I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
Credits
I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
TUBE -- Dance With You
Gotta have another TUBE song in there before the summer goes out. "Dance With You" was the band's 6th single, released in August 1987. I hadn't heard this one in years, and I guess it's one of those cases where absence makes the heart grow fonder since my body suddenly became flush with endorphins and my mind flooded with all those engrams of years ago.
Although the lyrics were by frequent collaborator, singer-songwriter Tomoko Aran（亜蘭知子）, the melody was by musician Seiichiro Kuribayashi（栗林誠一郎）. When TUBE bassist Hideyuki Kakuno（角野秀行） had to recuperate from a traffic accident, Kuribayashi stepped in as the replacement bassist during the band's live tours. He was even the bassist participating in the recording of B.B. Queens' megahit, "Odoru Ponpokorin"（おどるポンポコリン）.
Kuribayashi definitely got the TUBE vibe down pat when he came up with the song. I couldn't notice any difference between his composition and any of the songs by regular TUBE composer, Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）. The dynamic summery style is still happily imbued into "Dance With You" as well. It peaked at No. 3 on Oricon and it was also a track on the band's 6th original album,"Twilight Swim".
Hi J!
ReplyDeleteI just looked back at the piece you had on Seiichiro, and you're right! This is the article you mentioned! :)
And its a great song!