Makoto Matsushita -- Traveling ~ Alan Person ni Sasagu（”トラベリン” アラン・パーソンに捧ぐ）

 

It's a bit of a surprise but after all of those wonderful City Pop songs and other creations that singer-songwriter Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）made from the 1970s into the 1980s, I found out that this particular song from September 1986, "Traveling ~ Alan Person ni Sasagu" (Travelling on the Road ~ Dedicated to Alan Person), was his first official single. 

A commenter noted under one of the YouTube videos for this atmospheric song that they couldn't believe that Matsushita had written and composed "Traveling" for a mere Nissan Pulsar commercial. Well, I wouldn't exactly call an ad for a major automobile company known around the world as a mere thing but I do get the context. "Traveling" is one rich and reassuring song which would make one want to take the car, Nissan or not, and head for the hills on a long sunset drive. Come to think of it, those Nissan execs must have swooned about this one.

(6:50)

Now, as for that extended title...the single had it written down in English as "Dedicated to Alan Person". Who the heck is Alan Person? Was he a personal friend of Matsushita? Then I listened and scrolled through Matsushita's lyrics. It was as I'd thought...this was a tribute to the Alan Parsons Project and I gather their music which also went into the soft rock category. I have no idea how the staff behind the production of the single allowed that misspelled name into the final product but I can only hope that Parsons had a sense of humour about it if and when he did find out.

Incidentally, the jingle that preceded "Traveling" in the above montage of Pulsar commercial songs over the years is a very familiar one.