This blog is a Yuko Kanno cult now!
Nearly a year ago, I went into loving detail about how much I like anime. But there was one I skipped over. One piece of this art form stands so far above the others that it deserves its own post. It didn't need to take a year and a half (and counting) to write, but I got hella lazy. In case you couldn't tell by the opening joke, that one anime, and the backing band, is Cowboy Bebop, Yuko Kanno, and the Seatbelts.
Cowboy Bebop's impact on the medium and music has been discussed countless times by people far more educated on the subject than I, so I won't get into the nitty gritty of scholarship. I'm just gonna talk about the scene(s) and the music that plays during them, and my personal attachment to either of the topics while dabbling in music theory.
First up is not ironic since there have been zero replies on this blog. "No Reply" doesn't actually play on screen. It's from the movie, "Knocking on Heaven's Door," but it doesn't get played there either. It's strictly from the soundtrack. It starts off ripping off The Verge (who ripped off someone else, if I believe) before Steve Conte starts singing. He sings a love song to someone whom he hurt and is asking for forgiveness. But I think he knows he doesn't deserve it. The chorus is about all the things he'd like to do to help the other person because they changed his life so much. But "Steve" still hurt them. And now he's dying, but that other person is the only thing he sees as his life flashes before his eyes.
The music is straight out of the 90's alt rock processor, which should be expected from a song that uses the violins of "Bittersweet Symphony." It's drum heavy, with a guitar just kinda noodlin' around. It's almost like the guitarist is still trying to warm up. It's 90's minimalism. The bass during the chorus, being as chill as possible, is neat! And then, around 3:30, the magic hits. The song builds up with some quasi orchestral stuff. The violins from the beginning return to play only a few notes, but those notes seem dissonant. They're unsettling behind the raspy guitar's pick slides, which was the style at the time. Steve almost screams, "You'll always mean so much to me," before going low and getting sad with "And there's No Reply," referencing an attempt to reconcile that went nowhere. The final words are how life only made sense with them in it. And then "Steve," presumably, dies. The final chords taper into something that gives me that vibe.
This song always makes me think of a melodramatic last stand scene. A man is looking back as his wife and children flee a roaming horde of demons, and only he remains to buy them time. It kinda speaks to me in the way that I need someone to tell me what to do. I've been on my own for too long and have just screwed it up. So it's the exact opposite... Either way, someone boss me around! The specific part of the song that I think is magic is the "And there's no reply" part. The way the song builds up to that drop is just so depressing. It hits the hammer onto the face that all of "Steve's" struggles meant nothing. It forces you to pay attention and evaluate the song if you had it as background music.
"Gotta Knock a Little Harder" is also only on the movie soundtrack. But it does get screentime! It plays after the climax of the story as the Bebop crew saves the day. It bleeds into the credits with a nice bluesy guitar, tagging in a jazz piano when the singer starts up. It's almost gospel like early on. It's very Cowboy Bebop. Mai Yamane sings about life, obviously. A life that doesn't know the meaning of happiness. She's kept her life "safe inside. Where no one ever had a chance to penetrate a break in." But then it hits her. "Suddenly it occurred to me ... Had totaled my existence. Everything left on the other side could never be much worse than this." She then starts to remove the metaphorical locks she's put up, but there's a fire at her back. And there are so many locks. There is no resolution here, but "Mai" ends it by saying she's got to knock a little harder. The lyrics are uplifting, and I'm realizing I've never actually read them before. Kinda just been vibing it. I've always liked the music.
That cool blues guitar always gets my attention, which is an important part of magic, it turns out. It leads into some exciting piano, with a driving bass in the background that doesn't need to take the spotlight because it knows you're listening to it anyway. It crescendos into a gospel like song, which you'd think I'd hate. I actually enjoy some gospel music; it's a basis for rock and roll, after all. But this song isn't your basic gospel song. It's more Black Baptist than Mormon. It gets ya up, it gets ya going, it makes you want to do something. Anything! And Mai's voice is just perfect. Her range fits any genre, with "GKALH" showcasing about four of them. It's just a song that's so fun that I can't help but change my mood when I hear it.
It's time for some Jazz! "Adieu" plays in the penultimate episode, "Real Folk Blues Pt. 1." Despite being in such a vital episode, I don't remember the scene where it plays. The Cowboy Bebop wikia says it's when Julia is on the phone with Wren. Yeah... not a clue. But it's the music that does it for me here. And that voice! I love a good jazz voice, and Emily Bindiger has one. It ascends over the slow piano that tries to keep up with her but fails spectacularly.
The lyrics are about a woman who loves someone, but they can't be together anymore. "Emily" doesn't want them to "care for me" and has to "say goodbye," despite the pain it causes her. She hopes these feelings will "fade away." So the question is, why doesn't she want to be with them? The opening lines make me think she's not ready for a relationship. "Been a fool. Been a clown. Lost my way from up and down." Or maybe the other person is simply dead? Or maybe he was just a concept she created?
