Candies -- Inspiration Game（インスピレーションゲーム）

 

As embarrassing it is to say as a kayo kyoku fan, I have yet to own a Candies'（キャンディーズ）album of any sort although some of those compilations that I have contain their hits. My impression, though, is that for any fans of Ran, Sue and Miki, the album that must be purchased is their 3rd and final live album "CANDIES FINAL CARNIVAL Plus One"（キャンディーズ ファイナルカーニバル プラス・ワン）that was first released in May 1978. The original LP consisted of three records of which the first two covered their final concerts culminating in the very last one at Korakuen Stadium (demolished in 1988 to be replaced by the Tokyo Dome complex) in Tokyo on April 4th 1978. Record 3 was a studio-recorded effort and this article's song belongs there (and that's where the "Plus One" comes in).

"Inspiration Game" is an interesting one since it comes off as a Candies song grafted onto an underlayer of rock/AOR of that decade. Composer/arranger Yusuke Hoguchi（穂口雄右）, who was responsible for a number of the trio's songs such as "Haru Ichiban"（春一番）, wove this tune that sounds almost as if it could have been recorded by any of the Shin-Gosanke（新御三家）: Hiromi Go, Hideki Saijo or Goro Noguchi（郷ひろみ・西城秀樹・野口五郎）. Lyricist Yoko Aki（阿木燿子）, who was also providing the words for Momoe Yamaguchi's（山口百恵）tough-as-nails hits at the same time, wrote up the story of the kakkoii life on the West Coast of America and also in Paris. For a Candies tune, it's a pretty tough and cool piece that has me picturing the ladies lighting up some Parliament cigarettes on a street corner.

In its original form, "CANDIES FINAL CARNIVAL Plus One" hit No. 1 on Oricon and became the 35th-ranked album for 1978. Then in March 1985, the first CD version of the triple-LP was released.