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.

Monday, December 9, 2013

Junko Ohashi & Minowa Central Station -- Safari Night


Another cool funky 70s classic from Junko Ohashi(大橋純子). I came across "Safari Night" on her BEST album that I had bought several years ago. Written by Machiko Ryu(竜真知子)and composed by Ken Sato (佐藤健....Ohashi's husband) for release as her 11th single in November 1978, I think if the expression ever existed in the Japanese lexicon, the song would qualify as "disco kayo" but City Pop is good enough. Places like Roppongi come to mind when I hear this one.

Although "Safari Night" is probably on any of her BEST albums, it originally appeared as part of her 7th studio album, "Flush", released in December 1978. I also have to add that I like this NHK video that backs up the song.

3 comments:

  1. Hi J-Canuck

    Thanks a lot for posting this gorgeous disco song. I loved all the elements in it. The vocals were very beuatiful, the melody drives me in a nice journey, and the arrangement is classic disco at its best. As I'm not a especialist in Japanese 70s pop music, it's always great to hear songs like this one. And it was just a few years before the arrival of Seiko Matsuda and the "burikko" aidoru singers.

    It's really nice to hear something like that. It makes me remember the times I was searching for classic Japanese disco songs and I could only find some Hiromi Iwasaki songs.

    Thanks for the great experience.

    Marcos.

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    Replies
    1. Always happy to oblige, Marcos. You may find that there some of the City Pop singers around the late 70s had quite the thing for disco.You may find some more songs by Junko Ohashi along those lines, as well as tunes by Hiromi Go, Junko Yagami and Yoshitaka Minami.

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    2. I've became a fan of Junko Yagami after reading your old "Purpletown" post some months ago. Her voice is very beautiful and I especially like it in "Mizu-Iro no Ame". I must try Minami Yoshitaka as well.

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