Following the untimely passing of Yoshinori Monta（門田頼命）last month, I'm sure that a lot of fans and others revisited Monta & Brothers's huge hit "Dancing All Night" from 1980. The song had been seen personally by Monta as his final chance to strike it big as a singer, and thankfully, it did pay off for him.
At the same time, though, I also wondered about the years before "Dancing All Night" which I gather was his "paying one's dues" decade after starting out in 1971. In that year, Monta moved up to Tokyo to chase his dreams and put out some singles with his first album coming out in 1976, "Horizon". The first track on "Horizon" was "Kobe ni Asa ga Kita" (Morning Has Come to Kobe) which was written by Monta and Kumiko Sakamoto（坂本玖美子）with Monta composing the song. It's a moody tune with elements of rock and folk so I figure that New Music would be the genre to describe it. That distinctive voice of Monta is right in there as he sings about his hometown.
In 1979, Monta had enough of Tokyo and returned to Kobe although he still kept plugging away. Good thing he did, too.
Yes, 1976 or Showa 51! This is one of my all time favorite years in History.
ReplyDeleteHello, Brian. Yep, it was a big year for Canada because we also had the Montreal Olympics. However, my personal favourite year was 1981 because I got to go to Japan and it was the year that I finally got into Japanese pop music.
DeleteI think you have made a good case for 1981! I think I recall you mentioning your graduation trip to Japan and man do I envy you for being able to visit Japan durning the showa bubble period!
DeleteMind you, I was there at the very beginning and the very ending of the decade only so, I kinda missed out on a big part of the Bubble. It's just as well because at my income tax bracket back then, I wouldn't have been able to get in most of the places in Ginza and Akasaka anyways. :)
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