"Fly Away" is the third single by Japanese

hip-hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hi ...

group

Lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

. It peaked in the top ten on the

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that ...

charts at #10 and remained on the charts for seven weeks, charting longer than their previous singles.

Information

"Fly Away" is Lead's third single and charted in the top ten on the

Oricon Singles Chart The Oricon Singles Chart is the Japanese music industry-standard Single (music), singles popularity chart issued daily, weekly, monthly and yearly by Oricon. Chart rankings are based on physical singles' sales. Until 2017, Oricon did not track down ...

, taking the number 10 slot for the week and remaining on the charts for seven consecutive weeks. It became their longest charting single, only being met by their later single ''

Get Wild Life "Get Wild Life" is the fifth single by Japanese hip hop group Lead released on December 3, 2003. The single peaked in the top ten on the Oricon charts, ranking at #9 for the week, and remained on the charts for seven weeks. The single came with s ...

.'' "Fly Away" was released as a standard CD, not carrying a CD+DVD counterpart. The CD contained the title track, the

b-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

"Shining Day" and the corresponding instrumentals for both songs. The single came with one of five possible Lead

trading card A trading card (or collectible card) is a small card, usually made out of paperboard or thick paper, which usually contains an image of a certain person, place or thing (fictional or real) and a short description of the picture, along with other t ...

s, a specialized

URL A uniform resource locator (URL), colloquially known as an address on the Web, is a reference to a resource that specifies its location on a computer network and a mechanism for retrieving it. A URL is a specific type of Uniform Resource Identi ...

to download a

wallpaper Wallpaper is used in interior decoration to cover the interior walls of domestic and public buildings. It is usually sold in rolls and is applied onto a wall using wallpaper paste. Wallpapers can come plain as "lining paper" to help cover uneve ...

and a discount coupon for the 2003 film ''Boutaoshi!,'' of which all four members of Lead starred in. While the

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

was released for syndication to the public upon the single's release, it was not available for the public to purchase until their

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

release '' Lead Movies 1'' in September of the same year. Both "Fly Away" and "Shining Day" were written and composed by

musical composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Classical music, Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. E ...

Yasushi Sasamoto. Yasushi had worked with Lead on their previous singles. The strings arrangement for the

a-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of vinyl records and cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a single usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or ...

was performed by Gen Ittetsu, who is best known for his works with famous Japanese soloist

Gackt , better known as Gackt (stylized in all caps), is a Japanese singer-songwriter, musician, record producer and actor. Born in Okinawa Prefecture, Okinawa to a Ryukyuan people, Ryukyuan family, Gackt learned the piano at a young age and was rai ...

. The

rap Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates " rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backin ...

portion of the song was written by KATSU. This would be their last single released before their debut

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

'' Life On Da Beat'' on April 23, 2003.

Promotional advertisements

To help promote the single, "Fly Away" was used as the theme song to the movie ''Boutaoshi!,'' which the members of Lead also starred in. It was also used as the opening theme for the

Tokyo Broadcasting System Television JORX-DTV (channel 6), branded as , is the flagship station of the Japan News Network in the Kantō region. It is owned-and-operated by , a subsidiary of TBS Holdings. TBS Television is one of the "five private broadcasters based in Tokyo." ...

series ''

Count Down TV (also known as CDTV) is a Japanese late-night music television program, broadcast on TBS since 1993. The program is shown weekly, and features a Japanese music video hit chart countdown, live performances from musicians and music information. ...

'' throughout the month of February.

Boutaoshi!

"Fly Away" was utilized as the theme song to the movie '' Boutaoshi!''. The members of Lead were featured in the film, playing different characters. ''Boutaoshi!'' (棒たおし! / ''Pole Toppling!'') is a 2003 Japanese

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

Tetsu Maeda, released on March 21, 2003. Based on the Japanese game

bo-taoshi , is a Capture the Flag, capture-the-flag-like game, played on sports days at schools in Japan. The game, traditionally played by cadets at the National Defense Academy of Japan, National Defense Academy (NDA) of Japan on its anniversary, is fa ...

