Yukiko Ehara -- Yoru no Toubousha（夜の逃亡者）

 

I still see comical actress/TV personality YOU show up on a number of shows including a recent NHK morning serial. Now in her late 50s, she strikes me at least as someone who might sound somewhat goofy and squeaky but is still not to be trifled with lightly.

But back in the 1980s, even before she became the vocalist for pop/rock band Fairchild, she had been one of the many aidoru on the scene under her real name of Yukiko Ehara（江原由希子）. It's safe to say that she's probably made more of a mark in show business as YOU, but I believe that she's also given out some interesting material as a singer. Such is the case with her "Yoru no Toubousha" (Runaway in the Night) which was a track on her lone album as an aidoru, "Otokotachi ni wa Wakaranai"（男達には判らない...Men Don't Understand） from January 1986. The album also has "Kokoro no Mama ni"（心のままに）which I've already written about.

I was able to find out from a fellow Blogspot blogger that "Yoru no Toubousha" had possibly not been an original Japanese creation. It was written by Jorma Toiviainen and composed by Mika Silfver but I haven't been able to find who originally sang it, if that was indeed the case. Yukinojo Mori（森雪之丞）was responsible for the Japanese lyrics for Ehara with Jun Sato（佐藤準）taking care of the arrangement.

And to be honest, it doesn't quite sound like the typical aidoru tune that I would have heard back in the mid-1980s. There seems to be somewhat more of a refined feeling (although I think late 80s aidoru material often sounded more sophisticated than the early 80s stuff) thanks to the strings (synth-strings?) and the peppier tempo. In fact, there might have been a borrowing of a couple of elements since that intro synth riff and the refrain come across as things that I have heard in two other separate songs, one from the 1960s although for the life of me, I can't remember the title. "Yoru no Toubousha" is pretty catchy to me because of those strings, the snappy drums and the descending melody just before the refrain comes out.

Ah, as for that blogger, for those who may want to check out Japanese albums, track listings and songwriting information, you may want to check out "Kaze to Corona"（風とコロナ...The Wind and Corona）. I've already bookmarked the blog.