Well, first off, I would back away slowly from her with no sudden moves and then head off quickly into another direction. Far be it from me to bother Mayumi Horikawa（堀川まゆみ）while she's making sure her cosmetics have been applied correctly. I do believe that she's sitting on a park bench in New York City.
Perhaps the fact that the picture is a cover of her 3rd single "New York Doll" from September 1979 is a clue. However, that's not the subject of this article...it's actually the B-side "Climax". Maybe the original setting for the song was the Big Apple, but when I hear this now some 40 years after its debut in the record stores, I can't help but hear Tokyo back in the day. The funk is there for that City Pop feeling but Horikawa's vocals and those strings remind me of some of the more uptempo songs that 70s aidoru darling Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）was releasing also in the latter part of that decade.
The wailing guitar, the disco strings and the boppy bass are also joined by some pretty thumpy percussion at times, too. Fujimal Yoshino（芳野藤丸）was behind the music while Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）took care of the lyrics.
Hello J-Canuck,
ReplyDeleteThat is NYC. I can see the Twin Towers in the background. It's nostalgic. The last time I went to New York the towers were still there which means it's been a long time since I've been NYC.
I'm not really enamored with the East Coast of the US. I usually remain out west or down south most of the time.
You seem to be on a late 1970s/early 1980s groove right now.
I like it!
Thanks.
The last time I was in NYC was in 2001, just a couple of weeks before the attack. But my first time there was in September 1993, and before going over to see my good friend, I had been terrified of the Big Apple because of its reputation as one of the world's most dangerous cities. But I found out that Manhattan was absolutely fine (except for the subway stations). It was about midnight and the Upper East Side was still filled with people.
DeleteFriday has become the day devoted to the City Pop stuff although I still put up music from the genre on other days. The late 70s/early 80s were a fine period for that.