Another recent acquisition for me is the second album of veteran singer-songwriter Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）, "Back Mirror" from 1977. I had seen the album at Tower Records back in 2014 but unfortunately didn't come around to getting it. This time, I didn't repeat the same mistake.
I've listened to "Back Mirror" just once so far. I will have to get back to it but in the meantime, the one standout track is "Rainy Saturday & Coffee Break" which pretty much says it all there in terms of the music. Perhaps Hayashi had a regular breakfast place that he hung out at during the weekends near his apartment in Tokyo or whichever city he was residing in at the time. I could see him sucking back on his cigarette after having done his coffee and toast and boiled egg while it's showering outside.
Whatever the scenario, I like this song. It's laidback but cheerful and I do groove to that electric piano. There's something very reassuringly 70s City Pop about it. While Hayashi took care of the music, Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）wrote the lyrics.
One of the backup singers for "Rainy Saturday & Coffee Break" just happened to be chanteuse Junko Ohashi（大橋純子）and strangely enough in the same year, she did a cover of the same song for her own album "Rainbow". This time, it was Hayashi backing her up. Slightly different arrangement but still lovely to listen to.
With that Rhodes piano and his voice it gives me that Michael Franks vibe.
ReplyDeleteI remember when I was a kid me and my mother were listening to an old R&B station. It was mid-summer, raining but the sun was out and we had all of the doors and windows open. It was surreal but also so magical.
One of his songs came on the radio and I was so entranced. I looked at my mother and asked, "Who is this man?"
She knew who he was because my mother was a big jazz fan.
I don't remember the song but I never forgot his voice.
Most people remember him from his 80s kind-of-hit "Your Secrets' Safe With Me."
But this song reminds me of him in his late 70s jazz mode.
Hi, Chasing Showa.
DeleteI'm a big sucker for a good Rhodes piano riff. Takes me back better than any time machine.:)
I think one reason that I've fallen for genres such as City Pop is that the music there has reminded me so much of what I used to listen on the radio in Toronto when I was growing up. Perhaps a lot of folks who have gotten onto the City Pop/J-AOR bandwagon recently may be thinking that they have discovered this music which is familiar and yet not familiar at the same time. Kinda like alternative universe pop in a new language.
I must concur.
ReplyDeleteBack in the day, listening to music was pretty regional. The media gatekeepers of that era kept things within their own area.
Now we have access to all of the music that, those who were there, missed the first time. And guess what? We discovered that a lot of the music separated by culture, language, and distance were not so dissimilar.
Precious song
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