Okinawa - Music

Any tour of Okinawa Musical interest (at least mine) must begin with some verbage about the club scene. Back in the day there were many night clubs that were showing MTV (completely new at that time) videos all night long into the wee hours. Since we weren't able to get MTV on the television, this was our connection to music Stateside. Of all the clubs showing videos, really, three come to mind after all these years.

1. Purple Haze - Stayed on the classic side of rock. Hendrix, Stones, Zeppelin, that sort of thing. The signature drink was called the "Purple Haze" with a shot of d'absynthe was the most fun to fill a glass.

2. Sgt. Peppers - Showed music on the lighter side of rock. Great place, it was, to take the ladies. It was loud, but, not so loud that conversation was impossible.

3. Okinawa's East Coast - Heavy Metal, not the sappy '80s crap either. Their first location was in Kin villiage up near Camp Schwab and they opened a location on BC Street in '83. They had these 4' (yeah 4 foot) JBLs mounted in concrete cabinets along with mid and tweeter horns. That club was so loud, the street out front would vibrate. Fights were fairly common. Whenever you pile a bunch of rowdy marines and air force and army guys into a little club, fights are certain to take place. I worked at the East coast from opening night until I departed the island in '85. There was no better job for a kid 19 to 21.

We went to many other video clubs, but, these are the three that stand out in my mind.

Live Houses

There were also clubs where the music was live. There were three live houses in Koza which were very popular. Club Cannon, Condition Green, and the third was right around the corner from Cannon. Club Cannon had George Murasaki. The band Murasaki had already broke up and had split into two bands. One played at Cannon, the other around the corner. The band at Cannon went by and released records under different names. Heavy Metal Army, Mariner, and Okinawa are the three band names that I remember at Cannon.

I spent much more time at the other club and should remember the name of the band and the name of the club, however, I do not.

Condition Green was the place where I personally spent the most time. Those guys were absolutely histerical. They also allowed other bands to use their stage and club to play. We saw several groups of military guys there as well as the high school kids bands. As a matter of fact, one of the bands I was in played on their stage after our high school talent show. We tore the place up with two Zeppelin covers. The experience of playing for an intimate crowd of military guys is one memory that sticks to me. It was awesome! Condition Green was without a doubt the mos fun and outgoing group on the island. When you walked into the club, you never knew what would be happening. Sometimes there would be a military guy singing with the band on stage, other times there were on stage antics that would make ozzy's biting the head off the dove stunt look mediocre in comparison. After the club would close, sometimes there would be parties where several people would load up in cars and hit a beach.

Then there was Japanese Pop. We were young boys and, as such, we were paying a lot of attention to some of the female pop artists. Pink Lady had splashed stateside already (They had their own American Variety show in the late '70s). The other two that really come to mind are Matsuda Seiko (The cute girl, My Favorite) and Mihara Junko (The bad girl, My Brothers Favorite).

In '82 or '83 I found this Japanese Heavy Metal record in the bins at Teruya Music (Koza) and the cover was amazing. The guitar was a blazing display of mastery and I still listen to Loudness today and hear something new that I never recognized before each time I listen to one of their songs. Out of all the Japanese bands I heard over the years Loudness is, in my opinion, the best of the best.