Haruo Chikada -- Roxy no Yoru（ロキシーの夜）

This was another song from the Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）2-CD tribute album that I purchased many months ago, and it was another example that has cemented my view that the legendary composer really liked his R&B.

Wow! Can you dig it? Tsutsumi composed "Roxy no Yoru" (Roxy's Night) for musician-producer Haruo Chikada（近田春夫）as his first debut solo single in August 1977, although it's also known as Haruo Chikada and Haruophone's（近田春夫&ハルヲフォン）4th single due to their work on the B-side, "Yami ni Jackknife"（闇にジャックナイフ...Jackknife in the Darkness）.

"Roxy no Yoru" really struts and shuffles just like a young buck making his cocky way on the rough and ready streets of Tokyo. I really enjoy the funky guitar and bass accompanying Chikada along with those disco strings. I guess nothing says 1970s sunset City Pop more than this one. The only thing that comes anywhere close to destroying the cool image of this song is my observation that Chikada sometimes sounds like Pokey, Gumby's equine buddy. Takemi Shima（島武実）, lyricist and someone who would later become a part of the New Wave band Plastics, took care of the words.

Speaking of New Wave, I've also realized that the City Pop "Roxy no Yoru" is perhaps not the usual Chikada song according to what I've learned from nikala's article on him, "Electric Love Story". Since that very first Chikada article, my impression had been that he was more for the eclectic blips and bleeps of a synthesizer.