RAIN -- Hari no Nai Tokei（針のない時計）

 

The article that I just posted several minutes ago for TOSHITARO's "Am9 ni J - Eikaku Boy de Ite kure yo"（Am9にジェイ - 鋭角ボーイでいてくれよ -）made the point that if anyone knew about this song then they would considered to be truly music maniacs in Japanese; personally, I would prefer the term lovers or hobbyists. Regardless, this song might also be in the same category.

And man, this intro is so AOR, it hurts! Commenters have been pointing out how shocked and delighted to see and hear RAIN's "Hari no Nai Tokei" (Clock with No Hands) up on YouTube. There is next to no information on this group aside from the fact that singer-songwriter Shuuji Kuniyasu（国安修二）had belonged to the band according to his J-Wiki profile. In 1978, it had been known as the folk duo TAKE ONE until they took one more member at least to become RAIN in 1981 (it would break up in 1983). 

I could only find out on the YouTube description that RAIN had released this single "Hari no Nai Tokei" in 1982 with Kuniyasu as the composer, Shun Taguchi（田口俊）as the lyricist and Kimio Mizutani（水谷公生）as the arranger. At first, I had assumed that Taguchi was part of the band but he was actually busy with his own group Lorelei at the time. Anyways, getting back to "Hari no Nai Tokei", this song about time standing still due to a romantic breakup (by death or argument) is so smooth and refined that milk tea would curdle in its presence. In fact, with those lovely strings in there, I couldn't help but throw in the Fashion Music label, too.