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best (johnny's) summer songs according to me
i truly love what summer symbolizes in japanese media (fleeting season, fleeting youth, good things coming to an end, unforgettable memories) and i love how these songs capture such emotions.
anyway not saying these songs are the best ever but they always make feel feelings.
1. endless summer - news
(listen here) (lyrics here)
i've never been a big news fan but when you come from that johnny's era you can't help casually listening to all groups, (also helps that my sister is (was?) a huge news fan). i've stumbled upon the song several times before but it wasn't until when they performed it at a concert that i happened to watch that i really fell in love with it.
for some reason my biggest impression of the song is their concert performance when shige and yamapi pretended to walk past each other as if they're strangers, but then yamapi turned back and grabbed shige's arm... fuck emotional manipulation
my favourite favourite favourite thing about the song is actually just this one line: "i always gave worthless things names and called them treasures" i have no idea why but the first time i looked up the lyrics and this part came up i felt like crying (i still feel the same way even now). it's just a simple simple line but somehow i feel like that perfectly encapsulates summer to me? and something about the way koyama's voice particularly stands out and sounds so earnest strikes something in me T_T
anyways it's absolutely brutal the way they recorded three versions of this song (6-member, 4-member and 3-member) and also the way koyama sounds like he's about to cry in the 3-member version...........
2. still... - arashi
(listen here) (lyrics here)
tbh it's not really a summer song but somehow i always connect this song to summer.
i loooove love love love the lyrics so much. really love how the song sounds so optimistic although it talks about friends who are parting, though it makes sense because it's about a friend who is taking a step towards their future. and of course you cannot talk about the song without talking about sho's rap part. i'll just paste the lyrics down here:
"What did you say to me back then..."
Saying that doesn't matter anymore, does it?
We met often, we gradually understood, and as the season drew near we cried often
You are you, so paint your dreams huge
I'll be here wishing for your success
"If you just wait around, tomorrow won't come
If you only move here, nothing will start"
Even on the dark street where you can't see ahead
Even if it's a detour
For now both of us should put away
Our painful expressions, just for a while
This isn't goodbye, it's the beginning of many new meetings
But, I still want to see you again
Still...
Someday we'll meet again smiling, yes, I know it
in all honesty in the past i couldn't really understand this particular part ""what did you say to me back then..." / saying that doesn't matter anymore, does it?" really as a kid i wondered why does it not matter what the "you" wanted to say to "me" then. it took me a couple of years, tons of listens and a lot of growing up to finally understand that feeling.
my favourite lines in this song actually are "on the busy street, i pass by people whose names i don't even know / yes, everyone has a precious someone that they're yearning for" (another translation for the latter line that i like goes like this: "yes, everyone has someone precious burning in their chest"). this part left such a huge impression on me because it's such a mundane thing - we pass by strangers on the street everyday yet as cliche as it sounds it never really occurred to me before this that each one of them have their treasured person.
also my second favourite line is ohno's "the secret that i've kept all this time, i've only shared it with you" this love language <3
i can't talk about still... without talking about my biggest impression of this song really. during their 2010 scene in kokuritsu concert before they performed this song they released a bunch of balloons. one of those balloons happened to get stuck underneath the moving stage which jun was on. not sure how he found out (either he saw it bc the stage is see through or fans told him (kinda unlikely)) but he laid down on the edge of the stage and tried to "rescue" the balloon. he eventually succeeded, then he proceeded to let go of the balloon and watched it fly away into the sky and even waved at it - all while lying down. it's totally unintentional but this scene fits the lyrics so well, and i actually cried once when i rewatched it.
btw although arashi actually did release an ost for honey & clover for some reason i've always felt that this is such a perfect song for it, especially for takemoto (particularly the line "when the wheels start to turn, the journey will begin")!!
3. kaze - arashi
(listen here) (lyrics here)
out of all three i feel that this is the most summerish summer song tbh?
i can't explain it well but back then even though i have so many arashi songs that i like, i didn't really have any particular favourite. i mean one that i can point out and say "that's the one i like best". kaze is actually the first song that i called my favourite. such a lovely bittersweet song T__T
like the previous two, the first time that i actually fell in love with the song is when they performed it as the final song at time concert. something about the way they just sat down and sang the song as it is (also nino smiling as he air guitared the intro melody and appeared to be in his own world for a moment) just tugged my heart. unrelated to the point but they hardly have any solo lines in this song (other than ohno in second verse and sho's rap), and when i think back one of my earliest memories when i got into arashi again back then was my sister telling me it's hard to tell their voices apart bc they always sing altogether at the same time.
also thinking back kaze left such a deep impression to me back then because: 1) they sang this song at the end of the concert as goodbye, 2) all the summer themes i mentioned in the beginning are present in the song, 3) i just graduated from school and it just reflects what i felt then.
the line i love most are undoubtedly sho's "yes, when we meet again, we will talk about our worries while laughing" just </3
anyway not saying these songs are the best ever but they always make feel feelings.
