As Kayo Grace Kyoku is showing up above, it is Family Day today in most provinces in Canada including my home of Ontario. My own family had our big get-together a couple of days ago; we had sushi and pie because we like sushi and pie. Incidentally, let me introduce Kayo's family: we've got Kayo's mother Sayo at top left, and her two younger sisters, Mayo and Nayo going from left to right, and then at top right is father Garfield (yeah, like the cat). They have residences in Tokyo and Unionville, Ontario.
In any case, before I end up creating an entire background for the Kyoku family, let me get to the special edition of Reminiscings of Youth that I always do on holidays. I've chosen Kenny Loggins' "This is It", a song which I first discovered through a K-Tel compilation record commercial all the way back in my junior high school days and a few seconds of the official music video above is all I got. Since then, I've gotten to know a lot of Loggins' discography and even noted a few of his works in previous ROY articles but it took quite a while longer to appreciate "This is It" which was created by the singer and Michael McDonald who also contributes his distinct vocals.
When I heard "This is It" which was released as this soft rock song in October 1979, I had taken it to be a song of encouragement for those sitting on the borderline about whether or not to initiate some sort of courtship. Actually though, from what I read from the comments below the various copies of the song on YouTube and then the Wikipedia article on it, Loggins finally completed it as not a love song but as a life song as the man himself put it. His father had been going through surgery after surgery to resolve medical issues and as he was getting discouraged about the future, the singer and songwriter finally came up with the lyrics as not only encouragement but as a not-too-harsh smack on the head to stand up and fight and not give in or up.
The interesting thing is that usually when I hear a song with this lyrical theme of fighting against adversity, I get sound images of heroic marches or even enka. Not with "This is It"; it sounds sultry and smooth which would explain why I had initially thought it was a love ballad. Regardless of how people interpreted the music and lyrics, the song was another success for Loggins as it reached No. 9 on Canada's RPM chart and No. 11 in America.
I was able to find what was occupying the top three spaces on the Oricon Top 10 list for October 1st 1979 (although I don't know exactly which day "This is It" was released).
1. Masashi Sada -- Kanpaku Sengen （関白宣言）
2. Masahiro Kuwana -- Sexual Violet No. 1（セクシャルバイオレットNo.1）
3. Sachiko Kobayashi -- Omoide Zake （おもいで酒）
Fireminer here. Kenny Loggins and Kenny G used to be constant presences on my dad's playlist, so I distinctively remember having listened to This is It. Never thought much of it before coming across your article. Now it sounds like the perfect movie credit song!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to more ROY article about 70s music. I actually just listened to mostly late 70s-early 80s soft rock stuffs, and much less early 70s materials.
Then, I think this coming Thursday will also be up your alley. I plan to devote the regular Thursday ROY to "Baby, Come to Me" with James Ingram and Patti Austin. Like yourself, I'm a big fan of the soft rock from that same era along with the R&B.
DeleteOne, Happy Family Day! and Two "This is it" was on the radio and in BGM of restaurants when I was a kid in the early 80's. Although I never paid any attention to the lyrics.
ReplyDeleteUntil this blog, I was never much of a lyrics man although I've gotten a bit more interested since then. Strangely enough, "This is It" was something that I barely heard even on AM radio. I heard Loggins' "Heart to Heart" far more often which is why I still love that one.
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