Yoshiyuki Sahashi -- Frida's Freedom

After listening to "Light Mellow ~ Breeze" once more yesterday, I'd wanted to talk about another track in the compilation, guitarist Yoshiyuki Sahashi's（佐橋佳幸）"Diary"（ダイアリー）since it had some sunny 1970s vibes. Alas, though, it wasn't to be found on YouTube.

Now, "Diary" originally showed up on Sahashi's lone April 1994 album "Trust Me", so I decided to go down a rabbit hole and see what else was on that one because I was rather entranced by "Diary". Then I discovered this other track which did exist on the video site, the intriguingly titled "Frida's Freedom".

Man, after taking an aural gander at "Frida's Freedom", I could only imagine if anyone on Steely Dan's team had listened to this one and then rushed over to Donald Fagen and/or Walter Becker at that time to ask "Hey, guys! Did you do this one?". Even they probably would have scoured through their master tapes to confirm whether or not it was one of their creations.

Yup, "Frida's Freedom" is so Steely Dan that I scrunched up my face in shock and awe. The rhythm, the chords, the instruments and even the backup chorus sent orders to my engrams to make me remember "Aja" and Fagen's solo album "The Nightfly". Sahashi doesn't sound anything like Fagen but he does a fine job behind the mike and the guitar, of course. Dang, hard to believe it was recorded in the early 1990s.

I was also glad to put up this Sahashi article since it's the first time I've been able to have him on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" as an actual singer and performer. Up until now, his existence on the blog has been as a songwriter for other artists such as Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）and Yurie Kokubu（国分友里恵）. Furthermore, I found out through his J-Wiki page that he got married to actress/singer Takako Matsu（松たか子）over 10 years ago. Would certainly like to know some other goodies on "Trust Me".