1. endless summer - news
(listen here) (lyrics here)
i've never been a big news fan but when you come from that johnny's era you can't help casually listening to all groups, (also helps that my sister is (was?) a huge news fan). i've stumbled upon the song several times before but it wasn't until when they performed it at a concert that i happened to watch that i really fell in love with it.
for some reason my biggest impression of the song is their concert performance when shige and yamapi pretended to walk past each other as if they're strangers, but then yamapi turned back and grabbed shige's arm... fuck emotional manipulation
my favourite favourite favourite thing about the song is actually just this one line: "i always gave worthless things names and called them treasures" i have no idea why but the first time i looked up the lyrics and this part came up i felt like crying (i still feel the same way even now). it's just a simple simple line but somehow i feel like that perfectly encapsulates summer to me? and something about the way koyama's voice particularly stands out and sounds so earnest strikes something in me T_T
anyways it's absolutely brutal the way they recorded three versions of this song (6-member, 4-member and 3-member) and also the way koyama sounds like he's about to cry in the 3-member version...........
2. still... - arashi
(listen here) (lyrics here)
tbh it's not really a summer song but somehow i always connect this song to summer.
i loooove love love love the lyrics so much. really love how the song sounds so optimistic although it talks about friends who are parting, though it makes sense because it's about a friend who is taking a step towards their future. and of course you cannot talk about the song without talking about sho's rap part. i'll just paste the lyrics down here:
"What did you say to me back then..."
Saying that doesn't matter anymore, does it?
We met often, we gradually understood, and as the season drew near we cried often
You are you, so paint your dreams huge
I'll be here wishing for your success
"If you just wait around, tomorrow won't come
If you only move here, nothing will start"
Even on the dark street where you can't see ahead
Even if it's a detour
For now both of us should put away
Our painful expressions, just for a while
This isn't goodbye, it's the beginning of many new meetings
But, I still want to see you again
Still...
Someday we'll meet again smiling, yes, I know it
in all honesty in the past i couldn't really understand this particular part ""what did you say to me back then..." / saying that doesn't matter anymore, does it?" really as a kid i wondered why does it not matter what the "you" wanted to say to "me" then. it took me a couple of years, tons of listens and a lot of growing up to finally understand that feeling.
my favourite lines in this song actually are "on the busy street, i pass by people whose names i don't even know / yes, everyone has a precious someone that they're yearning for" (another translation for the latter line that i like goes like this: "yes, everyone has someone precious burning in their chest"). this part left such a huge impression on me because it's such a mundane thing - we pass by strangers on the street everyday yet as cliche as it sounds it never really occurred to me before this that each one of them have their treasured person.
also my second favourite line is ohno's "the secret that i've kept all this time, i've only shared it with you" this love language <3
i can't talk about still... without talking about my biggest impression of this song really. during their 2010 scene in kokuritsu concert before they performed this song they released a bunch of balloons. one of those balloons happened to get stuck underneath the moving stage which jun was on. not sure how he found out (either he saw it bc the stage is see through or fans told him (kinda unlikely)) but he laid down on the edge of the stage and tried to "rescue" the balloon. he eventually succeeded, then he proceeded to let go of the balloon and watched it fly away into the sky and even waved at it - all while lying down. it's totally unintentional but this scene fits the lyrics so well, and i actually cried once when i rewatched it.
btw although arashi actually did release an ost for honey & clover for some reason i've always felt that this is such a perfect song for it, especially for takemoto (particularly the line "when the wheels start to turn, the journey will begin")!!
3. kaze - arashi
(listen here) (lyrics here)
out of all three i feel that this is the most summerish summer song tbh?
i can't explain it well but back then even though i have so many arashi songs that i like, i didn't really have any particular favourite. i mean one that i can point out and say "that's the one i like best". kaze is actually the first song that i called my favourite. such a lovely bittersweet song T__T
like the previous two, the first time that i actually fell in love with the song is when they performed it as the final song at time concert. something about the way they just sat down and sang the song as it is (also nino smiling as he air guitared the intro melody and appeared to be in his own world for a moment) just tugged my heart. unrelated to the point but they hardly have any solo lines in this song (other than ohno in second verse and sho's rap), and when i think back one of my earliest memories when i got into arashi again back then was my sister telling me it's hard to tell their voices apart bc they always sing altogether at the same time.
also thinking back kaze left such a deep impression to me back then because: 1) they sang this song at the end of the concert as goodbye, 2) all the summer themes i mentioned in the beginning are present in the song, 3) i just graduated from school and it just reflects what i felt then.
the line i love most are undoubtedly sho's "yes, when we meet again, we will talk about our worries while laughing" just </3