Mayumi -- Lonely Play ~ Me-ism no Yoru（ミーイズムの夜）

 

The above is a picture from "Japanese City Pop 100 Selected by Night Tempo", and I was hoping to post it up on one of these City Pop articles. There's an interview there with the man himself that I'd like to translate sometime in the next several days or so.

May 2022 was the last time that I posted up a Mayumi Horikawa（堀川まゆみ）, aka Mayumi, article on the blog, so it's about to time to post up another one. Once again, this is a track from her 1986 album "MAYM", "Lonely Play ~ Me-ism no Yoru" (A Night of Me-ism), and considering the hedonism that was going on during the 1980s, probably on both sides of the Pacific, it was probably a timely title.

Written by Masako Arikawa（有川正沙子）, composed by the singer, and arranged by Shiro Sagisu（鷺巣詩郎）, "Lonely Play" does give that Roppongi vibe of life among the nightclubs and discotheques, and from the title, things sound like it's not all happiness and light after all the dancing is done for the night. The music literally revs up for a night on the town with horns a-blazing and a smoldering rhythm that persists throughout. Some of the scatting reminds me of Matt Bianco while Mayumi is the congenial and sultry guide as the party goes on. By the end, though, we're left with a drunken if soulful piano playing us to the end of midnight, maybe missing the last train home (and considering how early the transit system closed back then, that wasn't difficult to do).

I do have to mention that there was a pretty charged lineup in the recording booth with Fujimal Yoshino（芳野藤丸）on guitar, Naoki Watanabe（渡辺直樹）on bass, Shin Kazuhara（数原晋）on trumpet and Sagisu himself on the synthesizer among other fine session musicians. You can check out Discogs for the lineups for each song.