Kaguyahime -- Maxie no Tame ni（マキシーのために）

 

Last night's "Uta Con"（うたコン）episode had folk music as the theme, something that I don't recall seeing in the several years that the weekly NHK kayo kyoku program under its current title has been broadcasting. But it was good hearing some of the oldies including a cover of Toi et Moi's 1970 "Dare mo Inai Umi" (誰もいない海）, itself a cover of the original by Yasuko Ouki（大木康子）in 1968.

Veteran folk artist Kosetsu Minami（南こうせつ）came on the show for a couple of numbers, one of which was "Maxie no Tame ni" (For Maxie). It was the B-side for the 2nd single by his old group Kaguyahime（かぐや姫）in their first iteration which lasted between late 1970 and mid-1971 and consisted of Minami, Shinichiro Mori（森進一郎）and Sanpei Oshima（大島三平）. On the flip side of "Henchou Tabaruzaka"（変調田原坂...Modulated Taburazaka）, "Maxie no Tame ni" was composed by Minami and written by Makoto Kitajo（喜多条忠）based on a female activist that the lyricist had once known. The song was actually Kitajo's first work as a songwriter.

Now, according to the J-Wiki article on "Henchou Tabaruzaka", a second version of "Maxie no Tame ni" was arranged by fellow folk singer-songwriter Takuro Yoshida（吉田拓郎）for the debut album by Kaguyahime in its second iteration (1971-1975) with Minami and Panda Yamada（山田パンダ）who had just left the garage folk group Shrieks（シュリークス）. The album was "Hajimemashite"（はじめまして...How Do You Do?）from April 1972 and its "Maxie" (as shown above) is a Takuro-sounding folk-rock number which sounds dramatically from that original B-side as heard below.

It really sounds like something that could have been used as a theme song for a sitcom based on an inner-city Tokyo neighbourhood. But Kitajo's lyrics tell a tribute to the departed Maxie which Minami clearly states was due to her taking her own life through a drug overdose. Not surprisingly, the song is a combination of admonishing and missing her. The "Uta Con" performance of "Maxie" last night was also very different in that it sounded like a funk-rock extravaganza that could have been done by Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band.