Discovering Japan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Discovering Japan" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Graham Parker | ||||
| from the album Squeezing Out Sparks | ||||
| B-side | "Local Girls" | |||
| Released | 4 May 1979 | |||
| Recorded | Lansdowne Studios, London | |||
| Genre | Rock, new wave[1] | |||
| Label | Vertigo | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Graham Parker | |||
| Producer(s) | Jack Nitzsche | |||
| Graham Parker singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Discovering Japan" is a song by British rock musician Graham Parker, recorded with his backing band the Rumour. The song was released on his 1979 album, Squeezing Out Sparks.
Lyrically inspired by a tour of Japan, "Discovering Japan" was a departure from the simplicity of some of Parker's earlier work. The song was released as a single in the UK in 1979, but did not chart. The song has since become one of Parker's most famous songs.
"Discovering Japan" was inspired by a tour that Parker and the Rumour went on that included stops in Japan and Australia.[2] As a new wave artist, Parker received much more attention in Japan as opposed to his native UK; Parker explained, "I’d been on tour, and I remember being on an airplane flying back from Japan, which was, and probably still is, like an alien planet. It’s really different. I’d toured there, and we’d had quite a tremendous amount of success—there and Australia. ... In Japan, we were the mainstay of new wave, so we were sort of accepted as something on the cutting edge. It was quite an experience. So I was on the plane coming back, and there were these little Japanese ladies in front of me making origami birds and passing them back to us and giggling. These ladies in kimonos flying back to England. ... All these things were running together in my head, and I scribbled down these lyrics that became 'Discovering Japan'".[3] Parker's trip to Japan also inspired "Waiting for the UFOs", another Squeezing Out Sparks track.[4]
In a 1979 Rolling Stone interview, Parker joked about the cultural differences between the UK and Japan, saying, "You go into a bar over there, and they're eating raw whale meat. I mean, can you believe that? ... I mean, fucking whales are going extinct, and here are these people eating them!"[4]
Recording
"Discovering Japan" was recorded alongside the rest of Squeezing Out Sparks at Lansdowne Studios in London. Initially, the song was unpopular with the members of the Rumour, but producer Jack Nitzsche convinced Parker of the song's worth. Parker recalled, "Martin Belmont was literally tsk-tsking 'Discovering Japan'. We were trying to get it down and Martin was like, 'Ehhh'. He thought the song was crap. He just didn't see it. Obviously, that affects me, so I'm thinking 'Well, maybe it is. I guess going from D to B minor is not so cool.' The spin I put on the chord sequence is not obvious at all, but nobody saw it. Eventually I had to say to Jack, 'You're the producer, tell us what to do'."[5]
