Julian Cope presents JAPROCKSAMPLER.COM

Yoshio Hayakawa – vocals, rhythm guitar
Haruo Mizuhashi – lead guitar, vocals
Hitoshi Tanino – Fender bass, upright bass
Takasuke Kida – drums, flute, vibraphone

The Jacks were at the forefront of the Japanese folk rock boom, in 1968 scoring a huge hit with their nihilistic single 'Marianne', a demented and atonal 6/8 sub-'Signed DC' that sounded like the Velvet Undergound played by free jazzers. But their refusal to be interviewed, emphasis on poetry and the extremely long hair of singer Yoshio Hayakawa created an underground cult that would later influence Takashi Mizutani of Les Rallizes Denudes. The Jacks began in 1966 as a folk trio called Nightingale. But it was the arrival of jazz drummer Takasuke Kida that forged the sound of the Jacks. Their debut album, VACANT WORLD (featuring the epic 'Marianne'), is at number 42 in the Japrocksampler Top 50.

Julian Cope