Yoko Shibata -- Heartbreak House（ハート ブレイクハウス）

 

Up to now, I've contributed two articles to singer-songwriter and radio personality Yoko Shibata（柴田容子）, one for her languid "Mr. Lonesome" and then the peppy "Umaku Ikanakutemo" (うまくいかなくても), the latter being written up back in 2016.

So, we're talking about almost six years later, and happily I was able to find this new and different song by Shibata titled "Heartbreak House".  A nice bluesy shuffle that gives off a pleasant metropolitan vibe, this was a track on her lone February 1978 album "Tomarigi" (とまり木...Perch) which was also the name of her third and final single to date. It was written and composed by the singer, and for some reason, it does give me that image of what life was probably like in the concrete jungle of Tokyo back in those late 1970s.

In the previous two articles, I've mentioned Junko Yagami（八神純子）alongside Shibata. Well, it turns out that both singers hail from Nagoya in Aichi Prefecture. Some more biographical information includes the fact that Shibata graduated from Nanzan University in her hometown with a degree in foreign languages. She also passed the 1973 Yamaha Vocal Auditions along with Mayo Shouno（庄野真代）and Masako Kanou（叶正子）, one-quarter of the vocal group Circus（サーカス）.