Moonriders -- Jealousy（ジェラシー）

Going into the Canada Day long weekend, summer is definitely beating us with a large stick. I'm keeping the blinds and windows closed as the outside temperatures hit 36 degrees with a 42-degree Humidex. Supposedly, the Middle East today has lower temps.

Anyways, listening to the latest purchase in the "Light Mellow" series, "Wing", I found the Moonriders'（ムーンライダーズ）"Jealousy".  Seeing that outside of nikala's article on them performing the bizarre technopoppy "Jub Up Family" (ジャブ・アップ・ファミリー), there hadn't been any article featuring the band itself (although they are represented on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" for a few other articles as songwriters) until today, I think it was time to put in their second feature as musicians.

nikala's article mentioned that Moonriders delved into a number of genres such as technopop, disco and New Wave. However, "Jealousy", the band's 2nd single from 1977, is none of those. Actually, it kinda fits hand-in-glove with breezy American 1970s pop which was probably considered to be in Japan's New Music category then. Vocalist Keiichi Suzuki（鈴木慶一）, who also composed "Jealousy", also operated the Yamaha synthesizer CS-60 (according to the "Wing" liner notes) whose sounds kept things going at a brisk pace. Younger brother and bassist Hirobumi Suzuki（鈴木博文）was also behind the lyrics.

The other notable thing is Keiichi's voice which to me sounds like 10% Joe Cocker and perhaps 90% Boz Scaggs. Both his vocals and the electric guitar periodically seem to take things into a slightly more rock direction. "Jealousy" is also a track on Moonriders' 3rd album "Istanbul Mambo" which was released in October 1977.