"Minami no Shima no Hamehameha Daiô" ("Great King Hamehameha of the Southern Island," 1976)

The sheer number of Minna no Utas that have accumulated after one year short of half a century of them, coupled with the ease of use and multilingual nature of YouTube has resulted in an audiovisual equivalent tof the box of Belgian langues de chat from Christmas that still need eating in providing something to a make an otherwise tiresome feel more worthwhile through the sheer condensed playfulness of them. But I suspect that the Minna no Uta videos will take me rather a longer to exhaust than the chocolates.

As one may have deduced from the visuals, the flip-side to the particularly delightful ingenuity in technique of this live-action one is that it belongs thematically to the great Japanese tradition of stereotyping the inhabitants of the islands south of them as carefree, grass skirt-wearing layabouts: an image which seems to have been at least partially imported from Euro-American archetypes of "island people" but which nevertheless serves as a handy antithesis to the stereotype of themselves as work- and achievement-obsessed. A friend's transliteration and translation of the lyrics (with help from the Japanese lyrics here) follow:

Minami no shima no daiô wa
sono na mo Idai-na Hamehameha
Romanchikku-na ôsama de
Kaze no subete ga kare no uta
hoshi no subete ga kare no yume

The king of the southern island
is called the Great Hamehameha
The king is a bit of a romantic
The wind is his song
and the stars are his dreams

Hamehameha Hamehameha
Hamehamehamehameha

Minami no shima no daiô wa
joô no namae mo Hamehameha
Totemo yasashii okusan de
Asahi no ato de okitekite
yûhi no mae ni neteshimau

The king of the southern island's
queen is also called Hamehameha
She's a very kind wife
She wakes up after sunrise
and goes to bed before sunset

Hamehameha Hamehameha
Hamehamehamehameha

Minami no shima no daiô wa
kodomo no namae mo Hamehameha
Gakkô girai no kodomora de
Kaze ga fuitara chikoku shite
ame ga futtara oyasumi de

The king of the southern island's
children are also called Hamehameha
The children hate going to school
Whenever it's windy they're late
and whenever it rains they stay home

Hamehameha Hamehameha
Hamehamehamehameha

Minami no shima ni sumu hito wa
dare de mo namae ga Hamehameha
Oboeyasui ga yayakoshii
Au hito au hito Hamehameha
Dare de mo dare de mo Hamehameha

Everyone who lives on the southern island
is called Hamehameha
It's easy to remember but it gets confusing
Everyone, everyone you meet is Hamehameha
Whoever, whoever it is, they're Hamehameha

Hamehameha Hamehameha
Hamehamehamehameha

However, my absolute, most influencing favourite is that to the Soul Flower Union song "Aotenjô no Clown," which I'm unable to locate on the video streaming sites as of now but which I hardly need to when it's firmly in thoughts every day.

Current music (in addition to the above): Leonard Bernstein – La Bonne Cuisine; Goldfrapp – "Dreaming"