From what I've read of folk singer Hako Yamasaki's（山崎ハコ）debut album "Tobimasu"（飛・び・ま・す...I Can Fly） from October 1975 on J-Wiki, she was only 17 years old when she released it and it sold 50,000 copies which was quite the miraculous achievement especially when it came out without any special promotions. It managed to reach No. 51 on Oricon.
One of the tracks, "Sayonara no Kane" (The Goodbye Bell), which was written and composed by Yamasaki and arranged by Jun Sato（佐藤準）, must have left quite the impression on listeners. At over five minutes long, it is a bittersweet summary on a romance that has ended with a pealing bell on the hill being used as the symbol of the completion of the relationship. Through the lyrics and Yamasaki's delivery, there is a feeling of weeping over the death of what is perhaps the first love of that person. Maybe as the person grows older and more experienced with all those romantic entanglements, there is not so much drama but that first one which goes awry will always hurt. The melody is an interweaving of blues, folk and pop brought together as a contemplative piece on emotional pain and release.
Quite a few famous musicians were in the recording studio for "Sayonara no Kane": guitarists Char and Chuei Yoshikawa（吉川忠英）with the aforementioned arranger Sato also on keyboards.
A synthpop opening begins the cover version of "Sayonara no Kane" by Miyuki Kosaka（香坂みゆき）. The song was released as her 16th single in April 1984. Sato also arranged this one with those synths coming in. It's more than a minute shorter than the Yamasaki original but the bluesy feeling of melancholy and loss is still there.
When I saw the picture of Hako Yamasaki in the video above, she looked familiar and when I googled her, then I realized that I knew her from her album cover of her debut album. That picture has popped up many times on people's Youtube uploads of old Japanese songs.
ReplyDeleteAlmost like a poster child of kayo kyoku, although I don't think Yamasaki was ever in the enka or Mood Kayo fields.😁
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