I'M A CUCKOO - Belle & Sebastian (Japanese) 【HQ】

This is an exclusive video of Belle & Sebastian performing "I'm A Cuckoo" in concert in both Japanese and English at the Lowlands Festival in England in 2006... NEVER HAPPENED (haha).

HOW IT WAS MADE:

The original concert footage (sung entirely in English) was enhanced with widescreen HQ (from the original 4:3 format); the resulting video was synced with a newly substituted bilingual audio track. Additional cutaway shots from other concert footage were added to make the lip sync (or lack thereof) less apparent because of the new audio track having been added. The audio is a mashup of the original studio track in English, live concert audio, and a rare Japanese version of the song intended solely for distribution in Japan.

Incidentally, the "live" concert performance had no horn section, although the recorded version does. Again, a little mixing magic fixed that. I then added the cutaway video shots of the horn player from another Belle & Sebastian performance.

I tweaked the EQ and reverb of the composite track a bit to balance the different sources (the lead vocal on the Japanese version is not as distinct as on the English version -- it was mic-ed differently). I adjusted the timing and pitch of the separate audio tracks and, lastly, added English captions of the Japanese lyrics.

As for why I went to all this trouble? As a Japanophile, I was intrigued by the lyrics "I'd rather be in To-kyo... And watch the Sunday gang in Harajuku." The lively melody also won me over. After stumbling across the Japanese version I simply took it to the next level. Plus I've got waayy too much time on my hands (haha).

Unfortunately, the one-and-only Japanese version of "I'm A Cuckoo" has since been removed from YouTube for reasons unknown. I'm glad I downloaded it because I can't even find an mp3 of it anywhere on the web. This may be the only copy in existence outside of Japan.

Lyrics to I'm A Cuckoo (Japanese) :

Ureshii yo, kimi no yume wo mita
Panku na kakkou de
Odori ni iku tokoro datta
Demo kimi wa wakasugite oboetenai

Ureshii yo, boku wa ie no soto
Kyou wa enerugi ga denainanda,
Genki mo, demo ureshii yo
Kimi ga issho ni itekurete

Sayonara wa tsurai,
Bokura no kouya ga mieru
Tetsugaku ni jamasareta
Demo, moshi sou janakattara...

Yokatta ne, jouzu kuitta ne
Tayori ni shiteta no ni
Konya kimi wa tomodachi to iru, sabishii yo
Zutto shinjiteta no ni

Yokatta ne, shitteru yo
Kono itami wa toku sa, dare mo iyasenai
Karabbo no beddo ni suwatteru
Netsu ga agaru, gan gan gan gan

Sore yori itai Tokyo
Sore yori kikou Thin Lizzy wo
Mitai nichiyou no Harajuku
Okashii yo ne, boku wa kakkoo

Aitai yo, demo sotto shite okou
Kimi no eikou mo ii
Boku ga kimi no bosu dattashi
Kimi wo aishiteta, demo owari da ne

Sabishii toki mo, kimi no soba ni ita
Kimi ga kanashii toki mo, ijiwaru na toki mo
Kondo wa boku no ban
Sou kimi ni onegai suru no?

Sore yori itai Tokyo
Sore yori kikou Thin Lizzy wo
Mitai nichiyou no Harajuku
Okashii yo ne, boku wa kakkou

Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• belleandsebastian
• Belle
• Sebastian
• I'm
• Cuckoo
• Japanese
• Japan
• 私はかっこうである
• 美女およびセバスチャン

[wickedheritage]

OMG!! I love that he's singing in japanese, awesome job!! I love this song!!

[VidBrats]

@wickedheritage Thanks! Amazingly, you're the first to comment even after 2,123 hits xD

[scottbaioisdead]

@wickedheritage his japanese is so amazingly bad

[VidBrats]

@scottbaioisdead ROFL honto!!! btw, i never expected a japanophile AND a belle & sebastian fan to respond. you must be the only one in the blogosphere haha ^_-

[whorEu]

ichiban ~ budu cap ketereh and kace boto ! !

[stevenas135]

great positive energy, but I can't understand what he's saying. hm, maybe I'm too "americanized" haha.

[yoichilis]

Super

[didoma73]

Wow, kudos to Stuart and much more to you!

[Corkinthedork]

mind = blown