Masamichi Sugi -- Hold On

Singer-songwriter Masamichi Sugi（杉真理）has a number of articles on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" associated with him, but this is only his third with him as the main singer, and it's an article that I had actually meant to do as a follow-up. Back in early May this year, I wrote up the second part to Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）2nd album, "University Street" (1979), and it included the mellow ballad "Hold On" which had been written and composed by Sugi and arranged by Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）.

Well, with all the stuff regarding the blog and elsewhere, I did forget about this. So allow me to rectify the matter with Sugi's own cover of "Hold On" right here and now.

Released as Sugi's 2nd single in June 1980 and included on his 3rd album "Song Writer" which was released the following month, this version of "Hold On" seems to have an even grander arrangement, this time by Masataka Matsutoya（松任谷正隆）, and that feeling of Eagles and Carly Simon rings even more fully in my ears. Definitely a song to view a sunset by. Matsutoya handled all of the keyboards with Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）on the electric guitar, although it was Nobutaka Sasaki（佐々木信教）doing the guitar solo.

Alright, I realize that it's a parking lot, but that's
a nice enough sunset sky, don't you think?