Kuniko Fukushima -- Bye Bye City

After doing that article for an Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）song that singer-songwriter Kuniko Fukushima（福島邦子）had composed, I decided to see if there were any other tunes that the Okayama Prefecture-born artist herself had recorded.

Sure enough, I was able to find a fun one called "Bye Bye City" that she had released back in 1979 and was also a track on her debut album "I'm Ready" from June of that year. "Bye Bye City" has the feeling of a good road trip song as Fukushima sings about getting a fresh new start somewhere other than her old burg where her friends were drifting away. Fukushima's melody was paired with Takashi Matsumoto's（松本隆）lyrics.

I like the tune for that airy happy tone of 70s American AOR/pop and perhaps even a bit of New Wave through the keyboards especially in the intro. In a way, her voice reminds me of the delivery of Junko Ohashi（大橋純子）in a more down-home environment. I read on both her J-Wiki entry and the YouTube comments for the song that "Bye Bye City" was used as the campaign song for Nihon Car Ferry, now known as Marine Express Co.,Ltd.