Chisato Moritaka -- Nozokanaide (のぞかないで)

Recently, I’ve been listening to some odd songs released by Chisato Moritaka (森高千里). I’m talking mainly of coupling songs that were released on singles, but rarely saw the light of the day on albums. One of the most interesting ones is “Nozokanaide”, which was “Kusaimono ni wa Futa wo Shiro!!’s” (臭いものにはフタをしろ！！) coupling song, from May 1990.

As “Kusaimono...” was a more rock-oriented song, and – at the time – Chisato only released her more hyper Techno songs or midtempo ballads as main songs, I really think this single served as a major change in her marketing strategy. Probably aware of this, and trying not to alienate her dance music fans, she (or whoever took the decisions) decided to include the edgy “Nozokanaide” as “Kusaimono...’s” coupling song.

In fact, I think “Nozokanaide” was recorded way before “Kusaimono...” – maybe still in 1989 –, as the song opened the “Moritaka Land Tour” concerts from January to March 1990. I can’t say if the song was, at first, created to be a single on its own, but what I know is that it ended relegated as a coupling song later.

One of “Nozokanaide’s” interesting features is, of course, the hyper active dance arrangement, which, as my dad argued one day, is similar to some Sonic The Hedgehog themes from the same time. He’s probably right, but that’s not exclusive to “Nozokanaide”, since a good portion of the electronic music produced at the time could sound a little bit like video game.

Other than that, as I never quite understood why Chisato dressed like a bug (cockroach?) during “Nozokanaide’s” performances (she also did it in the “Moritaka Land Tour” concerts), I decided to take a look at the lyrics.

The lyrics are very strong... probably the strongest I’ve seen from Moritaka so far. As I could understand, she talks about a pervert guy, maybe a boyfriend, who wants to do things that are not appropriate with her. She, then, compares him to a molester during the chorus, aiming for some kind of punishment for this guy. However, it has nothing to do with the costume. Maybe dressing like a disgusting cockroach, she’s addressing how the attitude of this guy is disgusting. I’m just guessing, though.

To finish, here’s Moritaka singing a new version of “Nozokanaide” in one of her recent concerts.

The “Kusaimono ni wa Futa wo Shiro!!” single reached #4 on the Oricon chart, selling 117,000 copies. As for “Nozokanaide”, it was remixed and included in the remix album “The Moritaka” (ザ・森高), from 1991. Years later, in 1999, the original version was included in a compilation called “harvest time”. The song was written by Moritaka herself, while music and arrangement were done by Hideo Saito (斉藤英夫).

Source: generasia.com