Tatsuro Yamashita -- Tsuite Oide（ついておいで）

Well, seeing that yesterday's tutorial by Masa on the techniques of Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）was the 99th article on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" concerning the City Pop king, I kinda went "What the heck?" and have decided to go for No. 100 today. Go ahead.

(16:38)

"Go Ahead" indeed, as I quote Tats' December 1978 3rd studio album. As it turns out, the last song on Side A of the original LP has ended up as the first track on Rocket Brown's first YouTube mixtape on his Come Along Radio channel (unfortunately the video has been taken down but it's been replaced).

(cover version)

"Tsuite Oide" (Follow Me Along) is another magical collaboration between Yamashita and lyricist Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）. The first minute or so is a slow and smoky intro into what becomes a tempting melodic and lyrical invitation to get out of the blues and join ol' Tats on a magical carpet City Pop ride surrounded by the usual happy-happy-joy-joy beats and claps. But of course, with Yoshida's cooperation on the lyrics, the package has the added goodness of her vocals in the background. Finally at the end, there is a sweet solo by Nagoya-born jazz trombonist Shigeharu Mukai（向井滋春）.

Maybe one of you folks who's better at understanding music theory can help me here. According to the J-Wiki information on "Go Ahead", Yamashita created "Tsuite Oide" because he had wanted to get into some of that 16-beat world that was apparently popular in American pop music at the time. I wouldn't know the difference between a 16-beat tune and two beaten eggs for Sunday breakfast. I just know that the song is Tatsuro-excellent. One other thing that I don't quite understand is how "Go Ahead" only managed to rise to No. 75 on Oricon.