Tatsuro Yamashita -- Love Space

This weekend should be nuts...meteorologically speaking. Forecasters are treating the next couple of days as the setting for the season's first major snowstorm in the GTA. Should be fun...might be looking at 5-10 centimetres with a high temperature of -12 degrees Celsius.

So for those "Kayo Kyoku Plus" readers who may be in the Southern Ontario region, I dedicate this classic example of summery joy to you. When things are going to get this snowy and cold, music listeners deserve some warmth and sun, and who better than Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）?

"Love Space" is the opening track to his 2nd studio album "SPACY" from June 1977. Can't quite believe that it only scored a high of No. 59 on the Oricon weeklies, but then again, the City Pop/AOR boom may not have been quite there yet. Plus of course, I'm rather biased towards Tats.

This is a love song extraordinaire that was written and composed by Yamashita and his oft-songwriting partner Minako Yoshida (吉田美奈子...and I can hear her in the background) with the former inviting a lucky lady to join him on the adventure of a lifetime soaring through the cosmos. Good heavens indeed! Such a young voice to lead the way through time and space...can be the perfect theme song for a younger Doctor Who to entice a new companion. And it can be a fine serenade or a proposal song by a fellow...as long as he brings a pack of Sucrets lozenges; those pipes might be rather sore afterwards.

Along with Yamashita's scintillating vocals, a lot of those musicians deserved kudos as well for "Love Space" and the rest of "SPACY". Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）was on the keyboards and he was the fellow who started things off with his piano for that first track. According to the J-Wiki write-up, he came up with the phrase right then and there at the recording session. Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）was on bass and I would love to know who the fellow was on that romantic saxophone. Was it Jake H. Concepcion?

In any case, have a drink with "Love Space". And for those in Southern Ontario over the weekend, hang in there!