Part 12-7: Early 70s. Momoyo encounters Les Rallizes Dénudés and Keiji Haino

Kan Takagi 'Between Rock and Roll...'
Text : Kan Takagi / Illustration : UJT

A popular series from the literary and cultural magazine IN THE CITY, published by BEAMS, makes its return. A long essay examining 'rock and roll as imported culture' from the streets.

It was a Sunday afternoon. I headed out of the subway station toward what was then called TV Asahi Street in Roppongi—a neighborhood that was, to me, nothing more than a place for adults—aiming for the S-KEN Studio.

By May 1978, even for the very few punk fans in this country, there was a sense that punk as a fashion and as a mood of the times had already ended. The Pistols had, for all intents and purposes, already broken up.

However, London still had The Clash, Sham 69, Buzzcocks, 999, and Generation X, and New York had the Ramones, so punk rock as music still existed. It was simply that the bondage pants and gauze shirts the Pistols wore were starting to feel a bit dated.

Amidst that mood of the times, as I took the train from Zushi to Roppongi, I had only one thing set in my mind: not to miss the last train home.

'Punk Setup 99%': 800 yen for six bands from 4:00 PM to 10:00 PM.

At a time when foreign artists cost 3,000 yen.

The last time I had gone to see a Japanese rock band live was for SLAVE, the band Haruo Kubota was in, which I wrote about here before. The only information I had before this day was that a band called Beni Tokage (Red Lizard) had a new lineup and a good reputation, and that a band formed by people who had been in NY was supposed to be amazing (I would learn that day that they were Friction).

As I turned the corner and approached my destination, I could see from a distance that people dressed in black were hanging around near the guardrail. Standing out among the crowd was a man who looked exactly like Dee Dee Ramone of the Ramones.

I must have been staring at him. He gave me a glance, shook his mop-top hair, opened the door to the building in front of us, and headed down the stairs.

(The entrance is this way.)

I felt like he had said that to me, so I followed him inside, feeling a bit nervous. Beyond the door I opened after going down the stairs, the walls were covered in silver foil, giving it the feel of Andy Warhol's Factory. The turnout was decent. There was no stage, but it didn't feel like you couldn't see anything at all.

The live show started with a band called Speed. The guitarist was cool and stood out. Gradually, more people started coming in. Tamagaki-kun, who I was meeting, finally arrived.

Beni Tokage appeared second or third. The person holding the bass on stage was the same Dee Dee I had seen at the entrance.

The moment the band started playing, a pop mood—the kind that might have appeared on 'Ginza NOW!', where many Japanese rock bands were performing at the time—completely transformed the slightly monotone atmosphere of the venue.

What made them decisively different from the bands appearing on 'Ginza NOW!' back then—most of which were Bay City Rollers-style, kayo-rock, Sha Na Na, or hard rock—was that even though Beni Tokage was fundamentally rock and roll, the guitar was focused on cutting, and the riffs were something new, played on a synthesizer. And the vocalist was, above all, striking. With a wolf-cut hairstyle, he sang with rich expressions, and even waved at a pretty girl who walked in halfway through. It was a stimulating moment for a boy from Zushi.

After this concert, Beni Tokage changed their name to LIZARD.

Nearly 45 years have passed since that concert.

Several years ago, when the Lizard box set was released, I had the chance to DJ at a reunion concert and join a talk event with Momoyo-san, thanks to the arrangements made by Auto-Mod's Jene. Since then, we have only communicated via direct message. I haven't seen him in many years. I had wanted to interview him since I started this series elsewhere, but due to his health around that time, I couldn't find an opportunity to meet him—until now, finally...

Since he is currently recuperating, I planned to keep the conversation within a comfortable range, but it ended up being a long, nearly two-hour interview.

First, I asked about a long-standing mystery: the story that MainMan Productions, the management office that handled Bowie, had planned an expansion into Japan.

"The MainMan Productions matter was something (stylist) Yasuko Takahashi helped facilitate indirectly, and I was one of the candidates among (the artists on the roster). The top candidate was Joe Yamanaka. But by that time, Bowie was already fighting with MainMan. He said he didn't like those kitschy people. Yuji Konno and the others probably thought they were associated with Bowie, but I think the 'MainMan Japan' thing was a shady story. It was all verbal; there was no talk of contracts or anything like that. The rock scene wasn't that mature yet."

I recently came across a series in the 1973 issue of 'Heibon Punch' titled 'A Man's Room,' which featured Keiichi Ishizaka, who was a director at Toshiba EMI at the time. Momoyo-san was captured in a photo taken in a room in the apartment building where he lived back then.

"A room in an apartment building about a 10-minute walk from Harajuku Station (omitted) In this club room, men wearing makeup and dressed in London-style clothes appeared night after night, sitting on records, sharing drinks, getting drunk on rock, and welcoming the morning."
(From the August 20, 1973 issue of Heibon Punch)

"I hung out with Ishizaka-san on a daily basis. This was back when Men's Bigi was under the church. I also went to about two parties. The first was for Beni Tokage (Red Lizard). It was '73 or '74. Showken and others were there, so it might have been around the time of 'Kizudarake no Tenshi' (Angels with Scarred Souls). The second time was in '77. I appeared under the name Destroyer. It was with Plastics. Plastics had a kitschy feel, too. We played songs like 'Machine Gun Kid' in a punk style."

The story of Beni Tokage, which transitioned through the edges of sound in each era—glam, punk, techno, and dub—goes back to the early 70s.

"First there was Gensouki (Illusion Demon), and after that, Tsuteiki (Undercurrent Device). It was '71 or '72. When I was a high school freshman, I eloped to Kyoto with the girlfriend I was seeing at the time. There was a festival. At the Kyoto University Seibu Kodo. It was interesting, so I stayed until about September. I could eat without working. Les Rallizes (Dénudés) were there. I met Haino before that. Around '70, there was something called the 'Society for Thinking About Japanese Rock.' It was run by someone who was a disciple of Haruko Mizukami. They gathered about 30 people in a coffee shop. That's where I met Katchin, the guitarist. When I went there to hang out, they said let's do a 'rock-in,' a session, but there was no one who could play instruments. I was on bass and Katchin was on guitar, and when we were jamming, Keiji Haino jumped in. Back then, Haino had apparently quit high school and was playing Led Zeppelin covers at a disco in Ikebukuro."