Yujiro Ishihara -- Yoake no Machi （夜明けの街）

Yujiro Ishihara's（石原裕次郎）"Yoake no Machi" (Sunset City) was one of the first enka songs that I actually started to listen to instead of just hearing it after my musical epiphany in 1981. Written by Mitsuo Ikeda（池田充男） and composed by Shinichi Nozaki（野崎真一）, the song just seems to sum up Ishihara in his later years: cool, austere, wistful and urban(e). A good two fingers of Old Parr would go well with this song. "Yoake no Machi" was the 2nd ending theme for Ishihara's old police series, "Seibu Keisatsu"（西部警察....Police: Western Division）, and it was first released as a single in October 1980.

Although the ending credits for "Seibu Keisatsu"didn't go this way, I could've imagined seeing the end of each episode with The Big Man himself as the veteran seen-it-all, done-it-all cop, walking down the cold lonely evening streets of Tokyo wrapped up in his trench coat just heading over to his favourite watering hole for a slug of whiskey and a comforting chat with the Mama-san. As for my initial listen to this Mood Kayo, it was actually on that tape that I'd brought from Japan after my 1981 trip there. Didn't know at the time that it was an ending theme to a classic cop show, but I just remembered it as a night time enka tune right alongside with Ishihara's other more famous song, "Brandy Glass". "Yoake no Machi" is quieter and more contemplative, and I just love the strings and the soprano saxophone. It strikes the right mood to bring out the ice and tumblers.