Akira Inaba -- Wakatte Kudasai（わかって下さい）

I read over an article that I had written about folk singer Akira Inaba's（因幡晃）"Natsu ni Arigato"（夏にありがとう）all the way back in November 2013 and noted how wintry things had gotten. Well, I'm writing the second article about one of his songs and although things aren't quite as frosty cold today as they were back then, we Torontonians are currently getting our first taste of major snow.

In his J-Wiki bio, I read that after graduating from his high school in Akita Prefecture, Inaba soon started work as a mining engineer. However, I gather that his musical ambitions were living quite large and so he released his debut single in February 1976, "Wakatte Kudasai" (Please Understand). I mentioned this in "Natsu ni Arigato" but never listened to the song until this past week.

Man, does it start with some epic organ! There is a majesty in there which had me initially wondering whether this would be a folk song as Inaba has been categorized. Sure enough, the organ gives way to a gentle melancholy ballad about remembering a love lost around graduation. I'm not sure if songwriter Inaba had thought about him when coming up with his first impressive song but I think with that organ which keeps anchoring things, I couldn't help but think Edgar Allan Poe, specifically "The Raven" where the narrator's lost Lenore comes in. Perhaps that organ is emphasizing the fact that the protagonist has been truly haunted by the experience, seeing her face in other women.

It was interesting when I saw the above video on YouTube since the other recommended videos on the right side included songs by Mayumi Itsuwa（五輪真弓）and Kozo Murashita（村下孝蔵）. Indeed, those were the musicians that came to mind as I was listening to "Wakatte Kudasai". There is a lot of depth in the song that has a certain calming effect despite the sadness of the lyrics. It may act as a tonic for me if I have listened to a little too many aidoru or Japanese disco tunes.

Apparently, "Wakatte Kudasai" may not have made too much of a dent in the Oricon charts but it did win Inaba a prize at the Yamaha Popular Song Contest in 1975 which brought about his official debut.