Pal -- Sayonara Gakusei Jidai（さようなら学生時代）

 

This is just my thing but whenever I see or hear the word "pal", my memories automatically bring up Casper the Friendly Ghost. Why? Because there is the usual scene near an episode when one of his newfound friends is in some trouble and good ol' Casper rushes in and angrily admonishes the instigator by saying "Hey! You leave him alone! He's my PAL!". Of course, despite Casper looking as intimidating as a baby rabbit, the instigator takes one look at him and flees in abject terror.

So, for the fans of the Japanese band Pal, my apologies if I start thinking that Casper the Friendly Ghost seems like a mascot for them. Anyways, I guess since posting my first article on one of their songs "Please Catch Me" all the way back in 2019, folks at J-Wiki have put up a proper entry for the band since when I wrote the article, it was obvious that I couldn't find much information on them. That has now been rectified to a certain extent apparently since I now realize that Pal had their run between 1977 and 1982. They also consisted initially of three members: leader Hiroki Harada（原田博喜）, lead vocalist Yuji Ozeki（尾関裕司）and the late Takaki Funabashi（船橋孝樹）until Masahito Arai（新井正人）came in to take over as the second vocalist in 1979 followed by Kayo Watanabe（渡辺香世）.

I can assume that it was Harada, Ozeki and Funabashi then behind their October 1978 single "Sayonara Gakusei Jidai" (Goodbye, My School Days). Written by Funabashi and composed by Harada and Ozeki, there is that wistful and folksy vibe to the song (aside from that City Pop sax near the end) that probably had fans and other listeners getting all sepia-toned over their old school days. In fact, there's a lot of "Sayonara Gakusei Jidai" that reminded me of Garo's（ガロ）"Gakusei Gai no Kissaten" (学生街の喫茶店）from 1972.