Hakucho-za -- Yonjuu-ni Kilo no Seishun（42キロの青春）

 

Only a few months ago, I mentioned that folk singer-TV personality Masashi Sada（さだまさし）has a sister, Reiko Sada（佐田玲子）, who has also been a tarento and a singer-songwriter. My first article for her was "Shinjitsu"（真実）, a snazzy urban contemporary track from her 1994 album "Cinq".

I also noted there that sister Sada had once been a member of the City Pop/folk group Hakucho-za（白鳥座...Cygnus） produced by her brother Masashi starting from 1981. The band had its initial run between 1981 and 1991 and has gotten back together several times over the decades with its most recent reunion being in 2017. Included with Reiko, there were leader Kunitaka Moriya（森谷有孝）, who had actually been a member of the folk group Craft（クラフト）in the 1970s alongside future City Pop maestro Kingo Hamada（濱田金吾）, Yutaka Takahira（高比良豊）, and Megumi Abe（阿部恵）. All four members were employees of brother Sada's own company, Sada Planning, from around 1979 and as an amateur collective entity, they had been called MAST, after the initial letters of their family names. But once production began on singles and albums for Hakucho-za, their label was Free Flight Records, also built by Sada.

Takahira was responsible for the words and music for one track on the band's debut album "Hakucho-za" from July 1982. "Yonjuu-ni Kilo no Seishun" (42 Kilometres of Youth) got me immediately with its smoothly thrumming rhythm and the much higher vocals of Reiko Sada back then. The song is neither City Pop nor folk but an appealingly breezy AOR ditty about falling in love over French Fries and a newly-purchased LP (man, I hope neither party touched the vinyl with their greasy fingers). I'm gathering that those 42 km in the title might be referring to running a grueling marathon to hit the goal line of love finally. After that, it's all joy and relaxation.