The Ton-Nan-Sha-Pei -- Naishin, Thank You（内心、Thank You）

 

The Ton-Nan-Sha-Pei （THE 東南西北）is certainly one of the more unusually named rock bands that I have ever encountered. Basically translating as The East South West and North, the name came about because all of the original members hailed from every direction around the city of Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture. Vocalist/guitarist Yoji Kubota（久保田洋司）, drummer Shigefumi Ohike（大池茂文）, bassist Shingo Shimizu（清水伸吾）and a classmate named Aso formed a Beatles copy band to perform at their high school festival. But Aso left the band, only for another classmate, Yosuke Irifune（入船陽介）, who had been taking pictures of a live performance, to join up because he was armed with a Yamaha DX7 keyboard. Then the group was complete once guitarist Jun Kanou（加納順）came on board through an encounter with the guys at a music store.

1984 was the year that the Ton-Nan-Sha-Pei won the Grand Prize at a CBS-Sony audition and the following year, they made their official major debut with a 12-inch single "Tameiki no Minor Chord"（ため息のマイナーコード...Sighing Minor Chord）. However, the subject of this article is their April 1986 second single, "Naishin, Thank You" (From the Bottom of My Heart, Thank You) that was composed by Kubota and written by master lyricist Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）. From what I've read of those lyrics, "Naishin, Thank You" seems to be about a young man who loved a woman from afar but could never muster up the courage to make his feelings known, and now the time has passed forever. All he can do is silently thank her for at least the opportunity to see her. The two elements that got to me in the bittersweet song were the high vocals by Kubota, the Queen-like guitar solo, and some feeling of Pachelbel's "Canon" in the arrangement.

"Naishin, Thank You" was also a part of The Ton-Nan-Sha-Pei's debut album "Hiko Shonen"（飛行少年...Flying Boy） which came out in March 1986. In total, the band released six original albums and eleven singles up to 2018, although they had broken up initially in 1991 before getting back together again in 2012.