Momma-son or Mamasan?

Jeremys Spoken

I see two different names of the cassette.

randallanddarcy

It's Momma-Son. We just had it wrong for years.

bovy_j

hehe
we totally had it wrong!

JordyWordy

considering what Alive is about, how did none of us spot that "mamasan" (which as far as im aware isnt even a word) was probably not it?? lol! haha

HeavyHands

Ummmm... yeah. It's good to know I wasn't alone on this one.

DeLukin

I always stupidly thought Mamasan was Japanese for Mother and since the trilogy was about a guys messed up relationship with his mother it made sense... of course, mamasan is NOT Japanese for mother so, yea there goes that theory...

dangeringravity

actually, you are not on the wrong page here. mamasan is indeed a word and it refers to a sort of japanese "lady of the house", if you will, so not necessarily a mother, haha.

JordyWordy

ill be damned.

Wikipedia entry:

"A mama-san, or mamasan, is a woman who works in a supervisory role in certain establishments in Southeast Asia, typically those related to sex work, but sometimes in drinking places as well. Papa-san may be used to refer to a man in a similar position. The drag-dressing male proprietors of okama bars are also commonly referred to as Mama-san.

To at least some extent, these can be considered the local equivalents of a pimp or madam, although the conventions of bar fine prostitution in Asia are quite different from those of either street or brothel prostitution in the United States.

It should be noted that the term mama-san in Japanese is emphatically not a polite reference to a mother, and should never be used as such"

YoullseeDragons

I had it wrong also. Figured that it was a play on words. But the Trillogy does refer to Momma & her Son, it was right there for us. Eddie is laughing at us all!!!

so-much-clearer

Yeah I didn't think it was wrong, because I knew about the Japanese -san title.

I kind of like Mamasan better!

kenny olav

yeah, it's pretty funny that all of us called it the mamasan triology, when "momma-son" seems so obvious now.

BelieveYouMe

Well, now I'm really confused too. The Cameron Crowe article from 1993 in Rolling Stone, which at the time was considered the definitive article covering the band's early years, references the tape as the "Mamasan" tape. I'm not sure whether I'm allowed to embed a link, but look for the "Five Against the World" article on the Rolling Stone website, dated October 28, 1993. "Mamasan" is mentioned on page 3.

PJ Fan est. 1990

JordyWordy wrote:

ill be damned.

Wikipedia entry:

"A mama-san, or mamasan, is a woman who works in a supervisory role in certain establishments in Southeast Asia, typically those related to sex work, but sometimes in drinking places as well. Papa-san may be used to refer to a man in a similar position. The drag-dressing male proprietors of okama bars are also commonly referred to as Mama-san.

To at least some extent, these can be considered the local equivalents of a pimp or madam, although the conventions of bar fine prostitution in Asia are quite different from those of either street or brothel prostitution in the United States.

It should be noted that the term mama-san in Japanese is emphatically not a polite reference to a mother, and should never be used as such"

so it's pretty much calling someone a prostitute in Japanese. haha i gotta use that one...no i'm a nice guy...but that does make sense as a title cause ed learned that his father was his step father which kind indicates (in some stretched logic) that eddie's mother slept around...

_

A mamasan is also the couch/two-seater version of a papasan chair:
http://www.futons.net/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=4041

washedinblack91

PJ Fan est. 1990 wrote:

so it's pretty much calling someone a prostitute in Japanese. haha i gotta use that one...no i'm a nice guy...but that does make sense as a title cause ed learned that his father was his step father which kind indicates (in some stretched logic) that eddie's mother slept around...

i don't think it makes sense in the "his mother slept around" kind of way, i think it makes more sense cuz in the song, isn't it that the mother starts to feel sexual feelings for the son because he's the spitting image of her former, dead lover and "he's still alive"? and it's like, prostitution is a sex crime in most countries and so is incest... i dunno i think i'm reading too much into this