A Song for Who?

gallowsCalibrator · #1 2nd March 2010, 06:22 AM

(Sorry for the weird thread name; I just couldn't resist XD)

So, this is a strange question, but I was wondering which person Ayu dedicated her "dedicated to someone" songs to? I know the names of them (teddy bear, untitled ~for her~, Memorial address, Who..., ASFXX, etc.) and I've figured out some:

Memorial address: her father
untitled: her friend (?)
Who...: her grandma

However, I'm not sure about the rest, so could someone kindly tell me? Thanks a bunch and sorry for the confusing question X___X

zyoeru · #2 2nd March 2010, 06:42 AM

ASFXX - mother
Memorial address and teddy bear - father
Who.../ever free - grandma
MY ALL - herself
untitled - her friend who died in 2007
Life - friend who passed away in 2008
RED LINE - for her fans
HONEY - Tomoya Nagase
TO BE - Max Matsuura

AyuWorld · #3 2nd March 2010, 07:53 AM

interesting, everytime i listen to My Honey i have feeling that this song is dedicated to Nagase

and Who for her grandma? really? i didnt know that,i thought it for fans

another one, NO Way To Say-her father(?)

gothicayu · #4 2nd March 2010, 08:05 AM

thanks a lot for those explainations

zyoeru · #5 2nd March 2010, 08:31 AM

Present was created for her fans, or rather those who listened to the entire album (she wanted it to be a hidden track).
SIGNAL is a song she wrote whilst waiting for traffic lights to change. XD

AUDIENCE is most likely fan song.

evolution was written to welcome the new millennium, I guess.
M was inspired by a story about a saint called Maria, most like this is Mary Magdalene (Virgin Mary isn't a saint).
A Song is born is written about the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Real me honours women.

HANABI is most likely also about her grandmother and Ayu said it is to reflect the sadness of summer's end.
July 1st talks about her friends who she rarely has a chance to see except on July 1st.
Dolls was inspired by a film of the same name.
Close to you is a Christmas song.
independent is meant to have a baseball theme.

RAINBOW's lyrics are based upon those sent in by fans.

my name's WOMEN is another feminist song.
Moments and CAROLS are most likely also about Tomoya.
walking proud was recently discovered to be written about an old friend.

Born To Be... is meant to have a sports/athletic theme to it.
Beautiful Fighters is another song about women.

Mirror(cle World) is probably a reflection of the time when she announced her hearing loss?
fated and Together When... are probably about Tomoya.

Sunrise is written from the point of view of a father.
Sunset is the same theme from the daughter's perspective.

truehappiness · #6 2nd March 2010, 09:15 AM

No way to say's PV is supposedly connected to her father via fan speculation.

Memorial address and teddy bear: her father
untitled ~for her~ and MY ALL (speculation): her friend, ANEKI aka Ayumi Ogata [I think]
Who... and ever free (apparently?): her grandmother
ASFXX: her mother aka Mariko Hamasaki (I believe that the XX stood for her mother at the time... it was in an interview.)
RED LINE ~for TA~: TeamAyu [all fans] and Bacchi who passed away some time in 2008... (lyrics came from entry about him in TeamAyu and title from the red bracelets that Ayu wears along with Tsuriko to remember Bacchi.)
HONEY: Tomoya Nagase

I think only a handful of these are confirmed for sure... many are speculated, IIRC...

Quote:

Life - friend who passed away in 2008

Life was the song he wanted to listen to. He liked Life and wanted to hear it before passing away, as he was living when the song was created and passed away about half a year later.

zyoeru · #7 2nd March 2010, 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by truehappiness

Life was the song he wanted to listen to. He liked Life and wanted to hear it before passing away.

Why do you take the name out of quotes? That's really ignorant and annoying. :\
I realize it wasn't about his death, but I believe it was written about him in general.

truehappiness · #8 2nd March 2010, 09:27 AM

Quote:

Why do you take the name out of quotes? That's really ignorant and annoying. :\

I copy-paste them from the posts if I don't want quote the whole post, so the names don't carry over. I don't see the problem with quoting by copy-pasting into the Quick Reply box, haha.

