Added: 4 years ago
From: GumDispencer
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  • Amazing band! RIP mick karn

  • This is a very good song..My favorite band is Roxy Music..

  • Love it

  • He sounds so sexy when he says "Why, boy".

  • poss me fave Japan track, RIP Mick. And they say 80s music was shit lol, awesome !!!

  • @mashamorgan Well 'they' say lots of shit then!! Stunning track

  • Mick Karn died?! oh that`s so sad to hear! from these comments!...RIP

  • @elstow .....he died of cancer in january 2011.

  • prophet 5 .. awesome

  • beautiful! fuck yes

  • that rubbery-woody Mick Karn sound. epic.

  • un-bloody-believably amazing. non-comparable bass, world class. bending, haunting vocals, jansen's drumming and barbieri's complimentary keyboard. why....boy?

  • I will never forget Mick Karn as long as I live, his bass playing here is especially just stupid sick - those bass notes are scaring me to death! Only David's beautiful voice makes it bearable. Rest in peace...

  • 5 people don't need a new career

  • @Faugh666. What did DJ Shadow pull from this?

  • My gosh, im shocked, I new Mick Karn was ill, I was hoping he would beat the ilness, I only saw today that Mick Karn died a month ago..

    Japan was and is brilliant, inovators of the sound and one of the best bands, they should be in the Hall of Fame, I was always hoping for a reunion and more Japan albums, but sadly this was not to be..

    Mick Karns bass is so distingtive and mezmorising, RIP Mick i'll always listen to your music, your music has always been essential in my life, RIP bro..

  • @Faugh666 Which DJ Shadow track is that? Thanks :)

  • Mick Karn R.I.P Awesome 80's slidy bassist

  • muy buena cancion!!!!

  • one of my top five Japan songs and I have all their records

  • @loosemeatbeef sylvian es musica de excelente calidad

    ojala se promocionara mas,,,

  • Little did they know it would only be a short while before SAW took over and introduced the world to Kylie and Jason.

  • Wonderful, Intelligent music from a more refined era. Love the Travis Bean Fretless.

  • Unbelievable. Still my favorite Japan song after all these years. Has anyone else noticed that Japan's music doesn't age? The mark of true genius.

  • The bass on this song is just GENIUS - it feels like Mick Karn is playing his own song, but that just melts together with the rest wonderfully.

  • Wow I can really hear what D. Sylvian was going to do on his solo albums here. Great stuff.

  • it sounds like Gary Numan and David Bowie had a kid together.

  • for whatever reason, this was always my favorite Japan song. They're all good, but My New Career was always the best one for me.

  • Just a nice thing. Such a handsome bugger too

  • Go to mickkarn.net and see how you can help him fight his bout with cancer!

  • @ronbo11 That's right. Please support Mick!

  • 1:02

  • Mick Karn's fretless bass growls like a beast.

  • @boongg ...but hardly a glimpse of him during the whole video!!!

  • @gregingram1970

    I ve just learned english so my motherspeach is different.

    Why do you take part in discussions just being able to provoke. Go to Rio perhaps you get an autograph.

  • JAPAN is a band no words can describe.They never fit in any pop pattern. The Dark aura sourrounding them is what their made off. The yearning in me related to those days is a part of me.

  • I'll re-irritate since troll boy Gregingram has nothing of substance to write anyway "I was a fan of Mick Karn's work with Japan (esp. Quiet Life,and Gentleman Take Polaroids) and he inspired me to play fretless" - John Taylor

    electric barbarella's single cover

    "Band founder Nick Rhodes:

    -... drawing from the musical, visual and lyrical stylistic elements of Bowie, Ferry, Sylvian and Eno...-"

  • Nick Rhodes played Visions of China on MTV

    John Taylor has played their songs when he dejays

    Roger Taylor lists Japan under his favorite albums in Red Carpet Massacre tour book

  • @gregingram1970 you need to get a life mate (or stop listening to simey le bonny records)

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  • @gregingram1970 Man, you're cheap.