Now, I do know where "Call Me Call Me" is played. The not Blondie song plays as Radical Edward takes her leave of the Bebop, along with Ein, to find her absent father. Presumably, at least. Maybe it's just because Edward has wanderlust? Faye Faye is also lying down in the ruins of her childhood home, which was destroyed sometime when she was in cryosleep. She's been looking for who she was the entire show, losing her memory during the icing, and she's finally found it. Only to, just now, fully realize how out of time she is. A close friend from high school has grown old and has grandchildren, while the life she once knew is literally gone. It's one of the heaviest scenes in the anime as the crew we've come to love is down two members, while another has some sort of closure. The best she's gonna get, at least. Meanwhile, Spike and Jet snake down two dozen eggs, trying to figure out their next plan...
Steve Conte is back! Behind him is an acoustic guitar that I don't think is strung correctly. They sound loose somehow. The real kicker is that bass that comes and goes as it pleases. I know it's there, and I hear the melody, but I'll be damned if I can figure out the rhythm/meter/time/whatever's going on back there. It's especially notable because the drums aren't very active either. I know it's there, but I have trouble noticing it. But the song is great anyway. It's a wonderful mess! It's a more traditional song during the pre chorus and chorus, where everything is there, doing what they must. Perhaps it was that random violin strike that brought them to attention? The same pattern repeats until the end of chorus two, where there's a piano breakdown. "Call Me Call Me" is an influence on metalcore! And the violins, sick of everyone goofing off, take control to add some class. A beautiful symphony, which also sounds like "Bittersweet Symphony," leads us out. Steve belts out the emotional climax of the song during that time, so those violins were needed. The guitar tries to finish it, but it gives up pretty fast.
The lyrics (and Conte's voice) are what truly shine here. "Steve" starts out, saying how happy he is, before he suddenly gets confused and wants to "get to you." He hopes the other person calls him and almost starts begging for them to "call me, call me." It would really "ease my mind." The second verse shows they used to be friends before "Steve" "had to grow." But that was "ten thousand years ago." He keeps pleading as the violins take over, repeating the refrain from earlier. But nothing happens. It's a song very similar to "No Reply," both as they're phone related, and that the man really wants this other person to talk to them. It could save his life. I also can't help but think of "Adieu." Is "Call Me Call Me" the man's view of that song? They both had to do some growing up before they knew who they were and what they wanted. Or did Yoko Kano write two songs with the same meaning and imagery by accident? Both being really good, relatable, and open ended? And now I'm just trying to make a musical subplot happen? Should I look into more songs on the albums? Damn it, me! Actually... these are related. They're all songs that give the blues to real folks....
A fitting place to end this report is the ending theme to Cowboy Bebop. One of the most iconic songs in anime. It's been two or three years since I last saw Bebop, but I can still visualize the black and white still images, with the occasional red rose splattered about, of Spike and Julia existing when I hear the song. The guitar phase intro lives rent free in my head, but only because they invite those trumpets over all the time. They only play seven notes, but they're the greatest seven notes a horn can play. And the bass may play the slowest scale ever recorded, but that's all it needs to play. You're already here, so why be wasteful?
Mai Yamane sings in Japanese as the guitar plays something more akin to a kid learning basic chords at 1 AM, hoping not to wake up his parents, while that bass doesn't give a damn who hears. He's got a song to guide. As the song goes along, the trumpets get bored. They intentionally wake everyone up because everyone needs to be awake. This is a song you have to hear, even if it's a song you don't want to. The other instruments are along for the ride because who are they to say no to these horns? Or is it Mai guiding them? She belts out the song title, in English, with all the emotion of a person trying to save the world. I'm being a tad overdramatic, but her voice during the chorus needs to be taught in vocal schools everywhere. It's so smooth but raw, and is the reason we're here. She gives way to the horns, who allow the guitar to noodle a solo between their beats.
But that's it. It repeats, and the final third of the song is more guitar noodling, but those horns. Those goddamn horns! I've never heard trumpets give a sense of melancholy and despair before or since. It is powerful because it signals the end. It is strong because you hear it twenty six times. It's unskippable because, despite it being in a language you probably don't speak, you know every single word.
"The Real Folk Blues," lyrically, fits in with the trilogy I've built up in my head about the last three songs. I've read a few different translations, but they all give the same vibe: a broken heart. It's been a long time, and the love should have faded away. But it hasn't. Perhaps it never will? The singer thinks about the past and the future, hoping to be held by them again. They want to cry but can't. Hopefully someone else can... It's not so bad, though. It's better to have love and loss than to have never loved at all, as they say. Love? Heartache? Just two sides of the same coin.
I like to think I'm over a certain someone. I like to think I was never in love with her to begin with. But every now and then she crosses my mind, and I can't help but think... The good times. The bad times. Doesn't really matter now, though, does it? I gotta carry that weight.
As Space Lion plays through my speakers, it's time to finish this up. Cowboy Bebop speaks to me in ways I never thought about until now. It tells the story of Spike and Julia in ways the show doesn't show. and it relates to me in ways I wish it didn't. If nothing else, writing these 2300 words has helped me appreciate the whole thing even more. It's so damn good. So long, Space Cowboy...
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