Out of all the new releases I bothered to listen to and eventually taking a liking to, Teruo Ikeda's (池田輝郎) "Minato Machi Shigure" is the only one I've yet to see on TV. I've already seen and heard Mae-Kiyo's "Hanabi" (花美～はなび～), written by Maekawa Jr., 4 times, Takashi Hosokawa's (細川たかし) 40th anniversary song "Enka Bune" (艶歌船) 4 times as well and it'll soon become 5 when I see the guy again on "Nodojiman" this Sunday, Ichiro Toba's (鳥羽一郎) menacing "Hida no Ryu" (飛騨の龍) twice, just to name a few. No sign of "Minato Machi Shigure" anywhere, which I find really disappointing... Hmm, now that I think of I hardly see Ike-Teru on TV. Oh well, what can I do?
However, although he doesn't appear on the tube much, I realised that instead of publicizing his new singles on the weekly music shows, Ike-Teru does so in a bunch of campaigns around the country, some of them being in those little music (enka) shops. And what he'd do would be perform his new song on a little stage in front of a respectably-sized crowd gathered around the area, followed by a short performance of other songs, then singing the new one, like "Minato Machi Shigure", once more. Quite a small scale when compared to singing on live TV before a large audience, but the plus side is, the fans literally get to see him right in front of their faces and get his autograph and have a picture taken with him! I can only dream of that... If I ever do catch him during one of his campaigns, I think I'd be the only young thing beaming at him with the CD in hand, wanting to have a photo taken with him.
"Minato Machi Shigure" was released on 11th March 2015, and like most of Ike-Teru's songs, it was penned by Toshiya Niitani and composed by Hideo Mizumori (仁井谷俊也 . 水森英夫). The music is definitely a lot faster in its pace as compared to his previous two singles (both profiled) and it has sort of a Latin kick that made this song latch on to me as soon as I watched the way too short promotional video. Niitani's lyrics talk about a woman who seems to be reminiscing the time she spent together with the one that got away in the following rainy cities of Kyushu: Sasebo, Nagasaki, Shimonoseki in Yamaguchi, and lastly Marugame, Kagawa. And apparently "Minato Machi Shigure" is Ike-Teru's first go at a song in the perspective of a woman. This song did really well on the charts when it came out, placing 20th on the normal Oricon weeklies and 2nd on the Enka-yo charts.
And finally, here's a look into one of his "Minato Machi Shigure" campaigns.
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| He looks so cool in this photo! |
mitsui-ag.com/teruo/discography/
Ah ah ah aaah~~~ Ame ga furu~~
... ... Good gravy, this has become "Neon Bune" (ネオン舟) part 2, hasn't it?
Hi, Noelle.
ReplyDeleteGood to hear another Ikeda song sound just like those enka of way back when. I'd probably say that this would the type of tune I'd like to hear while enjoying a ride on that yakatabune. As for getting that picture with Ikeda, put that down on your bucket list next time you hit Japan. :)
I think you may just be the 2nd person who's ever used "Good gravy" in my presence...aside from me, of course.
Hi J-Canuck,
DeleteIke-Teru's tunes are some good bar enka, aren't they? Getting that photo with the guy would definitely be high up on the bucket list, hopefully he happens to be campaigning in the place I'm in... That be amazing though and it'll really be the highlight of the trip!
Oh, and I use "Good gravy" interchangeably with "Good grief" or "Good lord", which are expressions I use often. But I think I find myself saying "Good gravy" when the matter is not particularly dire since it sounds more lighthearted.