman named Marianne. The opening lines of the song describe her voice as being as beautiful as "silver strings ringing." As the song progresses, the singer talks about how he knows there is more to Marianne than meets the eye, and that she is not simply defined as "bad or good." He acknowledges that she has both light and dark within her, but ultimately the better parts of her shine through. The singer also foreshadows a departure from Marianne, stating that his voice will fade with the moon and the sunlight will remind him of her as he leaves.
The song is an ode to the complexities of love and relationships, highlighting the fact that the people we love are multi-dimensional and cannot be defined by a single label. The repetition of Marianne's name throughout the song adds to the poignancy of the lyrics, emphasizing the singer's deep affection for her. In the end, the song feels like a bittersweet goodbye, with the dawn breaking and the singer departing, but with the memory of Marianne remaining with him.
Line by Line Meaning
Marianne, Marianne
Addressing the person he's singing about, Marianne
With your voice like silver strings ringing
Complimenting Marianne's voice, describing it as melodious and beautiful
And sounds of laughter and singing
Noting the joyful, exuberant sound of Marianne's laughter and singing voice
Keep repeating, Marianne, Marianne
Repeating her name, underscoring his admiration for Marianne
Marianne, Marianne
Repeating her name again for emphasis
Oh I can tell better than anyone else could
Claiming to understand Marianne better than anyone else
That there`s more to you than just bad or good
Acknowledging the complexity of Marianne's character, beyond simple categorizations of good or bad
There`s a teardrop or a shaft of light for your heart
Imagining Marianne's heart with both darkness (teardrop) and light (shaft of light)
Marianne, oh, Marianne
Calling out to Marianne again, using an endearing tone
The dawn will be breaking soon
Referring to the upcoming morning and the sunrise
And my voice will fade with the moon
Suggesting that his own voice (possibly meaning his singing voice) will be gone with the night
And the sunlight will remind me of you
Connecting the sunrise and the light to Marianne, provoking a feeling of longing or fond remembrance
Lyrics © Kanjian Music, DEHR FAMILY MUSIC, BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Richard Dehr, Terry Gilkyson, Frank Miller
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@liamhardie1704
マリアンヌ
作詞： 相沢靖子
嵐の晩が好きさ
怒り狂う闇が俺の
道案内
嵐の晩が好きさ
殴りかかってくる雨の
男たち
俺は湖に船を出す
嵐は俺を滅茶苦茶に叩く
まっくらな まっくらな
水の中からあらわれる
白い両手で俺をだきしめ
嵐を誘う
水の中からわきでた命
ずぶぬれの髪と体をはげしく
よせて
嵐は猛る 湖は怒る
稲妻が走る
俺は嵐で洗われる
目もくらむ恋に
何も見えない 嵐の晩に
激しく狂った男たちにかこまれて
俺は
マリアンヌを
抱いている
@iamdamosuzuki_
I can definitely see where Takashi Mizutani got his monolithic depressive crooning style from!
@byillest
ギョッとする異様な声。50年前にこんな歌聞いた人はギョッとしただろうし、今聞いてもギョッとするのも凄い。ジャンクでフリーキーなアレンジも好き。
@tamakaneko3068
おお！この曲が聴けるとは思わなかった。昭和43年に日本でこんな曲を発表してたのはこのバンドだけ。早川義夫氏は72歳と高齢だが、まだ生きてるようです。でも今でもこの曲、売れないだろうなぁ。
@freddiebannister561
Thank you Julian cope for exposing this genius work
@jackoflynn1487
as a Jack, I approve.
@user-of2fs5qd3e
日本版ドアーズ！異端児！
@hy-longcat
just listen to that agonising wailing!
@psylibus
Amazing!
@mwmingram
Superb. Thanks for the upload.
@thekoala038
Holy shit this shit hits hard!