Tsugutoshi Goto -- Strange Crew

 

Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）has been a bassist but more importantly, he's been one of the most prolific composers in Japanese music history, providing melodies to so many singers including one of his biggest clients, Shizuka Kudo（工藤静香）, and another aidoru Sonoko Kawai（河合その子）, who would eventually become his wife. But it's been pretty rare for me to see him front and centre although I did write about a track from one of his solo albums, the 1985 "City Trickles ~ Machi no Shizuku"（街の雫）. However for that one, it was actually fellow composer Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子） who was handling the vocals for "The Night Landing: Yuudoutou"（誘導灯）.

This time around, though, we finally get to hear Goto in front of the mike. And it was through his "Strange Crew", the second track on his first original solo album "Mr. Bassman" released in 1979. Goto makes his presence known right from Note One in this song that has me getting all sorts of Gino Vannelli vibes although to be honest, I don't think Gino has anything much to fear from the bassist in terms of vocal ability (despite the observation that I think that there's a bit of Hiroshi Sato in the delivery).

As a couple of sources such as Tower Records' description of "Mr. Bassman" have described it, it's truly rare for Goto to actually sing but he's not alone here. Even though "Strange Crew" isn't an official duet, City Pop utahime Haruko Kuwana（桑名晴子）is helping out in the backup vocals; didn't recognize her in her first few exhortations but then when she got to throw out full phrases, it was obvious that it was indeed her especially when she sang out "STRANGE CREW". The song is also some fine gumbo of that City Pop mixture of funk, jazz and other urban elements, and I read on Tower Records that the album has the able assistance of Yukihiro Takahashi + Tatsuo Hayashi（高橋幸宏 ・林立夫）on drums, Ryuichi Sakamoto + (the aforementioned) Hiroshi Sato（坂本龍一 ・佐藤 博）on keyboards, and Masaki Matsubara（松原正樹）on electric guitar. I also feel like tipping my fedora, too, to whoever was playing that cool trumpet on "Strange Crew".

Considering Goto's talents as a composer, I was surprised to realize that it wasn't him behind the composition for "Strange Crew". It was actually the most prolific composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）although Goto may have arranged the song. Some person named Vinyl provided the lyrics.