  • wow Greg you're a fuckwit lol

  • @rhodesia789 wow greg your a fuckwit?? you were put in your place not more than a week ago so you should crawl under the nutsack you came from you fucking notstalgia trapped mungrel with learning difficulty

  • @gregingram1970 your head resembles a nutsack fuckwit

  • sophisticated

  • this sounds like a porno sountrack on an old vhs tape and the tapes actually corrupted making the sound wonky...of course, it is not. wot utter shite this is...if only they were as good as duran duran.

  • @gregingram1970 I like Duran Duran and Japan alot but really Japan were a whole lot better. Some of Duran's melodies and lyrics were such contrived drivel. Your comments about this sounding dated illustrate what a sad attitude to music you must have.

  • @chrisnoaro1 YOUR OPINION...I THINK THE OPPOSITE AND DONT WANT TO WASTE TIME EXPLAINING MYSELF. THIS SONG FOR EXAMPLE, WOT PISH.

  • @gregingram1970 Well it's not a waste of time if you say something interesting. Saying it's bad because it sounds dated is pish to me. Lots of great music sounds 'of its time', doesn't mean it can't be enjoyed. Of course we know Duran Duran love Japan. May I suggest you check out the album 'Quiet Life'...

  • @chrisnoaro1 japan had 3 songs of note. they were good but not that good. i saw hat i like and i have quiet life album...duran duran dont lovejapan...duran duran love the same bands as japan do...kraftwerk roxy music bowie velvet underground chic tangerine dream and kraftwerk...so take your ego out the equation and remember that japan were not around un duran durans formative years.

  • @gregingram1970 "...duran duran dont love japan..." I could offer you several direct quotations from band members and other evidence that says otherwise. You can easily find it just doing an internet search. Maybe try actually knowing what you're talking about before you write it.

  • @shockmastershocksu you cant offer any quotations at all stating 'duran duran love japan' you fucking moron. duran duran dont owe their career to japan. think how abusurd that actually sounds? for you to suggest and actually believe duran duran modellled their career on japan is to deny - roxy music.david bowie. chic. kraftwerk.joni mitchell.pink floyd.vlelvet underground. tangerine dream etc who clearly influenced duran duran and would mean japan fans are paritally retarded.

  • @gregingram1970 I can't offer them, umm I think I just did and before you go out swearing to people you don't even know I think the only moron here is you.

  • @shockmastershocksu hello there you fucking fanny. you cant argue worht a fuck and you have no ability to discuss this topic have you? you have not produced any evidence and your referrnces are you not actually verifiable. so you have no evidence and have made yourself look a lying fucking retarded barrell of monkey sperm that is fit for nothing other than wanking to the guy out this video coz your a pansey.

  • @gregingram1970 go away and cower troll. Why don't you admit you've been beaten at your game.

    my references aren't verifiable umm yeah right. Just look at ask Katy on duran's official website, look at the red carpet massacre tourbook, look at the electric barbarella single. As a supposed "fan" of duran duran I'm surprised you aren't even aware of these things. Get lost clown- all you can cling to now is your moronic swearing and insults.

  • @shockmastershocksu of course im sweraring you fucker. beat at what? what does the statements you put up here prove? think about it...hard...and tell me what does this mean? im sure duran duran like hundreds of bands and i dont think it means hey ripped off every one. I dont see the relevance of your point...you have failed to convince me or any other person with a brain.

  • @shockmastershocksu i like swearing and it dont mean im loosing anything...espeically with you. thick cunt. im looking for eveidence and by that i mean something that tells me explicitly that duran duran copied japan. if you find it ill pay your council tax for a year. of course, you wont.

  • @gregingram1970 Maybe you should practice some spelling before your swearing there genius. You can barely even write a sentence.

  • @shockmastershocksu YOU ARE retarded...spelling? so what. Im on fucking youtube you fucking idiot. Anyway, my grammar is fine. You are the retard.

  • - i clearly do. you are looking to confirm your hero worship (Freud) ego by making statements like japan are more powerful than duran duran-because you have japan at the pinnacle of your ego and by putting that statement on a japan video page is only going to confirm that statement to your own mind as nearly all people who read and support you have the same 'conditon' as you do. so really, your not testing japans quality but only confirming that other japan fans think as you do.

