Welcome to the West Gate of JR Shinjuku Station. Believe it or not, it wasn't too bad at the time that I took this shot in terms of population density, because I could actually see the floor. I spent many a time waiting around here as a meeting point with friends whenever we had dinner or a movie in one of Tokyo's major hubs.
Seeing that I just completed an article featuring a familiar musical cue from "Sailor Moon" just now and that up to now, I've only had one article for the chorus group SOAP, I felt that it was time to add this one as well.
The key person here is composer Takanori Arisawa（有澤孝紀）who not only created the soundtrack for the iconic classic anime series in the 1990s but was also the songwriter and singing member of SOAP back in the early 1980s. That one article for SOAP was a breezy yuppie-friendly B-side called "Roommate". Well, its A-side and the impetus for this sophomore SOAP article is "Shinjuku Transfer" released in 1981. Composed by Arisawa and written by Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）, it's an upbeat and anthemic City Pop number with a bit of Earth Wind & Fire celebrating Shinjuku Station way back when and there are shoutouts to the various train lines criss-crossing the terminal such as the Keio and Odakyu Lines. I'm uncertain whether the huge station's parent corporation or corporations actually used the song as a proud jingle but there is certainly an optimistic industriousness to the song. And being a vocal group with a song of this title, comparisons with the hugely popular singing quartet, Manhattan Transfer, were inevitable.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Feel free to provide any comments (pro or con). Just be civil about it.