Thursday has arrived. Fortunately, I managed to get my work done quickly and early so I actually have a rare free afternoon. Therefore I've decided to get into the blog right now.
How about a bit of City Pop, especially with one of the princes of the genre, Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）? I encountered his 12th single from May 1988 recently on YouTube. Simply titled "Memories", it's another cool City Pop tune that he could probably sing and write in his sleep. Written by Ikki Matsumoto（松本一起）and composed by Abe, the words and music about the aftermath of an end of a relationship are nice and comfy if not anything novel for the genre. However, the opening lines for "Memories" have burrowed themselves into my head:
Men look at their dreams from yesterday
Women look at their dreams for tomorrow
I'm gonna have to muse about them since I think there is a certain uncomfortable truth there.
"Memories" also ended up on Abe's 7th album "Summertime in Blue ~ Sayonara no Kyohansha"（SUMMERTIME IN BLUE-さよならの共犯者...The Goodbye Accomplice）which was released a month after the single's release. According to Abe's J-Wiki article, the single and the album version are fairly different, and I think the video above with the funkier take is probably the latter.
Wow, some more Abe Yasuhiro goodness. I found about him through one of those Youtube Recommendations specifically 静かな夜が降る a few months ago and was smitten. Especially, since it came out in the 90s.
ReplyDeleteThis post made me click the Yasuhiro Abe Labels link and I was pleasantly surprised by all of the information regarding this man via this blog.
You are doing the Lord's work J-Canuck!
Keep it up!
Hi, Chasing Showa.
DeleteGlad that Abe has some good representation on YouTube. I saw him in the pages of "Japanese City Pop" but it wasn't until I heard his "Irene" on YouTube that I was also smitten.