Rajie -- Shion（紫苑）

 

Earlier this morning, I received a comment from an Anonymous person who was mentioning about a song by singer-songwriter Rajie（ラジー）. I hadn't written about her in quite a while so I decided to do some checking and came across "Shion".

For purposes of elucidation, I felt that I had to put up this flower which is known as "shion" in Japanese but refers to a particular light purple aster. Thanks to Wiktionary for this one.

"Shion" is a track from Rajie's November 1981 album "Acoustic Moon" and as Anonymous described it, it is wonderful and very distinct. I'm not sure whether there is any direct reference to the aster or even the colour but I'm more drawn to the fact that it has elements of not only City Pop in the sophisticated pop vein but also some of that Fashion Music that I've occasionally mentioned with singers such as Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）. Seeing the songwriters behind it, lyricist Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）, composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）and arranger Akira Inoue（井上鑑）, that was an awfully big Bat-signal for me to check it out post-haste. As well, some of the French-ness in the music also had me thinking Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）.

I've got her BEST compilation as you can see from the thumbnail photo at the top, but maybe I'm missing out on some of the other selections on "Acoustic Moon". Perhaps there is still a small chance that I can get it on one of the sites. In any case, good choice, Anonymous!