Off-Course -- call

 

As for the above thumbnail, isn't that a cleverly Japanese way for fans of the band Off-Course（オフコース）to get their heroes' acknowledgement? Why provide signatures when the conciseness of a hanko will do? From top left going clockwise, we have Hitoshi Shimizu（清水仁）, Kazumasa Oda（小田和正）, Jiro Ohma（大間ジロー）and Kazuhiko Matsuo（松尾一彦）.

(cover version)

This amazing band transformed from its folk roots of the late 1960s and early 1970s into a more TOTO-esque AOR and pop/rock sound going into the 1980s until their breakup at the end of that decade. I know more about their earlier material so whenever I encounter any of the 1980s material, especially from the middle of the decade, my ears do perk up.

So I have heard their kakkoii February 1985 28th single "call", a dramatic song about a relationship on the verge of breaking up tragically, perhaps desperately hanging only by the wires in an old-fashioned landline phone. Written and composed by Oda, I can hear how the arrangement straddles the line between the Off-Course AOR sound and his own solo works which would take him from the mid-1980s and beyond. Along with that band sound, I can also hear some Anzen Chitai（安全地帯）in there, too, through the guitar work.

"call" broke into the Top 10, peaking at No. 7 and ending up as the 95th-ranked single of the year. According to the J-Wiki article on the song, "call" had been planned to have been put into an original album in the fall of 1984, but the members decided to go with the production of two singles (including "call") and then putting them straight into concert along with their old hits. Instead, the song was first placed onto another one of their BEST compilations, "It's All Right", released in July 1987. That album peaked at No. 11 on Oricon.