Friday, April 8, 2022

Takao Kisugi -- Dance Party no Yoru(ダンスパーティーの夜)

 

A couple of days ago, I wrote about a 1950 kayo with the title of "Dance Party no Yoru" (The Night of the Dance Party), a bittersweet tune about a love gained and lost on the dance floor sung by Isao Hayashi(林伊佐緒). Well, at the same time that I found that song, I also discovered another ditty with the same title but otherwise a totally different animal.

(excerpt only)

This "Dance Party no Yoru" is a track on singer-composer Takao Kisugi's(来生たかお)December 1979 4th album "Natural Menu" and was created by the sibling team of lyricist Etsuko Kisugi(来生えつこ)and composer Takao with Shigeru Suzuki(鈴木茂)handling the arrangement. According to an April 1992 issue of a fan club newsletter "Takao Club Osaka" via J-Wiki, Etsuko came up with the idea for "Dance Party no Yoru" from a Xmas party that she'd attended; with the lyrics talking of going on the hunt for women at that party; I can only imagine what she'd witnessed...maybe a few too many mistletoes (real or imagined) were hanging about.

From what I remember about my time with music in the 1970s, I recollect that there were disco versions of some old 50s pop playing about here in the West such as the "I Love Lucy" theme. During that decade, pop culture was kinda into bringing back the innocence of 1950s and 1960s life through the film "American Graffiti" and the American TV series "Happy Days". In fact, that newsletter also stated that "Dance Party no Yoru" had some of that "American Graffiti" influence infused into the melody and arrangement although I can hear the disco in there, too, through the horn section and strings.

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