It's a fact of life doing this blog that my maintenance will turn up articles that have been denuded of their videos due to the usual copyright strikes and what-have-you. Well, it appears that City Pop chanteuse Haruko Kuwana（桑名晴子）and her band Baker's Shop have been the latest on the search-and-destroy mission by the powers-that-be. A couple of their articles, "Cheap Perfume" and "Vanishing Point" lost their videos but for one, I managed to find another replacement and for the other, I had to make do with a brief excerpt via link.
To provide some further views into my psyche vis-à-vis KKP, whenever a certain band or singer seems to get the vanishing treatment on YouTube, I tend to see if I can come up with a new article with video connected with said band or singer. So, this is what I have done, and besides, how can I ignore that beautiful smile of Kuwana on her 1980 album with Baker's Shop, "Hot Line"?
"Yoru no Dokoka ni" (Somewhere In The Night) is on Side B of the original LP and it's a lovely City Pop ballad written by Toshiro Masuda（トシロウ・マスダ）, who also came up with the words for "Cheap Perfume", and composed by Kuwana herself. It's quite the soothing nighttime tonic thanks to the slow groove and the wonderful Fender Rhodes work. To be honest, I don't know who is singing the male part but I wonder if it isn't Masuda himself. If at all possible, let's have this one up for a good long while.
Thank you for your work of love in preserving a record and a reservoir of knowledge about songs, singers, and groups that the powers that be are trying to make disappear.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest fear is that an increasing number of YouTubers will give up the fight and not bother putting up Japanese songs anymore because the powers-that-be are too relentless in their protection of copyrights. Yeah, I understand that singers and bands need to be protected too and have to make a living but I sometimes think there needs to be a balance between the artists and the fans who are showing their love for their music.
DeleteI agree! and actually after listening to tunes on Youtube I have often ended up buying the song or the album I was listening, too.
DeleteYup, I've done the same here.
DeleteIs the male singer Tatsuya Funaoka? I don't think it is her brother who has the same vibrato/warble as her.
ReplyDeleteHi, Robert. I didn't get the impression that the male singer was her brother, Masahiro. I wonder if it was Fujimal Yoshino.
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