Ruiko Kurahashi -- Aikagi（哀鍵）

 

I've always wondered about this photo of singer Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）that I got from one of her albums. Perhaps she was planning to witness the Kentucky Derby that day. Not sure.

(12:06)

Anyways, earlier today I did write that article for Kaori Kozai's（香西かおり）"Stage Light" and noted how that 2021 single reminded me of some of the Fashion Music/Baroque Pop that Kurahashi had sung back in the 1980s. Interestingly enough, it's been over a year since I last wrote about one of my favourite singers so let me bring her back to the blog.

First off, that title of "Aikagi", which I couldn't find on Jisho.org or some of the other Japanese-English dictionaries, stymied me a bit. Then I realized that there was another kanji for the first character of that expression with the same pronunciation:「合鍵」, and that means "spare key". I also noticed on the JASRAC database that there was another song with the same title of 「哀鍵」that had the subtitle of "spare key". So, perhaps there was a pun being played with that character of 「哀」which actually means "sad", and often enough, whenever I see songs with that title, I get the distinct lyrical impression that the spare key is hinting at some sort of illicit affair taking place in an apartment somewhere and that the relationship is perhaps heading toward a cliff or a wall of some sort; in other words, it's not going to end well.

But with these lyrics by Seiko Yoshida（吉田聖子）, there is the gently lilting melody by Kiyonori Matsuo（松尾清憲）that has the feeling of a particularly baroque waltz taking place on the dance floor. This is definitely in Kurahashi's field of crooning expertise and fully remembering her doe-eyed visage, I can picture her in some French café looking rather balefully at the rainy weather outside. It's a short-and-bittersweet number that is a part of her 1984 album "RUIKO".