Time for a another precipitation-based kayo today. However, it is not on snow but on rain...what we should be having this time of year. I heard this on today's edition of NHK's "Nodo Jiman"（のど自慢）. My memory sparked at this old chestnut since it is one of my childhood oldies from the old wooden stereo. It has one of those distinctive melodies that I can remember clearly but I couldn't find out who sang it or what it was called.
It figures then that it was sung by Yukio Hashi（橋幸夫）since another one of my earliest musical memories was one of his other singles released some months down the line called "Muhyo"（霧氷）. "Ame no Naka no Futari" (A Couple in the Rain) was released back in January 1966 as his 75th single (man, those singers really shot out those releases like a Gatling gun back then), and like that later single, there is a certain haunting stateliness to "Ame no Naka no Futari" thanks to the background chorus supporting Hashi. What is also striking about the ballad is the use of the violins which help make it sound somewhat like a R&B tune from the 1950s or 1960s although it is a Mood Kayo. Just the way those bows rapidly swished across the strings seared itself into my memory forever.
Written by Tetsuo Miyagawa（宮川哲夫）and composed by Ichiro Tone（利根一郎）, "Ame no Naka no Futari" is a pretty dramatic tune to describe that romantic walk under an umbrella. In fact, one of the things I learned while teaching in Gunma Prefecture is that that a line drawing of an umbrella with two names written underneath was the Japanese sign of romance, and of course, the trope has been used to death in just about every anime. The song was also the theme tune for a movie of the same name starring Hashi himself.
My personal memory of the record that was played on the old RCA Victor was that the disc was probably warped in some way since it often got stuck on a groove until my Dad nudged the needle a bit.
It’s interesting to learn that this song originated as a dramatic ballad in that certain style of early 60s, pre-Beatles pop; one of the Cambodian rock songs I grew up listening to was based on this song melodically, but it's stylistically on the opposite end of the decade (https://youtu.be/BsapvTf9pZE).
ReplyDeleteThe title in English means “I'll Wait 'till the End,” and as a side note to a side note, while there are a handful of others, my favorite cover—and the one I listened to the most growing up—is this one by former singer Touch Sunnich (https://youtu.be/Jk0rJjG4DDA).
Thanks very much for your insights regarding Hashi's song. I've read that a lot of kayo kyoku, in terms of musical scale, resembles folk and/or blues from other nations.
DeleteThanks also for the link to your favourite cover...one thing about it is that it sounds a bit similar to another favourite song of mine "Kita Sakaba" by Takashi Hosokawa.
https://kayokyokuplus.blogspot.com/2012/02/takashi-hosokawa-kita-sakaba.html
Yeah, I just thought the contrast between the two were neat. ☺️ A sizeable of kayo kyoku, and even a bit of Enka, became popular in Cambodia because other songs adapted their melodies, legalities issues be darned. (Makes researching them a headache at best sometimes, but it is what it is.)
DeleteI love that you mention that, Kita Sakaba is one of my favorite Kayo songs in general. I know it was fairly popular in Southeast Asia, especially in the bars of Thailand, as it was in East. Funny enough now that you mentioned it, as I found a similar half-cover on YouTube last year from the mid-2000s: លួចស្រឡាញ់ខ្នាញ់ខឹង ("Frustrating Crush") https://youtu.be/ahqmn_yOYBs
"Kita Sakaba" was one of my two go-to karaoke songs when I was living in Japan. When one goes to karaoke with his company, it's pretty much obligatory that one has to sing something. Luckily, I had "Kita Sakaba" and "Yukiguni" by Ikuzo Yoshi.
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