I definitely have to get back to Yokohama the next time I visit Japan. The place has got some panache by the bay in the Minato Mirai 21 neighbourhood and there are some intriguing areas in the city that I have yet to visit. But I gotta go to the Ramen Museum and Chinatown once more.
And I guess for the late great Yujiro Ishihara（石原裕次郎）, Yokohama is just one of the settings for a Mood Kayo song. He's starting to strike me as being quite the fellow for geographical kayo. Along with swinging Tokyo, the Tough Guy has given his love to Sapporo and also to the city of note here in this article.
Ishihara gave his heart to Yokohama at least once before through the 1972 ballad "Sayonara Yokohama"（サヨナラ横浜）that Noelle covered last year. Well, 9 years later, he decided to revisit the second-largest metropolis in Japan via "Yokohama Monogatari" (Yokohama Story).
Listening to the song before checking out the details of its origins, I figured that it was probably released sometime in the late 1970s since his tunes around that time had a couple of traits: 1) a bit of Latin guitar and 2) that haunting female background vocal, with "Brandy Glass"（ブランデーグラス）being the most famous example. I actually wasn't too far off. It took a bit of searching but the single was released in February 1981.
Written by Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）and composed by Keisuke Hama（浜圭介）, Ishihara does his crooning best in front of a set of strings which almost sound feline but I think were meant to signify sighing. Perhaps Tough Guy likes Yokohama as the Lounge of Lost Love since that is the lyrical theme here and also in "Sayonara Yokohama". Bright lights and big city surrounding a lonely palooka in a bar? Yokohama might be the place. As for me, I still see it as one of my wonderful foodie challenges.😎
No comments:
Post a Comment
Feel free to provide any comments (pro or con). Just be civil about it.