Kitty Says Moo

Many years ago I was amused by my pal Jeff’s discovery of Matsuhita’s corporate anthem. It seems most Japanese companies have an anthem, and Matsushita’s was sung daily by its employees as they gathered for morning calistentics, or whatever it is they do there. It went, if I can recall:

For the building of a new Japan
Let’s put our mind and strength together,
Doing our best to promote production,
Sending our goods to the peoples of the world,
Endlessly and continuously,
Like water gushing from a fountain.
Grow, industry, grow, grow, grow,
Harmony and sincerity. Matsushita Electrical!

Poetic, perhaps, but not terribly exciting. But times change, and now it appears that a corporate anthem belonging to a demolition company and written by an employee, has become a pop hit in Japan. It has an upbeat techno drums-and-bass tune, and the lyrics are as follows:

Break alright Break alright Now we’re ready for your town
Dismantle away Dismantle away The just one rule we’ll obey
Conclusion of the duration is comin’up, Concrete is losin’ its unity
There are the delayers of buildin’ our peaceful days Break’em out!
NIHON Break KOGYO Smashin’ steel ball Da Da Da
NIHON Break KOGYO Chemical anchor bolt driven to beat&wave the hardest rock!!
Any houses! Any bridges! And any towers can’t stop us in any way!
Going ahead! Going ahead! NIHON Break KOGYO

Break alright Break alright Terrible defective housings
Wooden frames, mortared walls and pencil-formed over tall buildings
Have you ever seen mighty skills to treat pile heads, rough clenched fists to support you
By the justice, like a hammer, Yumbo swung to raise!! Break’em out!
NIHON Break KOGYO Shinin’ diamonded cutter Da Da Da
NIHON Break KOGYO Compressor roaring loud between the earth & the sky!!
Any houses! Any bridges! And any towers can’t stop us in any way!
Going ahead! Going ahead! NIHON Break KOGYO

That’s more like it. And maybe it’s what we need here in the US, translated to our local idiom, of course…

Howl
(for Henry Ford)

I saw the best cars of my generation
destroyed by low compression, starving for gas,
dragging themselves through the detroit streets at dawn
looking for sunoco 260,
hemiheaded hipsters burning oil by the quart
connecting rods in the machinery of night,
who leadfree gas and catalytic converters
and mandatory seatbelts and airbags
were parked alongside the superhighways
and in the darkness of suburban garages
floating across the tops of cities,
who bared their heads to heaven under the stars
and saw winged red horses posed on billboards illuminated,
I’m with you in Dearborn
in my dreams you drive dripping oil
from a sea-journey on I-94 across america
in tears to the door of my condo in the western night

And then again, perhaps not.