Mitsuko Horie -- Morning Rain

 

"Well, I'm an anison singer but what I really want to do is GROOVE!"

OK, I'm merely fantasizing a quote that singer-actress Mitsuko Horie（堀江美都子）might have said back in the early 1980s. To be honest, what I just put up there could also be adapted for a lot of Japanese folk singers in the early 1970s who later made that jump (temporary or otherwise) to City Pop at the turn of the decade such as Iruka（イルカ）and Kingo Hamada（濱田金吾）. Of course, Horie has been known as an anison singer responsible for classics including "Candy Candy"（キャンディ♡キャンディ）, but I remember posting one of her songs of the City Pop persuasion last summer, "Chigasaki Memory"（茅ヶ崎メモリー）, her 5th single from June 1982.

About half a year earlier, Horie also released a mini-album on Xmas Day 1981 titled "Micchi no Hitorigoto Club"（ミッチの独言倶楽部...Micchi's Talking-to-Oneself Club）. It was an LP consisting of just six songs and on Discogs, it's been categorized as a kayo kyoku album but the opening track sure sounds City Pop to me. With "Morning Rain" being co-written by Horie and Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）with the chorus group Miw providing the melody and arrangement, the title not only comes across like a brand of really pleasant air freshener but the song itself is a pleasant Sunday stroll in the urban park in the AM. The singer's vocals fairly stride happily along the shiny sidewalks of Tokyo in the spring (not in the summer when they would broil pedestrians alive).

For people who may want to purchase the album, I should let you know that Horie must have really enjoyed that album title since she had also put it on her book of essays earlier in October that year and it was also the title for her December 2009 BEST compilation album commemorating her 40th anniversary in show business. I probably would have posted the song here on Urban Contemporary Fridays but knowing how much of a backlog I have of songs to write about and how my memory is becoming increasingly sieve-like, I decided not to let the opportunity go.