Eiichi Ichijo (Hiroshi Itsuki) -- Ore wo Nakaseru Yoru no Ame（俺を泣かせる夜の雨）

 

Welcome to the weekend. And yes, just to make this clear...this is indeed a song concerning kayo kyoku legend Hiroshi Itsuki（五木ひろし）. But in those early struggling years before he made his breakthrough with the silky "Yokohama Tasogare"（よこはま・たそがれ）in 1971, the entertainer had been paying his dues as a 1960s teenager trying to break into the music industry. The man born as Kazuo Matsuyama（松山数夫）in Fukui Prefecture was going through a few stage names before Hiroshi Itsuki stuck with him for several decades. 

Back in 2017, I posted his debut single from May 1965, "Shinjuku Eki kara"（新宿駅から）when he first started out as Masaru Matsuyama（松山まさる）. Reviewing the song once more, I felt that the future Itsuki was coming out as a kayo kyoku crooner. He would release five more singles as Matsuyama up to early 1966 but I'm not sure whether he kept that style.

Then from 1967 for three singles, he got a new name Eiichi Ichijo（一条英一）and made his re-debut with "Ore wo Nakaseru Yoru no Ame" (The Evening Rain Makes Me Cry) which was released in March that year. Just on the cusp of turning 19, I guess the powers-that-be behind his career decided to have him start out as a really guttural-sounding Mood Kayo singer as if he'd drunk half a distillery (not to accuse him of underage drinking in Japan...the lad looked really cherubic on the cover of the 45") before he got behind the mike. That plinking guitar really set the tone of love doing someone wrong (and truthfully, it also reminded me of "Perry Mason"). The lyrics were provided by Choei Shiratori（白鳥朝詠）, who'd been with the singer when he was still Masaru Matsuyama, and apparently the music was composed by the singer himself under the name of Matsuyama, so he really knew the licks for a Mood Kayo tune. Unfortunately, his time as Ichijo wasn't a particularly successful one so he had another go with another name name and another song in 1969. I'll probably cover that one, too...eventually.

I'm sure that present-day Itsuki has covered his old songs under his different names and that has been the case with  "Ore wo Nakaseru Yoru no Ame" here. It's interesting to hear him cover it again but under the Itsuki voice that we fans have been so familiar with for so long.