Maki Ohguro -- Soshite（そして）

 

Well, this does take the proverbial cake. Almost ten years to the day after I'd put up my first Maki Ohguro（大黒摩季）song onto "Kayo Kyoku Plus", "Atsukunare"（熱くなれ）, I'm finally writing up its coupling song. I hadn't even been aware of the significance of the date (July 22nd 2012) until merely a few minutes ago.

"Atsukunare" was the hit single for rock and pop singer Ohguro that was used for NHK's coverage of the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996. For me, it still stands as the most blood-pumping J-Olympics tune that I ever heard and it could almost have me running a few laps around the block whenever I hear it. Almost.

What I had completely forgotten was that the coupling song "Soshite" (And Then), written/composed by Ohguro and arranged by Takeshi Hayama（葉山たけし）who had both contributed to "Atsukunare", was also utilized by the national television network in the 1996 Olympic broadcasts. As I remember, it was usually used as the song to end the program since the lyrics rather showed the coda of folks having joined together for a mighty effort and were now celebrating that effort through trying and triumph. "Soshite" has quite the happy and upbeat melody including one epic trumpet solo, and I can imagine young folks racing toward the shoreline to cavort about in joy and satisfaction.