  • @shockmastershocksu i have yet to read/hear or see any memeber of duran duran actually commenting anythin about japan. i have never once had any piece of evidence to confrim 'duran duran love japan' - however i have read/heard and saw materials stating that duran duran love roxy music/bowie/chic (who wokrd with durna duran on 3 albums and several big singles) Krautrock because that is what duran duran were - a mixture of these bands.

  • @gregingram1970 "I was a fan of Mick Karn's work with Japan (esp. Quiet Life,and Gentleman Take Polaroids) and he inspired me to play fretless" - John Taylor

    electric barbarella's single cover

    "Band founder Nick Rhodes:

    -... drawing from the musical, visual and lyrical stylistic elements of Bowie, Ferry, Sylvian and Eno...-"

  • @gregingram1970

    NIck Rhodes played Visions of China on MTV

    John Taylor has played their songs when he dejays

    Roger Taylor lists Japan under his favorite albums in Red Carpet Massacre tour book

    there you go and that's just a few. I'm sure you have something to say back but you can't deny any of this as not being true :)

  • @shockmastershocksu I think that if your comments are correct then i dont see what that means other than they acknowledge japans music. i hardly think it convinces anyone that duran duran stole japans music when clearly you fucking idiot they didtn. and more over, your asshole is red raw with a plastic dildoe.

  • @chrisnoaro1 dont message met then if you all want is conflict...thats not constructive or is disussing anthing. your transferring insults and criticsims which are not really going anyt where...i could quash everythin you say about japan and their apparant creative superiority to duran duran because it is not true...so....have a nice day.

  • this is dated as fuck..sounds like kraftwerk going wrong...utte pish

  • @gregingram1970 your opinion is of course perfectly valid. you're still an ignorant cunt though X

  • @hub1971 ignore him he's just a troll- I mean just check all his comments recently

  • i love synth pop, newe romantic newe wave stuff so muggggg

  • I love David's phrasing on this track !!

    I never wanted to be on my own, I could be wrong

    But I slipped away from home and now I'm gone.

    still gives me chills !

  • 22 Pistepirkko ripped this riff! And there's nothing on the entire Internet about it!

  • very cool

  • coolest band ever !!

  • massive :) just..so brilliant, u dont get that level of musicianship and integrity no more :(

  • @spillandambience agreed 100%

  • @spillandambience Not only that...they were also one of the coolest looking bands ever.

  • @shrews2 but its so of the time, the technology was just starting, it was all still analogue driven, and their sound is so studio orientated, i think its a good job and with flaws n all :))

  • wow I totally don't hear that at all, crazy stuff to say

  • absofuckinglutely love it.

  • Not enough of that spacy guitar solo!

  • Beautiful and tecnically perfect...nothing else to say

  • You are SO wrong, my friend.

  • Christ!!! This is fucking amazing!! God bless Japan!!

  • the chauffeur sucks dick as does Duran Duran, WILD BOYS WILD BOYS WILD BOYS whoo makes ya want to put on a thong and be queer now doesn't it? Fuck those guys.

  • Don't hold your breath for a re-union. Same can be said for Talk Talk !

  • yoiks! you are REALLY missing out on some good stuff!!

  • sylvian had some moments but nothing compared to his work with japan i agree with u there, karns fretless style and their overall avante garde look was distilled down to a band that could never be emulated or duplicated..its a crying shame, cos sylvian was depressed for years and wrote nothing, id be begging to get back on track with karns, why does this have to happen? :((( and yes, peter murphys deep album nearly fractured me it was so incredible and layered and elegant..what a dude :))

  • u said it, id kill for a reunion tour, i never got to see them :(

  • Yes agree 100% that Duran Duran RIP OFF JAPAN to Me Japan where way ahead of there time GREAT STUFF!!!!!!!

  • I was a big Duran Duran fan back in the 90s, only to find out Japan's Quiet Life in an obscure music store , I realised that DD were a ripoff, probably the best ripoff ever, but obviously they emulated Japan from the word go...Japan are still alive through Duran Duran, their tribute band...

  • Agreed.

  • DD sound like Japan on their first album, beyond that not so much except for maybe Tiger Tiger which sounds like a poor imitation of something from tin drum. I wouldn't call them exactly a "tribute" band at all as they rarely acknowledged any influence from them, more like a ripoff band as you said. Note the best DD is their early material, reason being, that Japan influence.

