Sumiko Yamagata -- Horoyoi Eve（ほろ酔いイヴ）

Ah, yes. I remember that tree. I took that shot at Oazo, a small commercial complex right across from Tokyo Station. Oazo also has one of my favourite browsing places, Maruzen Bookstore. But back to 2022 and reality, unfortunately most of the day has been spent flustering over a clogged kitchen sink pipe and despite all that we've done, I'm still not sure if the clog has been completely flushed out.

In any case, let's get to a more pleasant and seasonal frame of mind instead of pondering what might be clogging the pipe. A few days ago, when I was writing about Jackey Yoshikawa and his Blue Comets（ジャッキー吉川とブルー・コメッツ）and their "Blue Candle", an original J-Xmas tune from 1967, I was noting that there were indeed original Japanese Christmas songs that predated Yumi Matsutoya's（松任谷由実）1978 "Lodge de Matsu Christmas" （ロッヂで待つクリスマス）. In fact, here is another Yuletide number that showed up months before Yuming's（ユーミン）classic.

Singer Sumiko Yamagata（やまがたすみこ）was making her transition from folk to a more New Music/City Pop approach going into the late 1970s, which is why I ended up buying her 1977 album "Flying". Unfortunately, I have yet to acquire her follow-up album "Emerald Shower"（エメラルド・シャワー）which was released in February 1978, but I gather that Yamagata was either a tad late or she really wanted to get a jump on any competition to get her Xmas song out early since her "Horoyoi Eve" (Tipsy Christmas Eve) was the track to start the album off. 

With cameo appearances by "Jingle Bells", "Joy to the World" and "Silent Night" (and even one other familiar tune at the end) through some strings, composer Yasunori Soryo（惣領泰則）really hits the Xmas button by including those famous tunes with a melody that wavers between City Pop and the larger New Music. The music also ambles congenially between the increasingly commonplace glamour of Tokyo life for everyone and the more intimate alcohol-fueled situation of one woman and one man.

"Waver" and "amble" are the verbs of the article here because Etsuko Kisugi's（来生えつこ）lyrics describe a woman getting drunk, maybe for the first time, and although she has been hobbled somewhat by the experience (she even admits to an encroaching hangover), she may have also gotten a bit of liquid courage in terms of her eye on her crush. Having his shoulder while being guided home does give her the advantage. What also adds to the effect is how Yamagata dreamily delivers those words as if she's the one under the influence.

It's rather nice having yet another City Pop J-Xmas song on the books here to join with other tunes like Ruiko Kurahashi's（倉橋ルイ子）"December 24". And I'm happy that I am blogging once more tonight. Just to really finish off, I also would like to add that "Horoyoi Eve" shares track space with "Ame Agari no Samba" (雨上がりのサンバ）which may be the very first Yamagata song that I put up back in 2012.