Yoshitaka Minami -- Matenrou no Heroine（摩天楼のヒロイン）

 

Well, I've been hearing about this project in Tokyo for a few years now and apparently it's going to finally get the grand opening in November this year. I'm talking about Azabudai Hills（麻布台ヒルズ）, the next "Hills" complex to make its debut in the Toranomon district. I once had a regular gig teaching at one of the companies in the area, right next to the swanky Hotel Okura and down the street from Toranomon Hospital.

I've got a passing interest in architecture so I did hear about this project, which includes the mouthful of Azabudai Hills Mori JP Tower that will be the tallest skyscraper in Japan (for now), from various sources. YouTube channel The B1M also came up with its own take on Azabudai Hills a few months ago, so you take a gander at that as well as the well-meaning but a bit cornball presentation above from the official project website. I kinda figure that my Japan-traveling friends can make a stop over at Azabudai Hills next year and take some photographs.

As such, I felt that I ought to put up another matenrou kayo kyoku to commemorate not only this announcement but also to have it join with iri's "Matenrou"（摩天楼）that I posted last Friday. Maybe it's time to consider putting up an Author's Pick on all those skyscraper-titled songs but I'll stew on that one for a while.

Perhaps then, this would be the perfect time then to write about Yoshitaka Minami's（南佳孝）"Matenrou no Heroine" (Skyscraper Heroine), the title track from his September 1973 debut album. The album cover of the dapper singer-songwriter in white tuxedo, white hat and pink carnation is one that has stuck with me since I first saw it in the pages of "Japanese City Pop" and I wouldn't be surprised if it's been deemed one of the most memorable covers in Japanese recording history.

The album "Matenrou no Heroine" has been categorized on J-Wiki as indeed a City Pop LP but that title track is more of an old-time jazz tune plucked from a Hollywood movie during its golden age. Both Minami and Makoto Yano（矢野誠）worked on the melody and arrangement and the result is a seven-minute-and-change overture with passages that sound as if they ended up as the other tracks on the album. In fact, it's not until almost halfway through the song when Minami finally plies his own golden tones to the microphone as an old-fashioned crooner. For a singer starting out, it was quite the brave move for him and his record company to come up with even this track from decades past. According to a "CD Journal" in 2018, Minami stated that at the time he had felt that 1970s folk music had reached its peak and that he wanted to try something different with more of an urban bent. I think with the title track, he opted to take things even further with the travel not just in space but also in time. He shares that love for the old jazz with singer-songwriter Kingo Hamada（濱田金吾）but both also would get into City Pop several years down the line.

Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）not only produced the album but also provided the lyrics for most of the tracks including the title track. Even his words relate the story of a man hopelessly in love with the woman of his dreams and compares her to that heroine in the movies. Methinks that the heroines there could be Myrna Loy and Katherine Hepburn.

I wouldn't mind giving those other tracks a spin. For that matter, if I were to ever try cosplay, maybe I can strike that pose in that tuxedo. Of course, the size would have to be quite a bit bigger.