Shizue Abe -- Mizuiro no Tegami（みずいろの手紙）

 

A little over a month ago, when I posted Shizue Abe's（あべ静江）"Yurameki"（ゆらめき）, commenter Jim Laker suggested that I try Abe's earlier hit "Mizuiro no Tegami" (Water-Coloured Letters). I hadn't known much about Abe's discography but noticed that the song also had its own J-Wiki file so I gave it a shot.

"Mizuiro no Tegami" was actually Abe's 2nd single from September 1973, released about half a year following her successful debut of "Coffee Shop de" （コーヒーショップで）, and it's a very sweet tune along the theme of "Absence makes the heart grow fonder" as a lass pines for a beau that she hasn't been able to see in some time. Lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composer Takashi Miki（三木たかし）were behind this one as they were for her first single. One would think that cute little birds would amass around the lass' bedroom window in an attempt to assuage her pain.

The song actually hit No. 7 on Oricon and became the 98th-ranked single for 1973. However, as I was reading the information on J-Wiki about "Mizuiro no Tegami", I noticed an interview that she had done in 2015 in which she admitted that she once hated the song and any other song whose lyrics seemed to pander toward men...almost to the point of tears of frustration at one point during recording. But then, at one concert, she noticed one woman in the audience crying her own tears for a different reason and realized that "Mizuiro no Tegami" had touched the audience member and was open and kind enough to express that. Abe had a change of heart after that and noted that the song was no longer just her song and perhaps was never her own song. It was a piece of work or art that got her further recognized in her career. Whether that means that she now actually likes the song isn't made clear but it's apparent that she sees it as her obligation to sing it since it makes others happy.