Hi-Fi Set -- Umi wo Miteita Gogo （海を見ていた午後）

 

Last night, as I was writing up about the 1st disc on Yuming's（ユーミン）3-disc BEST album "Yuming Banzai!"（ユーミン万歳!）, I noted that one of the songs on that first CD was "Umi wo Miteita Gogo" (One Afternoon By the Sea) which was originally from the singer-songwriter's "Misslim" LP of 1974. I also pointed out that Yuming's original wasn't the first version that I had heard. That honour belongs to the vocal trio Hi-Fi Set（ハイファイセット）who had a strong association with her, especially in their early years.

It's ironic that I had yet to put up an article regarding Hi-Fi Set's cover of "Umi wo Miteita Gogo" considering my many years of knowing both the trio consisting of Junko Yamamoto (山本潤子）, her husband Toshihiko Yamamoto（山本俊彦）and Shigeru Okawa（大川茂）and Yumi Matsutoya, or as she was known in the early 1970s, Yumi Arai（荒井由実）. In fact, I can say that "Umi wo Miteita Gogo" was one of the first Hi-Fi Set songs that I had heard thanks to the "Sounds of Japan" radio broadcast.

The song was a track on Hi-Fi Set's debut album "Sotsugyo Shashin"（卒業写真）from February 1975, and like the title track, I think that the trio's cover of "Umi wo Miteita Gogo" is even better than the Yuming original. It has that quiet folksy intro and Junko's wonderful vocals but there are also the great harmonies from the entire group that could even rival the lovely sounds from the Manhattan Transfer. Plus, a jazzy flute even comes into the proceedings near the end. 

As I mentioned in the description for Yuming's original last night in "Yuming Banzai!", her lyrics relate the story of a woman coming to the real restaurant Dolphin in the Yamate district of Yokohama to reminisce or commiserate over a romance that is now over. Just a few minutes before starting this article, I had seen a comment under the YouTube video for "Umi wo Miteita Gogo" which gave an interesting way to distinguish the original from Hi-Fi Set's cover. The commenter stated that the original told the story when the romance had just broken off with the woman going through some raw and painful emotions while the Hi-Fi Set version takes place many years after the fact so that time has covered the wound to a good extent and it's now more of a wistful memory and perhaps lesson learned on the vagaries of love.

It's a Yuming tradition to incorporate places and situations that she has come across so indeed Dolphin has been treated as one of the places to visit for her fans. One site has photos of the menu and there is the restaurant's Twitter account. Y'know, if I ever return to Japan, I'll have to see about having lunch there myself (there's much more in Yokohama that I have to sightsee), so I can make a Sites article here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus". 😋

Finally, I have to also note that the 9th anniversary of Toshihiko Yamamoto's passing is coming up this month on the 27th.