Well, I figure if I can reference the latest Marvel flick "Thunderbolts*" a few days ago, I can throw in Johnny Storm the Human Torch for this one.
A few years ago, I profiled a 1979 album "Radio Moon and Roses 1979Hz", a collaboration between the band Moonriders（ムーンライダーズ）and singer-songwriter Nanako Sato（佐藤奈々子）which came about from the latter's relatively recent discovery of recorded but unaired tunes that she had done with the former decades previously.
One of the songs on the album that I hadn't covered in the original 2022 article is Moonriders and Sato's cover of the former's "Hinotama Boy" (Fireball Boy). Written and composed by Keiichi Suzuki（鈴木慶一）, it's a combination of hot and sultry Sato with Suzuki giving a bluesy rock vocal performance along the lines of a young Tom Waits (still a few bottles of hard liquor away from getting that Waits growl) as the lyrics tell of a life of a young lad living life rough in the big city...maybe an updated version of Hibari Misora's（美空ひばり）Shoeshine Boy (or Girl). Can't help but think of the two sashaying across a rough wooden floor in a honky-tonk dive bar deep downtown as they are performing "Hinotama Boy" which strikes me as something rather prog rock, especially with the violin in there.
As I mentioned above, the track on "Radio Moon" is a cover of the original Moonriders' title track from the January 1976 "Hinotama Boy" album, and that original is even snazzier with some jazzier arrangements in there. This time, the venue isn't an alleyway honky-tonk but a cabaret club a grade higher with room for those cool horns. Also, the video above provided by kun hoh is absolutely top-notch and an obvious labour of love that was first put up about a decade ago.
There were a number of stars helping out on the original such as Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）, Akiko Yano（矢野顕子）and Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）. In fact, according to the J-Wiki writeup on the album, Suzuki had based the song on Hosono's way of music. Finally, if I were to Marvelize this song, it wouldn't be "FLAME ON!" but "Simmer...".
Johnny Storm, the Human Torch? For a second there, I thought you somehow had clips from the upcoming The Fantastic Four: First Steps! I did not know there had been previous Fantastic Four films.
ReplyDeleteNo, I'm not quite that well connected in Hollywood. :) To be honest, you aren't missing all that much with the previous F4 films, although in the very first one, most of the cast did try hard.
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