After hearing the title and listening to the song, I was left wondering about where a south-by-southwest direction from Tokyo would take us or at least the fellow in the song to. Looking at a map of Asia, maybe it could lead to the Philippines or Brunei.
In any case, what I'm talking about is "Nannansei" (South-by-Southwest) which was originally a track on 70s aidoru Mizue Takada's（高田みづえ）debut album "Original First"（オリジナル・ファースト）released in August 1977. Written by Kotaro Aso（麻生香太郎）and composed by Asunaro（あすなろ）, it has that mix of some of the guitar-leading spunk that I've often associated a Mizue Takada song with but it also reminds me of some of the hit numbers by aidoru trio Candies（キャンディーズ）. At the same time, it starts off with a relative bang thanks to some echoing background vocals and a particularly beefy guitar. As I hinted up above, "Nannansei" seems to have that "parting is such sweet sorrow" approach with a couple who have to break up since one of them has to head out in the titular direction for work or something.
Several months later, a cover of "Nannansei" was recorded by Junko Akikawa（秋川淳子）in May 1978 as her debut single with Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）providing an arrangement that begins as if it had aspirations in introducing a kickass tokusatsu hero for the kiddies including some staccato horns. Akikawa, who comes from Kanagawa Prefecture, only released one more single later in the year before ending a very brief recording career.
Yet another cover was recorded much much later as turn-of-the-decade aidoru Wakako Shimazaki's（島崎和歌子）4th single in March 1990. Her "Nannansei" is interesting in that the overall arrangement isn't all that much different from the previous two takes by Takada and Akikawa despite the length of time elapsed. However, there is an underlying rhythm in there that had me thinking of "Hold On" by Ian Thomas and then Santana. It's always fascinating to hear the different interpretations of one single song.
thank you for continuing to post all of this info about 70s japanese music, it is so helpful for finding these artists as someone who can't read the language. i saw a video of junko akikawa on youtube but really struggled to find any info about her beyond that, now
ReplyDeletei know why! i wonder why she stopped making music so soon?
Hello, Sam, and thanks for your comments. As for Ms. Akikawa, I obviously don't know why exactly she left the industry but I've observed over the years that many people try to break into entertainment and only leave after a few short years. There is a lot of very hard work and time that need to be invested in a show business career and sometimes the fame is very difficult to handle. From what I've read, fan expectations can be brutal.
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