I came across this song by Motoharu Sano（佐野元春） purely by accident on YouTube last night, and after listening to it initially, I heard it twice more via the original recording and the above concert performance (since taken down and replaced). "Sugar Time" was just that infectious.
And just as the title suggests, I rather felt like bopping about as if I hit the dance floor following a few rounds at the dessert buffet table. And one of my old disco haunts in Toronto, the COPA, had that capability.
Sano's 7th single from May 1982 starts off with what sounds like a combination of synth and strings doing a bit of an uptempo classical riff which hooked me right off the bat. And it just keeps bouncing on right from there until the end. The lyrics (and music) by the singer himself are very simple...just enjoying the love between a man and a woman. This couple is skipping, not ambling down the country lane....must be early days. But romance aside, I think "Sugar Time" is generally a song of (or ode to) joy that could possibly enter my brain if I ever won that lottery.
"Sugar Time" was also a track on his acclaimed album, "Someday" which came out on the same day as the single. Perhaps not surprisingly, it's also the first track on the album which got as high as No. 4 on the charts.
Your analogies made me smile. This would be a perfect number to start off a dance party at a wedding after everyone have had their dessert. That sound also gives me a sugar rush. Besides the opening, the other part that hooked me was that synth riff that follows "Baby, I need your your love". It's a pretty smart tune for being so unassuming.
ReplyDeleteOne of my fondest memories of this song was at the karaoke in Osaka back in the summer. I met this nice Japanese couple at a kaiten zushi place and after some chatting we decided to keep meeting up during my other days there. So in karaoke I decided to take on Sano's "Yakusoku no Hashi" and the guy was so amazed that I knew the singer that he followed it up with a Sano marathon which included "Sugar Time". We were the happiest bunch of singers that night thanks to it. Or maybe it was just all the beer and soda.
Back in the late 70s, there was a bit of a boom(let) in music with an album called "Hooked on Classics". It's not as overtly disco as "A Fifth of Beethoven", but the tracks consisted of classical pieces sped up slightly to a light disco beat. "Sugar Time" kinda started out that way for me.
DeleteI've had a few folks from Japan comment back to me on how stunned they were on how I was able to know all these singers from decades back. I guess you may be coming across a similar situation over in Gifu.