Happy Birthday Mick, we miss you ..... (24 July 1958 – 4 January 2011)
Mick Karn was one of those players with a unique style and is best known as the bassist and also played woodwind instruments, mainly clarinet and saxophone for Japan. Mick moved to the UK from Cyprus in the early 1960s and met the three other founding members of Japan at school in London. Inside and outside Japan, Mick developed a distinctive and original bass sound instantly recognizable as his own. Mick was mainly a self-taught musician and many feel he changed the perception of how the bass is played and heard forever.
After Japan, Mick worked in many areas of music, experimenting in jazz, ambient and prog, and continued to create his own indefinable music as a solo artist and in collaboration with other great musicians, including Gary Numan, Midge Ure, Kate Bush ex-members of Japan. For a taste of Mick’s work solo, look for his first solo album, "Titles" and the Dali’s Car collaboration, 'The Waking Hour'.
Your voice, your face, your hair is everywhere
Today my dreams turned into nightmares
In time, I hate to say it, gentlemen
There'll be nothing wonderful here
There'll be nothing left to fear
All the people see me as a fool
All the people say that it's because of you
All the people like to think they care
If you'd shake their hands and stab them
Maybe they'd become sensitive
Now my life I've spent inside this jealousy
It seemed so easy
I could have your beauty for free
When time decides to take this pain away
We'll find our freedom again
We're still gentlemen
All the people see me as a fool
All the people say that it's because of you
All the people like to think they care
If you'd shake their hands and stab them
Maybe they'd become sensitive