Translation of Liner Notes for Tohoku Shinkansen's "Thru Traffic" Originally by Toshikazu Kanazawa (Part 4)

 

Happy Friday and welcome to another Urban Contemporary session for KKP today. To begin as we have for the last few Fridays, I have the fourth and final part of the translation of the liner notes for Tohoku Shinkansen's（東北新幹線）legendary "Thru Traffic" from 1982 by music journalist Toshikazu Kanazawa（金澤寿和）. This final part goes into the figurative storm clouds that brewed up which led to not only Tohoku Shinkansen producing just the one album before the partnership faded into dust but also how the duo got its name.

Couldn't resist. 

Although the recording itself had gone comparatively smoothly, what came after was a nightmare. There was the growing number of directors and engineers coming in and out, and the work slowed down to a crawl. Even the odd name of Tohoku Shinkansen was given to the duo because “it was just like the actual Tohoku Shinkansen bullet train project which kept getting delayed and never launching”. On top of that, there was very little promotion for the album. As mentioned above, only two of the tracks made their debut at Yagami’s（八神純子）concerts. Perhaps part of the problem was that in the midst of the difficulties of releasing the album, Narumi（鳴海寛）, Yamakawa（山川恵津子）and Yamaha couldn’t see eye-to-eye-to-eye. For one thing, Yamakawa, right from the start of Tohoku Shinkansen, had maintained that she wouldn’t participate in any live performances because she didn’t want to be out in front on the stage. Narumi thought that though his partner felt uncomfortable, she should perform if only to promote the release of the album. Then, Yamaha gradually turned the screws onto the two of them to perform. It was from these disagreements that the album only got out to some of Yagami’s fans and Tohoku Shinkansen quietly disappeared.

It was at this time that the one-and-only Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）had heard “Thru Traffic” and invited Yamakawa and Narumi to join his tour as backup chorus. Tats’ hit album “For You” was just released and the man himself was on fire, but in the end, Yagami’s tour had already been scheduled so they couldn’t do it. As well, there was a lot of friction between Narumi and Yagami’s director which led to Narumi not only leaving the band but separating himself from Yamaha. Ultimately, a one-time Tohoku Shinkansen concert wouldn’t finally come into being until August 2004, 22 years later when the duo teamed up once more.

But Narumi would soon join Takao Kisugi’s（来生たかお）band, and then become the sound producer for the late Cindy and Kyosuke Kusunoki（楠木恭介）. And after that, he participated as a guitarist for Tatsuro Yamashita’s “Performance ’88-‘89” tour and then recorded the live album “JOY” under a similar framework which greatly raised his profile. Especially through his incredibly soulful play on Tats’ “Soubou”（蒼茫）, Tats’ fans were astonished when they heard it. In 1994, he would fully return to the music scene when he formed the band frasco out of which three albums were released.

As for Yamakawa, she quickly distinguished herself as a composer and arranger and became active in a wide variety of genres including kayo kyoku and aidoru music. In 1986, her contribution to Kyoko Koizumi（小泉今日子）, “100% Danjo Kousai”（100%男女交際...100% Men And Women Dating） earned her a Japan Record Award for arrangement. Her name has also popped up in the chorus for Tats’ “COZY” and Mariya Takeuchi’s（竹内まりや） recordings among other projects, so that she would participate in over a thousand songs.

Yamakawa: When I look back on things now, I think Tohoku Shinkansen was possible thanks to Hiroshi. I had a really great time singing chorus with him and we meshed well. Though we co-produced the album, it was he who took the initiative. When I was thinking about what I should do to bring out Hiroshi, I thought about my position and took a step back.＊ However, I still have strong memories of the staff and everyone else enjoying themselves a lot. Regarding all of it, everyone was so generous and we didn’t think about things such as the production costs and made the album that we had wanted to make. As a result, I could hear very warm and nostalgic sounds. If anyone thought about making something similar now, it wouldn’t be possible at all. It’s on that part that I hope you take your time and enjoy it.

Toshikazu Kanazawa 

September 2007

*I put that one statement by Yamakawa in bold since I am not completely sure about my translation there. By chance, if there is anyone out there who has their liner notes of "Thru Traffic" and have tried to figure it out, let me know if it's OK or if I need to make corrections.