Mariko Takahashi -- Futari de Slow Dance（二人でスローダンス）

 

Now, this is a Mariko Takahashi（高橋真梨子）article, but first off, I do have to commend singer-songwriter Kingo Hamada（濱田金吾）on his prowess with the varying genres of Japanese pop music. As I've mentioned in past articles, he began his career as part of the folk band Craft before going solo, and along with many of his contemporaries in that genre, Hamada did make a successful leap into City Pop with bangers including the scintillating "midnight cruisin'". But for Takahashi (and presumably other singers, too), he's been able to craft (no pun intended) old-style jazz tunes for her such as "Old Time Jazz" and "Jazz Singer" on her 1982 "After Hours" album, along with a playful samba number called "Samba Magic" for her other album of that year, "Dear".

Well, he can add another notch to his list of genres. Country music. And once again, we go to "After Hours", specifically to the final track "Futari de Slow Dance" (Slow Dance for Two) which was composed by Hamada and written by Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）. Beginning with a country-western slow guitar plucking, "Futari de Slow Dance" then has the chorus actually play out the steps for the congenial country waltz/50s romantic ballad: "slow, quick, quick...slow dance" before Takahashi shows that she can also handle this part of American music just like another singer with the same initials. It's just the right type of song to end a country dance at midnight before the owner of the bar starts yelling at everyone to go home.

It makes me wonder how hard and how much of the Great American Songbook Hamada had pored over all those years ago. And yep, after a decade of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I've finally added the Country genre to Labels with "Futari de Slow Dance" being the new entry. I figured that if I have to add Fashion Music (Baroque Japanese pop) like I did yesterday to Ritsuko Kazami's（風見律子）"Aventurier" and other similar songs, I have to do some back-labeling as well to some other past songs with the Country tag such as Masa Takagi's（高木麻早）"Hitoribocchi no Heya" (ひとりぼっちの部屋). Besides, I've got a Reminiscings of Youth article coming up in a few days which is absolutely in that genre, and I also grew up listening to my fair share of country songs as a kid.