Somewhere Near Japan
| "Somewhere Near Japan" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by The Beach Boys | ||||
| from the album Still Cruisin' | ||||
| B-side | "Kokomo" | |||
| Released | January 11, 1990 | |||
| Format | Vinyl | |||
| Recorded | 1989 | |||
| Genre | Length = 4:48 | |||
| Label | Capitol Records | |||
| Producer(s) | Terry Melcher | |||
| The Beach Boys singles chronology | ||||
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"Somewhere Near Japan" is a song written by John Phillips, Terry Melcher, Mike Love, and Bruce Johnston for the American rock band The Beach Boys. It was released on their 1989 album Still Cruisin'.
The bulk of the song was written by John Philips and concerns his daughter Mackenzie Phillips's honeymoon experiences. She and her new husband, both serious substance abusers, flew to Guam, and both the money and the drugs soon ran out. This was when her father received a late night phone call from Phillips begging him send money or drugs, preferably both: when he asked where she was, the reply was "somewhere near Japan". Phillips' original version of the song, titled "Fairy Tale Girl", allegedly ran to over 25 verses. A late-1980s recording by The New Mamas and The Papas (John Philiips, Mackenzie Phillips, Scott McKenzie, and Spanky McFarlane) under the title "Fairy Tale Girl (Somewhere Near Japan)" was belatedly released on the 2010 compilation Many Mamas, Many Papas from Varèse Sarabande.
The final Beach Boys release describes a protagonist agreeing to come to the rescue of his "fairy tale girl" who is "driftin' on some Chinese junk" (a double entendre for both heroin and a type of ship), despite the likelihood that she will "break [his] heart one more time" — concluding that "I broke her fall and I always will."
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