Tomomi Oda -- Kushimoto Bushi（串本節）

 

Happy Monday! Here I was about to do a whole thing on this min'yo which originated from my ancestral prefecture of Wakayama, only to learn that I had already done so through an article almost a couple of years ago. When that part of the brain starts to go...😞

Just to help folks with how "Kushimoto Bushi" (Kushimoto Song) sounded back decades ago, this is the original version. Since then, I've come across a hip-swiveling 1958 salsa cover by the late Chiemi Eri（江利チエミ）which signals more on the twisting front on the dance floor rather than a stately parade of traditional dance. That cover is located in the original article.

Well, imagine my surprise a couple of years later on discovering that the Eri cover got its own cover via Episode 7 of "Gundam Thunderbolt"（ガンダム サンダーボルト）back in 2017. That same Latin jazz pizzazz by arranger Tsunemi Naito（内藤法美）has been retained for this version which for some reason accompanied a certain tropical mission by the soldiers in that episode. 

Even the vocals sound quite familiar to those of the original Eri thanks to singer-songwriter Tomomi Oda（小田朋美）. The music for the entire soundtrack to "Gundam Thunderbolt" was created by Naruyoshi Kikuchi（菊地成孔）, and I read that he just happened to be the sax player behind one of the most incredible and craziest anime songs ever created, so unsurprisingly the score has plenty of jazz and blues added to the pop. In all honesty, I was fully expecting those robots on both sides of the equation to be swiveling their mechanical hips and swinging those weaponized arms instead of getting ready for battle.