Mizue Takada -- Curtain Call（カーテン・コール）

 

A month ago, I wrote about the B-side to Mizue Takada's（高田みづえ）March 1977 debut single, "Garasuzaka"（硝子坂）, which was "DOMO DOMO".

Well, I'm now going all the way to the other end, namely her final single which was a double A-side record titled "China Lights/Curtain Call" released in April 1985. "Curtain Call" certainly sounds like what its title is intimating: the end of an era of singing (and other variety show activities) for Takada since getting ready to become the wife of a sumo stablemaster.

"Curtain Call" was written and composed by Masashi Sada（さだまさし）with arrangement by Toshiyuki Watanabe（渡辺俊幸）. Reading on Watanabe's J-Wiki article that he's often worked with Sada, the song does sound like something that Sada would himself perform, albeit probably in a much more subdued manner. The Watanabe arrangement has that poignant big-goodbye-to-all-the-fans feeling including a wailing electric guitar which is reminiscent of Momoe Yamaguchi's（山口百恵）"Sayonara no Mukou Gawa"（さよならの向う側）. Not sure though whether Takada laid down her microphone on the stage following her final song and walked silently off. In any case, her 26th and final single peaked at No. 47 on Oricon and it was featured on her 10th and final album "Ai no Monologue"（愛のモノローグ...Love Monologue） released in May that year.