PIE -- 1978

 

For this article, I would just like to showcase my sister-in-law's scrumptious homemade apple pie. Apple pie has always been my favourite by far (although I do like the other types as well) since I was fed so much of it as a little kid. Still am not much of an a la mode person; never really got into the habit of having a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the crust, and I certainly don't put any huge hunk of cheddar cheese on top of it either like apparently some Canadians enjoy. I usually just like it plain.

As you can imagine, pie has been a very common thing. However, this pie...or I should say, PIE（パイ）...is a very rare and unknown commodity. Actually, it's a Japanese band that is going into the category of Rare on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", but I'm happy to welcome it all the same. I could barely dig up any information regarding this group aside from this site called "Showa Pops" (which I'm really happy to have discovered) and actual images via Yahoo Japan of their perhaps only record released in 1981 called "Ocean".

From "Showa Pops", I found out that PIE, consisting of Yasuhito Kawabata（川端康仁）, Kohei Tsunemi (恒見コーヘイ) and Tadamasa Momoda (百田忠正), had released at least one single in November 1981, "1978" which was written and composed by Kawabata according to what was written on the record itself. As the album continued to play, I noticed that PIE kinda went from AOR to folk, a reverse Off-Course（オフコース）approach on Side A, you might say. "1978", which follows a 36-second intro of choral scatting, is the second track which launches with a bold AOR guitar before proceeding into a light and mellow and wistful melody of keyboards and guitars. The entire song feels like a remembrance of good times and memories gone past although at the time of recording, only three years had passed since the titular year.

Wouldn't mind knowing some more about PIE and what became of its members but even if I can't, I'm satisfied that I could find out about "Showa Pops". After all, the page that I've bookmarked has a list of supposedly every single that was released in 1981, so there are tons of songs and singers that I've yet to explore.😀

Both images are from Yahoo Auctions.