Rui Tachihara -- Dustin Hoffman ni Naretajanaika（ダスティン・ホフマンになれたじゃないか）

 

Consider this article a sequel or a follow-up to the previous one that I just put up. A few minutes ago, I posted the late Hakudo Otsuka's（大塚博堂）"Dustin Hoffman ni Narenakatta yo"（ダスティン・ホフマンになれなかったよ...Couldn't Become Dustin Hoffman）, a ballad about a regretful loss of love with its comparison to a couple of early Dustin Hoffman movies. This probably became Otsuka's most well-known creation.

However, Otsuka's life was cut short due to a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 37 in 1981. His friend and fellow singer-songwriter Rui Tachihara（たちはらるい）then came up with an answer song titled "Dustin Hoffman ni Naretajanaika" (You Did Become Dustin Hoffman) which was used in an October 1981 musical in tribute to Otsuka under the same title as his trademark song, some months following his funeral.

Composed by Tachihara and written by Konosuke Fuji（藤公之介）, the same fellow who came up with the lyrics for "Dustin Hoffman ni Narenakatta yo", "Dustin Hoffman ni Naretajanaika" as would be a case for a tribute song has a more hopeful and perhaps even heroic feeling. During the musical, it probably had Otsuka's fans bawling in the aisles as Tachihara and cast sang the title as a final farewell. This time as well, Fuji's lyrics make note of another classic movie starring Hoffman, "Midnight Cowboy". The song was also a track on Tachihara's album "Ja, Mata"（じゃ、また。。。Well, See Ya）. The album also contains a number of tracks that were unreleased Otsuka compositions.

I've written about Tachihara once before for his 1974 debut single "Kita no Daichi"（北の大地）.