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| Vyacheslav Argenberg via Wikimedia Commons |
If you are reading this on your computer terminal surrounded by sand, palm trees and blue sky, then you have my envy. This morning, I woke up to a -20-degree Celsius forecast and mandatory layers of clothing. Spring is still two months away.
Well, at least I can enjoy a tropical vacation vicariously through music. Case in point: Yukari Kato's（かとうゆかり）3rd single "Neppu Hankyu" (Hot Wind Hemisphere) from April 1983 which is a blast of that titular wind through Latin and disco. It was used as a campaign song that year for what would later become Japan Air System, and the melody loudly invites travelers to head on south.
Speaking of that melody, it was composed by Takashi Watanabe*（渡辺敬之）with Tetsuya Chiaki（ちあき哲也）on lyrics. The Aichi Prefecture-born Kato was a singer and tarento who was active in the mid-1980s and was apparently discovered while singing at a Roppongi live house. Her J-Wiki bio states that she had usually preferred 1960s pop over the contemporary stuff but "Neppu Hankyu" certainly wasn't an example of that. Kato would release five singles up to 1985 and one original album in 1982.
*That first name's kanji has too many readings so I took a stab at it. If anyone can correct or confirm the reading, please let me know.
ReplyDeleteOh, I think this composer 渡辺敬之 is also known as エジソン渡辺 and 渡辺孝義, too. See: https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison_(%E9%9F%B3%E6%A5%BD%E5%AE%B6)
- 20 degrees, wow! We're only - 6 at the moment, but we have gotten and are still getting a lot of snow! Last Friday, some of the trains were cancelled or severely delayed.
Hello, Brian. Yeah, I saw the J-Wiki article on Edison Watanabe but I couldn't find out the proper reading of his first name.
DeleteYeah, it's been bitterly cold for much of January. The forecasters are telling us that this will continue right til the end of January. 🥶