As I've mentioned in previous Reimy（麗美）articles, before I first got to know the Okinawan singer as the writer of some of that mellow pop from the late 80s and early 90s, she did start out performing cover versions of Yumi Matsutoya's（松任谷由実）hits.
Right from her debut album of "Reimy" released in January 1984 was her version of Yuming's（ユーミン）"No Side". However, I have to correct myself since in actual fact, "No Side" was an original song given to Reimy from the Queen of New Music with the latter performing it at the end of the year as a cover and as the title track for her 16th album.
From the piece I wrote about Yuming's "No Side", I had written that according to the relevant J-Wiki article, the song itself may have been based on a high school rugby match that had taken place in January 1984. Now, considering that "Reimy" was released with her "No Side" in that same month, I'm now wondering if that story is either apocryphal or Yuming wrote it up really quickly. Mind you, the album came out on January 21st and considering her ability to whip up those melodic gems, it is possible that she still managed to see that match, get inspired by it, create a song about it and have it recorded by Reimy.
There isn't that much of a difference in terms of the arrangement for "No Side" for either Reimy or Yuming. The song still has that bittersweet tone about the aftermath of a lost game. But since I've been so accustomed to Yuming's cover of it, I'll probably still prefer her version over Reimy's. Generally, I think Reimy became much more interesting when she started striking out on her own with her own songwriting creations.
I actually had been considering about writing on Reimy's "No Side" before this news came out, so it was a coincidence that I've written this on a day on finding out that one of the pioneers of Japanese rugby, Seiji Hirao（平尾誠二）, suddenly passed away at the untimely age of 53.
Furthermore, continuing on the theme of sad sports losses, I'm writing this on the day after the Toronto Blue Jays were eliminated from further post-season play by the Cleveland Indians. I hadn't thought that the Jays would make it to the World Series in any case since I think they lack consistency, but it's still sad to see the boys in blue get tossed out the way they did.
Yuming one of the finest songwriters, Reimy one of the finest voices. I always prefer Reimy's versions. Almost every Japanese person I have spoken to knows of Yuming and only a few know of Reimy, sadly.
ReplyDeleteHi, Fushigi. Yeah, no slight against Yuming but it's a pity that Reimy didn't get all that much attention but I'm hoping that there is a dedicated niche of fans for her including ourselves. Do you have any Reimy favourites?
DeleteEven though Reimy stopped singing, she composed her own songs at an early age as tuning did. For instance, in her debut album, Tracks 1 and 10 are composed by her. On the following two albums produced by Yuming and Masataka she composed even more.
ReplyDeleteAs you might know, even Tuning performed on her 30th anniversary album "FACES" a song in which she wrote the lyrics and Reimy composed it, "Hoshi no Climber"