Kingo Hamada -- Lonely Wind

Remembering the article that I did last night for Misako Honjo's（本城未沙子）"Emergency" and prefacing it with my observations of "Thor: Love and Thunder", one of the Marvel movie's themes was meeting the old ex, re-experiencing what made the relationship special and then having a proper farewell. 

Well, strangely enough, while I was doing my maintenance on the year of 1980 (something that will take a week when all's said and done), I checked Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）"Lonely Wind" from her "Love Songs" album of that year, and then discovered that composer Kingo Hamada（濱田金吾）had actually performed the original version of the ballad. Yes, that's right...Hamada had recorded his "Lonely Wind" as a part of his January 1980 album "Manhattan in the Rain" (love that cover, by the way), a few months before Takeuchi released "Love Songs" in March.

Now, this song's connection with the "Thor" movie and I guess the earlier "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" as well can come through Kazuko Kobayashi's（小林和子）lyrics. In "Lonely Wind", they speak on a former couple meeting up once more at some swanky soiree with perhaps the guy inquiring at a potential second chance before the lady sadly turns him down stating basically that what's done is done. No do-overs. Bittersweet lyrically though it is, Gerald Alters' arrangement of Hamada's melody is lovely; compared to Takeuchi's just-as-lovely doo-wop version with a touch of jazz, the original by the singer-songwriter has that laconic and breezy jazz feeling that would fit the atmosphere of that genteel soiree.

I was going to compare "Lonely Wind" to a "Great Gatsby" party but then remembering how that went in Baz Luhrmann's 2013 movie with Leonardo DiCaprio, I think that it's better to do so with the impression of what life could be like in the wealthy areas of Long Island, New York State. The strange thing with me is that due to a misinterpretation of a lyric from a Manhattan Transfer song, I had assumed that there was a Long Island sound of jazz to describe this sort of breezy music, but as it turns out, I believe the lyric is actually referring to the body of water known as the Long Island Sound. Still, considering this particular form of jazz/beautiful music and the prosperous area, wouldn't it be nice for such a subgenre to exist?