"Japanese Gentlemen, Stand Up Please!"

One of the more interesting musical groups from the late 1970s was Japan's Yellow Magic Orchestra, fondly known as YMO. They were known as "Japan's Kraftwerk", and co-founder Ryuichi Sakamoto wrote the soundtrack for the 1983 movie "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence", which he also appeared in as David Bowie's co-star. He also won an Academy Award for his soundtrack (co-written with Talking Heads' David Byrne and Chinese composer Cong Su) for "The Last Emperor" in 1987.

One of YMO's wilder musical outings was a hilarious re-make of the 1966 classic by Archie Bell and the Drells, "Tighten Up", which was also covered by the James Brown Horns. A repeating lyric in YMO's cover was: "Japanese gentlemen, stand up please!"

YMO will reunite for a rare show in England next week:

http://www.ticketnews.com/Yellow-Magic-Orchestra-returns-to-tour688976