Off-Course feat. Taeko Ohnuki -- Uso to Uwasa（嘘と噂）

By Raita Futo via Wikimedia Commons

As they say out there, there are a million stories in the big city. Two of them may currently be entwined in a crisis spiral.

"Uso to Uwasa" (Lies & Rumours) is the final track on the band Off-Course's（オフコース）13th album "as close as possible" from March 1987. As the title hints at, it is a rather enigmatic song about a couple, perhaps a fairly famous one, who are going through tough times because of mistakes committed by at least one partner and what has been said about them. They are currently walking toward the harbour on a misty evening and it could be their final stroll together although there is no hint that anyone is going to take a permanent dive.

Written and composed by Kazumasa Oda（小田和正）and arranged by Off-Course, "Uso to Uwasa" had initially been meant to be sung by Oda alone but then decided that a female singer just had to tackle half of the lyrics. In the J-Wiki writeup on "as close as possible", Oda professed that he had wanted to find someone that he didn't usually work with, and so he approached singer-songwriter Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）. And to be honest, I wouldn't have guessed that he and Ohnuki would ever work together during the 1980s since their styles seemed rather divergent. I think it would have been more likely in the 1970s when both artists were in the New Music mix.

But it all works marvelously here. Right from the synth bass (Ryuichi Sakamoto [坂本龍一] was handling the keyboards) launching things off which had my shoulders shimmying, both Oda and Ohnuki have those clear yet haunting vocals gracing an urban and urbane nocturnal melody which describes more of Oda's solo career style of music in the late 80s going into the early 90s rather than his band's style.

"Uso to Uwasa" was also incorporated into Ohnuki's BEST compilation "palette" from April 2009. As for "as close as possible", the album reached No. 2 on Oricon and ended up as the 42nd-ranked album of 1987.