Tuesday, May 10, 2022

Michiko Takaoka -- Tasogare(たそがれ)

 


A little over three years ago, I wrote up an article on a song by singer-songwriter Michiko Takaoka(高岡美智子)that ended up as her 7th and final single from July 1981. "Mawari Tourou"(まわり燈籠)is a pretty jaunty folk/pop song that talks of the endurance of love despite all of the existential storms that may attack it from all sides.


Well, today I've discovered another song of hers from several years back. In fact, it's a track from her January 1976 sophomore album "Takaoka Michiko" that comes through the aegis of YouTuber 58RNA3QD. "Tasogare" (Sunset) contrasts rather nicely with the later "Mawari Tourou" since with its strutting arrangement of Takaoka's melody by Mitsuo Hagita(萩田光雄), there's something more solidly New Music with this one, almost but not quite taking things into the City Pop vein. Eiko Matsumiya(松宮英子)was behind the lyrics.

What I could find out about Takaoka has been described in the "Mawari Tourou" article via J-Wiki, but I did find out from "Idol.ne.jp" that the singer hails from Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture. On another note, the term tasogare always gets my radar going since it's been a common word in kayo titles, often enough in the ones regarding City Pop.

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