- Lyrics & Music: Kazuya Yoshii
- Arrangement: The Yellow Monkey
Original Lyrics
とろけるほど 感じてる
今2時25分
木枯らしは 踊り狂い
三日月は 笑いだし
ギリギリの Love game
私はあなたに 恋狂い
粉々にしてよ
紫 のサテンの夜なら
乱れ舞い踊れ
Loneliness tonight
痛みそれも抱いて Tonight
かきみだす In 25 25
あなたが醜いブタでもいい
困ることなどなにもない
白い肌も 赤い舌も
真っ黒焦げにしてほしい
喜びながら花びらを
むしりながら
ボロボロにしてよ
赤すぎる果実夢の中
灯りを消して
Loneliness tonight
痛みそれも消して Tonight
とりみだす In 25 25
Cry me now kill me
Only night so I love you
独りぼっちじゃ 夜は眠れない
Cry me now kill me
Only night so I love you
あなたにもお花をあげましょう
Lovers on backstreet crazy
眠れない真夜中の 淫らな恋人と
Singin’ a love song
“I want you baby”
それすらも Radio In 25 25
Cry me now kill me
Only night so I love you
独りぼっちじゃ夜は踊れない
Cry me now kill me
Only night so I love you
あなたにもお花をあげましょう
Lovers on backstreet crazy
Lovers on backstreet crazy
Lovers on backstreet crazy
Sweet baby
Lovers on backstreet crazy
Sweet baby
Lovers on backstreet crazy
Romanized Lyrics
torokeru hodo kanjiteru
ima niji nijuugo fun
kogarashi wa odori kurui
mikazuki wa waradashi
girigiri no Love game
watashi wa anata ni koi gurui
konagona ni shite yo
murasaki no satin no yoru nara
midare maiodore
Loneliness tonight
itami sore mo daite Tonight
kakimidasu In 25 25
anata ga minikui buta demo ii
komaru koto nado nanimo nai
shiroi hada mo akai shita mo
makkuro koge ni shite hoshii
yorokobinagara hanabira wo
mushirinagara
boroboro ni shite yo
aka sugiru kajitsu yume no naka
akari wo keshite
Loneliness tonight
itami sore mo keshite Tonight
torimidasu In 25 25
Cry me now kill me
Only night so I love you
hitori bocchi ja yoru wa nemurenai
Cry me now kill me
Only night so I love you
anata ni mo ohana wo agemashou
Lovers on backstreet crazy
nemurenai mayonaka no midara na koibito to
Singin’ a love song
“I want you baby”
sore sura mo Radio In 25 25
Cry me now kill me
Only night so I love you
hitori bocchi ja yoru wa odorenai
Cry me now kill me
Only night so I love you
anata ni mo ohana wo agemashou
Lovers on backstreet crazy
Lovers on backstreet crazy
Lovers on backstreet crazy
Sweet baby
Lovers on backstreet crazy
Sweet baby
Lovers on backstreet crazy
Translated Lyrics
I feel it so much that it enchants me
Right now it’s 2:25 AM
The cold wintry wind dances in ectasy
And the crescent moon bursts into laughter
Just barely a love game
I’m madly in love with you
So break it all to pieces
As long as it’s on a night made of purple satin
Dance about madly
Loneliness tonight
Holding tight to my pain, tonight
I’m gonna to stir up some trouble, in 25 25
It doesn’t even matter if you’re an ugly pig
Nothing bothers me anymore
My white skin, my red tongue
I want you to scorch them black
As you happily
Pluck my flower petals
Just wear me out
The fruit in my dreams is too red as it is
Turn out the lights
Loneliness tonight
Turn out my pain too, tonight
I’m gonna flip out, in 25 25
Cry me now, kill me
Only night, so I love you
I can’t sleep at night all alone
Cry me now, kill me
Only night, so I love you
I have a flower for you too
Lovers on backstreet crazy
In the dead of night when I can’t sleep, with an obscene lover
Singin’ a love song
“I want you baby”
It’s even on the radio, in 25 25
Cry me now, kill me
Only night, so I love you
I can’t dance at night all alone
Cry me now, kill me
Only night, so I love you
I have a flower for you too
Lovers on backstreet crazy
Lovers on backstreet crazy
Lovers on backstreet crazy
Sweet baby
Lovers on backstreet crazy
Sweet baby
Lovers on backstreet crazy
Notes
This is actually the first song that Yoshii ever wrote in The Yellow Monkey, though the version heard on Bunched Birth was not what the song started out as. Unfortunately no recordings seem to exist of the song in its original form.
“Lovers On Backstreet” was the first song I wrote the music for in The Yellow Monkey, but it was very complex. They told me “You overdid it” back then. The song had a different melody when we had our previous vocalist, and different lyrics as well. So I changed the melody and rewrote the lyrics so I could sing it myself. When I came up with the phrase “I have a flower for you too”, I knew I could work with the song. With just that single phrase. But it’s a song about a prostitute, so I thought “There isn’t any Japanese rock like this”. From that point on I wrote like something new had been opened up in me, like I was possessed by something.
Yoshii has mentioned on several occasions that it’s a song about about a prostitute that lost her family. It feels like this is a woman who has turned to prostitution not necessarily because she has nowhere else to turn or no other way to survive, but rather because she’s lonely and this is the only way she can deal with that loneliness: love a man for a single night, every night. The parts involving sex are colorfully spelled out, making references to plucking flower petals, and she herself even referring to sex as giving flowers (a line that Yoshii is particularly proud of). The thing that remains a mystery is the phrase “in 25 25”. It’s tacked on in a way that doesn’t make a lot of sense. It could also be the age of the woman, which would line up with Yoshii’s approximate age at this time, but that really all depends on exactly when this song was rewritten from its original form.
The group’s 4th single, “nettaiya” features a re-recorded version of this song as the coupling track. This same version would appear on a couple of greatest hits collections: “TRIAD YEARS act II” and “THE YELLOW MONKEY MOTHER OF ALL THE BEST”. Bunched Birth is the only album that you can listen to this original version on, though for sound quality you’re better off going with the re-recording.
It’s a cliche choice, but Lovers On Backstreet is easily my favorite song from Bunched Birth. It’s the song that sounds and feels the most like what Yemon would become over time, and while it isn’t the most mature example of Yoshii’s writing, it’s closer than any other song on this album. It’s a lazy way of portraying a woman who’s lost her family, but it seems like Yoshii has come to recognize that over the years.
I think I was about 23 at the time and didn’t really have any preconceived notions, so I just sung whatever came to me when writing. But you know, if me as I was back then was in front of me right now, I’d probably feel like there wasn’t much to him: He was just that unpleasant of a guy. Anyway we can’t see the future and parts of our lives are beyond our control. The phrases in the lyrics that I wrote then that I have issues with are from nothing but morbid conversations that I had. And then we were playing clubs as well, so maybe that had some influence too?
Lovers is also the earliest example of very memorable phrases within the lyrics, like my favorite “anata ga minikui buta demo ii” (“It doesn’t even matter if you’re an ugly pig”), and the first instance of many where Yoshii would write lyrics from a woman’s perspective.
That’s because I wasn’t very good to women back then. This felt like borrowing their mouths and singing for them. “He’s a terrible person isn’t he!? He should be killed!” (laughs)
This song doesn’t often appear on their live recordings, and when it does it’s always when they’re purposefully playing much older songs (such as the Mekara Uroko concerts, which exist for this purpose).