Sure enough, listening to his "Imitation Tale" from his June 1984 album "Music", I could pick up that electric guitar being filtered through the Doobie Brothers as something that I've heard on a number of Inagaki songs. As for Yamamoto's vocals, I peg him closer to Abe's voicing since Inagaki has that higher and more nasal pitch. "Imitation Tale" has got that nice sweeping flow throughout the metropolis with the guitar reminding me for some reason of a Rick Springfield song. Speaking of weird images, when I hear this one, I can only imagine Yamamoto sporting something like an outfit out of Sonny Crockett's wardrobe on "Miami Vice".
Masami Sugiyama（杉山政美）was behind the lyrics while Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）provided the music. Finally, Jun Sato（佐藤準）brought everything together in arrangement. "Music" peaked at No. 6 on Oricon.
Another great find. The opening guitar riff is a dead ringer for 'Owner of a Lonely Heart' by Yes, while the beginning of the chorus has shades of 「ドラマティック・レイン」 by Junichi Inagaki. As you mentioned, there's definitely a bit of Doobie Brothers influence in there as well. Tatsuhiko has good taste with regards to his influences without coming off sounding like a blatant copycat.
ReplyDeleteThanks J.
Hi, Michael.
DeleteYeah, now that I've read your comment, I did pick up on that "Owner of a Lonely Heart" riff in the intro. There are similarities between the styles of Inagaki's and Yamamoto's songs but as you mentioned, the latter has enough of his own style to not sound like he's merely following anyone else.