Kazuhiko Bando -- You Make Me Sick

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Those summer colds suck, don't they? Luckily, I don't usually suffer from them. What I do need though is a bit more sleep.

Anyways, the above is a not-so-subtle intro for a song by slightly raspy-voiced singer-songwriter Kazuhiko Bando（播東和彦）. Hailing from Akita Prefecture, according to his website, he started a band in his teens and then worked as a DJ from 1980 to 1986. However, during that time, he was able to cut a single and then an album. The 1984 single is "You Make Me Sick" which was created by Bando who also shares arranging credits with Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）. It's a bit of an intriguing song in that it starts off as a fairly galloping tune with a reggae beat but then does a quick shift into a verse that sounds like something out of Shigeru Matsuzaki's（松崎しげる）"Ai no Memory" （愛のメモリー）before making another zig-zag into hot-footed jazz. I guess that there really are those split-personality tunes. I certainly hope that the provocative title merely means that the protagonist is simply love sick over a new encounter. "You Make Me Sick" was also included in Bando's first album "Jealous Heart" which has a mix of rock and soul.

In 1987, Bando joined the cast of the Japanese production of the hit Broadway musical "Golden Boy" which earned him some direct instruction from Sammy Davis Jr. who had been in the original version. Then in the 1990s, the singer visited New Orleans since he'd fallen hard for the R&B emanating from The Big Easy. Since then, he's had a very friendly relationship with the musicians there.