A majestic man on so many levels. I knew that fucking cancer elephant was lurking in the room, but I truly though we would have more time with him.
He was only 71.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 62 | April 10, 2023 4:04 AM |
I only know the lovely "Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence". Will need to check out more of his compositions. RIP.
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | April 2, 2023 7:24 PM |
A synth pop pioneer as well. R.I.P.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 4 | April 2, 2023 7:32 PM |
He also played a director in Mark Romanek’s video for Rain by Madonna
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 5 | April 2, 2023 7:33 PM |
R3 Check out his early work with YMO for fantastic synth rock. Also he did a great record, New Geo, that featured Iggy Pop. See below for a taste. And of course his outstanding work in the film Last Emperor which is a feast for eyes and ears. He was truly amazing. Soooo much more.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 6 | April 2, 2023 7:34 PM |
Incredible sad news. Even if it was long clear that this day would come... love his music since the 80s ( Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, The last emperor). Had the honor to see him live - roughly ten years ago.
R.I.P.🖤
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | April 2, 2023 7:38 PM |
It kinda blew my mind when I realized that was him in the video for "Rain." One of Madonna's best (imo).
YMO on Soul Train!
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 8 | April 2, 2023 7:39 PM |
A lot of detail here. He was involved in so many projects and musicians over his life. I thought I knew a fair bit, but even I was surprised.
From the Washington Post (no paywall)
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 9 | April 2, 2023 10:10 PM |
The music he composed for the 2002 film Femme Fatale it's what truly made me love this film.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 10 | April 2, 2023 10:16 PM |
This is his own beautiful orchestral piece called "Rain (I Want a Divorce)" from The Last Emperor.
It's absolutely thrilling as a piece of dramatic music, but the moment in the film doesn't make a lot of sense: the Secondary Consort runs away from the Emperor's compound in Tianjin in the rain because he won't divorce her--she just doesn't want to be in a throuple any more, because though the imperial court recognizes the Emperor can be married to multiple women, the Western world they now live in will not. But you've had no chance to get to know the SC's character, so you don't really care whether she leaves him or not--although the music insists you should.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 11 | April 2, 2023 10:19 PM |
So much beautiful music. Cancer is horrid.
| by Anonymous | reply 12 | April 2, 2023 10:19 PM |
Why it's always good,talented people that leave us so soon :(
| by Anonymous | reply 13 | April 2, 2023 10:20 PM |
He said when he worked with Bernardo Bertolucci, Bertolucci would yell at him in the recording studio, "More emotion! More!"
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | April 2, 2023 10:20 PM |
Just remembered he also did The Sheltering Sky. Another score I've always loved, even if the film itself was somewhat lacking.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 15 | April 2, 2023 10:24 PM |
Wow, R8! In tthat second song you can hear the krautrock influences as well as their classical training and Japanese influences. I don’t think the people at Soul Train were equipped to deal with all that!
| by Anonymous | reply 17 | April 3, 2023 4:50 AM |
Sakamoto did double duty (so to speak) in Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence. Besides composing the score, he memorably played the sadistic, self-loathing Captain Yonoi.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 18 | April 3, 2023 5:19 AM |
When I was fifteen in 1985 I did a homestay in Japan. I already loved Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence and David Sylvian/Japan, so I bought the YMO album on cassette that featured “Kimi Ni Mune Kyun” and listened to it endlessly on my Walkman. The song is pretty cheesy, and the video even more so, and at the time I had no idea about the actual talent and intelligence that went into their music. This was their “pop” single; most of the other music on that 1983 release was more intelligent and nuanced, merging synthpop with a distinctly Japanese sound.
It’s so sad that such a talent is gone, but look at what he left behind! He got to spend his whole life creating art and collaborating with other artists from all over the world, and left such an amazing legacy. I’d say that’s a life well-lived.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 19 | April 3, 2023 5:21 AM |
This is why I keep returning to this cesspool. On no other forum would I find people who are familiar with Sakamoto AND Mishima Yuko.
| by Anonymous | reply 20 | April 3, 2023 5:29 AM |
RIP. One of my favorites.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 22 | April 3, 2023 5:33 AM |
The YMO sample that started the decades-long Mariah vs. JLo war.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 23 | April 3, 2023 5:39 AM |
I love this, R18. Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence is flawed, but Sakamoto portrayed his internal conflict quite well, despite his not having being trained as an actor.
You can see his frustration at having to deal with POWs (who, as far as he had been inculcated, should have died fighting rather than surrender), coupled with his battle of wills with the Bowie character (who had his own demons and guilt), and his internalized homophobia… and that soundtrack! 😭
Here is David Sylvian singing “Forbidden Colours” from the end credits. They collaborated a lot over the years.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 24 | April 3, 2023 5:39 AM |
er, also, R20 (sorry - it’s rare that I find someone who’s even heard of Mishima Yukio - no disrespect to Sakamoto Ryuichi!!)
