Noriyo Ikeda -- Dream In The Street

This is another track I found in one of my CDs of the long-running series of "Light Mellow" representing City Pop/J-AOR, this one being labeled "Moment".

"Dream In The Street" is originally the title track from the debut album of Noriyo Ikeda（池田典代）, another one of those hidden treasures in the world of urban contemporary Japanese pop from way back when. There is virtually nothing written about this mysterious singer aside from what I could find on one Yahoo Japanese-language music blog which had her getting her start in the late 1970s as a performer in clubs located in Shinjuku and Shimo-Kitazawa in Tokyo.

There is even some dispute as to when the album "Dream In The Street" was released with the liner notes in "Moment" stating it was in 1980 whereas a few online sites state that it was actually 1979 (I will go with 1980 for now). In any case, what is notable about this City Pop gem is that it was composed and arranged by Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）with Ikeda providing the lyrics about the general goings-on on a night in the big city. The late Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）was on keyboards and even Yamashita was there as one of the guitarists providing backing vocals.

Ikeda has vocals here which remind me to a certain extent of the voice of Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）...that breathy and coquettish quality. Plus "Dream In The Street" just bursts onto the street with that familiar City Pop beat shuffling things happily along the sidewalk, and as much as I've mentioned the Doobie Brothers whenever I write about the genre, this particular song has that little addition of Steely Dan this time around. And to wrap up, there is that cool little bit near the end when you hear the drums rattling away and then the bass doing its fine plucking. Those were grand years by Tats.

I don't know how many albums Ikeda released but my impression is that "Dream In The Street" may have been the only one.