Last week, "Uta Con"（うたコン）had its tribute to the Queen of Kayo Kyoku, Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）. So, I posted a song by her in my own tribute on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" later that day. Well, earlier today, legendary composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, who would have been 84 last week (he had passed away back in 2020), got his own themed segment for a good part of the "Uta Con" episode and therefore I will post a song by him.
With the usual 13-hour time difference and getting the show live, I was actually having breakfast away from the television so I could only hear the montage of his hit compositions so I'll probably be watching the NHK program again during its rerun later tonight. Yep, Tsutsumi is indeed a favourite of mine and in fact, the first Creator article on KKP was on him.
As I've mentioned on the blog over the years, Tsutsumi had long earned the label of being the "He created THAT?!" composer. So many songs of different styles over so many decades. Today, I decided to go way back when he was nearly 27 and he composed his second single alongside lyricist Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）, a frequent songwriting partner of his back in the day. That was "Makka na Boots" (Deep Red Boots) for singer-actress Nana Kinomi（木の実ナナ）when she was all of 20.
Listening to this, people (including myself) can marvel that he was creating and arranging the go-go dance type material of those 1960s. According to the J-Wiki article for "Makka na Boots", which I don't think was featured in the "Uta Con" montage, it was put together as a solo singer Group Sounds effort but apparently, there were folks who also likened it to an Italian pop song of the day. However it's interpreted I can imagine young Kinomi dancing away in those long scarlet boots on some stand on a music-variety show while singing it.
Of course, I've known Kinomi for a karaoke favourite from much later in her career.
I wonder was "Makka na Boots" (released in 1967) was inspired by Nancy Sinatra's hit "These Boots Are Made for Walking" (released in Feb 1966)?
ReplyDeleteIt wouldn't surprise me. Japanese music producers and writers had always kept a keen watch on what their American and British equivalents were doing. Of course, they also did covers of Western hit songs, too.
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