Pedro & Capricious -- Yume wo Nosete（夢を乗せて）

Well, I guess I can add singer-songwriter Chiharu Matsuyama（松山千春）to that list of 1970 folk artists such as Shozo Ise（伊勢正三）, Iruka（イルカ）and Kingo Hamada（濱田金吾）who made that crossover leap into City Pop.

He himself didn't perform this particular song but he was responsible for words and music. "Yume wo Nosete" (Ride The Dream). Recorded by multifaceted band Pedro & Capricious（ペドロ＆カプリシャス）, this Latin-tinged City Pop tune may start off sounding a bit like the theme to a Japanese cop show, but then the familiar rhythms of far south and that urban contemporary arrangement come to the fore once more. I believe that Naoko Matsudaira（松平直子）, who replaced Mariko Takahashi（高橋真梨子）as the vocalist for the group, is singing wonderfully here, and although it's quite subtle in "Yume wo Nosete", the background vocals are also sublime. Plus, isn't that Jake H. Concepcion performing the sax solo?

The song was the B-side to Pedro & Capricious' April 1981 single "Silky Silver Rain"（シルキー・シルバーレイン）. Speaking of Matsudaira's vocals, I think when she stretches out some of her notes in the refrain, I can imagine the emotions of Matsuyama doing the same here, too. A few months following the release of the single, I arrived for my first five days of my Japan odyssey at the Tokyo Prince Hotel. I remember walking outside of the hotel on July 6th in the steamy night with my fellow classmates and seeing modernity all around me. "Yume wo Nosete" would have made for the ideal companion song back then.