TRANZAM -- Ahh, Seishun（あゝ青春）/Come On In（カモン・イン）

 

The above video is of some scenes from the 1975 NTV cop show "Ore-tachi no Kunshou"（俺たちの勲章...Our Medals） starring the late Yusaku Matsuda（松田優作）, later to appear as the villain in "Black Rain" (1989), and a very young Masatoshi Nakamura（中村雅俊）as tough detectives. The music for the show was provided by a folk/rock band whose name I'd heard before in the past but have not gotten to feature on the blog until today.

TRANZAM is a band whose name made me wonder if it had come from those Pontiac Trans Am cars but according to J-Wiki, the moniker was inspired by the American Transcontinental Railroad. The band was first brought together sometime around 1973 with the original lineup consisting of drummer Chito Kawachi（チト河内）, guitarists Hideki Ishima（石間秀機）and Nobuhiko Shinohara（篠原信彦）, lead vocalist Tome Kitagawa（トメ北川）and someone whose name is well-represented here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", bassist/songwriter Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）, all of whom had come from other rock or Group Sounds bands. The lineup changed quite a bit over the years with Goto himself leaving in 1974 after recording on their 2nd album "Funky Steps"（ファンキー・ステップス）. Kohei Miyuki（幸耕平）, the songwriter behind many of Junretsu's（純烈）songs, was also a part of the band as a percussionist.

TRANZAM's first single wouldn't come out until 1975 and it was actually the theme song for "Ore-tachi no Kunshou" with the song title taking on the show title. In May of that year, the band would release their 2nd single "Ahh, Seishun" (Ahh, Youth) just a month after "Ore-tachi no Kunshou" through what was called Black Records but now is part of Teichiku Entertainment in comparison with the debut single which had been produced at Toho Records. 

As some of you KKP readers may have noticed, I usually don't point out record companies, but in this case I am doing so since for whatever reason, Toho Records decided not to put the band's name on the soundtrack that was TRANZAM's work and that even included the instrumental version of "Ahh, Seishun". However for the single "Ahh, Seishun", the jacket has the song labeled as coming from the cop show, so maybe there was a bit of a marketing ploy and some amends-making in place there on the part of Black Records (although they weren't at fault). To further add to the trials and tribulations of record release, "Ahh, Seishun" has been considered to be the band's true debut single since it is the first one to be sung with the name of the band.

Anyways, when it comes to the ending themes of 70s cop shows in Japan, I usually think they come in two styles: the Mood Kayo type that has often been the hallmark of the finish of a Yujiro Ishihara-starring series and the folk/rock type which seems to illustrate the lone wolf cop's never-ending odyssey for justice. "Ahh, Seishun" may have only been used as part of the background music for "Ore-tachi no Kunshou" but I think it would have also made for an ideal ender for each episode since just from the title alone, I believe that the cops played by Matsuda and Nakamura would have always been wistfully reminiscing about their much more carefree youth to try to get through each day. Mind you, copious amounts of alcohol probably helped, too.🍻 The above is what I found on TRANZAM's J-Wiki site but considering the slightly complicated nature of the whole thing, if anyone knows better about the situation, please let me know.

"Ahh, Seishun" was written by Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）and composed by Takuro Yoshida（吉田拓郎）, and it really does have that let's-look-at-the-sunset-and-remember sensation from its bluesy folk arrangement by drummer Kawachi. On Oricon, the song peaked at No. 42 and sold around 80,000 records. The echoing vocals by Kitagawa (who would leave TRANZAM following this song) and company along with the piano are what make this song.

What I've also read about TRANZAM is that they also provided a lot of commercial jingles, over a hundred according to the blog of Nobu Takahashi（高橋のぶ）who became the new vocalist for the band once Kitagawa left in 1975. In fact, they recorded a cover version of a Coca-Cola jingle in August 1976, "Come On In", that had originally been recorded in America under its creation by Billy Davis among others and arranged by B.J. Thomas with Akira Ito（伊藤アキラ）providing the Japanese lyrics. Not surprisingly, it's also quite folksy and the delivery reminds of another folk group, Alice.

Strangely enough, I can't seem to remember "Come On In" in America although I do remember the classic Coke jingle "I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing In Perfect Harmony", and of course in Japan, "I Feel Coke". Both of those songs can be heard in the article for the latter. TRANZAM would finish their run in 1981.