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 27 | April 3, 2023 5:57 AM |
For those of you who are familiar with YMO--check out this reworking of their 1978 classic Tong Poo that Sakamoto did for the Japanese designer Junya Watanabe. Mesmerizing.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 28 | April 3, 2023 5:58 AM |
The original 1978 version of Tong Poo by YMO:
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 29 | April 3, 2023 6:00 AM |
R27 DL, always an amazing, surprising learning experience.
| by Anonymous | reply 30 | April 3, 2023 6:00 AM |
Fun fact: Sakamoto's then-wife, the singer/pianist Akiko Yano, was the female vocalist on Thomas Dolby's She Blinded Me with Science. Thus the in-joke of 'good heavens, Miss Sakamoto, you're beautiful!'
| by Anonymous | reply 31 | April 3, 2023 6:04 AM |
One of Sakamoto's loveliest compositions: the end theme to the Michael Pitt film Silk:
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 32 | April 3, 2023 6:07 AM |
The original album mix of Sakamoto's collab with Jill Jones, You Do Me. For some reason it's not included on the album anymore, and the later remixes aren't as good imo. A critic once described it as 'Michael Jackson strolling through a temple in Kyoto':
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 33 | April 3, 2023 6:14 AM |
The beginning of the decades-long Sakamoto/Sylvian collaboration: the amazing1980 track Taking Islands in Africa, from Japan's album Gentlemen Take Polaroids. Despite the credits, the other members of Japan have said they had nothing to do with this song--it was all Sakamoto and Sylvian.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 34 | April 3, 2023 6:22 AM |
I’ve absolutely adored Sakamoto’s music for decades.
I even (embarrassingly), went through a funny, yet absurd stage in my life, where I referred to myself as Mrs Sakamoto.
LOL!
This man was a true artist, & I have completely devoured & loved/appreciated, almost everything he has published/released.
I got into him the evening after watching the film, BABEL, at The Grove, in WeHo.
My date was absolutely gorgeous, yet boring. I came home, & immediately Googled Sakamoto’s catalogue.
My, GAWD! Was I totally blown away. Indeed, i redundantly recognize that I was.
Listen to him ever since.
His synth tunes also introduced me to UNKLE, & KRAFTWERK, which I’m eternally grateful for.
RIP, dear talented man. ❤️ Thanks so much, for the everlasting beauty.
| by Anonymous | reply 35 | April 3, 2023 6:37 AM |
R34 - wow… that really takes me back (to my teenage years being all emo before emo was a thing, being all “emo” on my bedroom floor spinning records to my lonely self)!! I still have all of Japan’s albums on vinyl in storage; I don’t think I’ve heard this song in over thirty years, though. Thank you so much! 😭
| by Anonymous | reply 36 | April 3, 2023 7:17 AM |
In Call Me By Your Name they use this Sakamoto song when Elio is reallyconfused and conflicted (trying to impress Oliver by shaving, etc.) I think it does convey Elio’s mindset (whatever people here think of Timothée Chalamet).
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 38 | April 3, 2023 7:54 AM |
I became enamored of Sakamoto’s film scores after seeing “Last Emperor.” After that, I tried to get hold of every soundtrack he brought out. My favorite is “Little Buddha,” from the second, unsuccessful, film he scored for Bertolucci. But I also like “Silk,” “Sheltering Sky,” and the music he wrote for a little-known film version of “Wuthering Heights,” starring Ralph Fiennes as Heathcliff.
After his bouts of cancer, his approach to music changed to a devotion to pure sound. Given that he was very ill for quite a while, I’m actually surprised he lasted as long as he did. His was a fascinating musical voice in whatever he explored. At least we have what he left behind.
| by Anonymous | reply 39 | April 3, 2023 9:27 AM |
RIP
His early 90s house-influenced anti-Gulf War song, ‘Triste’
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 40 | April 3, 2023 9:33 AM |
Vaccine-induced cancer, it happens a lot these days.
RiP, maestro.
| by Anonymous | reply 42 | April 3, 2023 2:43 PM |
He was battling cancer ages before "The Vaccine". He was living on borrowed time, I'm surprised he made it as long as he did.
What a loss.
| by Anonymous | reply 43 | April 3, 2023 9:17 PM |
The end-titles theme to The Last Emperor is some my favorite film music of all time; gorgeous and poignant.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 44 | April 4, 2023 12:12 AM |
I remember years ago standing in line at an op shop (Australian thrift or charity shop) and wishing I had the soundtrack to The Last Emperor. Then I looked at the counter, and there it was, in cassette form. I listened to it endlessly and loved the films he scored for Bertolucci too.
| by Anonymous | reply 45 | April 4, 2023 6:11 AM |
East West Fusion in 1989/90: pathbreaker
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 46 | April 4, 2023 6:15 AM |
And yet Randy Newman still walks among us.
| by Anonymous | reply 48 | April 4, 2023 6:21 AM |
Life is short. Art lives long.
| by Anonymous | reply 49 | April 4, 2023 6:33 AM |
GLAM AF: Sweet Revenge, 1994
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 50 | April 4, 2023 7:00 AM |
Gorgeous Smokey eye makeup - avant la lettre! - in Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, 1983
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 51 | April 4, 2023 7:05 AM |
Despite his avant garde gender bending image way ahead of his time, there seems to be little speculation about Mr Sakamoto’s sexuality
| by Anonymous | reply 53 | April 4, 2023 7:13 AM |
RIP, loved him in Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
| by Anonymous | reply 54 | April 5, 2023 1:08 AM |
Article from The Atlantic. If you hit the paywall I will post a non paywalled version.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 56 | April 5, 2023 4:09 AM |
Non paywalled version of Atlantic article
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 57 | April 5, 2023 4:11 AM |
He also made a terrific EP with Robin Scott of M / Pop Muzik fame in 1981
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 59 | April 5, 2023 10:48 AM |
The famous sad tune remixed to sound more upbeat and danceable
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 60 | April 5, 2023 1:16 PM |
His 90s electronic music was unforgettable
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 61 | April 6, 2023 5:26 AM |
I watched Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence last night. Although Sakamoto was obviously not an actor, he and Bowie were so compelling and the chemistry between them was so strong. Sakamoto was a a very striking man.
I love his themes for this film and The Sheltering Sky. Beautiful.
| by Anonymous | reply 62 | April 10, 2023 4:04 AM |
