Tokyo Rose (album)

Tokyo Rose is a 1989 album by American musician Van Dyke Parks. The album concerns the intersection between Japanese and American cultures, particularly as reflected in the competitive "Trade War" of the 1980s. The intersection between the two cultures is nowhere more obvious than in the album's first song, "America", an adaptation of "America the Beautiful" with numerous pentatonic shifts characteristic of Japanese music, played on a combination of standard Western instruments and traditional Japanese instruments, such as the biwa and the koto.

Track listing
All songs written by Van Dyke Parks, except track 1, which is public domain, arranged and adapted by Parks; track 10, Japanese lyrics by Amy Furumoto.


 * 1) "America" – 3:47
 * 2) "Tokyo Rose" – 5:08
 * 3) "Yankee Go Home" (features vocal of Danny Hutton) – 6:27
 * 4) "Cowboy" – 4:35
 * 5) "Manzanar" – 6:02
 * 6) "Calypso" (features vocal of Mari Iijima) – 4:27
 * 7) "White Chrysanthemum" – 4:00
 * 8) "Trade War" – 4:40
 * 9) "Out of Love" – 3:18
 * 10) "One Home Run" – 4:00

Personnel

 * Van Dyke Parks – vocals, bass
 * Todd Hayen – orchestrator, conductor
 * Osamu Kitajima – biwa, koto
 * Masakazu Yoshizawa – shakuhachi
 * Bobby King – vocals
 * Syd Straw – vocals
 * Kathy Dalton – vocals
 * Israel Baker – concert master
 * Dennis Budimir – guitar
 * Julie Christensen – vocals
 * Terry Evans – vocals
 * William "Bill" Greene – vocals
 * Danny Hutton – vocals
 * Hiromitsu Katada – narimono
 * Buell Neidlinger – bass
 * Akira Tana – drums
 * Mike Watts – programming
 * Arnold McCuller – vocals
 * Mari Iijima – vocals
 * Brian Otto – guitar
 * Lisa Popeil – vocals