Kurenai (song) - History and Summary

History and Summary

"Kurenai" was first released on X's June 1985 live demo tapes, which were titled "Live" and "Endless Dream". The lyrics were entirely in Japanese, while the next version, released on their April 1988 debut album Vanishing Vision, was entirely in English and began with an intro played by hide on guitar. A flexi disc included within the June 1988 issue of Rockin' f magazine, contained "Kurenai (Original Japanese Version)". It begins with an intro played by Yoshiki on piano and contrary to the title, was mostly in English. The version on 1989's Blue Blood begins with an orchestrated piece, then the guitar intro, and is mostly in Japanese, with only the opening lyrics in English. Only a few months later, the single version was released, although very similar to the recording on Blue Blood, it is still slightly different.

"Kurenai" is one of X Japan's signature songs, exemplifying the band's trademark mix of speed metal, ballad and symphonic elements, it is played at nearly all of their concerts, often accompanied by the stage being lit in red light and the band pausing during the last third in order to let the audience sing the chorus on their own. The single version features that specific bit of a live performance added after the studio recording, hence the title being written as "紅 Kurenai + Your Voice" on the back of the single's case. The B-side is a live recording of the song "20th Century Boy", originally by British rock band T. Rex. The live material was recorded on June 10, 1989 at Hibiya Yaon.

The title song was covered by Brazilian power metal band Shaman, on the Japanese edition of their 2010 album Origins. It was also covered by Matenrou Opera on the compilation Crush! -90's V-Rock Best Hit Cover Songs-, which was released on January 26, 2011 and features current visual kei bands covering songs from bands that were important to the '90s visual kei movement. It is also a playable song in the music video games Taiko no Tatsujin Wii: Do Don to 2 Daime, Taiko no Tatsujin: Portable DX, and Taiko no Tatsujin Plus.