Yosui Inoue -- Shotaijou no Nai Show（招待状のないショー）

 

Yosui Inoue（井上陽水）has always come up with a blend of playful and poignant and party-on songs over his nearly 55-year career, but I have to say that this particular ballad is up there with his best in my opinion.

His title track from his top-charting March 1976 album "Shotaijou no Nai Show" (A Show Without an Invitation) definitely has got its emotions on its sleeve as Inoue either portrays or truly has been that singer in some tiny venue in perhaps a large city. He's the featured "star" in some setting where the audience probably cares more for the chintzy piece of cooked protein on the plate and the Chez Thunderbird in the glass than for him and his music. Meanwhile, the singer is wailing away his despair at not seeing his beloved anymore due to breakup or other sad circumstances.

Perhaps I am being a tad florid and maudlin in the above but Inoue's melody as arranged by Makoto Yano（矢野誠）reflects that loneliness, amped to high levels by the dramatic strings and the singer's resonant voice. I also can't help but feel that there is a certain kinship between "Shotaijou no Nai Show" and Billy Joel's "Piano Man" which had come out a few years earlier. Joel sings about his happy resignation being the titular piano man in a local drinking joint among the amiable and fascinating barfly regulars. Meanwhile, Inoue in his song sounds as if he is in his own beautiful perdition after his hopes and dreams have gone to ash.

A couple of singles came out of the album but neither of them included the title track, although it did show up on his May 1977 10th single "Natsu Ganbou"（夏願望...Summer Desire） which actually wasn't in the original album. The album hit No. 1 and stayed at the top spot for nearly two months, ending up as the No. 4 album of the year. I can imagine Inoue's good buddy Koji Tamaki（玉置浩二）of Anzen Chitai（安全地帯）hitting this one out of the ballpark, and to add to the connection, Tamaki's collaborator Katsu Hoshi（星勝）had been one of the percussionists on the song.