Char -- Smoky

 

I don't recall ever seeing guitarist, singer and songwriter Char on television, let alone a music show, but he showed up last night on NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）for the first time and he made quite the impression.

The Tokyo-born music maker blistered through one of his earliest songs, "Smoky", and indeed he smoked the strings. Of course, it wasn't the full rendition but being the first time I had ever heard of "Smoky", I was definitely enchanted by it to seek it out once the show ended. My first KKP article for Char was "Kagerou"（かげろう）from his September 1976 debut album "Char" and "Smoky" is track No. 6. 

"Smoky" was written and composed by Char under his real name, Hisato Takenaka（竹中尚人）, and it's a high-speed trip powered by his guitar and the rest of the band. At first, I was going to categorize it as a straight rock tune but then I heard those fusion elements including the 70s City Pop instrumental symbol of the synthesizer haze, so I threw in the J-AOR as well. Regardless, lyrically speaking, it's a dynamic and necessary kiss-off of a fellow named Smoky who had been a bad influence on the protagonist. My feeling is that Smoky was a dope dealer but his former customer has found music (and maybe religion?) and he's telling ol' Smoky that he no longer needs chemical stimulation for his mojo. Good on him.

Read one comment that pointed out how better his live performances of "Smoky" are, so here is one from his official YouTube channel.