I've seen the cover for singer-songwriter Issei Endo's（円道 一成）1984 album "RUN TO LIVE, LIVE TO RUN" in the book "Japanese City Pop", and I've thought that with that title and Endo looking cool in that baggy jacket against the violet sky, this could have been the ideal ad for Nike shoes.
The commercial would have been amazing especially with the title track which serves as the first song on Side B of the original LP. The fact that it's a City Pop song hits the listener right from Note One and the coolness factor kicks in with the battery of brass and keyboards as Endo sings away. Written by Taihei Tomosada（友貞 太平）, composed by Endo and arranged by Kazuo Shiina（椎名和夫）, I've managed to listen to "RUN TO LIVE, LIVE TO RUN" three times straight without losing the aural flavour. Even at the fair-enough time of four minutes and thirteen seconds, I sorta wish that the song could have been a little longer with the horns playing some more.
I'm not sure who was playing on the title track but the album certainly has a lot of big names helping out in the recording including drummer Jun Aoyama（青山純）, Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）on guitar and keyboards, saxophonist Jake H. Concepcion, trumpeter Shin Kazuhara（数原晋）and Makoto Matsushita（松下 誠）as part of the chorus. It's been a few years since I posted an Endo article; you can take a listen to his "Try Again" that I put up back in 2021.
Wow, Issei Endo had some 'all stars' in the Japanese music market helping him out for this song! Well, need less to say the production quality of this funky city pop song is high! Not sure how popular Nikes were back in 1984, but I agree that the cover of that album does look a good Nike's ad.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Endo definitely had some heavy hitters in his dugout for the album. It would probably be worth it to dig into more of the tracks.
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