Masaki Ueda -- Samui Nohara（寒い野原）

Haven't put up a Masaki Ueda（上田正樹）in a while and the majority of his songs on KKP have come from the 1980s. I've only written one of his that was actually his debut single from late 1972, "Gin'iro no Taiyo ga Moeru Asa ni" （金色の太陽が燃える朝に）.

As I recall, "Gin'iro no Taiyo ga Moeru Asa ni" was more along the lines of a proud get-it-out-there kayo such as Kiyohiko Ozaki's（尾崎紀世彦）"Mata Au Hi Made" （また逢う日まで）, but his "Samui Nohara" (Cold Plain),  a track from his September 1977 third album, simply titled "Ueda Masaki", is something a little different. For one thing, I think that it comes across as a transitional tune, heading more into that familiar bluesy soul that I first knew him for a la "Osaka Bay Blues" but not quite there as of yet.

I'm not quite sure if it's a straight-up City Pop tune although I hear that de rigueur bass and keyboard. Perhaps I can also classify it as New Music, but even if it straddles that borderline, it's got that appealingly strutting main rhythm thanks to the percussion and bass. At the same time, the addition of that flute keeps things nice and light and floaty, and maybe there's even some feeling of a refreshing early morning because of it (although I'm not quite sure who would still be strutting across the plain at 4 am in the morning). Among it all is Ueda's slightly leathery voice which is quite worthy for the blues, but I don't think "Samui Nohara" is a blues song at all. It's quite the happy track with words by Kiri Kawamura（河村季里）, melody by Ueda and arrangement by Makoto Yano（矢野誠）.