Chage & Aska -- Morning Moon （モーニングムーン）

For quite a while, I had thought that Chage & Aska's "Morning Moon" was one of their very early singles from the late 70s. But after listening to it again, the music (& lyrics) by Ryo Aska（飛鳥涼）sounded something very close to what B'z would do later on in their early years, so as it turned out, "Morning Moon" was their 14th single from February 1986.

I had known about the famous duo since the 1980s but I always considered their big time to have been in the 90s, starting with the love-drenched ballad "Say Yes", so it was interesting to hear their earlier material again. "Morning Moon" has got that crisis feeling about it. It may not involve things such as heavy weapons and Jack Bauer, but there does seem to be an existential emergency involving a couple in the big city in the wee hours. Plus, the effects in the music video above for the song inject a goodly amount of urgency into the proceedings. The poor lass in there has been through the wringer. And wow....get a load of Chage & Aska's hair! Aska looks as if he was entering Rick Springfield territory.

I have to say that my favourite part of the song is when the key shifts as Aska sings "Ano hi no sayonara wa..."（あの日のさよならは。。。The goodbye from that day） just like a car gear shifting in preparation for some heavy bombing down the highway.

"Morning Moon" peaked at No. 11 on Oricon and became the 68th-ranked song for 1986. It was also a track on Chage & Aska's 7th album from April 1986, "Turning Point" which hit No. 1.