Yuuko Ohtomo -- Bohemian（ボヘミアン）/Maruseru Bashi（マルセル橋）

 

One remarkable thing about this blog aside from the fact that we've been able to keep it going for nearly a dozen years is that there are still always going to be surprises to the writers themselves. So, I've just gotten my mind blown once more.

It's just a week sky of eleven years since I first posted Yuki Katsuragi's（葛城ユキ）"Bohemian" in December 2012 on the pages of KKP. "Bohemian" has been one of the touchstones of my kayo kyoku memories because I heard it for the first time on an episode of CHIN-FM's "Sounds of Japan", and it's certainly one of the first J-Rock tunes that I ever encountered. I noted in that article that one surprise I got there was that the song had been written by Ryo Aska（飛鳥涼）of Chage & Aska.

Well, another bombshell has landed in December 2023 regarding this song. Katsuragi wasn't the first to sing it. That honour actually goes to singer Yuuko Ohtomo（大友裕子）when she recorded it as her 9th and final single in September 1982, only a few months before Katsuragi's version was put onto the shelves. The original "Bohemian" is fascinating since it's not quite as growly in terms of the arrangement by Daisuke Inoue（井上大輔）who also arranged the Katsuragi cover or the vocals by Ohtomo which seem more plaintive. In fact, I'd say that there is a City Pop groove underneath the wailing guitar. 

The B-side to "Bohemian" is "Maruseru Bashi"（マルセル橋...Marseilles Bridge） which begins with a lonely piano riff very reminiscent of the intro for Billy Joel's "The Stranger". However, the torch song doesn't feel like New York City as the title signifies and the setting is far more Gallic with the music taking things into the realm of Fashion Music. As with "Bohemian", Aska and Inoue took care of words and music respectively with Takayuki Hirano（平野孝幸）handling the arrangement.

Ohtomo was born and raised in Miyagi Prefecture, and her entry into the music profession began in 1978 as a university freshman, when she entered the Yamaha Popular Song Contest's Tohoku competition. Her debut single, "Shoushin"（傷心...Love-Torn Heart）, was released that December. In addition to those nine singles, there were also a couple of albums in 1979 and 1980. Soon after "Bohemian" had been released, Ohtomo got married and she ended her singing career.