Ryoko Yano -- Downtown de Tsukamaete（ダウンタウンでつかまえて）

 

Ah, Kamiya Bar（神谷バー）...literally around the corner from the NOVA that I used to teach at in Asakusa. Despite its reputation, I only went there once and tried their famous Denki Bran cocktail. The following 12 hours were then excised from my memory forever.

This is the second article regarding 80s aidoru Ryoko Yano（矢野良子）. Earlier this year, I wrote about her and her 2nd single "Harahara Summer Time"（はらはらサマータイム）from June 1981. It was interesting for its near-City Pop arrangement approaching the disco genre. And so I'm wondering if there had been some plan in place for Yano to be this teenage singer exploring the urban contemporary some years before Momoko Kikuchi（菊池桃子）.

I come to that thought because her 3rd single which was released later in September is "Downtown de Tsukamaete" (Catch Me Downtown), and I think that this time, the song really takes her and us into City Pop. Mind you, the direction here is more into the stylish and sophisticated (almost downright cabaret) of Aoyama rather than the disco of Roppongi. In fact, I think that the arrangement here is more along the lines for Fashion Music singers such as Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）, and interestingly enough, it's the same lyricist and composer from "Harahara Summer Time" behind "Downtown de Tsukamaete": Yu Aku（阿久悠）and Taiji Nakamura（中村泰士）.

As mentioned in that first article, Yano only had four singles and no albums, but it would be fascinating to hear those remaining six songs from her 45s to check whether they also had a similar tone.