Ikue Sakakibara -- Ame no Requiem（雨の鎮魂歌）

 

Man, dramatic Ikue Sakakibara（榊原郁恵）has some properly 80s hair right there. Perhaps it's just an inch or two away from mullet status.

Another hint that this particular single by Sakakibara was from the 1980s? The music (and words) by Kyoko Matsumiya（松宮恭子）for "Ame no Requiem" (Rainy Requiem) and the arrangement by Makoto Kawaguchi（川口真）simply have that alternating jingly and urban contemporary keyboard work that I could only associate with songs from that decade. I realize that the ever-grinning Ikue-chan was a 1970s aidoru but I think by that May 1984 release date of her 33rd single, she was pretty much more of a pop singer, and I think "Ame no Requiem" kinda hints at that. There's something about the song that feels as if former aidoru herself Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）from that time period could have also tackled it.

Listening to it a few times already, I've gotten images of 80s young folk walking the streets of Shinjuku and doing their shopping and coffee-drinking. Must have been some good times back then.