Released August 1, 2002 Recorded Aobadai Studio | Format CD maxi single Genre Alternative rock | |
B-side "I Want to Live Like That" Length 5:50 (original egotistic version)
4:06 (display version) | ||
"White Summer and Green Bicycle, Red Hair with Black Guitar." is a song and single by the Japanese, alternative rock band The Pillows. Neither the single nor Thank You, My Twilight (the album it appears on) were released outside Japan.
Contents
Development
"White Summer and Green Bicycle, Red Hair with Black Guitar." is based on Sawao Yamanaka's lonely adolescence growing up in Hokkaidō. This viewpoint is most clearly reflected in the third verse.
"I've long been accustomed
To the loneliness
I don't really feel sorrow
These tears are only a pretense"
Despite this, Yamanaka has stated that he wrote "White Summer" for the group and not as a personal song for himself, saying, "I just make music for life."
Out of about four songs from the demo album The Pillows was working on at the time, "Babylon Verses of Angel" was Yamanaka's choice for the single release. However, the director, producer, and others pushed for "White Summer". Since the original version has a minute and a half intro, it had to be cut down for its single release. It was for this reason that Yamanaka was initially opposed to "White Summer" as a single, as "Babylon Verses of Angel" would not have required editing.
Music video
The music video for "White Summer and Green Bicycle, Red Hair with Black Guitar. (display version)" features a comet-tailed goldfish−the same featured on the single's cover−swimming around in a kitchen and bedroom, later also swimming around the band as they play against a white background. Short clips of a young boy riding a green bicycle are also shown at times, though no person with red hair, nor any black guitars are featured in the music video.
Versions and releases
The 4:06 "display version" of "White Summer" was first released in the maxi single format and is the version that appears in the DVD Dead Stock Paradise and compilation album Lostman Go to Yesterday. The 5:50 "original egotistic version" is featured in the 2002 album Thank You, My Twilight.