SHOGUN -- As Easy As You Make It

One of the side effects of staying at home as often as possible has been a gain in weight for me. Not a great thing, although it does say a lot about my family's cooking prowess to a certain extent. In any case, I actually had one of my longer walks around the neighbourhood, while practicing my social distancing, of course. But it's not too difficult here because even before the invasion of COVID-19, my walking area was always deserted. Even seeing three people also walking about from a long distance away during my 40 minutes out this morning made things downright "busy". Still, everything's cool and it was a nice and refreshing sanpo.

Stress levels have gotta go down and stay down during these difficult times. It's not all that easy when given the daily stats on the number of patients right now and worrying about the mortgage and job prospects. However, we all have to find our way to stay on an even keel. It seems like years ago, the good folks at SHOGUN concocted just the right song for that.

"As Easy As You Make It" is the first track on the band's 2nd album "Rotation" from December 1979. Launching with a blast of horns that had me thinking immediately of The Blues Brothers and James Brown, the vocals by Fujimal Yoshino (芳野藤丸), who composed it, and gang also started reminding me partially of Steely Dan once more although as the song went on, my memories turned to one of their big hits, "Bad City". Casey Rankin, who provided the lyrics for that song, also came up with the words for "As Easy As You Make It", his musical advice column for those who need to de-stress. Just move on, grin, and keep on the go...as long as you keep your distance for the next little while.