Tin Pan Alley -- Choppers' Boogie（チョッパーズ・ブギ）

Still much to explore when it comes to Haruomi Hosono's（細野晴臣）pre-Yellow Magic Orchestra days in the 1970s when he was with Happy End and Tin Pan Alley, pioneering bands in New Music and perhaps even City Pop. Therefore, I'm back to the latter band's inaugural album "Caramel Mama"（キャラメル・ママ）from November 1975.

This time, it's the 2nd track "Choppers' Boogie" which was written, composed and arranged by Tin Pan Alley drummer Tatsuo Hayashi（林立夫）. However, although Hayashi's percussion does have a meaty role, I think "Choppers' Boogie" is the platform for the guitarist and bassist to shine. But I think I'm being a little polite with that last statement...the guitarist and bassist are just having a blast shredding things to pieces here. Not sure whether the chopper in the title is actually referring to a guitar since I've usually seen the term used for: a) a helicopter, b) a motorcycle and c) a machine gun. But since I have seen machine guns being hidden in guitar cases, it wouldn't be too much of a leap of faith to assume that the boogie is indeed all about the guitars involved.

Whatever it is, it's a mesmerizing four minutes and change of hot music compared to the mellower beachside sounds from its trackmate "Sobakasu no Aru Shojo"（ソバカスのある少女）. Plus, "Caramel Mama" is now on my target list, especially on hearing that superstars such as Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）, Yumi Arai（荒井由実）, Yoshitaka Minami（南佳孝）, Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）and Akiko Yano（矢野顕子）also helped out in the recording of the album.