TOSHITARO -- 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 -）

 

I haven't featured a TOSHITARO song since "Romantic Noise" in the past couple of years so I thought it was time to bring back this City Pop singer from the 1980s. I've read on sites where this particular song of his has only been known to the most knowledgeable of listeners (read [in Japanese]: maniac), but it was used in a commercial for a brand of tape cassette. 

But that title threw me for a loop! "Am9 ni J - Eikaku Boy de Ite kure yo" from his May 1985 album "Paradise", had me scratching my head while I was listening to this strutting City Pop boogie twice. Who was J and what was so important that it had to happen at 9 am? Well, the mystery was such that I had to look it up online and fortunately, I was able to get most of my questions answered. Musician Taro Mejiro's（めじろたろう）November 2020 blog entry helped explain that "Am9" doesn't refer to a time but to the A Minor 9th chord, and after consulting with a YouTube video on that specific chord, it sounds like the song actually wraps itself around this very chord (TOSHITARO even shouts it out in the lyrics). Perhaps City Pop YouTuber Sora Satoh has even mentioned this in one of his videos.

Thanks, mahalodotcom!

As for the "Eikaku Boy" part, I've got no idea since eikaku translates into "acute angle". I tried to see via the search engine whether eikaku boy is a form of musical jargon but I couldn't get anything. So, basically speaking, the title in English is "J at A Minor 9th - Stay an Acute Angle Boy, Will Ya?". OK, whatever you say.😵

Keiko Aso（麻生圭子）was behind the lyrics for TOSHITARO's melody and from what I could glean, the protagonist is a fellow who's in love with a female radio DJ known only by her first initial J (so, Janice, Joyce, Junko?). As the singer shouts out, that A Minor 9th is the zinger to his heart for some reason and maybe J sang or spoke something at that chord. But the chorus throws back at the lad that she's already married so don't bother although the fellow is undeterred. In any case, I like the boogie in this one and the wailing guitar solo.

Yeah, the commercial for this tape cassette fairly screams "Typically Bizarre Japanese CM!".