Makoto Iwabuchi -- Whiskey Drive（ウィスキー・ドライブ）

Via aucfree.com

 

There's one segment of YouTube which specializes in showing scalp massages all over the world such as Japan, India and South Korea. Yup, I'll say it right now...I've enjoyed watching them for the vicarious ASMR effect, and it looks like the fellow above may have inadvertently pioneered it on the cover of his single.

The lucky fellow is singer-songwriter and current gospel singer Makoto Iwabuchi（岩渕まこと）. I introduced him a little over two months ago through his 1978 song "Yuuhi ni Sarawarete"（夕陽にさらわれて）. He was a good friend of the late Chu Kosaka（小坂忠）who introduced him to Christianity decades ago. Though my knowledge and experience of his music are still very nascent, my initial impression has been that in the early years of his career, he had been into New Music, perhaps centering upon AOR.

Well, judging from his October 1977 debut single "Whiskey Drive", the New Music is there but with this happy-go-lucky tune, my feeling is that he's gotten some influence from Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）and Tin Pan Alley at around the same time. There is that honky-tonk piano dancing around on the keys along with those honey-toned horns and the funky electric piano. It really does sound like the perfect accompaniment for Miller Time in Japan back in the 1970s or sitting in on a session with the "Saturday Night Live" band back then.