So Am I Lyrics
Debut Album Lyrics
Japanese translation
CHINA DOLL LYRICS
China Doll
China Doll
words
and music by S.Sugiyama
from the album "Saiichi Sugiyama"
Bluewater SHS 7039 released November 1994
words and music by S.Sugiyama
from the album "Saiichi Sugiyama" Bluewater SHS 7039 released November 1994
We fly through the night, baby
sleep tight, oh, no, you don't have to cry
Over the East, there'll be a feast, when the sunset's on the sea
We'll walk down the ally way, down to the bay, you'll wear a coral
in your hair
My secret garden, East of Eden, I want to take you, take you there
Over the East, there'll be a feast, when the sunset's on the sea
We'll walk down the ally way, down to the bay, you'll wear a coral in your hair
My secret garden, East of Eden, I want to take you, take you there
China doll, oh, my china doll
Why don't you smile for me?
Why don't you smile for me?
Hear the ocean call you into
your dreams, come and see me on the shore
Boats drifting on the sea, the far away isles
I want to show you, show them all
Boats drifting on the sea, the far away isles
I want to show you, show them all
China doll, oh, my china doll
Why don't you smile for me?
Why don't you smile for me?
China doll, oh, my china doll
Why don't you smile for me?
home
FUNKY
PAUL (Los Angeles): I've liked China Doll from the first time Saiichi
played it for me. As I was updating the website, Saiichi sent me
the above disc art that he put together. I think my response was,
"tasty!" It's a lovely design and photograph. Saiichi
wrote back and said, "It's my old photo
on Atami Beach when Mune (his son...pronounced
"Moonay") was 3. I have lots of fond childhood
memories there and I had Atami in mind when I wrote China Doll."
I've
been to Japan only once, in 1969, and I took the Bullet train ("Shinkansen")
and got off at Atami because it looked so pretty, and walked down
the steep, pretty little lanes to the town below. As I walked through
the picturesque village, everyone was dressed in Kimono. It was
like stepping back in time. Saiichi wrote back:
"Atami
has long been a seaside spa resort to Tokyo with a large amount
of hotels, particularly popular in the 50s-70s. Have you watched
the b/w film Tokyo Story by Ono from the 50s? It is very popular
here. Appreciated much more here than in Japan, but it is a very
tender film of a family. There is a bit in that film where the elderly
parents get sent to Atami for a break by their well-meaning children
(but the place was too boisterous for their quiet rural ways). My
father used to go there to dine almost every weekend with his business
contacts and have parties! He would then call us over so that we
could join him. He got us to go on the Shinkansen on the day after
it’s opening in 1964, I believe, the year of the Tokyo Olympics,
who was his client (and he got invited to the games as a guest of
honour – he acted for the Olympics people busting pirate merchandisers
with Olympics logos).
"The reason why Shinkansen stopped there was because it was
a spa resort. The hotels in those days were not westernized. You
would probably have thought that they were just ordinary big houses.
The reason everyone was in Kimono was because visitors all got changed
to the cotton kimono, supplied by the hotels, to relax as soon as
they got there and they would not get changed when they would go
round the town – the town was like a Disneyland and the cotton
kimono with the hotel logos, I suppose, served as a badge for the
visitors to distinguish them from the locals who were supposed to
be in awe of the visitors who provided them with livelihood. The
castle that you saw was a make believe tourist attraction and not
a historic one. It used to (and still does, I suspect) get lit up
in green at night and provided a focal point to the landscape, which
inspired China Doll. I just wanted to go back to my Atami days,
I suppose. The traditional Japanese hotel would serve dinner in
your room and it always was a feast. Atami was built on a quite
steep slope – hence the walking-down-the-alley-way-down-to-the-bay
line. One of my early childhood memories is the morning view over
the bay from the hotel suite with boats drifting on the sea. So
that is what the song is all about. Flying through the night is
literary the JAL London to Tokyo flight that leaves at 7pm. The
better hotels in Atami had wonderful private gardens, which are
the secret gardens in the song. One thing, though, is that there
was no beach at Atami in those days. The manmade beach was created
in the 80s to attract visitors back to Atami (and they succeeded
in attracting young people – but they never stay the night
and spend money like the older generation – so it did not help
Atami financially)."
China doll, oh, my china doll
Why don't you smile for me?
home
FUNKY PAUL (Los Angeles): I've liked China Doll from the first time Saiichi played it for me. As I was updating the website, Saiichi sent me the above disc art that he put together. I think my response was, "tasty!" It's a lovely design and photograph. Saiichi wrote back and said, "It's my old photo on Atami Beach when Mune (his son...pronounced "Moonay") was 3. I have lots of fond childhood memories there and I had Atami in mind when I wrote China Doll."
I've been to Japan only once, in 1969, and I took the Bullet train ("Shinkansen") and got off at Atami because it looked so pretty, and walked down the steep, pretty little lanes to the town below. As I walked through the picturesque village, everyone was dressed in Kimono. It was like stepping back in time. Saiichi wrote back:
"Atami
has long been a seaside spa resort to Tokyo with a large amount
of hotels, particularly popular in the 50s-70s. Have you watched
the b/w film Tokyo Story by Ono from the 50s? It is very popular
here. Appreciated much more here than in Japan, but it is a very
tender film of a family. There is a bit in that film where the elderly
parents get sent to Atami for a break by their well-meaning children
(but the place was too boisterous for their quiet rural ways). My
father used to go there to dine almost every weekend with his business
contacts and have parties! He would then call us over so that we
could join him. He got us to go on the Shinkansen on the day after
it’s opening in 1964, I believe, the year of the Tokyo Olympics,
who was his client (and he got invited to the games as a guest of
honour – he acted for the Olympics people busting pirate merchandisers
with Olympics logos).
"The reason why Shinkansen stopped there was because it was
a spa resort. The hotels in those days were not westernized. You
would probably have thought that they were just ordinary big houses.
The reason everyone was in Kimono was because visitors all got changed
to the cotton kimono, supplied by the hotels, to relax as soon as
they got there and they would not get changed when they would go
round the town – the town was like a Disneyland and the cotton
kimono with the hotel logos, I suppose, served as a badge for the
visitors to distinguish them from the locals who were supposed to
be in awe of the visitors who provided them with livelihood. The
castle that you saw was a make believe tourist attraction and not
a historic one. It used to (and still does, I suspect) get lit up
in green at night and provided a focal point to the landscape, which
inspired China Doll. I just wanted to go back to my Atami days,
I suppose. The traditional Japanese hotel would serve dinner in
your room and it always was a feast. Atami was built on a quite
steep slope – hence the walking-down-the-alley-way-down-to-the-bay
line. One of my early childhood memories is the morning view over
the bay from the hotel suite with boats drifting on the sea. So
that is what the song is all about. Flying through the night is
literary the JAL London to Tokyo flight that leaves at 7pm. The
better hotels in Atami had wonderful private gardens, which are
the secret gardens in the song. One thing, though, is that there
was no beach at Atami in those days. The manmade beach was created
in the 80s to attract visitors back to Atami (and they succeeded
in attracting young people – but they never stay the night
and spend money like the older generation – so it did not help
Atami financially)."