Akira Inaba -- Sunday Morning（サンデー・モーニング）

It was a dark and Sunday morning. Well, not exactly dark...the snow on the ground reflected plenty of light back despite the overcast situation. But to see a very wintry snowscape on April 15th almost a month into official spring has probably led a lot of my fellow Torontonians into some dark moods as they mutter internally and externally "When are we finally going to get warm?!" Supposedly, relief is on the way later next week.

(9:45)

That cover of singer-songwriter Akira Inaba's（因幡晃）2nd single, "Wakare"（別涙...Farewell Tears）from June 1976 accurately illustrates what my hair looked like as I went outside to pick up the newspaper this morning. However, it is the B-side that I am writing about here, "Sunday Morning". Cool, not cold, number about a week in the melancholy life of a fellow in the big city beginning with the titular day of the week.

I especially love the collage of bluesy guitar, dramatic strings and that shuffle arrangement. Probably was quite good to hear in a nightclub setting and it could make for a nice theme song for a hard-boiled detective in Japan. The melody does repeat over and over but that's the point of the musical exercise...just to reflect the gray mundaneness of metropolitan living. I can hear the Mickey Spillane voice-over now.

Not sure how well "Wakare" did on the charts but both it and "Sunday Morning" were included on Inaba's debut album "Nanka Ii Wasureta Yo De"（何か言い忘れたようで....I've Forgotten What To Say）. One of his most famous songs is also included, "Natsu ni Arigato"（夏にありがとう）.