Tatsuhiko Yamamoto -- Yume yori Kurushiku（夢より苦しく）

Eating by yourself in a pretty classy restaurant? Not the most comfortable situation...believe me, I've been there. It's one thing to have dinner at a ramen restaurant or a McDonalds where solitary dining is common. But at a place that offers fine dining where it's considered appropriate to have at least one other person with you? I did get my fair share of stares.

That seems to be the topic of "Yume yori Kurushiku" (More Painful Than A Dream) by City Pop prince Tatsuhiko Yamamoto（山本達彦）. Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）provided the lyrics of the hard and lonely experience while Yamamoto composed the urbane and breezy melody that I could consider to be Sad Steely Dan. It's a cool song regardless as long as I don't linger too much on the lyrics...brings back too many memories.

https://itunes.apple.com/jp/album/music/724612246

"Yume yori Kurushiku" is a track on Yamamoto's 10th album "Music" which was released in June 1984 according to J-Wiki (although iTunes states that it came out in December 1987). The album managed to get as high as No. 6 on Oricon. I don't have "Music" but luckily, the song is part of his BEST compilation "70s & 80s BEST" which came out in 2008.