Yuiko Tsubokura -- Taxi Driver

 

Back in January 2020, when I wrote up an article involving Tomoko Aran's（亜蘭知子）percolating City Pop number "Taxi Driver" from her 1985 "Imitation Lonely" album, I'd openly wondered about whether the song had been covered by other fellow genre artists including Yurie Kokubu（国分友里恵）or Yuiko Tsubokura（坪倉惟子）.

I can now happily say that the winner of the "Taxi Driver" sweepstakes is Tsubokura. Specifically, she covered the Aran song in her 2nd original album "Loving You" released in March 1990. Comparison-wise, it's pretty interesting since the first version from 1985 has that sense of heading into the big city to whoop it up big. But Tsubokura's cover can either sound like heading home from that exciting night or driving into Tokyo but to some place a little more chill and not so crazy.

Aran came up with the lyrics while Casiopea's（カシオペア）Akira Jimbo（神保彰）composed the song but for Tsubokura, it was bassist and arranger Masao Akashi（明石昌夫）who came up with the more groove-heavy and soulful take (with some added jazz) on "Taxi Driver". I also have to remind ourselves that the title is indeed "Taxi Driver" so it isn't as if we or a romantic partner is behind the wheel here. Still, we can still enjoy the evening journey with the cool breeze flying in through the backseat windows while our uniformed untenshu sweeps us to our eventual destination.

There are also a couple of other tracks from "Loving You": "Shooting Star" and "San-byaku-rokujuu-go no Yoru to Hiru"（365の夜と昼）. Enjoy!😎