Goro Noguchi -- Catalog L.A.（カタログL.A.）

 

Now realizing that each of the 1970s Shin-Gosanke（新御三家...The New Big Three）, cute Hiromi Go（郷ひろみ）, super-cool Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）and urbane Goro Noguchi（野口五郎）gave their contributions to the genres of City Pop and J-AOR, I have to look back when I wrote about Noguchi's 1983 hit "19:00 no Machi"（19:00の街）. I did call it a City Pop tune back then since I thought it was similar to some of the shibui urban contemporary material that Akira Terao（寺尾聰）produced at around the same time. "19:00 no Machi" didn't really adapt any of the Steely Dan or Doobie Brothers riffs (although there is something in chorus that shouts Bee Gees) but to me, it was unmistakably a tune that felt right at home in the megalopolis of Tokyo.

Little did I know that Noguchi had already gotten his taste of the genre (along with that water as you can see above) several years previously. Specifically, I cite the year 1978 in August since he would release his 12th album "L.A. Express". Disc jockey Takayuki Fujisawa（藤沢隆行）in his review of the album via my City Pop bible of "Japanese City Pop" openly wondered how Noguchi's fans reacted to this release which didn't fall back on his tried-and-true kayo melodies and actually fell forward to this shiny new City Pop.

I couldn't tell you myself but it was quite the image of him on the cover of "L.A. Express" with him out in the desert somewhere with a fully open shirt as he chugged down some of that H2O. Moreover, right from Track 1, "Catalog L.A.", it was pretty obvious that he embraced his inner American soft rock or AOR. Written by Konosuke Fuji（藤公之介）and composed by Jun Fukamachi（深町純）, that piano and bass among some of the other instruments were all screaming "Welcome to the City of Angels! Jump in the limo and come for a tour." Plus, having David Sanborn on alto sax will always be an invitation for me to any song. It makes for an interesting comparison with the more "down-home" feeling of "19:00 no Machi" some years later. Still, there is something about that arrangement in there that made me feel that there was a bit of the kayo continuing to tug at Noguchi.