Yumi Matsutoya -- Machikado no Pessimist（街角のペシミスト）

Years ago, I wrote about singer-songwriter Yumi Matsutoya's（松任谷由実）November 1981 album "Sakuban O-Aishimashou"（昨晩お会いしましょう）which I referred to as probably her most City Pop album in her massive oeuvre. I would say that Yuming and this album have the same relationship as Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）does with her 1980 "Miss M".

I did find one track from "Sakuban O-Aishimashou" that I hadn't covered in the original article, and once again, Yuming brings forth another groovalicious tune with "Machikado no Pessimist" (Street Corner Pessimist). The J-Wiki article on the album provided some explanation on many of the tracks, but unfortunately, there was nothing for "Machikado no Pessimist". However, I really like this one for the aforementioned groove, the Steely Dan horns and the sax solo by Jake H. Concepcion.

One time when reading an "Eye-Ai" article on the Queen of New Music, it pointed out that Yuming has often really keyed in on what young women were interested in at the time as a source for her lyrics. I'm not sure whether I read it correctly but she may have even eavesdropped a bit on a conversation among women at some restaurant. Well, for "Machikado no Pessimist", she reveals some of the underlying pessimism and fears of the young ladies partying the night away while trying to stave off the future. I'd be interested on how she got some of the inspiration for this particular track. Did she actually talk with some of those people or was the research done through various magazines? Enquiring minds want to know!