I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
Credits
I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.
Friday, May 1, 2015
Tulip -- Sayonara Doukemono (さよなら道化者)
Friday evening, sunset. I sometimes turn to Tulip (チューリップ) whenever I’m in the mood for a gentle melancholic piece. Like their fellow contemporaries in Off Course, the band often created these simple emotional ballads that shoot straight for the heart… and don’t miss. “Sayonara Doukemono” (さよなら道化者...Goodbye Joker), Tulip’s 19th single from March 1981 is one such piece. Written and composed by Kazuo Zaitsu (財津和夫), it presents a lonely man recalling his happy days while in love and how his beloved brought out the funny side of him. And so, he earns for that joker to come back. Beautiful melody, like faint sunshine peering through the clouds. The verses are particularly moving with how Zaitsu’s voice quivers through them. But like most misfortunes, this sad episode comes to an end in the final quarter of the song, where it gives way to happy dance music as Zaitsu’s character proudly declares that he’s a fun-loving man once more. It’s an amusing twist for a song that’s so emotional throughout, but then again, that’s how life works. We become heartbroken, we sulk, and then we move on.
The music163 (music163 is dead but there is the YouTube video) link at the top of the post will take you to the album version of “Sayonara Doukemono”, which appears on the band’s 11th album “The Love Map Shop”. That's the one I dissected in detail. The single cut from the live performance above doesn't have that happy twist. It begins on a melancholic note and ends with one. Being an optimist that I am, I’ll go with the album version. The band also has shared my sentiments by featuring that one on their best-of compilations.
I wonder if "Sayonara Doukemono" ever made it as a tie-in song for one of those TV dramas from that time period. It sounds like the perfect "moving-on" ballad to be played during a montage of the happier-but-definitely-in-the-past scenes of a former couple. Of course the last minute or so can have the recovered fellow skipping off happily into the sunset.
Hello, nikala.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if "Sayonara Doukemono" ever made it as a tie-in song for one of those TV dramas from that time period. It sounds like the perfect "moving-on" ballad to be played during a montage of the happier-but-definitely-in-the-past scenes of a former couple. Of course the last minute or so can have the recovered fellow skipping off happily into the sunset.