Kaientai -- Koi Banka（恋挽歌）

 

After catching the last bit of NHK's "Songs of Japanese Spirit" earlier this afternoon, I decided that I would write something up on "Omoeba Tooku e Kitamonda" （思えば遠くへ来たもんだ）by the folk trio Kaientai（海援隊）led by actor/singer Tetsuya Takeda（武田鉄矢）, only to realize that I had already done so all the way back in 2015. Such is my memory these days.

Still, it's been a while since I contributed something to a folk tune so I still kept on the Kaientai track and as I scrolled through their J-Wiki file, I opted to try out their earlier fare, i.e. years before their most famous song "Okuru Kotoba" (贈る言葉）was recorded in 1979. So, why not go with their debut single?

Earlier this year, I'd been surprised when I was writing on Kaientai's October 1978 13th single "Cabaret Night Blues"（キャバレーナイト・ブルース）and found out that it was far from their usual folksy tunes since there was a bit more buzzy rock in that one. Well, I got another shock to the kayo system from listening to that first single of theirs, "Koi Banka" (Elegy of Love) which was released in August 1973.

Once again, it was far from folk but this time, the musical direction went totally shibui...into the Mood Kayo realm. Right from Note One, that familiar bluesy sax came rolling in and it just sounded like something that would be set in a nightclub in Akasaka, rather than a tiny and dilapidated six-mat room in the neighbourhood of Kanda, Tokyo. And yet, there were also elements distinguishing "Koi Banka" from the run-of-the-mill Mood Kayo in that among all of that genre bluesiness, the strings sounded even silkier than usual and it was just Takeda crooning his ballad of heartbreak with little of that background chorus backing him up as would be the case with groups such as Cool Five and Los Primos. Maybe, though, just maybe, I could pick up a hint of folk in "Koi Banka".

My first assumption had been that a different set of songwriters in a different field provided Kaientai with their debut single, but actually it was Takeda on lyrics and lead guitarist Kazuomi Chiba（千葉和臣）with the melody. The interesting thing was that I couldn't find anything within the J-Wiki article on the trio relating the news about "Koi Banka". It would be interesting to hear how this particular song got put together.