Tatsuro Yamashita -- Pocket Music (track)

 

On hearing that the iPod was being sent out to pasture permanently the other day, my aging mind flew back to the time of the Sony Walkman over 40 years ago. It was certainly making the news back then because of its compactness and portability. Imagine being able to listen to one's favourite music right from your pocket. Ironically, I never managed to get my own Walkman but my mother got her blue version, and I can bet that she was listening to her enka tapes.

I don't think that Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）ever meant for his "Pocket Music", the title track from his 8th studio album from April 1986, to be any representative for Sony's amazing product. However, when I hear his lyrics, I can't help but feel that Tats was envisioning a stroll through a park on a Sunday while listening to his beloved music from the comfort of his own Walkman.

The mellowness of his music, including Jon Faddis' fluegelhorn at the end, is such that the environment can be anywhere, in the city or in the country or in the mountains, but the weather is grand. As such then, I don't think that I would place "Pocket Music" in the usual City Pop pocket but more in the general pop field. The song was the second track on the album, and it makes for a nice contrast with the shorter but very upbeat launching track of "Doyoubi no Koibito"（土曜日の恋人）. Perhaps in a way, "Pocket Music" even presaged the way that his music was going to go from the late 1980s into the 1990s.