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For the past year, I have been returning to Ozaki's orbit after 25 years away, now listening to him constantly. He holds up. In 1986 a Japanese friend recommened Ozaki's album Kaikisen and Seventeen's map as I prepared to go to Japan for the first time (exchange student). It was the perfect gift for me. This and one other constitute Ozaki's earliest body of work that brought him the most fame. Last year I picked up his music again when I came across videos of his live performances.
Ozaki used common, ordinary words you never learn in Japanese class, in complex guitar, piano and drum arrangements that keep me hooked. Ozaki had a wonderful sense of how to use common, modern Japanese as poetry with all its natural rythyms, enabling him to weave his lyrics with complicated melodies that still grab the listener with a energy that feels like its running and jumping forward, as Ozaki was always proud of being a rock and roll act. His choice of words is definitely more "street" than high brow. His influences were Jackson Brown and Bruce Springsteen, and it shows, but never in a derivative manner. Ozaki had an authentic, working class Japanese voice all his own, and a musical sound that was unique in its own way.
Ozaki was also influenced by neighborhood bands that played in the street back when Harajuku was still cool. Ozaki ran in those scenes, and partied extensively in the neighborhood (omotesando, shibuya, shinjuku, etc.). That street culture runs all through Ozaki's simple, descriptive, and grounded lyrics painting a picture of a time when he was a renegade teenager, as they exist on the street for real, not on TV. He style is definitely simple but garish. Above all, he used his music to express his ideals for living - total committment, honesty, freedom, and unconditional love, often coming back to the same themes in different songs.
He has an incredible range of songs, from quiet, melancholy ballads, to anthems that express the inner longings of teens fed up with how things are run in Japan. Ozaki's criticism of conformist, "fake" Japan cut deep. He caused a sensation with this album (written before he turned 19), sold extremely well, but was always seen as an outsider by Japan's corporate music industry. Rather than keep quiet and ashamed about being a high school drop out, Ozaki talked openly about it, mentioned it from the stage, and wrote some of his most popular songs about being a dropout (or running away from home). He avoided interviews and television appearances, preferring to release all his pent up energy in the studio or on stage, usually at a quick tempo.
Sadly, we lost him in 1992 at the young age of 26, but because of the internet it seems more people than ever are discovering his legacy. This album and Seventeen's Map are the two that made him a legend. I hope people enjoy them.
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