Tuesday, August 13, 2024

It's Twilight Time!

 

It didn't take me too long to figure out that a lot of Japanese lyricists in the 1980s loved to pluck the Beatles' phrase of "Love me do" or another affectionate collection of words "Hold me tight" for their clients' songs. However, it took me a while of doing this blog before I realized that folks in the Japanese music industry had a love for that particular time period between bright afternoon and dark night if their song (and album) titles were any indication.


Yup, twilight, sunset, dusk, etc. which can be translated into Japanese as yuuyami(夕闇), yuugure(夕暮れ), tasogare(黄昏) and just plain sansetto(サンセット) is, I gather, the happy hours for musicians, singers and songwriters alike in Japan. Mind you, we've got our pop cultural representatives for that, too. One of the best examples is Rod Serling's "The Twilight Zone" mystery TV series. Ironically in Japan, it's titled "Mystery Zone", maybe because the distributors there probably didn't want something spooky to invade their romantic notions of twilight time.


Closer to what the Japanese have envisioned is most likely The Platters' "Twilight Time" from 1958 which I used to hear on some commercial aired in my old stomping grounds. Perhaps it was a beer ad or something for cars; the main point is that I think the Japanese cherish the sunset hours as ones when folks can just hit the highway after work for a relaxing drive or meet up with friends or that significant other for a drink or dinner as the sun dunks below the horizon.

I know that a lot of songs that have been created in Japan have those synonyms of sunset and twilight, many of which are already up here on KKP. And they don't necessarily have to be of the City Pop persuasion although some of the six here are. But I can say that they all have their varying levels of soothing feeling, so enjoy the following half-dozen. It's Twilight Time!

(1971) Hiroshi Itsuki -- Yokohama Tasogare(よこはまたそがれ)


(1977) Minako Yoshida -- Twilight Zone


(1979) Tazumi Toyoshima -- Tomadoi Twilight (とまどいトワイライト)


(1983) Junko Yagami -- Tasogare no Bay City (黄昏のBAY CITY)


(1983) Akina Nakamori -- Twilight - Yugure Dayori (トワイライト -夕暮れ便り-)


(2022) Natsu Summer & Ryusenkei -- Twilight Shadow

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