Just had a nice hot cup of chamomile tea to settle my stomach a bit after indulging in a little too much Chinese takeout. It's working pretty well but I was thinking about some aural remedy as well. So I found an old mellow Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）tune on YouTube under the title of "Street Dancer".
A track on her 9th album "Wish" from August 1980, it's about as comfy as chamomile. Written by Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）and composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, it sounds like classic City Pop with the nice synths and bass in there as the young couple take that nice stroll down a metropolitan street doing a bit of window shopping while avoiding the rain. It could be any place in Tokyo from Jiyugaoka to Aoyama.
And that album cover just about screams City Pop with the lovely Iwasaki enjoying the sea breeze against the marine background. It's the one reason that I purchased the album which was her first one to have been produced in Los Angeles. "Wish" managed to peak at No. 14 in its original LP form.
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ReplyDeleteHi Kenji.
DeleteTo be honest, I haven't listened to "Wish" all that much either at least compared to her 1978 album "Hatachi Mae". I do like my City Pop but perhaps the material on "Wish" was a bit too much City Pop for me...it's probably one of those albums that will have to gradually grow on me. However, I have to say that listening to "Street Dancer" on its own is wonderful.
I took a look at the explanation for the recording of "Wishes" twice on J-Wiki. Apparently, Iwasaki had been a little too nervous the first time but after gulping down some wine, she was in a much more proper mood to get it done on the second take. Hey, whatever works!
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