Kurenai (song)

"Kurenai"
Single by X
from the album Blue Blood
B-side	"20th Century Boy (Live)"
Released	September 1, 1989
Format	8cm CD
Recorded	June 10, 1989 at Hibiya Yaon (track 2)
Genre	Power metal, symphonic metal, speed metal, glam metal
Length	6:52
Label	CBS/Sony
Writer(s)	Yoshiki
Producer(s)	Yoshiki
Certification	Gold (RIAJ)
X singles chronology
"Orgasm" (1986) "Kurenai" (1989) "Endless Rain" (1989)
Music sample "Kurenai"

"Kurenai" (紅, literally "crimson") is a song by Japanese heavy metal band X Japan, written by Yoshiki. One of the band's oldest songs, they have been performing "Kurenai" since 1985, several versions have been released. Most significantly, as their major label debut single on September 1, 1989.^[1]

History and summary

"Kurenai" was first released on X's June 1985 live demo tapes, which were titled "Live" and "Endless Dream". The lyrics were entirely in Japanese, while the next version, released on their April 1988 debut album Vanishing Vision, was entirely in English and began with an intro played by hide on guitar. A flexi disc included within the June 1988 issue of Rockin' f magazine, contained "Kurenai (Original Japanese Version)". It begins with an intro played by Yoshiki on piano and contrary to the title, was mostly in English. The version on 1989's Blue Blood begins with an orchestrated piece, then the guitar intro, and is mostly in Japanese, with only the opening lyrics in English. Only a few months later, the single version was released, although very similar to the recording on Blue Blood, it does not have the orchestrated intro.

While appearing to be a love song, Yoshiki stated that "Kurenai" is actually about the struggle of ones heart. hide revealed that it was his favorite X song before he joined the band and was disappointed that they did not perform it when he did, so he had to nag to get them to play it. Yoshiki commented that was probably because the song's arrangement at the time was too simple. Both Toshi and Taiji felt that the track has a very Japanese feel to it, with Taiji stressing that each member helped arrange the version that appears on their debut album.^[2]

"Kurenai" is one of X Japan's signature songs, exemplifying the band's trademark mix of speed metal, ballad and symphonic elements, it is played at nearly all of their concerts, often accompanied by the stage being lit in red light and the band pausing during the last third in order to let the audience sing the chorus on their own. The single version features that specific bit of a live performance added after the studio recording, hence the title being written as "紅 Kurenai + Your Voice" on the back of the single's case.^[1] The B-side is a live recording of the song "20th Century Boy", originally by British rock band T. Rex. The live material from both songs was recorded on June 10, 1989 at Hibiya Yaon.^[1]

Track listing

Commercial performance

It reached number 5 on the Oricon chart, and charted for 39 weeks.^[3] In 1989, with 133,090 was the 74th best-selling single of the year, and in 1990, with 176,450 was the 67th best-selling single, being certified Gold by RIAJ.

Cover versions

"Kurenai" was covered by Brazilian power metal band Shaman, on the Japanese edition of their 2010 album Origins.^[4] It was also covered by Matenrou Opera on the compilation Crush! -90's V-Rock Best Hit Cover Songs-, which was released on January 26, 2011 and features current visual kei bands covering songs from bands that were important to the '90s visual kei movement.^[5] Female heavy metal band Show-Ya released a version of the song for their 2014 cover album Glamorous Show ~ Japanese Legendary Rock Covers, and recorded a music video to accompany it.^[6][7] "Kurenai" is also a playable song in the music video games Taiko no Tatsujin Wii: Do Don to 2 Daime, Taiko no Tatsujin: Portable DX, and Taiko no Tatsujin Plus.

References