Hideki Saijo -- Shiroi Kyokai（白い教会）

 

I guess that you can call this the third of the "Bakayaro"（バカヤロ）series.

I do apologize, Cap. That wasn't a particularly nice word I've just written up there (then again, you've slipped some profanity here and there, haven't you?). To explain, the term "bakayaro" is a Japanese expletive that is officially defined as "Damn it!" or "You moron!", but personally speaking, I think it can go all the way up to the F word.

So, there were some kayo that got really popular because of the emotions expressed and the depth of them meant that "bakayaro" got slipped in. Back then, there was perhaps a bit of an issue although I don't think there are any now. In the past, I've written about two such songs which Captain America may not have been too happy with (provided that he had learned Japanese), Katsuhiko Miki's（美樹克彦）"Hana wa Osokatta"（花はおそかった）from 1967 and then Masahiko Kondo's（近藤真彦）"Blue Jeans Memory" （ブルー・ジーンズ・メモリー）from 1981, because of the inclusion of "bakayaro".

Well, tonight I can give you Song No. 3 in the "bakayaro" series: Hideki Saijo's（西城秀樹）"Shiroi Kyokai" (White Church). Released as Saijo's 15th single in October 1975, the reason behind the aidoru's impassioned outburst near the end is that he has just been to a wedding in the titular church where he saw the love of his life. Alas, he wasn't the groom however and he's literally seeing the lass solemnly walk down the aisle and away from his life for good.

The lyrics were written by Takashi Taka（たかたかし）while Kunihiko Suzuki（鈴木邦彦）took care of the music which begins stately enough before a languid and melancholy rock vibe enters to provide a palette for Saijo to express his beautiful anguish. He may be stoic and happy for the bride on the outside but he's smoldering on the inside. 

I could find the original recorded version although not his second appearance on the 1975 Kohaku Utagassen. I wish I could witness the effect that Saijo had on his fans. Wouldn't it have been something to see some of them faint in their seats in the same way that The Beatles and Elvis Presley had their fans swoon all over the place? 

"Shiroi Kyokai" managed to reach No. 4 on Oricon and was also placed on Saijo's 2-LP album to commemorate his 20th birthday, "MEMORY - Saijo Hideki no Hatachi no Nikki" （MEMORY - 西城秀樹20歳の日記...Hideki Saijo's Diary at 20）which was released in January 1976. Along with the "bakayaro", it's interesting to note that although the title is "Shiroi Kyokai", Taka's lyrics had Saijo singing the word "chapel" instead and even on the record jacket, the katakana version of "chapel" had even been written as furigana over the kanji for "kyokai".