Alphaville – Big In Japan

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  General Comment:It's confusing because you hear a male singing "I will wait here for my man tonight", and also "pay, and I'll sleep by your side" so it's easy to think of male prostitution. That could just be the male lead singer singing from the point of the woman in the song though.

  Flagged SWLinPHXon March 27, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:Thanks for that. Always bugged me this song as I thought all the prostitution references were a reference to groups that once past their prime would still sell in Japan and thus they became prostitutes for the sales. For a song about trying to quit drugs it sure doesn't spend any time on it. Its still 90% about prostitution.

  Flagged Zsteron May 31, 2011   Link

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  Song Meaning:In a 1998 interview with the German online magazine Re.flexion, Alphaville lead signer Marian Gold explained: "I must admit the only ones who understood the meaning of the song correctly were Bernhard (Lloyd) and our then publisher Andy Budde. Bernhard recognized the quality of the song and Andy the ability of its marketing. 'Big In Japan' tells about a couple of lovers trying to get off Heroin. They both imagine how great it would be to love without the drug: no steal, no clients, no ice age in the pupil, real emotions, true worlds. Till nowadays Berlin station Zoo is an important meeting place for junkies. That's why this place became a venue of the song. In 1977 I was quite regular in a club in Kreuzberg, the SO36. I hoped to meet David Bowie. There was the rumor he would be in Berlin for withdrawal treatment in that period. There was a fellow, who sold stuff of independent bands from US and UK. I bought the album of a British band named Big In Japan. "Big in Japan" meant so much as if you are nothing in your environs, you can be big somewhere else. You can be a king in another world. And if you aren't that, you can tell it at home. Japan is so far away. Anyway that statement fit perfectly to the story of the couple of lovers. So I used it for the refrain of the song. It was strange: as we released the song later, Frankie Goes To Hollywood was the #1 in the charts with "Relax" and we needed some weeks to edge them out. And Holly Johnson, the singer of the band, was the singer of this band "Big in Japan," who I stole the line some years ago, before he came to Frankie Goes To Hollywood."

  Flagged Cr7NeTwOrKon January 19, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:In a 1998 interview with the German online magazine Re.flexion, Alphaville lead signer Marian Gold explained: 'Big In Japan' tells about a couple of lovers trying to get off Heroin. They both imagine how great it would be to love without the drug: no steal, no clients, no ice age in the pupil, real emotions, true worlds. Till nowadays Berlin station Zoo is an important meeting place for junkies. That's why this place became a venue of the song. In 1977 I was quite regular in a club in Kreuzberg, the SO36. I hoped to meet David Bowie. There was the rumor he would be in Berlin for withdrawal treatment in that period. There was a fellow, who sold stuff of independent bands from US and UK. I bought the album of a British band named Big In Japan. "Big in Japan" meant so much as if you are nothing in your environs, you can be big somewhere else. You can be a king in another world. And if you aren't that, you can tell it at home. Japan is so far away. Anyway that statement fit perfectly to the story of the couple of lovers. So I used it for the refrain of the song.

  Flag k40t1xon June 15, 2008   Link

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  General Comment:the first time i heard this song - only about 5 years ago incidentally, i know right?! - i thought and still do after much examination, that it's about male prostitution. yeah there're drug refs in there - the sine qua non of prostitution - but it's mainly about the european (hence the "big" as compared to the japanese men..giggle:) male ho..and we can all imagine what the "be tight" is about in this light - lol

  Flag nastyrose222on November 23, 2007   Link

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  General Comment:LOL! Do you guys read the other comments before posting?
  
  The guy who wrote the song said it was about people he knew trying to quit drugs, so yeah, it's "possible" that there are drug references...and if it "seems to [you]" that it's about drugs, well... ;)
  
  "ITs as though he's singing in the shoes of a woman betrayed by her lover or something"
  
  Welcome to the discussion, deluded! Nice username, by the way. LOL.

  Flag The Knaveon October 16, 2006   Link

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  General Comment:since I First listened to this song, the lyrics and the fact that is played by two german bands, I've always thought it was inspired by the book "Christiane F. – Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo", the story of a girl who became a junkie, and a prostitute to support the addiction.

  Flag hmdomingoson September 13, 2006   Link

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  General Comment:ITs as though he's singing in the shoes of a woman betrayed by her lover or something

  Flag deludedon June 15, 2006   Link

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  General Comment:It seems to me that a friend or someone got the protagonist hooked on a drug of some form ( literal or metaphorical) and he's waiting for his next fix, 'i will wait here for my man tonight' - and it's easy beacuse he's in Japan where you can get anything you want - if that makes sense. Great 80s song nonetheless.

  Flag butterflykiss84on April 30, 2006   Link

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  General Comment:When I first heard it in '84 I assumed it was a bout a businessman visiting Japan and then having a good time in the evenings with drugs and prostitution.

  Flag CharmingManon April 06, 2006   Link

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