Good Friday to everyone! It was a statutory holiday today but some of us translators decided to get together for some good food and nice conversation at a Japanese comfort food place called Sakawa Coffee by the west end of Greektown. I ordered the Omurice, and while it didn't look like the domed masterpieces created in Japan, the taste was actually quite good. I'm just grateful that the dish now exists here in Toronto. No illusion!
Apparently, love is, though, to Hatsumi Shibata（しばたはつみ）...yes, another one of my "classic" segues. Ahem, anyways, this is "Love is an Illusion", her 12th single from October 1979. This is another one of those City Pop numbers closer to the disco side of things. Written by Kazuko Kobayashi（小林和子）and composed by Yuuichiro Oda（小田裕一郎）, who would later whip up one of Seiko Matsuda's（松田聖子）early hits, "Aoi Sangosho"（青い珊瑚礁）, the arrangement has that familiar ring of 1970s downtown life in Tokyo (from what I could remember from watching those ancient VHS tapes from Nippon Video). I can see that mirror ball right now.
"Love is an Illusion" was also used as one of the campaign songs for the Mazda Cosmo and you can hear it at just a little under the 1-minute mark in the above video.
I see you fell through that Hatsumi Shibata sized rabbit hole too...
ReplyDeleteI was intrigued by her because of finding a song on a site suggested by a commenter who gave a link to Hip Tank records.
I clicked the link and found this:
http://hiptankrecords.com/?pid=126847390
The album cover is striking because it is early 80s Los Angeles, specifically the artist is photographed in Korea Town about a block or so south of Wilshire Boulevard.
When I was younger my parents use to take us to visit our uncle who lived in LA and he would give us a tour of the city.
In the link there is a fan made video of the song which I remember from a compilation that did not list who the singer was. Now, decades later, I finally found out who she was!
https://youtu.be/8umBe62NmGg
Indeed, God bless the commenters!