Quote:

I realize it wasn't about his death, but I believe it was written about him in general.

I don't think he was dying at the time of Life though... I think he did have some sort of condition though. Who knows really, but all we do know is that he wanted to listen to it via her blog. (Oh jeez, rereading those blog entries makes me want to cry, oh my... apparently the last time Ayu had seen him was the day that Mirrorcle World came out, and he'd passed away about 6 months after...)

**Calico** · #9 2nd March 2010, 09:37 AM

She's also mentioned numerous times that the "XX" in that title is meant so anybody can fill it in with whatever they're feeling at the time. She's said a lot of things about that song... (I know, I'm writing an analytic thesis about it x.x)

truehappiness · #10 2nd March 2010, 09:40 AM

Quote:

She's also mentioned numerous times that the "XX" in that title is meant so anybody can fill it in with whatever they're feeling at the time. She's said a lot of things about that song... (I know, I'm writing an analytic thesis about it x.x)

Ah, I see. I do remember though that at the time she said that along with the mother thing...

Quote:

I've looked at the person as a woman, Hamasaki Mariko, for twenty years and thought I would not like to be a woman like her and would not like to make the same mistakes as hers. I've learned a lot from my mother in such senses. Sorry for my nasal voice. Honestly speaking, there are no points in her at all I like or I dislike, maybe because I've never looked at that person as a human. Well, this is the song whose title is that of my first album, too. "A Song for XX". I'd like you to insert whatever words you like to the part XX. Well, I wrote this lyrics in my own manner thinking about the person I've told you now, which some of you may understand only by listening to this song. Please listen. "A Song for XX" by Hamasaki Ayumi.

She was pretty harsh to her mother in that interview, but... I guess it made sense seeing as how her mom was barely there when she was growing up.

Picaflor 7/4 · #11 2nd March 2010, 10:30 AM

I honestly didn't know teddy bear was about her dad. I thought it was about her lover.

Andrenekoi · #12 2nd March 2010, 10:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zyoeru

M was inspired by a story about a saint called Maria, most like this is Mary Magdalene (Virgin Mary isn't a saint).

Virgin Mary IS a saint and the japanese name of this song is "Holy Mother" or something like that...

And there are tons of threads about this subject... In the end of the day, she never said who most of those songs were dedicated to...

gallowsCalibrator · #13 2nd March 2010, 01:15 PM

Thank you for your replies, everyone! I never knew there were so many she's written for other people~!

AyuWorld · #14 2nd March 2010, 03:00 PM

i always thought Teddy Bear is about her mother XD looks like she really miss her father =(

AngelSenshi · #15 2nd March 2010, 03:00 PM

I didn't know about the song Life, well the story behind it I mean. But I think I love that song a bit more now. I think that it's been really underrated.

But who is Bacchi?

You know how there's a thread somewhere about her dancers? A while back I was thinking that maybe somebody should construct a thread about those closest to Ayu. There are a lot of names of people close to her that show up sooo often, and people who haven't been around for a long time won't know much about these people. Unfortunately, I don't know enough for me to do this, which is really a shame.

I was always sure teddy bear and Memorial Address were for her dad; the 2003-2004 performance just fit so well it was perfect that I couldn't miss the meaning in it.

JackieRos · #16 2nd March 2010, 06:56 PM

awww I always knew HONEY was for Tomoya Y.Y

lilmissgrusome · #17 2nd March 2010, 08:04 PM

I watched a documentary where she said The XX of the album ASFXX was supposed to be her dad, she couldnt remember his name.
The song in general was about her lonelyness when she moved to Japan. She said that she always thought her mother's life was lonely but she didnt realize how lonely SHE was until she moved to Tokyo

aura~ · #18 2nd March 2010, 08:18 PM

For what I understood in her messages she did Life for bacchi. Me, at the moment "life" was released, I thought it was a second part of untitled because it repeated some lines.. but with a positive feeling... and we didn't know about Bacchi so everyone thought of untitled and the same friend...

