For the best mix cd ever, I’ve been searching for Haruomi Hosono’s cover of “Daisy Bell” by Harry Dacre, which appeared in the 1984 film, Revenge of the Nerds, you know, in the scene of Takashi tricycling to victory for Tri-Lam against the Jocks. Why it doesn’t appear on the soundtrack along with well-forgotten 80 pop exemplars, the Ya Yas and the Gleaming Spires, I don’t know. I haven’t found it yet. I may have to resort to an audio sample instead. (Hosono did release a version of “Daisy Bell” on his Daisy World Tour compilation, but it’s not the same — hat tip to Phonaut who graciously shared this copy with me for review).

While researching though, I did discover the music of Haruomi Hosono, who I had only known from a track, Paradise v.2″ that appeared on a Japanese compilation called Pacific State along with gems by Doctor YS and the Cosmic Drunkards (“Secret Samba”) and DJ Krush (“Matsuri”). “Paradise, v.2” is credited to Swing Slow, the project/album of Hosono and Miharu Koshi. (Check that link on Koshi to discover another brilliant eccentric Japanese artist). I’m not a fan (yet) of Hosono’s pop from the 70s and 80s, but his album, Video Game Music (1986), however, should be a must listen for all electronaudiophiles. I haven’t heard enough of Yellow Magic Orchestra to say anything, but from the video I discovered below, I’m intrigued.

About Aharon N. Varady

Aharon's Omphalos is the hobbit hole of Aharon Varady, founding director of the Open Siddur Project. He is a community planner and environmental educator working to improve stewardship of the Public Domain, be it the physical and natural commons of urban park systems or the creative and cultural commons of libraries and museums. His advocacy for open-source strategies in the Jewish community has been written about in the Atlantic Magazine, the Yiddish Forverts, Tablet, and Haaretz. He is particularly interested in pedagogies for advancing ecological wisdom, developing creative and emotional intelligence, and realizing effective theurgical praxes. He welcomes your comments, personal messages, and kind words. If you find his work helpful to your own or you'd simply like to support him, please consider donating via his Patreon account.

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“Tricycle Built for Two” is shared by Aharon N. Varady with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.