, a capture the flag-like game played during sports days, the film centers around Tsuguo Takayama ( Shinya Tanuichi), who has a talent for the sport. The mischievous Isamu Hisanaga ( Kyohei Kaneko) sees him and delves a plan to test his skills. Tsuguo is conned into joining the annual competition, but how he fares in an event is something else entirely. The film's

screenplay A screenplay, or script, is a written work produced for a film, television show (also known as a '' teleplay''), or video game by screenwriters (cf. ''stage play''). Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of w ...

was written by Minoru Matsumoto and directed by Tetsu Maeda. It featured artists from the

Pony Canyon , also known by the shorthand form , is a Japanese company, established on October 1, 1966, which distributes music, films, home video, and video games. It is affiliated with the Japanese media group Fujisankei Communications Group. Pony Canyo ...

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

, including the members of Lead and

Flame A flame () is the visible, gaseous part of a fire. It is caused by a highly exothermic chemical reaction made in a thin zone. When flames are hot enough to have ionized gaseous components of sufficient density, they are then considered plasm ...

. Production committee members included those from Pony Canyon, Japan Skyway, Jesus Vision, Tokyo Theaters Company, Inc. and PAL Planning, with distribution being done by Tokyo Theater and PAL Planning. ''Boutaoshi!'' was later released on

and

on August 20, 2003.

Cast

* Shinya Tanuichi: Tsuguo Takayama * Kyohei Kaneko: Isamu Hisanaga * Akira Kagimoto: Atsushi Tabuchi * Keita Furuya: Suzumi Manabu * Hiroki Nakadoi: Toru Akasaka (Nakkan) * Airi Taira: Sayuri Konno *

Miyuki Matsuda is a Japanese actress, the widow of Yūsaku Matsuda, and the sister of Mami Kumagai. At the age of 17 she appeared in a television series, '' Tantei Monogatari'', starring Yūsaku Matsuda, who was then married. They started a relationship and ...

: Yuko Takayama *Yukari Taki: Miki Takayama *

Tomokazu Miura is a Japanese actor. Life and career Miura attended Hino high school in Tokyo. He was originally a member of rock group RC Succession, but was asked to leave the group by their management when they signed a record contract. However, impressed b ...

: Kotaro Ishigaki *

Nanako Takushi Nanako Takushi (2016) is a Japanese pop singer from Okinawa, Japan, and an original member of the group Super Monkey's. After the group disbanded, she formed the group MAX with other Super Monkey's vocalists. See also * Super Monkey's * MAX ...

: Nurse * Yu Kitamura: MC * Katsuya Kobayashi: Classmate

Music video

The

for "Fly Away" was not included with the release of the single; however, it was given a physical release on their '' Lead Movies 1'' compilation VHS and DVD on September 18, 2003. The music video was shot in what appears to be a

shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are shipbuilding, built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Compared to shipyards, which are sometimes m ...

during

sunset Sunset (or sundown) is the disappearance of the Sun at the end of the Sun path, below the horizon of the Earth (or any other astronomical object in the Solar System) due to its Earth's rotation, rotation. As viewed from everywhere on Earth, it ...

. Hiroki opens the video as each member is introduced before cutting to the four members

break dancing Breakdancing or breaking, also called b-boying (when performed by men) or b-girling (women), is a style of street dance originated by African Americans and Puerto Ricans in The Bronx borough of New York City. Breakdancing consists mainly o ...

. For the dance segments, the boys don two outfits: a red

parka A parka, like the related anorak, is a type of coat (clothing), coat with a hood (headgear), hood, that may be lining (sewing), lined with fur or fake fur. Parkas and anoraks are staples of Inuit clothing, traditionally made from Reindeer, cari ...

with black clothes and a white parka with white clothing. The rap break in the video utilized the

wide-angle lens In photography and cinematography, a wide-angle lens is a Photographic lens, lens covering a large angle of view. Conversely, its focal length is substantially smaller than that of a normal lens for a given film plane. This type of lens allows mo ...

, which was predominant in late-90s and early-2000s rap and hip-hop music videos. Lead's official

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

uploaded the full video on their account on March 11, 2012.

Track listing

Charts

References

External links

Lead Official Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fly Away 2003 singles 2003 songs Pony Canyon singles J-pop songs Lead (band) songs