And for me... Teddy Bear is for her mother... she talks about a person who isn't with her all time, and how there's a "teddy bear" in her place: You weren't always there for me, but we could laugh together at funny stories. she has also said that she doesn't see her mother as a mother... but not sure

And I had a crazy theory abou "July 1s" being abou her father's dead or sth (HEY!, I don't know if her father is dead, but I think so because of memorial address)

In memorial address we all know she's talking about her father. I think about "dead" because of "the eternal parting" ayu is talking about. And then "I will never forget that first day of summer" = July 1st? Then, look at memorial address booklet, where ayu has a mirror with a 0630 written with lipstick. That's 30th of June, 1 day before July 1st.

And then we go to July 1st and...: "If it's fine tomorrow, I will go to see you" She is talking from 30/06 about tomorrow 01/07, to go to that sea: "If it's fine tomorrow, I will go to that sea", maybe the place of one of Ayu's few memories about her father, going fishing in Fukuoka to the pier? I think she's forgiving her father with July 1st, "Changing the pain with the tears shed yesterday Into tenderness".

that's my theory... xd

AngelSenshi · #19 2nd March 2010, 09:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by walking.proud

For what I understood in her messages she did Life for bacchi. Me, at the moment "life" was released, I thought it was a second part of untitled because it repeated some lines.. but with a positive feeling... and we didn't know about Bacchi so everyone thought of untitled and the same friend...

And for me... Teddy Bear is for her mother... she talks about a person who isn't with her all time, and how there's a "teddy bear" in her place: You weren't always there for me, but we could laugh together at funny stories. she has also said that she doesn't see her mother as a mother... but not sure

And I had a crazy theory abou "July 1s" being abou her father's dead or sth (HEY!, I don't know if her father is dead, but I think so because of memorial address)

In memorial address we all know she's talking about her father. I think about "dead" because of "the eternal parting" ayu is talking about. And then "I will never forget that first day of summer" = July 1st? Then, look at memorial address booklet, where ayu has a mirror with a 0630 written with lipstick. That's 30th of June, 1 day before July 1st.

And then we go to July 1st and...: "If it's fine tomorrow, I will go to see you" She is talking from 30/06 about tomorrow 01/07, to go to that sea: "If it's fine tomorrow, I will go to that sea", maybe the place of one of Ayu's few memories about her father, going fishing in Fukuoka to the pier? I think she's forgiving her father with July 1st, "Changing the pain with the tears shed yesterday Into tenderness".

that's my theory... xd

That's actually a lovely lovely theory! I really like it =]

lilmissgrusome · #20 2nd March 2010, 09:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by walking.proud

For what I understood in her messages she did Life for bacchi. Me, at the moment "life" was released, I thought it was a second part of untitled because it repeated some lines.. but with a positive feeling... and we didn't know about Bacchi so everyone thought of untitled and the same friend...

And for me... Teddy Bear is for her mother... she talks about a person who isn't with her all time, and how there's a "teddy bear" in her place: You weren't always there for me, but we could laugh together at funny stories. she has also said that she doesn't see her mother as a mother... but not sure

And I had a crazy theory abou "July 1s" being abou her father's dead or sth (HEY!, I don't know if her father is dead, but I think so because of memorial address)

In memorial address we all know she's talking about her father. I think about "dead" because of "the eternal parting" ayu is talking about. And then "I will never forget that first day of summer" = July 1st? Then, look at memorial address booklet, where ayu has a mirror with a 0630 written with lipstick. That's 30th of June, 1 day before July 1st.

And then we go to July 1st and...: "If it's fine tomorrow, I will go to see you" She is talking from 30/06 about tomorrow 01/07, to go to that sea: "If it's fine tomorrow, I will go to that sea", maybe the place of one of Ayu's few memories about her father, going fishing in Fukuoka to the pier? I think she's forgiving her father with July 1st, "Changing the pain with the tears shed yesterday Into tenderness".

that's my theory... xd

makes perfect sense to me ^^ well spotted