Crazy Cats -- Musekinin Ichidai Otoko（無責任一代男）

The last time I wrote about the comical band Hajime Hana & Crazy Cats（ハナ肇とクレージーキャッツ）, it was for a B-side called "Hai Sore Made yo"（ハイそれまでヨ）which also made its way into one of their movies "Nippon Musekinin Jidai"（ニッポン無責任時代...Japan's Irresponsible Generation） which had come out in 1962. The trailer above was interesting to view since Cats vocalist Hitoshi Ueki（植木等）who had the lead role of Hitoshi Taira（平均）looked like a rather nerdy type but with a personality that would more match that of a juvenile delinquent.

Well, that B-side was on the other side of the main song, the theme for the movie itself "Musekinin Ichidai Otoko" (Irresponsible Man of His Generation) also sung by Ueki. Created by the same duo behind "Hai Sore Made yo", lyricist Yukio Oshima（青島幸男）and composer Hiroaki Hagiwara（萩原哲晶）, it's a Crazy Cats comical march with Ueki no doubt touting the slacker life. Incidentally, this was also the Cats' 3rd single, and both it and the movie were big hits.

Despite his unrepentant lackadaisical character from the movie, Ueki cut a dapper silver fox figure on the stage, didn't he? I think the above is his appearance on the Kohaku Utagassen doing a medley of Crazy Cats' hits and "Musekinin Ichidai Otoko" comes in shortly after the 45-second mark here.

As I mentioned above, the song was a big hit for Crazy Cats and according to a biography on Ueki by author Juugatsu Toi（戸井十月）, it made quite an impact on the postwar baby boomer men of that time, although I think that considering what happened to Japan during and afterwards, not a lot of those guys became Hitoshi Taira. Also from the J-Wiki article on the song, according to lyricist and future Tokyo governor Aoshima, "Musekinin Ichidai Otoko" had a profound effect on comics such as Tamori（タモリ）and Beat Takeshi（ビートたけし）with the latter's view of the world turned upside down. The song would also make an appearance in the Cats' 2nd movie, "Nippon Musekinin Yaro"（ニッポン無責任野郎...Japan's Irresponsible S.O.B.） which was released in December 1962, just 5 months following the first movie.

The Oricon charts hadn't existed at that time, but if they had, I'm pretty certain that the song would have hit the top spot.