Keiko Mari and Toshiaki Yokota & Rio Alma -- Hadashi no Mama de（裸足のままで）

 

As I have mentioned a few times over the course of this blog, my first time in Japan was in 1972 as a wee lad, and as such a young kid, I don't remember much about that initial foray into the country of my ancestry aside from playing about on my grandfather's farm during the summer. In retrospect though, it was a rather quiet time there although I know that I drove my relatives up the wall with my antics which included an emerging arachnophobia that lasted several years.

Most of the time was spent in the southern end of Wakayama Prefecture, but I know that we spent some days as well in Osaka where another group of relatives resided and so I got to see some of the big city in the early 1970s which included seeing plastic food on display outside of restaurants, telephones of all sizes and colours, and vast underground shopping malls. Considering how hot Japan could get even back then, those malls were a godsend. Maybe then, the early 1970s weren't all that much different from the late 1960s when the nation was plowing away and growing economically. Perhaps seeing videos like the one above can bring wistful memories of a somewhat more innocent age although I'm sure that the cities were more polluted back then and the leisure boom was still years away for most citizens.

Still, when I listen to "Hadashi no Mama de" (Going Barefoot) which was a June 1969 release by a collaboration between actress/singer Keiko Mari（麻里圭子）and the group Toshiaki Yokota & Rio Alma（横田年昭とリオ・アルマ）, I can't help feel a certain sighworthy nostalgia for a long-past time. It's all about the gentle summer stroll sans shoes on one of the countless beaches along the Japanese seashore. 

It was the dream team of lyricist Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）and composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）behind "Hadashi no Mama de" which also has a certain bossa nova lilt. There is pretty much nothing in terms of information on Yokota & Rio Alma as far as I could find, so I don't know whether they were a Group Sounds band or a vocal group (will gladly accept any data that commenters can give me). However as for Mari, she was raised in Tokyo and started life in entertainment as an extra in film scenes. She made her debut as a recording artist in the genre of enka in 1967 but some advice from TV personality Kyosen Ohashi（大橋巨泉）got her to veer into kayo kyoku instead. Up to the end of 1972, Mari released around fifteen singles and three albums.