SHOGUN -- Lonely Man

 

Well...not a great start to the work week, although I don't think the news was unexpected at all. Ontario got walloped by 700 new infections today so people are wondering whether we will be dragged back to Stage 2 or worse. In any case, it's gonna be another bumpy trip.

Anyways, to go to something considerably more soothing...the above photo has my purchases over the last couple of weeks from CD Japan, two of which I've already written about: Masayuki Suzuki's（鈴木雅之） "ALL TIME ROCK 'N' ROLL" and Kiyohiko Ozaki's（尾崎紀世彦）"Kaze no Graffiti"（風のグラフィティー）.

It's always nice to discover a new "Light Mellow" CD that hasn't yet been purchased. This time, it's "Neon Nights" and there were some tracks that I've already heard and some new treats from the world of City Pop and AOR.

One of the tracks is SHOGUN's "Lonely Man", another band funk fest thanks to lyricist Casey Rankin and composers Kazuo Otani（大谷和夫）and Fujimal Yoshino（芳野藤丸）. This was actually the band's 3rd single and the ending theme to Yusaku Matsuda's（松田優作）"Tantei Monogatari"（探偵物語...Detective Story） detective TV series, a single that also included the more famous "Bad City", the opening theme to that show.

Compared to "Bad City", "Lonely Man" has got more of that City Pop beat although from the intro, I first thought that "Lonely Man" was going to enter Big Band swing. Still, that feeling of jazz never quite leaves the melody entirely although that also goes for the funky strut. I believe that is indeed Yoshino and Rankin sharing vocals. Maybe "Bad City" is the more well-known of the two songs but there's nothing wrong at all with the A-side, and dang it does sound nice being performed on stage. By the way, that final CD in the picture that I've yet to mention? It happens to be Kirinji's "Neo"（ネオ） album