Flying Kitty Band -- Boku wa Uchuu Hikoushi, Parts 1 and 2（僕は宇宙飛行士）

 

A couple of years ago, I wrote about Flying Kitty Band (フライング・キティ・バンド）, a trio which consisted of singer-songwriter Kei Ogura  (小椋佳）, Hiromi Yasuda  (安田裕美）and Katsu Hoshi  (星勝）. I mentioned that I had known Ogura especially as this writer of tenderhearted kayo for singers such as Hibari Misora（美空ひばり） before realizing that he was once a member of this New Music group which released just one album, "5･4･3･2･1･0", in September 1977. The concept for the album was about a kid and his dreams to head for space.

For that first article for Flying Kitty Band, the song was "Boseki wo Sora ni" (墓石を空に）, a 1970s AOR tune whose cheeriness belies that rather morose title which can be translated as "Tombstone to the Sky". However, there were two other songs, "Boku wa Uchuu Hikoushi" (I'm An Astronaut), Parts 1 and 2 which were Tracks 2 and 5 respectively on the album.

As opposed to the AOR for "Boseki wo Sora ni", the totality of "Boku wa Uchuu Hikoushi", which is provided by k kaz in the video above, is about the kid and his buddies' desire to go to all of the nearby stars and constellations such as Sirius and Pegasus within a folksy and swinging French jazz milieu (although I really hope that the capsule doesn't have any boxes of Gitanes laying around...children shouldn't be smoking those!). It's quite the happy way to send off the junior astronauts and it ought to take the edge off during launch.

Ogura was responsible for the lyrics while Takao Kisugi（来生たかお）brought the happy melody and Hoshi arranged everything.