Hideki Saijo -- Through the Night

 

For Hideki fans, please don't lick the screen!

Well, it's been quite the education over the past few years on realizing that the late Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）wasn't just only Mr. YMCA and a 1970s tough guy heartthrob, but was additionally a pretty good standard bearer for the City Pop front in the 1980s. Always stayed classy!

And it's safe to say that Anri（杏里）and Miho Nakayama（中山美穂）weren't the only clients on City Popster Toshiki Kadomatsu's（角松敏生）rolodex in the 1980s. Saijo himself was probably in there and the guitarist/producer was more than happy to oblige with one track on the singer's March 1984 album "Gentle - A Man". One other track from the album that I've already put onto the blog is "Kagirinaki Natsu"（かぎりなき夏）.

It's all so Kadomatsu as he wrote, composed and arranged "Through the Night", the first track on Side B of the original 1984 LP, right from that bass intro. Plus, how about that brass which was actually put together by Hiroyuki Iso（磯広行）? The players must have really enjoyed working on this one. Nothing like this funk-and-strut tune accompanying a painting of the town red, especially if that town happens to be Tokyo.