Mari Ashibe -- Mimosa Iro no Koi（ミモザ色の恋）

 

Ahh...before I finish off Wednesday on KKP tonight, I do have to inform you that the past couple of days have been rather unprecedented in my humble city of Toronto. One of its nicknames for the city has been The Big Smoke because a lot of other cities have been given than name as well due to the usual smog that would envelop a growing metropolis. However, we really do have a ton of smoke around us now and maybe into the weekend. That is the case thanks to some major forest fires in Northern Ontario and Quebec pumping a lot of that stuff our way and also into the United States. Our sunsets have been rather mimosa-coloured.

Well, just by coincidence, I've got a song with the title of "Mimosa Iro no Koi" (Mimosa-Coloured Love). Hopefully, it's more intoxicating than suffocating as it is in Toronto. But regardless, it's quite the dramatic tune and maybe with that mandolin-sounding instrument in there, maybe it can also be considered an exotic kayo, that late 1970s subgenre of kayo kyoku which sounds like a trip through a faraway nation. Judy Ongg's（ジュディ・オング）"Miserarete"（魅せられて）is one example.

The interesting part is that it's sung by Mariko Ashibe（芦部真梨子）or as she was known early in her career, Mari Ashibe（芦部真梨）. I say interesting because thus far her file here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" has had her singing tunes in the City Pop style going further into the 1980s. But I did mention in my very first article for her, "Highway Dancer"（ハイウェイ・ダンサー）, that according to a certain blog that she may have begun her career as an aidoru. Her debut single was indeed "Mimosa Iro no Koi" which came out into the stores in 1982, and yep I can believe that it would be heard as an aidoru tune from those days as well. But it is quite a refined song because of its creation by lyricist Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）and composer Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）, plus there is some jazz in there too which possibly foretold Ashibe's switch to that genre under the new stage name of Reina Muramoto（村本玲奈）.

Anyways, I'm going to bed wondering how much of a campfire I'm going to end up smelling like when I return from grocery shopping tomorrow.