Teenage dreams
I started listening to the songs by FIELD OF VIEW (FOV) a lot. I remember in middle school I got their Single Collection best album, and really liked their music. But to be honest they only have a few very nice songs, and because their (hit) songs are mostly written by other artists I like, I listen to the song writer’s cover versions mostly.
I got their 25th Anniversary Best, so I started listening to their songs again. Surprisingly, what shakes me is their lyrics. Certainly their lyrics are not like Azuki Nana’s — dark, deep, etc, but straightforward, and full of the spirit of teenage boys.
One I listened a lot is 「大空へ」, written by Miho Komatsu. She covered this song in her 6th album, but I guess because she wants a more consistent vibe of songs throughout the album, the arrangement is very very light. Too light to make me listen to it frequently, not to mention to pay attention to the lyrics. FOV’s version has a classic Being pop song’s feel, and more solid. At some point I noticed the lyrics:
そう少年の夢は 今でもあの頃のまま
僕の心に 輝き続けてるから大空へ
羽ばたこう だれより一番高く
無謀なことだけれど
ちからの限りを知りたくてもうあんなにも欲張れないよ
大事なものが一つ増えてゆく度に
行き場が失くて
I shook my body, and made me think of my training. Yes I used to dream of being a bodybuilder, and that’s the dream always in the bottom of my heart, without me even realizing it. Now that I’m chasing it, and have recognized reality and many things I can’t change, I understand maybe I’ll never achieve what I dreamed about in this life. However, I still do all my best every day, in every rep, every set, every session, because I want to see how far I can go.
Another song I loved is 「Dreams」. There’s actually nothing new about the lyrics, and if it were many years ago people would probably even say it sounds such like a cliché. But again, thinking about my life now, those simple words are just so powerful:
人に笑われてもいい 僕は
いつの日か 現実にできるよ
君と見た tiny dreamsいつも何かに一生懸命で
はしゃいで笑ってる君が好きだから
Those are the songs written 20 years ago. Songs these days simply don’t have these kind of resonation to me, not even Mai Kuraki’s. Being groups has been in decline for a long time, but I still listen to their music. But gradually, it becomes more of a habit, or for the sake of nostalgia. Their lyrics got monotonic and meaningless. Utada Hikaru released her new album, and like always got lots of praise. But to me the new album has no value at all. The lyrics are so hollow, and the melodies are repetitive and the arrangements plain. Music these days are not that different than white noise.
That’s probably why such simple yet powerful words made me tremble. I miss that era.
On the other hand, I think now I’m in a phase where I can easily forget about my dream in the daily life. When I was in high school, my dream is to get to a good college, and the date to make that happen is the day of college admission exam. When I was in college, my dream is to get an offer from a grad school in the states, and it happened around my last semester. When I was in grad school, my goal is to graduate and find a job in the states, and that was roughly in five years. Now that I have a job, and life is pretty stable (in a sense), there’s no more “goals“ to chase. There’s still dream, but it doesn’t happen in a fixed time frame. There’s no countdown, or no more expectation of a specific date approaching. Gradually, “chasing dream” seems become just an idea. “Since nobody knows when that’ll happen, we’ll just live our daily life and see what happens“ has easily become the attitude.
Those songs, and their lyrics, remind me of the days when “I’ll give all myself out before that day comes“ was the spirit. The days when simple words like “Don’t give up to the future“ or “I believe one day my dream will come true“ could give me courage and power; no need to have too much intertwined explanation or complicated thinking of the real world.
It’s true that life is like a “marathon without goal” and we should enjoy the view along the way. But I love chasing a dream, like a boy chasing a soccer ball. Maybe that’s what they called “teenage dreams“. Is that how people feel young again?
