澤田 研二 Kenji Sawada Love

My love for the Japanese band The Tigers is not a secret. I have been really obsessed with them for about two years. Their lead singer is 澤田 研二 Kenji Sawada. I love him. I have four of their albums and listen to them all the time. I have seen two of their feature movies. One of the reasons I like Kenji Sawada so much is because his nickname is ジュリー Julie. He nicknamed himself Julie because he liked the movie The Sound of Music so much and thought that Julie Andrews had a beautiful voice. That's the same way I got my name. Julie! The Tiger's My Mary is a fantastic song, and the only Japanese song I could ever possibly sing half-decently in Karaoke. If I went with a bunch of old ladies. Only old ladies ever seem to like Kenji Sawada. If only I were a fan of Yon-Sama, I'd have 100 middle-aged friends. My students think it's really funny that I like him so much.  I also like Kenji "Julie" Sawada because he went through about a million different phases. Started as one of the main leaders of the GS band fad in Japan with his amazing band The Tigers. GS stands for Group Sounds and means Rock and Roll. GS was basically an American-modeled 1960s sound but the words "rock and roll" were (and still are) difficult for most Japanese people to say without a strong accent. GS sounded cooler and it stuck. But Kenji Sawada didn't only do GS. Kenji Sawada went through this really misguided David-Bowie-type phase where he wore makeup and spangly pants. Then, he went through a really funny and awesome Serge Gainsbourg phase where his albums had French titles like "Le chat qui a vecu un million de fois" and he posed with his girl like she was Jane Birkin. 

Don't believe me?

Kenji Sawada

Serge Gainsboug

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, etc etc etc and I think Serge Gainsbourg is the best musician of the past century, so good for Kenji Sawada. But out of all his phases, I like this one the best. Young and sassy in The Tigers.