SONG FOR THE DUMPED (JAPANESE BONUS TRACK)

Listen to SONG FOR THE DUMPED (JAPANESE BONUS TRACK) by Ben Folds Five.

The world of purchasing music in Japan was a bit backwards. Surprisingly, the cheapest option was to buy the imported CD which cost $20-$25. To get people to buy the Japanese release which ran about $30, the record company would add the fabled "Japanese Bonus Track". Unfortunately most of the good additional tracks were already available on the UK imported version, leaving the band having to come up with something new for the Japanese release. The result was typically a poorly recorded demo version.

Love them or hate them, you've got to give Ben Folds Five credit for recording what to my knowledge is the only Japanese Bonus Track actually recorded in Japanese. You'll notice that the curse words are still in English -- sadly, there is an insufficient amount of swear words in Japanese!

Well, that does it for my week of Japanese music. My exposure to the Far East music scene ended five years ago -- maybe Amy can shed some light on some current J-Music!

Photo: Japanese Wires (5).