Margin Notes | Tatsuro Yamashita 'BIG WAVE' | Summer doesn't come from the sea, it comes from the speakers |

*This article contains promotions. *Generative AI was used for the creation and structure of this article. The content has been verified, supplemented, and edited by the author.

You don't have to go to the sea for summer to arrive.

When you listen to Tatsuro Yamashita's 'BIG WAVE', a blue sky spreads out in your room, and waves come from afar. From this record born in 1984, I thought about the 'memories of summer' that reside within us.

It has become summer. No, to be precise, it's not summer just because it's gotten hot. When I feel like listening to Tatsuro Yamashita's 'BIG WAVE', summer begins for me.

✽　　　　　✽　　　　　✽

Good morning.
This is Ryota.

I own Tatsuro Yamashita's album 'BIG WAVE'.

I could write about it in my usual 'take a record off the shelf and introduce it' format, but this time I wanted to think about this album from a slightly different angle.

That is because 'BIG WAVE' is not just a record sitting on a shelf, but a work that feels like a season that comes to me every year when summer arrives.

Another summer born from a movie soundtrack

'BIG WAVE' is a soundtrack for a documentary film about surfing, released on June 20, 1984.

It is composed of Tatsuro Yamashita's original songs and covers, primarily of the Beach Boys, and all songs are sung with English lyrics.

The official website also introduces it as 'a creative album consisting of originals and Beach Boys covers (solo multi-track recording), with all songs in English'.

However, strangely enough, when I listen to this album, I don't really get the feeling that I am watching a movie.

The sea, the waves, the blue sky, the sandy beach.

Those images are not behind the music; the music itself begins to create the images.

A horizon stretches from deep within the speakers, and the ceiling of the room turns into a blue sky.

Of course, in reality, I am in my usual room.

Outside the window is the city of Ryogoku, and there are no young people holding surfboards waiting for waves.

Even so, it is strange how, when 'THE THEME FROM BIG WAVE' begins to play, even the air in the city feels a little drier.

Side A is a fictional America created by Tatsuro Yamashita

The first half of the album features original songs composed by Tatsuro Yamashita with English lyrics by his close friend Alan O'Day. Warner Music also describes this work as an album composed of original songs born from their collaboration and covers of the Beach Boys.

'THE THEME FROM BIG WAVE'
'JODY'
'ONLY WITH YOU'
'MAGIC WAYS'
'YOUR EYES'

Every song is packed with a longing for American pop music. However, it is likely not a direct reproduction of the real America.

Music received from radio and records, coastlines seen in movies, the blue sky on the jacket photo.

It is another America, reconstructed within the musician that is Tatsuro Yamashita.

An ideal coastline imagined while staying in Japan.

In a sense, it might be a fictional resort area constructed through music.

Among them, 'MAGIC WAYS' has a comfort that doesn't make summer unnecessarily noisy.

The guitar cutting is light, but it's not just bright.

After the wind passes through, a sudden sense of loneliness remains.

In Tatsuro Yamashita's summer, there is always a hint of twilight.

On Side B, the Beach Boys appear within one person

The second half features songs related to Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys, such as

'GIRLS ON THE BEACH''PLEASE LET ME WONDER''DARLIN'''GUESS I'M DUMB'

These are characterized by one-man multi-track recording.

Tatsuro Yamashita creates choruses that sound like they are made by many voices by layering his own voice over and over again.

Even though he is singing alone, a group exists within the sound.

In the studio, a single musician splits himself into many, turning the ideal chorus in his head into reality.

It is not merely an imitation.

It is an architectural structure of sound rebuilt with his own voice and technique by someone who loved, analyzed, and understood the internal structure of the Beach Boys' music.

That is why 'BIG WAVE' sounds like a soundtrack for a surfing movie, and at the same time, a giant love letter sent from Tatsuro Yamashita to American pop music.

Music that changed the Japanese summer

The 'summer' we imagine is not made up solely of actual experiences.

TV commercials.
Songs played on the radio.
Magazine photos.
Sandy beaches in movies.

Those memories blend together to create each person's summer.

In that sense, 'BIG WAVE' might be a work that added a specific shade of blue to the Japanese image of summer itself.

You don't have to go to the beach.
You don't have to go surfing.

Even if you are just spinning a record in an air-conditioned room, the moment the intro to 'THE THEME FROM BIG WAVE' plays, the door to summer opens.

Although it is a work from 1984, the summer captured within it never grows old.

In 2014, a 30th-anniversary edition was released, featuring remastered audio, bonus tracks, and commentary by the artist himself. Furthermore, in 2025, as part of Tatsuro Yamashita's 50th-anniversary project, it was re-released on vinyl and cassette.

Even as times change, every time summer arrives, I want to listen to it again.

I believe a summer classic is not a work that is consumed repeatedly, but a work that is reborn every time the season comes around.

The waves are coming to my room, too

It looks like it will be a hot summer again this year.
I have no plans to go to the actual beach.

However, I have 'BIG WAVE' on my record shelf.

I take out the jacket and place the disc on the turntable.

The needle touches the groove, and the first sound plays.

Then, a large wave approaches from afar.

The sea created by Tatsuro Yamashita spreads out in my room in Ryogoku.

Ryogoku, suddenly a surf spot

Of course, I can't see the ocean from my room's window.
All I see is the usual city.
However, the moment I put on 'BIG WAVE', things change.
Waves rise from beyond the speakers, the air conditioner's breeze somehow turns into a sea breeze, and even the drink on my table starts to look a little tropical.
There is no ocean in Ryogoku.
Even so, if it's music, it can bring the ocean to you.
Tatsuro Yamashita is formidable.
If I keep listening like this, I might not even be surprised if surfers started walking in front of the Kokugikan.

My room is a coastline just for today.

I think I'll start this summer from the speakers.

✽

I've made a list of the Beach Boys songs that Tatsuro Yamashita covers.