Credits

I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.

Friday, June 27, 2025

Yukari Ito -- Naga Denwa(長電話)

Takuya Nakayama
via Wikimedia Commons
 

Man, do I remember these old Japanese phones of different colours and shapes when I first visited the nation in 1972. They all had their purposes but for the life of me, I can't remember what they were.

Yesterday I was talking about airports being a popular subject for kayo kyoku. Well, another object that's also been quite the target in the old Japanese songs has been the good ol' telephone whether it be for romantic continuation or dislocation, often the latter.

This time around, I have "Naga Denwa" (Long Phone Call) which was the final track on Yukari Ito's(伊東ゆかり)October 1981 album "Aisuru Uso wo Shittemasuka. Onna ni Kansuru 10-shou"(愛する嘘を知ってますか。女に関する10章...Know Any Loving Lies? Ten Chapters About Women). And it was a good choice to finish things up on because it is a slow and lush 1970s-style ballad that seems to have been done with some inspiration from folks such as Barry Manilow, Boz Scaggs and Carly Simon. I would place it as an AOR tune but there is that middle part which dives right into classical, so I've also thrown in the Fashion Music tag, too. 

Yoko Yamaguchi(山口洋子)was responsible for the lyrics while Daisuke Inoue(井上大輔)took care of the melody. The arrangement was handled by the City Pop duo DEW. Some years ago, I also wrote about another track on "Aisuru Uso wo Shittemasuka. Onna ni Kansuru 10-shou" titled "Gigolo", so give that one a try as well.

1 comment:

  1. You are spot on! This song's melody and the vocals really does have those Carly Simon vibes!

    ReplyDelete

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