AB'S -- Borderline

 

The last time that I wrote about the supergroup AB'S, it was back on Christmas Day 2020 for the smoothly sung "By the End of the Century", the first track from their third album "AB'S-3" released in February 1985. Reviewing some of their discography as recorded by Fujimal Yoshino（芳野藤丸）, Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）and Naoki Watanabe（渡辺直樹）and the others, I'm starting to get that hankering for more of their work since I just have their first album "AB'S".

Well, a little over a year later, I have another track from "AB'S-3". "Borderline" has nothing to do with the early Madonna hit (which has been covered in a ROY article), but indeed it's another ear-catching track by the guys.

Lyrics were provided by Gregory Starr and the melody may have been provided by bassist Watanabe, but man, it's the guy who was behind the keyboards (including one honky tonk piano) that nearly stole the show right from the beginning. Vocalist Yoshino does his usual smooth-as-butter delivery with some lovely harmonic help and then I also hear that great electric guitar. At the very end, that same keyboardist (not sure whether it's Yoshihiko Ando（安藤芳彦）or Hidetoshi Yamada（山田秀俊）), goes absolutely nuts on the keys. Would love to have seen a concert version of this.