Fishmans -- Baby Blue

 

I was reading the first comment under this video for Fishmans'（フィッシュマンズ）"Baby Blue". The fellow had apparently first heard the song a while back at his gym and being very intrigued, he went on a search for it. It took about two years before he finally pegged it down much to his delight. Yeah, I've been there. I've found long-lost songs and I'm still searching for some of them.

As I mentioned off the top, this is "Baby Blue", a March 1996 single from their album "Kuuchuu Camp"（空中キャンプ...Aerial Camp） which was released a month earlier. This is a relaxing reggae/pop song by multi-genre (pop, rock, reggae, shoegaze, Neo-psychedelia, dub and Shibuya-kei) band Fishmans and although the lyrics (along with music) by vocalist/bassist Shinji Sato（佐藤伸治）talk of some existential crisis regarding a man and a woman, the overall groovy effect of "Baby Blue" is simply to hit a hammock in some warm and sunny clime and enjoy that cocktail. It indeed puts me at ease especially since the weather here has finally warmed up and gotten sunny over the last couple of days. I really only need that frozen margarita. 

Fishmans started up in 1987 and has been active and inactive right up to the present day. Right now, according to their website, it appears that some form of the band had a March 2023 performance at the Liquid Room in Ebisu, Tokyo and they're slated to headline at a September event called Wind Parade in Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture. The original lineup consisted of Sato, guitarist/vocalist Kensuke Ojima（小嶋謙介）and drummer Kinichi Motegi（茂木欣一）but there have been changes there and the addition of support members. One major sad change was the passing of Sato in 1999 at the age of 33 due to heart failure.