Bread & Butter -- Monday Morning (album), Part 1

 

Although I'm actually writing this on Wednesday afternoon rather than Monday morning, I figured that it was time to cover Bread & Butter's（ブレッド＆バッター）"Monday Morning" album from June 1980. I'd already covered a few of the tracks from this group of basically City Pop and AOR tunes by brothers Satsuya and Fuyumi Iwasawa（岩沢幸矢・岩沢二弓）: the title track, "Japanese Woman" and "Cruising On". I have their earlier album from 1979, "Late Late Summer", but I never opted to do a whole album article for that one. However, I will devote time and space to "Monday Morning" over two parts. Considering how much I liked those songs, it was an easy choice to pull the trigger on my wallet and get the album finally last year.

"Hold On" seems to be the popular title for pop songs everywhere but I marvel at the fact that Bread & Butter's "Hold On" came about as the first track for "Monday Morning" only several months before Ian Thomas came up with his own "Hold On" that was then popularized by Santana in 1982. Composed by Fuyumi, written by Fumiko Okada（岡田富美子）and arranged by Masaki Matsubara（松原正樹）, Track 1 is an AOR/rock tune with some bouncy keyboard reminiscent of "Georgy Girl" from the 1960s. There's a nice electric guitar solo by either Matsubara himself or Tsuyoshi Kon（今剛）according to the liner notes while the brothers' vocals still have some of that old folksiness that they started out with many years ago. Good ol' "Music Avenue" run by kaz-shin notes that the song has that image of lovers having fun out on those Shonan shores.

Passing over "Monday Morning" and "Cruising On", we come to Track 4, "Martini wo Nomi nagara"（マティニーを飲みながら...Drinking Martinis） which is a most cordial pop song about having a drink with the girlfriend at a stylish bar or restaurant. Things must have been looking real good back in that decade. Brother Satsuya came up with the melody under Matsubara's arrangement while Michio Yamagami（山上路夫）was the lyricist this time.

The one other song that I will cover from Side A of the original LP is "Thanks, My Lady ~ Hitotoki no Suisaiga"（ひとときの水彩画...A Moment's Watercolour）, a soft breeze of a bittersweet AOR ballad that was taken care of by brother Fuyumi and lyricist Yamagami while Kazuo Shiina（椎名和夫）took care of the arrangement here. A romantic relationship is coming to an end and although it's sad, the man is grateful to his soon-to-be ex-paramour because thanks to her, his heart has become a far more open and welcoming space. 

"Japanese Woman" starts off Side B and that's where I'll be going next week to finish off the remaining tracks for "Monday Morning" Part 2.