Breakfast Club -- Wangan-sen 357（湾岸線357）

 

Learned about this song from both commenter Matt K. and uploader Marty McFlies. Ah, by the by, the breakfast above was courtesy of the Harmony of the Seas cruise a few years ago. Can't let all that cholesterol go to waste, y'know.

Matt has often told me about some of the more delicious offerings given through the Japanese genre of techno-jazz-pop in the 1980s, and indeed, he tipped me off on a video that was up on Marty McFlies channel. It's for an obscure band called Breakfast Club, and no, there doesn't seem to be any direct link between it and the famous John Hughes movie released at around the same time. Strangely enough, there was also an American New Wave band with the same name that lasted from 1979 to 1990.

However, this band isn't it. I did ask Marty himself whether he knew any more information about the Japanese Breakfast Club but he didn't. The only other thing that I could find about this group was at a site called Meg-CD.jp where the band's self-titled 1986 album (perhaps its lone effort) was sold. "Breakfast Club" contains 8 tracks of which all of them were composed by the band itself and the lyrics provided by Masaya Ozeki（尾関昌也）, a lyricist and composer who came up with the melody for Wink's landmark hit "Samishii Nettaigyo"（淋しい熱帯魚）later in 1989.

One of the tracks is "Wangan-sen 357" (Bayshore Route 357), a wistful and whimsical ditty that seems to bring together a whole mélange of influences including that 1980s techno-jazz-pop espoused by Kazuhiro Nishimatsu（西松一博）and Harumi Ohzora（大空はるみ）, some City Pop especially in the intro and maybe even a feeling of the old standards. I don't know who the vocalist is but he's got an interesting voice which is light with a touch of sandpaper.

As for the title, I think the title "Wangan-sen 357" is an amalgam of two routes: Japan National Route 357, the highway paralleling the actual Bayshore Route of the Shuto Highway. Some good news, though, is that Marty has uploaded the entire album onto this channel, so enjoy! It's not all techno-jazz.