Tetsuji Hayashi -- Kanashimi no memory（哀しみのmemory）

 

Singer-songwriter Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）is someone that I've usually associated with City Pop of the 1970s and 1980s, but happily it looks like he was also delving into the music as the 1990s arrived as well.

Case in point: he released a classy City Pop tune of that decade called "Kanashimi no memory" (Sad Memory) in May 1992. With lyrics by Kanata Asamizu（朝水彼方）, Hayashi not only brought the melody but also the arrangement with singer-songwriter Keizo Nakanishi（中西圭三）. Asamizu's lyrics may be contrasting the different feelings of two people who have just broken up, but Hayashi's music makes for a nice accompaniment to a freeing drive throughout the big city with that certain keyboard and the shimmering strings (synth or not). 

Maybe there's even a faint echo of Kazumasa Oda's（小田和正）"Love Story wa Totsuzen ni"（ラブ・ストーリーは突然にー）in there. It made me wonder whether "Kanashimi no memory" had been used as a theme for a J-Drama, but instead it was actually the theme song for a Beat Takeshi variety show "Kitano Fan Club"（北野ファンクラブ）on Fuji-TV.