Haruo Chikada & BEEF -- Ah, Lady Hurricane（ああ、レディハリケーン）

 

Seeing the title of this song, I am reminded of the regional and political force of nature that was known as "Hurricane" Hazel McCallion who passed away almost a couple of years ago at the age of 101. She was the mayor of our adjoining city of Mississauga (sister city to Kariya, Aichi Prefecture) for 36 years and was one of the toughest scrappers. One didn't enter fights lightly against Hurricane Hazel who was given her nickname in reference to a notorious hurricane which devastated the Atlantic coast back in 1954.

Coincidentally enough, McCallion's term as mayor hadn't even reached a year when eclectic singer, musician and producer Haruo Chikada（近田春夫）released one single in September 1979 under the band name of Haruo Chikada & BEEF. The Tokyo native brought together a few bands with him starting with Haruo Chikada & Haruophone（近田春夫&ハルヲフォン）, one of the earliest New Wave rock groups lasting between 1972 and 1979, and then his time with BEEF for the whole of 1979 which was more technopop-oriented before going with the Vibratones' urban contemporary tones from 1981 for a few more years. 

The BEEF moniker was adopted from one of the characters from the 1974 horror-musical "The Phantom of the Paradise" starring Paul Williams. Among the BEEF members was guitarist Atsuko Okuno（奥野敦子）who would later go on fronting her own band Juicy Fruits. But going to that lone single "Ah, Lady Hurricane", it's a technopop treat that also sounds a bit like some sort of tokusatsu hero theme tune although it had been created specifically as a commercial jingle for a Shiseido brand of shampoo called Basbon. Chikada was responsible for the melody which Makoto Yano（矢野誠）arranged while Kazuo Umezu（楳図かずお）provided the lyrics.