Hakudo Otsuka -- Dustin Hoffman ni Narenakatta yo（ダスティン・ホフマンになれなかったよ）

 

First off, let's welcome the arrival of spring a few minutes ago, although over here in Toronto, we may be getting a few centimetres of the white stuff in the middle of this week. Such is meteorological life here.

Now, as for the start of today's KKP articles, this hasn't been the first time and it probably won't be the last time that I see kayo with references to Hollywood celebrities. Anri（杏里）had her debut thanks to Olivia Newton-John and there was even a two-for-one deal involving Al Pacino and Alain Delon within Ikue Sakakibara's（榊原郁恵）discography. In addition, although this is the British group Bananarama I'm talking about here, even a waiting Robert DeNiro got a shoutout through one of their 80s tunes.

Well, I've found out that there is a 1970s song titled "Dustin Hoffman ni Narenakatta yo" (Couldn't Become Dustin Hoffman) by the late New Music singer-songwriter Hakudo Otsuka（大塚博堂）. Born Hirotaka Otsuka in the city of Beppu, Oita Prefecture, he made his debut as a singer in 1972 but struggled to make a dent in show business and was playing his guitar in clubs when he decided to make another go of it with a new single in June 1976, the song of this article.

Otsuka composed the music for which arranger Yasunori Soryo（惣領泰則）added some more elegance to the wistfulness with the strings. Konosuke Fuji（藤公之介）provided the lyrics of a man lamenting the loss of the love of his life to another man and also notes that his former flame now has two kids; apparently, watching the 1969 romantic drama "John & Mary" starring Hoffman and Mia Farrow triggered the memories and he even throws out the question to the lady whether she remembers the time that they saw "The Graduate" together. You can take a look at the trailer for the former movie at the very top.

I'm not sure whether Otsuka approached Fuji to write for the song, but in the J-Wiki article for "Dustin Hoffman", it was interesting to read that during the singer's tough period between 1972 and 1976, he had found a book of poetry by Fuji and composed music to some of his poems. As well, Otsuka said that the song had also resonated with some of his own circumstances at the time. Ironically though, the song finally connected with listeners and critics alike so that a studio album of the same name was produced a couple of months later and other songs also became well-praised.

Tragically though, his life and career didn't last much longer. In May 1981, Otsuka succumbed to a cerebral hemorrhage in his home and he passed away at the age of 37. During his funeral procession, "Dustin Hoffman ni Narenakatta yo" was the song playing. 

There is a sequel article to this one, courtesy of Rui Tachihara（たちはらるい）.