Yasuhiro Abe -- Yasashii Saigo no Natsu（優しい最後の夏）

 

Having scarfed down a 250-gram striploin steak, potatoes and salad for dinner tonight, it's pretty much a given that I will be beginning to take naps in the armchair afterwards at my age...which is why I'm typing articles and having an electric fan on behind me to keep me awake. Even having coffee doesn't do it for me anymore. ☕

But having said that, what better melodic digestif to enjoy than a Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）song? He can croon a hyperactive chihuahua into eventual relaxation into its own chaise lounge. Here is one from his May 1987 6th album "Urban Spirits", "Yasashii Saigo no Natsu" (Gentle Final Summer). His composition with Masao Urino's（売野雅勇）lyrics is sublime as it describes the final part of the hot season and perhaps also a romance. 

Usually, I've thought of Urino working on songs such as "Shojo A"（少女Ａ）with that chopper-riding rock n' roll beat, but "Yasashii Saigo no Natsu" is obviously not one of those tunes. Heck, there is a mellow trombone in the middle of it! Then again, Urino was also responsible for another summer's-end AOR classic with Junichi Inagaki's（稲垣潤一）"Natsu no Claxon"（夏のクラクション）which is also supremely mellow. As for the title "Urban Spirits", for some reason, I keep imagining a cigarette commercial, but of course, those ads are now extinct.