Megumi Satsu -- Give Back My Soul

For me, Megumi Satsu（薩めぐみ）was quite the iconoclast. Although she started out as a regular kayo singer in the late 1960s, she transformed into not only a chanson singer but also into this chanteuse that couldn't be readily categorized. I bring you "Give Back My Soul" which was released in 1986 as an illustration.

If Sally Bowles from the famed musical "Cabaret" had been born Japanese decades ago and become a chanson singer before getting jaded over the years but still continuing her career, I think she would have been somewhat like Satsu as she is in this video. It isn't totally chanson despite the heavy French accent but it does have a certain je ne sais quoi avant-garde nature along with New Wave (especially that intro) thrown in, to boot. And as for the video, it would be something that I would have seen on an episode of "City Limits", that local 1980s late-night video program featuring some of the more intriguing and artsy creations.

The lyrics certainly aren't anything light and comforting. Satsu's protagonist is traumatized and lamenting her lot in life after suffering rape. Although "Give Back My Soul" has that sort of weird airiness that could leave the words up to any sort of interpretation, I think in this case, the situation is literal.