For all those who like older Japanese music and older American sitcoms, I can probably declare that EPO is the Mary Tyler Moore of J-Pop. To paraphrase a lyric from the opening theme song to "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", she can turn on the fans with her music. Her songs aren't going to cure cancer or spur folks to demonstrate in front of Parliament or the White House but they are just darn happy.
In fact, it's pretty hard to peg when an EPO single first came out since they are all either peppy and catchy or wistful ballads. So I was a bit surprised to find out that "Ongaku no Yo na Kaze" (Wind Like Music) was actually her 9th single from August 1985 since it sounded like a tune that could have easily come from her earlier catalog at the beginning of the decade.
Well, no matter its launch date, "Ongaku no Yo na Kaze" was a total creation by EPO which starts out with a cute tinkly synth before its companion keyboard goes into a 60s Burt Bacharach-like riff. And perhaps I can continue my Mary Tyler Moore analogy in that I could imagine a Japanese version of ol' Mer (Murray Slaughter's pet name for her...yep I was a big fan of the show) sitting by herself at a sunny cafe reminiscing over a past love while hoping for some future love. Ever the optimist.
"Ongaku no Yo na Kaze" also made it onto her 8th album from June 1986 "PUMP!PUMP!", a title that sounds appropriately optimistic.
Love this song, possibly my favorite EPO song! I'm a very big EPO fan in the U.S., since the mid-80s. In fact, Ongaku... was the first song I heard from her back then. Have all her CDs (I think :)
ReplyDeleteOK, just stopping by to say Hello. Your site came up in a Google search. Cheers!
--david
Hello, David. And thanks for your comments. I've been hearing about EPO since around the same time. She just has some of the most cheerful and nostalgic-sounding tunes I've ever heard in Japanese popular music. All the best!
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