Hideki Saijo -- Last Scene（ラストシーン）

 

NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）was back after a Golden Week break and one thing that I've noticed is that it's pretty much back to the pre-pandemic days. There were no more empty halls, remote communications and those plastic barriers among the guests. Hosts and guests were bantering happily in close quarters with a full audience. It was nice to see again.

For Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）fans, it was a good time for the show to return because today is the 5th anniversary of Saijo's untimely passing at the age of 63. Therefore, much of the program was devoted to his music with his friends such as Goro Noguchi（野口五郎）and Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）joining in to sing his tunes. One-half of the comedic duo Tunnels（とんねるず）, Noritake Kinashi（木梨憲武）, and Saijo's own nephew, Grammy award-winning musician and songwriter Masanori Takumi（宅見将典） , performed one of his old hits.

"Last Scene" was Saijo's 19th single released in December 1976. It strikes me as being a quintessential kayo kyoku with a wistfully upbeat melody partnered with some melancholy lyrics about a couple on the verge of breaking up. Written by Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composed by Takashi Miki（三木たかし）, Saijo sweetly croons from both sides of the relationship with the man taking the critical hit even more than his now ex-girlfriend. Considering the circumstances of the show tonight, "Last Scene" probably now has an even deeper meaning.

"Last Scene" got as high as No. 8 on Oricon and ended 1977 as the 60th-ranked single of the year. It is also a track on Saijo's BEST compilation commemorating his 5th anniversary in show business, "Go-nen no Ayumi/Saijo Hideki"（5年の歩み/西城秀樹...Five-Year History） which came out in April 1977. 

Speaking of Iwasaki, the singer mentioned on tonight's episode that she had always seen him as a good big brother. I was able to track down this video of her stating the same sentiments just shortly after his passing and they did a special duet of Saijo's trademark "Blue Sky Blue"（ブルースカイブルー）.