Nanako Sato -- Shuumatsu no Highway（週末のハイウェイ）

 

Well, let's see here. I put down the instructions in the AI art generator for a City Pop highway in Tokyo and the above is the result. Not too bad but maybe next time I'll also request a driver's-eye view instead of the sky one.

Now the reason that I opted once more to go to the art generator was this song. "Shuumatsu no Highway" (Weekend Highway) is a track on Nanako Sato's（佐藤奈々子）Christmas Day 1977 2nd album "Sweet Swingin'" and it fits the bill in terms of what I envisaged to be a 1970s City Pop tune. There is that lovely keyboard, the shimmering strings and the bluesy saxophone (Sato even calls out for that last instrument in the song). As well, there is a guitar in there that made me wonder if the player ended up helping out on the "Law & Order" theme song.😀

Written and composed by Sato with Motoharu Sano（佐野元春）also co-composing, the singer relates her story about how much she loves a ride on the highway at night. Oh, to be on one of those City Pop drives in a Japanese metropolis. Perhaps I should have asked for a night scene in the AI generator if I had listened and read her lyrics a bit more closely.