Tomoyo Harada -- Nadeshiko Junjou（撫子純情）

 

I've written about a couple of Tomoyo Harada（原田知世）tunes when she was an 80s aidoru, "Tengoku ni Ichiban Chikai Shima"（天国にいちばん近い島）and "Motto Sunao ni..."（もっと素直に…）, both of which appear on her 2nd album "Nadeshiko Junjou" (Innocence of a Sweet Girl). The album was released on November 28th 1984 which just happened to be the date of Harada's 17th birthday and there was a small ritual of having some of her albums released on her birthday including her debut effort, unsurprisingly titled "Birthday Album" which came out in 1983.

But that point of trivia wasn't the trigger for me to cover "Nadeshiko Junjou". It was actually the fact that it was produced by Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）and it's been SOP for me to immediately look at any album which has been organized by the Oscar winner and the Yellow Magic Orchestra musician, especially if it comes from the 1980s. Knowing about his work on Mari Iijima's（飯島真理）1983 album "Rose" and of course, the early 1980s albums by Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）such as "Romantique", I was fully expecting that "Nadeshiko Junjou" would have some of that classy and synthy arrangements, thanks to the Professor.

(16:20)

Unlike those two above albums, though, I unfortunately have yet to own "Nadeshiko Junjou" but I do have to follow that SOP, so allow me to go into this album which peaked at No. 2 on Oricon. The album is actually more of a mini-album since the original version only had three songs on each side.

The second song on Side B is "Clara Kibun"（クララ気分...Feeling Like Clara） which was written by Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）and composed by Yoshitaka Minami（南佳孝）. Sakamoto arranged this one (as he did for the first five songs on the album), and that synthpop and slightly Asian vibe pretty much gives the game away. To be honest, looking through Kisugi's lyrics, I couldn't quite get what the story was all about; it just seemed more of a conceptual ride through happiness, but I gather that it's a pretty refined aidoru song by Harada and that it must be great to be Clara.

Sakamoto actually composed "Lycéenne"（リセエンヌ）which starts off Side B. At first, I couldn't quite understand what the katakana was all about but thanks to the search engines, I did figure out that it was the French word for "schoolgirl". Harada and veteran lyricist Chinfa Kan（康珍化）provided the words for "Lycéenne" that seem to take the aidoru into the future and have her reminisce about her and her classmates' time as 17-year-olds. The Professor's introspective melody displays that classical side that he has also illustrated in his later solo works.

For the rest of the songs, I have to refer to this one video which has the entire album (snazzy cover of Harada, if I may add). As soon as I heard Track 1 "Hoshizora Engata no Gekijo"（星空の円型劇場...Amphitheater Under the Stars）, I knew that it was a Taeko Ohnuki creation. There is just that cute and fantastical arrangement with her and Sakamoto, and Harada even sounds as if she's emulating Ohnuki herself. The lyrics seem to describe the joy of performing on the stage as a kid for the kids. However, the sax solo is a bit jarring and I thought it was more appropriate for a Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）tune, but perhaps it's just the first-listen jitters.

The one other song from this video is Track 2 at 4:00, "Happy Yes". Written and composed by drummer Tetsuro Kashibuchi（橿渕哲郎）, this is also another adorable number about young Tomoyo gushing about that guy she's fallen for. Honestly speaking, part of me was gushing at how the lass pronounced the words "surprise" and the title in the lyrics.

(cover version)

The one song that had been added to the original album when it was put onto CD is "Aishiteru"（愛してる...I Love You） which was the B-side to the single version of "Tengoku ni Ichiban Chikai Shima". As with that A-side, "Aishiteru" was created by lyricist Kan and composer Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）, and it does stand out from the Sakamoto-produced synthpop with its gentle and soothing summer sounds. Harada's vocals come across as even more whispery here. For both the A and B sides, Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）took care of the arrangement.

If I can still get "Nadeshiko Junjou" at a reasonable price, I wouldn't mind plunking down the yen for the fact that it's got that Sakamoto touch in there.