I found this in the "Japanese City Pop Masterpieces 100" list at the back of Yutaka Kimura's "Japanese City Pop" book as No. 60, so its time in the weekly Friday lineup on KKP will come in several weeks; this week, we're looking at No. 54.
Toshinobu Kubota（久保田利伸）has been known to me for years since my time on the JET Programme, but I have to admit that this is the first time that I've encountered "Natsu no Shigosen" (Summer Meridian). Well, better late than never as they say, but I'm still rather kicking myself that I've had to discover it this far into the 21st century. Well, better late than nev--never mind!😠
Coming from Kubota's 6th album released in July 1992, "Neptune", "Natsu no Shigosen" is a wonderfully hypnotic soul song that was written by Masumi Kawamura（川村真澄）and composed by the singer himself. Cooing a story of a man glimpsing a lovely young lady on the beach but only admiring from afar, he realizes that he may have lost an opportunity but he is still grateful even for the sight of the lass that is now permanently in his mind. I do love the summery sunset setup of the music and wish that someday, the original recorded version of "Natsu no Shigosen" will make its way onto YouTube, although I'm plenty impressed with Kubota's concert version.
As for "Neptune", the album peaked at No. 3 on Oricon and sold about 480,000 copies.
I'm so used to his look during the "La La La Love Song" days that he looks like a young man ready to party for the night in the picture above.
ReplyDeleteOh, golly, he looked quite different in his early days. He was more into the New Jack Swing sort of fashion back then. The first time I saw him on a music ranking show, he looked like he traded in his high school uniform for dance club clothes.
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