"Berang" (berang)
02/07/2019 at 23:20 • Filed to: musicloppo
4
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"Berang" (berang)
02/07/2019 at 23:20 • Filed to: musicloppo | 4
| 8 |
(not a car) Everybody knows The Vapors’ hit Turning Japanese. But what about the song Letter From Hiro from the same album? It is, I suspect, about a far darker subject than most would guess: Unit 731.
“I think it was Thursday, I think it was late,
Nineteen-thirty eight
Got a letter from Hiro, but left out the date
He said he was waiting for an outbreak.”
From the Wikipedia article on Unit
731:
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
Unit 731 developed chemical and biological weapons for the Japanese Imperial Army. They experimented on Chinese civilians, and performed all manner of atrocities. After the war the U.S. let some
of the worst of the perpetrators off the hook in exchange for information about the weapons they developed. The leader of the unit, Ishii, was never prosecuted for war crimes, and died in 1959. Tens of thousand of Chinese civilians died as a result of the “tests” and “experiments” carried out by Unit 731.
I would not be at all surprised if this is what the song is about, as The Vapors also released a song about Jim Jones. Making pop songs about atrocities seemed to be their M.O.
Goggles Pizzano
> Berang
02/08/2019 at 00:13 |
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Speaking of The Vapors, yesterday I learned the same man that designed the album cover for Magnets...
years later
cre
ated ‘
Where’s Waldo?’
VincentMalamute-Kim
> Berang
02/08/2019 at 00:21 |
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Woah, you’re dropping serious history into my evening?
Didn’t know The Vapors other than their one hit. How about an entire band name about more war atrocities
to depress everyone: “Joy Division”.
If you don’t know the meaning behind the name, you’ll have to Google.
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Berang
> Goggles Pizzano
02/08/2019 at 00:21 |
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Yeah I got both. I’m not as much of a fan of the second album, which seems more generic than the first album, but they’re both listenable. I only just listened to them back to back for the first time in about four or five years.
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Goggles Pizzano
> Berang
02/08/2019 at 00:23 |
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I’ve never listened, but what you’ve posted makes me want to.
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Berang
> Goggles Pizzano
02/08/2019 at 00:49 |
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They’re both enjoyable albums, I just think the first one is a little more unique/enjoyable. It has a lot of my favorite verses out of any single album ever.
“But as time goes marching home again
It leaves me to reflect
Well was this just a waste of time
Or was this time well spent
And if it marches back again
And orders me to smile
Then will I be prepared
Or will it take a little while”
Has stuck with me since the very first time I heard it. Half the songs are pure corn, the other half are underrated poetry.
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Berang
> VincentMalamute-Kim
02/08/2019 at 00:53 |
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I’m familiar, I’ve seen 24 Hour Party People, which is an amazing film.
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VincentMalamute-Kim
> Berang
02/08/2019 at 12:22 |
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oops, when I was typing it, my mind was directing the second and third paragraphs to the general internet audience. To someone who knows the background on The Vapors, Joy Division is common knowledge. I figured kids nowadays wouldn’t know.
Trying to think of bands the young
t
echs at the hospital I worked at might have heard of,
I mentioned Talking Heads and Blondie. They had no clue.
I’m going to guess you grew up in that era?
I’ll keep an eye out for ‘24 hr party people’. I thought it looked depressing when it came out. Like Joy Division.
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Berang
> VincentMalamute-Kim
02/08/2019 at 14:09 |
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It’s one of the funniest movies I’ve seen.
Funny, the day Tony Wilson died, a friend of mine saw somebody wearing an Unknown Pleasures shirt, and assumed the guy was wearing it in tribute. The guy had no idea who Tony Wilson was and my friend went into nerd depression for the day.
Joy Division et. al. were slightly before my time, but because of older siblings who had those albums, I was vaguely familiar with a lot of them growing up.