Yutaka Kimura Speaks ~ Japanese City Pop Masterpieces 100: Shigeru Suzuki -- Binetsu Shonen（微熱少年）

 

Number: 068

Lyricist: Takashi Matsumoto

Composer: Shigeru Suzuki

Arranger: Shigeru Suzuki

From Suzuki's 1975 album: "Band Wagon"

Within this greatly acclaimed album, these two tracks really stand out: "Suna no Onna"（砂の女）and "Binetsu Shonen" (Feverish Boy). On top of that, "Binetsu no Shonen", which incidentally was used as titles for a novel and a movie, has become emblematic of a boy living in a city of change, so the combination of Takashi Matsumoto's（松本隆）sense of revealing this boy wrestling with fever (...the tram is floating away/off to the galaxy...) and Suzuki's（鈴木茂）own hot and feverish sliding guitar play also invites us to head off to the galaxy.

The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised" (2020).

Hello, J-Canuck here. I usually end the Urban Contemporary Friday with Yutaka Kimura Speaks but today I've chosen to actually start with it today since I might be distracted by the Opening Ceremonies of the Paris Games in a few hours. 

Looks like I've encountered another instance of a song on the Yutaka Kimura list that had yet to be covered by me or any of the other writers on KKP. So, allow me my comments here along with Yutaka's. Well, I gotta say that there is a goodly amount of funk and Steely Dan especially with Suzuki with that aforementioned sliding technique on his guitar. For a kid who's wrangling with a high temperature, I'm wondering whether he's actually come down with a disease or he's in thrall to the big city or someone special in his life. 

Incidentally, that November 1985 novel that Kimura mentions in his review originated from an original essay penned by Matsumoto in January 1975. The movie adaptation would come out in June 1987.

Ah...one more by-the-way here, but this is Article No. 11,000 for the blog!