In my last article, I wrote about my favorite Akina (中森明菜) B-side song. Inspired by that, I am writing my favorite Karashima Midori (辛島美登里) B-side song today. The song is called Ashita no Turn (明日のターン), which translates to "Tomorrow's Turn" in English.
The song was coupled with Ai Suru Koto (愛すること) on the A-side, which is probably the second most famous song from Karashima after Silent Eve (サイレント．イヴ). You can find my article on Ai Suru Koto here and J-Canuck's article on Silent Eve here.
By the way, Ashita no Turn was never released in any other albums including her best albums, which makes this song much harder to be discovered outside of her fans.
The song's story was about a young lady who was abandoned by her boyfriend because he went for another girl. Even though she went on dating other men afterwards, she still couldn't forget him. She heard a rumor that he recently broke up with his girlfriend and became single again. So she pinged him and they agreed to meet. She was quite excited and was looking forward to the upcoming date.
What I found impressive was Karashima's unorthodox use of analogy in her lyrics. In her words, Tokyo is like a big ocean and its skyscrapers are like coral reefs. The young lady and her boyfriend are like two dolphins swimming inside it, with the city crowd swimming among them like tropical fishes.
I also like the lightness of the music. Every time I listen to it, especially in a hot summer, I feel refreshed. 😊 Oh, one last thing, the season described in the song's lyrics was summer.
Hope you guys enjoy it too.
Hi, Larry. Wow! That is a nice song and the arrangement is quite different from that of "Silent Eve" since it was all about the piano there. It's too bad that it is such a rarity because it didn't get onto any album. Perhaps Karashima might consider releasing an album of B-sides and coupling songs.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I wish some of her songs got better coverage outside of her fans. I think it may require some non-trivial effort to gather her B-side songs since some of the record companies may no longer be in business and it's not clear who owns those copyrights now.
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