One of the YouTubers that I'm currently subscribed to, Kuga's Travel, has just put up a new video featuring a new luxury train, the Tobu Railway Spacia X (no, I don't think Elon Musk has anything to do with this one), which runs between Asakusa in Tokyo to Nikko in Tochigi Prefecture. Considering the distance between the two points, it's definitely not an overnighter unless it's running at the speed I was doing my half-marathons when I was a junior high school kid, but hey, it looks really posh. I'm just afraid of the price.
P.S. 3,740 JPY/25 USD total for a 2-hour ride?!
That preamble ramble is to introduce "Summer Night Train" by Rats & Star（ラッツ&スター）featuring the golden tones of Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）. Not being a Masters student when it comes to the discography of The Chanels before they made the name change to Rats & Star in the mid-1980s, my bet is that the group may have also made a slight stylistic change going from doo-wop onto a more contemporary soulful path, although they didn't leave their roots totally behind.
The Chanels/Rats & Star have popped up in the last little while via the ROY articles and special features, so the last time they actually popped in a KKP byline was all the way back in June 2014 when I posted their popping April 1983 hit "Me Gumi no Hito" （め組のひと）. "Summer Night Train" is a much mellower animal from their November 1984 album "See Through". The opening verse sounds like a slower version of "Plastic Love" but otherwise it's a groovy soul tune, ideal as an accompaniment for a night ride on the aforementioned Tobu Railway Spacia X (scotch not included). I also like how the rest of the Rats as backup chorus sounds like a train whistle off in the distance.
Masao Urino（売野雅勇）was responsible for words while Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）provided the music. Goto, along with Suzuki, also produced the entirety of "See Through" which peaked at No. 26 on Oricon.
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