  • I just realized this myself. Its almost like Steely Duran?

  • what came first Duran Duran or japan,well japan came first they were around in the late 70s. they had a big hit in 1979.look this one up it was a good one,Japan Quiet Life 1979 Hq Lyrics

  • I was mercilessly forced to hear people refer to "Japan Duran" but who cares what anyone thinks anyway ...... I had to laugh when browsing through a Duran Duran fanbook (I liked D.D. but they have had one good song since the 80s - Ordinary Day) and came across a profile of each member, along with their "Favorite Musical Influences" ... Japan was in the list of 3 of the 5 and first for the keyboard guy - the one who appropriated his look from David S.

  • Be sligthtly disinclined to disagree with you on their later material. I made the mistake of lending a copy of The Wedding Album to a good friend. Never got it back. Made the mistake a second time. Third copy doesn't go anywhere... ;-)

  • I love that album, despite what I said above. Ordinary Day transcended everything they'd done before. And then their were some other songs that stood up to repeated listening. But the lineup of the band had changed dramatically and Warren Cuccurillo (sp?) was brought in for his songwriting talents.

  • @CatFiain i adore the wedding album...its perfect pop, and its okay for a band to change over the years, but the main thread of who they are remains, line up changing or not, their roots firmly in decent pop and superb arrangments :)

  • @Annamandabella Ha! yes well put!

  • Memories came flooding back watching this video.... fantastic performance

  • Ok....for Live stuff Japan were AMAZING........Oil On Canvas album/cd/dload if u can, amazing stuff

  • you're better off with bootlegs actually, get Hammersmith Odeon 81 show to start.

  • This is such a fabulous song. I think the sound man fell asleep.

  • Just getting back into Gentlemen Take Polaroids. Great clip this, thanks.

  • I've never heard a live track from Japan before. Not bad! They are still cooler than just about anything since.

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  • GTP is my favourite Japan album. I think I recall seeing this on the telly back then. I was playing a Japan track (Taking Islands in Africa) in my car a few weeks with a younger collegue of mine who was shocked that the song was from the early 80s as he said he thought it was new band! There you go; ahead of thier time by 30 years!

  • I was lucky enough to see their last concert at the hammersmith. The music clothes style they had it all. it was a truly great time to be a teenager.

    I really feel for the kids today, with the total lack of imagination, wearing tracksuits, no individual style.

  • oh god how I love this band. They sound so beautiful live..Gentlemen take polaroids is probably one of the best albums I've ever heard. what I owuld give to have been born in that time era

  • I was born in that time and it sucked. Imagine living in constant fear of being nuked.

  • TOTALLY feeling your pain. Our generation of Kanye West and shitty female pop singers is what is wrong with this world.

  • very, very cool

  • times will cum back agen !! believe me

  • brilliant

    thanks for the upload m8 ; )

  • so fuckin cool ,never ages .fuck rap shite and all that shite they got today !!

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  • one of my fav japan vids. what the unenlightened dont get about japan is that although duran, spandau and the rest dated as quickly as bread, japan sounded ahead of their time then, and somehow still do. i would be surprised if there ever again was a young band so original, classy and interesting. just my opinion but if you don't agree you're a cunt.

  • This/Japan encapsulates my adolescence and times that were so much better.... I miss them too.

  • mashamorgan I know what you mean, this is my all time favourite Japan song..words dont explain the emotions it stirs in me!

  • listening to this brings me to tears, awesome.......such talent, Japan were fabulous and I miss them so much !!

  • Most excellent, thanks for the upload :) :) :)

  • With out Japan there would not be Duran Duran and if You were smart You would know that even Nick form DD did get alot of ideas from JAPAN), Poor WHAT this is David Sylvain and on Bass Mick Karn. Wake Up !!!!!!!!!!!!

  • I love Duran Duran, but they wouldn't be here without Japan. Though both owe a debt to early Roxy music. Great,great band Japan.

  • they all owe to new york dolls

  • this was always my favorite japan tune, I just adore the middle 8th, where david sing "I could never hurt anyone...least of all you" and micks relentless fretless bass in the background.....amazing stuff. goes with me till the grave and maybe beyond.

