Eien no Tsubasa

Eien no Tsubasa
Single by B'z
from the album ACTION
Released	May 9, 2007
Promotions	#1 (For Those We Love) #2 (Fist of the North Star Film) #2 (Polemelo JOYSOUND CM)
Length	9:58
Label	Vermillion Records
Producer	Tak Matsumoto
B'z singles chronology
42nd Single SPLASH! (2006) 43rd Single Eien no Tsubasa (2007) 44th Single SUPER LOVE SONG (2007)

Eien no Tsubasa (永遠の翼, Eternal Wings) is the forty-third single by B'z, released on May 9, 2007. At release, the song premiered at the top spot and became the thirty-eighth consecutive single to do so for the band. In December of its year of release, it would be used as the penultimate track on the band's sixteenth album, ACTION. A year later, in the summer of 2008, it would be collected with a number of other singles on the band's first twentieth anniversary collection, B'z The Best "ULTRA Pleasure". Five years later, it would be collected with other singles from its era on B'z The Best XXV 1999-2012 in 2013.

The song would become the first film theme that B'z contributed to a work that wasn't part of the Detective Conan franchise when it served as the theme to I Go to Die For You (俺は、君のためにこそ死ににいく, Ore wa, Kimi no Tame ni Koso Shini ni Iku—released internationally as For Those We Love). The film centers around young kamikaze pilots being sent off to battle in the second World War and those they would be leaving behind. After B'z were requested for the theme song, Tak and Koshi visited the town of Chiran in Kagoshima Prefecture. There, they visited the Chiran Peace Museum for Kamikaze Pilots in order to connect with the source material before constructing the song. B'z would return to visit Chiran during a LIVE-GYM stop in nearby Amami Oshima for LIVE-GYM 2008 "ACTION", which included the song in the setlist.

B'z made several television appearances to promote the single, including filming an interview segment on "NEWS ZERO" which marked their first time appearing on a news program. Following the interview, the band performed "Eien no Tsubasa" in full. Unusually, B'z performed on the television program Music Fighter twice in the span of just one week—once on May 4 to perform the B-side "Lonely Stars" and again on May 11 to perform the single's title song. "Eien no Tsubasa" would be performed an additional two times on television, with the band appearing on both Music Station and CDTV. The song was first included in a live setlist for SHOWCASE 2007 -B'z In Your Town-, and made appearances later in those for SHOWCASE 2007 -19-, SHOWCASE 2008 -Kiyotake ACTION-, and LIVE-GYM 2008 "ACTION".

Two promotional videos were prepared for the title song: a normal video featuring the band and actors, and another with footage from the film for which the song served as the theme. The primary video featured actor Kanata Hongo and model Tsubasa Honda as young lovers and including filming locations throughout Tokyo, including scenes at the Marunouchi Building and Cerulean Tower. In addition, another video was shot and aired for the B-side, "Lonely Stars", although it only covered through the first chorus.

First week sales for "Eien no Tsubasa" were confirmed to be in excess of 150,000 copies. The single was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of Japan and ranked as the twenty-seventh highest selling release of 2007.

Track listing

1. Eien no Tsubasa — Eternal Wings, 永遠の翼

   File:s43 01.ogg Tak completed the opening and ending first, and only then did he move onto composing the melody. Throughout production, he rewrote the melody several times until he was content with the result. The lyrics of the song speak of the preciousness of what has assumed importance in one's life. Koshi stated that the lyrics were written about "doing something from the bottom of one's heart, for someone else. When someone does that, they grow wings on their back, and their hearts are rewarded from it. I wrote about that sort of symbolic hope." Tak recalled during an interview with "NEWS ZERO": "When I went to Chiran that day, the sky was really blue—really calm. After seeing that, I really opened up to that image." That image was one that made quite an impression, causing Tak to revisit it on two future occasions. The first came in 2010, when he said he thought back to the band's visit to Chiran when he wrote a semi-sequel to "Eien no Tsubasa" titled "hotalu" for his joint album with jazz legend Larry Carlton, TAKE YOUR PICK. Later, Tak would craft an instrumental version from the original composition for his 2012 solo album Strings Of My Soul.

2. Lonely Stars — ロンリースターズ

   File:s43 02.ogg The song was performed on the May 4, 2007 edition of Music Fighter, just four days prior to release. It is one of the few B-sides to have a separate promotional video filmed for broadcast.

Personnel

B'z

• Tak Matsumoto: Guitar, Music Composition, Arrangement
• Koshi Inaba: Vocals, Lyric Composition, Arrangement

Support Members

• Josh Freese: Drums
• Sean Hurley: Bass
• TAMA MUSIC: Strings (Track 1)

Production

• Akihito Tokunaga: Arrangement (Track 1)
• Daisuke Ikeda: Arrangement (Track 2)