Well, we've got the makings of a humongous storm headed our way over this weekend which could dump us with as much as 50 mm of precipitation tomorrow. That's more rainfall than we usually get in a month. Not much fun, to be sure, and with the temperature hovering close to zero, there could be a lot of ice buildup leading to possible power outages. As well, I've got my first lesson of the year with my Skype student plus a long-awaited talk with JTM right after on the same platform. I've given both of my friends the fair warning about what could disrupt communications on Saturday.
Friday night is of course City Pop/AOR night, and to help me forget about the first major attack of weather for 2020, I got something very jaunty and soulful. Taking a gander at the cover for Issei Endo's（円道一成）1984 album (his 3rd) "Run to Live, Live to Run", the fellow looks like a very young Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）. The title meanwhile reads like a slogan for Nike shoes.
One of the tracks is "Yoishirete Deja Vu" (Drunken Deja Vu), a shoulder-shimmying and easy-on-the-ears Motown-esque number about a guy having some liquid assistance to get out his feelings for the woman he cares for. From the title of the song, it sounds like that he may have relied on the good stuff a number of times. Written by Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）and composed by Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）, Tats himself is on the guitar, and while Endo is pouring out his soul, that horn section is sounding really good.
The whole soulful album, in fact, is packed with music goodness. Along with Yamashita, Jun Aoyama（青山純）and Ponta Murakami（村上秀一）helped out on drums, Yuji Toriyama（鳥山雄二）and Kunio Muramatsu（村松邦男）were also on guitars, Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）was on keyboards, Shin Kazuhara（数原晋）and his horns pitched in, Jake Concepcion was there on sax, and Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）even lent his voice on background vocals.
You can lend an ear to the entire album, if you wish, thanks to Kimi no Station.
From what I've found about Endo is that he was born in 1954 in Kobe, and his hobbies include riding the Harley and watching Brian DePalma movies. What he doesn't like is green peas! Influenced by Wilson Pickett, he made his debut in 1979.
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