Anzen Chitai -- Parade ga Yatte Kuru（パレードがやってくる）

Ahhh...Anzen Chitai's（安全地帯）1986 "V" album...the opportunity to hear the band spread out in various ways musically. Let's see, going away from their early moody sound, Koji Tamaki（玉置浩二） and company tried themselves out with jazz, blues and AOR/fusion and perhaps a couple of other genres to great success.

Then, with "Parade ga Yatte Kuru" (A Parade is Coming), Anzen Chitai embraced some child-like fun. Lyricist Goro Matsui（松井五郎）and composer Tamaki created this one (as they did for almost every track on the epic album) to sound as if a parade truly was coming down the main street. If you ever wondered how Tamaki would look like as the Pied Piper of Hamelin, well, this is the song for you. He could pretty much march his delirious fans outside the arena with "Parade ga Yatte Kuru". And I think the song could have become a nice addition to the long list of tunes featured on NHK's children's music vignette "Minna no Uta"（みんなのうた）.

Well, whaddaya know? He is marching on the stage here with the concert rendition. It's got a bit more oomph and less whimsy with those horns but it's still the amazing Tamaki and his voice. Within the large number of tracks on "V", "Parade ga Yatte Kuru" really does stand out as a happy purely pop song.