Modern Choki Chokies -- Kuma-chan（くまちゃん）

From goodfreephotos

 

The closest that I had ever been to a bear in the wild was when I was traveling through Banff, Alberta, and from our minibus, I could see young Smokey lumbering about in the distance in the open grass field. That's about as close as I would prefer it. 

I'm convinced that the bear was probably thinking about where it was going to get its next meal from (thankfully not us...I guess to it, we may have been canned food), and certainly not about getting a physical checkup. But that is what the title track for zany Modern Choki Chokies's（モダンチョキチョキズ）November 1994 4th album "Kuma-chan" (Bear-chan or Little Bear) is all about. 

Written by TV broadcast writer Yoshio Urasawa（浦沢義雄）and composed by Yusuke Honma（本間勇輔）, a man who has come up with his share of television soundtracks including the one for detective Ninzaburo Furuhata（古畑任三郎のテーマ）, "Kuma-chan" is a Big Band jazzy tune about the titular bear whining about having to be stuck in a hospital undergoing tons of tests. I can relate to that. Modern Choki Chokies' vocalist (and "nurse") Mari Hamada（濱田マリ）shares the mike with comedian and actor Ichiro Zaitsu（財津一郎）acting as the suffering bruin. It's all very silly but I'm always a sucker for swing jazz and this one has similarities to that old chestnut, "Four Brothers".

My previous article on Modern Choki Chokies made its appearance on the blog exactly four months ago with a track from the same album, "Uebe Yoshiko-san"（上辺よし子さん）.