Article by: Beth / @magnonrockcave
Edited by: Kelly-Mae Matt
The last time I wrote anything about The Cro-Magnons – or ダ・クロマニヨンズ as the t shirts are branded – they had 13 albums and counting. Now they have 17 albums, with at least 20 or so amazing hits among them. That’s not even counting the tracks by the same songwriters previous bands The Hi Lows, and perhaps the more globally famous The Blue Hearts. Basically, they’ve been writing great rock songs since 1985 and have barely ever stopped.
At this point, The Cro-Magnons are the longest running line-up of all three groups. Balancing the new energy of their current drummer Katsuji Kirita and bassist Masaru Kobayashi, alongside common denominators Mashima Masatoshi on guitar and Hiroto Kohmoto singing/playing the harmonica, the latter of which continues to steal the stage; this is not a bad thing and, as I have said before, Hiroto Kohmoto is a ball of energy and I just don’t know how he does it.
So, whether you have never heard of them and I convinced you in the past, or somewhere down the line you have heard a few songs and want to hear more, it begs the question: With this much of a discography, where do you start? Well, that’s ultimately subjective, and I’ll just cover The Cro-Magnons discography here, but I do have a source besides myself this time.
A couple years ago, one of the group’s fans from Japan did a “Choose 3 Songs” poll to work up a big list of favourite hits. It was a big project, and I’m grateful for the permission to share some of the results. The fans in Japan have been far too generous with me to take their hard work for granted, and I am happy to share these same results with you today.
SONG RESULTS
The top three singles (from the first twenty poll results) plus the album they appeared on are as follows:
- エイトビート – Eight Beat – Fire Age
- 生きる – Ikiru – Rainbow Thunder
- タリホー – Tarihō – Self Titled (first album)
These are all great songs and I do have two out of three of those albums they appear on. Adding some commentary of my own, though, I do still love these albums, even if they aren’t my absolute favourites. I feel like some of my favourite songs were robbed, being a little bit lower down on the Fan Favourite Top 20’s list, if they were on there at all.
I would like to talk about the song Tarihō, because it is a bit of a mystery, at least for Japanese speakers and fans I’ve asked. This title is hard to translate and the people I ask either don’t know what it actually means, or say they must just like the sound. I’m told it does not mean ‘Tarry Ho’, which is an older phrase. I suppose when it comes to katakana words, the decision of that mystery lies with the songwriter. As far as I know, he hasn’t revealed it to us yet. He just wants us to enjoy the music!
During a recent interview in Japanese media, Hiroto talked about what he wants to convey with his songs. Please keep in mind that this is a translated version:
“So if you think something was conveyed, it is all correct, and the moment it is released to the world, the initiative is already with the audience.
That song belongs to everyone.
It belongs to you, the person who is reading this interview right now.
So interpret it as you see fit, and if you think it will be a treasure, make it a treasure, and if you don’t want it, you can throw it away.
We don’t care how people listen to us, as long as our music works as one of the fun things in the world anyway.
— Hiroto Koumoto (Interview by Hisakatsu Tanaka, Music & Entertainment Analyst for Yahoo News Japan)
Beyond Senpai 