Masayuki Suzuki/Yoshiyuki Osawa -- Glass Goshi ni Kieta Natsu （ガラス越しに消えた夏）

I fell under the Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之） spell fairly late. By the time, I'd gotten hooked on his cool and urban "Wakare no Machi"（別れの街）during my first run in Japan, Suzuki had already been into his solo career for 5 years. At the time, I didn't connect that this was the same guy who had fronted the doo-wop group The Chanels/Rats & Star in the early 80s since the two styles that he sang seemed so far away from each other.

First hearing "Glass Goshi ni Kieta Natsu"(The Summer That Disappeared Through The Glass) via one of his BEST discs, I was initially not all that enamored of it since I found the haunting synthesizer and the oddly dissonant sax a bit off-putting. It's strange to say this for a mainstream J-Pop song, but it struck me as being somewhat dreamy avant-garde. And the crazy thing was that this was Martin's 1st single as a solo artist. I guess he really wanted to make a different mark away from his time with his old group.

However, I'm happy to say that this is one of those songs that has been able to grow on me over the years, partially due to Suzuki's soulful vocals. He just seems to glide and weave his way through the lyrics. The words were created by Ikki Matsumoto（松本一起）, who also wrote the late 80s Akina Nakamori（中森明菜） hits of "Gypsy Queen" and"Fin". And the music was made by singer-producer Yoshiyuki Osawa（大沢誉志幸）. The voice, lyrics and melody all combine to form this bittersweet atmosphere as the protagonist realizes that his true love is fading away forever as he wishes her well on the outside while hiding his bewilderment and panic on the inside....all the while the summer is disappearing behind the horizon. Learning the meaning of the lyrics definitely helped me appreciate the song much better. Another point of interest is that Tomoyasu Hotei（布袋寅泰） of "Kill Bill" fame was behind the guitar here. The song, released in February 1986, peaked at No. 15 on Oricon and is a track on his first album, "mother of pearl", released on the same day. Suzuki would finally get his chance to sing the song at a Kohaku Utagassen in the 1991 edition.

The composer of the song, Yoshiyuki Osawa, did his own cover in 1994 for his album, "I.D.Y. BEST COLLECTION" which came out in October of that year. His version is a softer and more orchestral ballad. To be honest, I'd never actually heard Osawa sing until I came across this video tonight, and he also has some fine pipes. Several of his albums have shown up in "Japanese City Pop", a genre that he has also splashed about in. I'll have to take a closer look at some of his stuff as well.

The above is the original music video for Suzuki's "Garasu Goshi ni Kieta Natsu".  I can say that the imagery complements the musical arrangement.