[ENG sub] DIR EN GREY ● Jessica

This wonderful live version can be found on the "TOUR16-17 FROM DEPRESSION TO______[mode of KISOU]" DVD. ♡♡♡

Notes:
1) Apparently Kaoru, who wrote this song, named it "Jessica" simply because he's always been fond of that name.

2) Around release, Kyo made a statement in a magazine, saying that he was "going to sing a love song" (something he never wanted to do, ever). He said: "It's about atmosphere... its theme is stupid."

3) 1:17 - I believe "Berlin Wall" is nothing but a metaphor in this case (about how the boy built walls around himself), but here are some informations about it anyway for those curious:
The "Berlin Wall" was the wall that was constructed in 1961 to completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and East Berlin. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls. The primary purpose was to keep inhabitants of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from escaping. "Republikflucht" ("flight from the republic") led to an imprisonment of about 2 years. About 100 - 200 people died while trying to escape. On November 9, 1989, after several weeks of civil unrest, the East German government accidentally announced that all East Germans were now allowed to visit West Germany and West Berlin which led to thousands of people (East and West Germans) climbing onto the wall and crossing it, resulting into the end of the separation of East and West Germany.

4) 2:10 - For whatever reason Kyo added an "H" to Edward Gein's name. My guess would be that the "H", pronounced "ecchi", is a wordplay. Someone who's abnormal or a pervert is called "変態 - hentai" in Japanese, "H" is an abbreviation of that and pronounced "ecchi". "dirty, obscene, indecent". He doesn't want to become like that weird pervert Edward Gein.

5) 2:10 - Speaking of which: Edward Theodore Gein, best known as Ed Gein, was a true psychopath. He served as the inspiration for a myriad of fictional serial killers such as Norman Bates (Psycho), Leatherface (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre) and Buffalo Bill (The Silence of the Lambs). In his house, which doubled as a cabinet of horror, he kept clothes, masks and even furniture made out of human flesh and bone. The hollowed out corpse of a headless woman was hanging upside down in a shed on his property. This woman and a another one were the only two confirmed victims of his. Most of the body parts he used came from local graveyards where he exhumed recently buried bodies of middle-aged women. He grew up secluded and religous and was extremely attached to his mother. When she died, Gein began to create a "woman suit" so that "he could become his mother—to literally crawl into her skin" because he was feeling so lonely.
The thing is, Ed had previously been considered trustworthy and reliable by the town's people. And many people at the Mendota Mental Institute he lived in till his death thought him to be a model patient, mild mannered and always helpful.

6) 2:16 - Sid Vicious and Nancy were the first couple of Punk music. Sid was an English musician, the bassist of the legendary band "Sex Pistols". Though honestly, such as claimed by Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead, he couldn't play bass at all. Sid's part inside the band was more to be the 'punk in person' than to play his instrument. When he meet Nancy Spungen, an American groupie who was addicted to heroin, and they fell in love, he started to do drugs as well. He and Nancy were the Father and Mother of the Punk image and attitude of "Sex, Drugs, and Rock n Roll".
Kyo said: "I didn't really know who they were. I bought a book thinking, 'I wonder what they were really like?' They were so stupid. I stopped reading halfway through. I wanted to destroy their image of 'SD&R'."
Sid Vicious was suspected to have killed Nancy in a hotel, where she was found with a stab wound in her abdomen, right next to a stoned Sid. Only a few months later Sid was found dead. He had killed himself with an overdose of heroin leaving only a suicide note and a last wish: to be buried next to Nancy - which was impossible because she was Jewish and he wasn't. So his ashes were scattered onto her grave.


~This is my translation / interpretation.

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