  • well said.

  • yeah me too! they were brilliant....

  • I'm 37. I can remember the band really friend. I remember a friend who was obsessed by them. He was always playing their songs before going out. The room would be full of hairspray and he'd spend hours spiking his hair. My Grandfather called him "spiky". They could really play. In the late eighties British music really died a death. Now I'm living near Lewisham in London where the band first started. Now it's mostly black, Indian, Polish and Russian area. I don't think there's a music scene.

  • one of their best songs for sure ... I just realised (looking at the video) that the y look a bit like the British version of Kraftwerk. Especially their sort of business-like, serious outfit fits the rather emotional tunes in an odd way. Man, this is 29 years ago ... how old we are!

  • Their best song IMO and one of the all time greats of the 80s

  • love this song and love that bass sound!!!!

  • still awsome

  • awsome live why did they break up

  • Yea, I bet you mean "Made in Korea".

  • composição agradável !!!

  • very well constructed artistically..

    outside where no one can here..

  • you mean hear, right?

  • I have this theory that if you mix Japan's "My New Career" with David Bowie's "A New Career in a New Town" one would end up with amazing results.

  • both are fantastic songs, and both carry the same "glib optimism" about pushing forward in life, at least from my perspective.

  • Gervais really wanted to be this good... and wasnt.

  • And duran duran...

  • Duran Duran = Poor man's Japan

  • i second that,sylvian rocks.

  • It is so amazing that David made great music right from the very start. There's never been any period of his music that he's needed to apologize for or make excuses about. That speaks volumes about the quality of his art.

  • David really doesn't like early Japan, Adolescent Sex etc.

  • my god obscure alternatives of the album of the same name is one of my favs.

  • very nice

  • Beside the great song... David is sooooo GORGEOUS!

  • Love this song, one of the best songs from one of the best bands of the late 70's/80's.

  • all of Japan are great artists in their own right. Mick Karn has nothing to do with David's personal achievements. Strange thing for you to say.

  • it's a shame mick karn got no credits for the japan songs. without him, sylvian would have made bad songs.

  • what a great song from an awesome album,

  • mi tema favorito de una de las bandas mas excitantes que haya escuchado. buen recuerdo.

  • A very fascinating song by this cool band.This synth is very fresh and not invasive.Great time from 77 to 84 about NEW WAVE.

  • One of my favourite Japan songs. Very, very special.

  • you wont get any better than that.

  • Japan is better than your band, your band, your band, your band, and your band.

  • I'm only 19 so was not around in the 80's :( Wish I was. Japan Rules!

  • wow, that's cool...i found out about japan when i was 18, i'm 20 now and i think japan are wonderful...yeah, i agree, i wish i was older in the 80s :)

  • I'm now 40 and been listening for, oo, about 28 years!! Oh god, I wish I hadn't worked that out...

  • one of the most under rated albums of the eighties'also the most under rated band.

  • true, true, true :)

    I mean, duran duran most definitely ripped off japan in my opinion...

  • duran duran are/were huge fans of japan. i believe a recent interview i read off their page suggest just that. nick rhodes mentioned that they saw japan play and was one of their favorite acts. i'm sure coming up they hugely influenced dd. japan's first release was in 1978. dd's is 1981. the comparisons from the singing style to their fashion sense to even their hair is obvious.

  • yeah, yeah, duran duran did admit they were big fans of japan...nothing against duran duran, i mean, i like duran duran myself, although i like japan more...

    yeah, very true what you say actually, umm...mind you, japan in their early days was quite something ha ha, i mean when they were like the new york dolls ha ha :)

    anyway, duran duran are still releasing albums methinks...but i see that david sylvian is more alternative than simon le bon for sure

  • Tazz77: "Gentlemen Take Polaroids is a perfect album...not one dud of a song."

    Absolutely. And - not to slur it at all - but it's the perfect album to chill to before going to bed, I find. Lovely smooth feel to it, nice relaxing atmosphere it brings.

    Wine + woman + GTP = great evening.

  • I love u David!

  • was brilliant 20 yrs ago plus and still fresh today !

  • I thought he said "Well they say down South, that someone sat on my hometown"!

    XD