Brackbird – the Japanese sing the Beatles
The Japanese are basically unable to hear the difference between the letter L and the letter R. No matter how they try L and R are the same for them. This can be a bit confusing to first time visitors who take the Metro to Ropponji (as it is listed in all the tourist brochures and signs) only to hear the train announcer tell them that they are now approaching Lopponji. In the land of Karaoke this can result in some interesting moments, to say the least. So my recent visit to a Japanese Beatles club was preceded with quite a bit of concern. Would I be bored to tears with yet another bad set of Beatles covers? The answer is I was pleasantly surprised. The home group at the Japanese Abbey Road club call themselves the Parrots are really quite good and the atmosphere is hypnotic. Even when the Japanese get excited they do it in a calm polite fashion. So that people shouldn’t talk through the playing the evening is divided into half hour sessions of live music and half hour intermissions where you can eat, order more booze and chat to your friends. The band leader, suspiciously looking like an overweight John, tells jokes between the songs and sings a personal Happy Birthday to everyone celebrating, and there were tons of them. All in all they managed the L’s and R’s pretty well though Sha la la la la was quite a challenge and Blackbird was a bit beyond their limits.
Here is how a less successful Japanese rendition of the song could sound.
Brackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fry
All your rife
You were only waiting for this moment to alise.Brackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and rearn to see
all your rife
you were only waiting for this moment to be feeBlackbird fly, Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.Brackbird fry, Brackbird fry
Into the rite of the dark brack night.
Brackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these bloken wings and learn to fry
All your rife
You were only waiting for this moment to arise,
The Parrots -the legendary Japanese Beatles cover band in action
—
—
—
© 2011 Steve Taite. All rights reserved. If you enjoyed this post please leave a comment and pass on to your friends. If not feel free to pass on to your enemies. Don't want to miss a post? What are you waiting for, subscribe now or follow me on twitter.

























