PAO -- Say Yes/Stay Close to Me

 

About three years ago, I introduced the first article for the obscure City Pop trio known as PAO, and at the time that their one and only album "YOU" came out in 1980, that trio consisted of Sabine Marianne Kaneko（サビーネ金子）, Fumiko Miyazaki（宮崎文子）and Yoshikazu Miura（三浦義和）. As I mentioned in that article in December 2018, "YOU" didn't hit me amazingly when I first listened to the CD but it has grown on me steadily over the last few years.

(I'm sorry but the video has been taken down.)

However, there has been some buzz about PAO since City Pop was given this second life internationally from a few years back, and the reason was that there was news that the Greta ("I want to be alone") Garbo of City Pop, Takako Mamiya（間宮貴子）, had once been a member of the group. That was one of the reasons that I decided to make the effort to grab this rare album...only to find out that by the time of "YOU", Mamiya had already left the trio to be replaced by Miyazaki, although I have to admit that there seems to be some resemblance between the two women from what I've seen of that front cover.

Digging further, I found out that Mamiya was indeed involved in PAO's debut single "Say Yes" which was released sometime in 1978. Kaneko and Miura were on words and music respectively for this disco number that has some vibes of "I Love the Nightlife" by Alicia Bridges from the same year, and Donna Summer's "On The Radio", although the latter song wasn't released until late 1979. From listening to the low vocals and finding out that Kaneko provided the lyrics, I think that it's indeed Kaneko singing "Say Yes" (which is a pretty popular title for singers apparently considering that an 80s aidoru and a veteran duo have used it for their different songs), but Mamiya is helping out there with Miura on the backing vocals. Interestingly enough, the song was used in a commercial for a Showa Oil product called YES! Maybe the oil was able to make an engine dance like a disco star? (reaching, reaching)😏 But hey, that blonde lass on the cover of the single actually made a dancing appearance on the ad!

I believe that this is indeed Mamiya behind the vocals for the B-side, "Stay Close to Me" with Tommy Snyder providing words and music. There seems to be more fusion with a hint of Latin in this one. I like the song but the big thing is that I'm happy to hear the mysterious Ms. Mamiya on something outside of her wonderful "Love Trip" album.

Speaking of the mystery surrounding Mamiya, specifically about where she went following that one album, I think that's probably been the other talking point next to all of the great tracks that she provided on "Love Trip" over the past few years. Within the conversational exchange between the uploader Yoshio Takemoto（竹本善雄）and other folks in the comments under "Say Yes", there is a link to a Japanese blog entry by Yoshiko Shohoji（正法地美子）in which she expresses joy and pride about the tracks on "Love Trip" after putting the CD into the stereo. But also there is the claim by Takemoto that Ms. Shohoji's good friend mentioned in the entry happens to be married to the Takako Mamiya! From what I gather from what I've been able to read from the entry, I don't think that Ms. Shohoji has actually met the singer since she has also referred to Mamiya as that "mysterious singer", but for those Mamiya fans who can read and understand Japanese (including Mr. Takemoto), have a look at the entry and let me know if the mystery has finally been resolved about her post-"Love Trip" life since I'm not 100% sure.