Midori Kinouchi -- Gakusei Douri（学生通り）

 

The above is a shot from one of the paths within Waseda University in Tokyo. I took this photo a little over seven years ago when I was with a couple of former work colleagues during the university's annual student festival.

I'm not sure if I'm overgeneralizing things a bit here. However, my impression has been that kayo kyoku dealing with high school have tended to be more rock n' roll raunchy or sentimentally romantic (especially with those 80s aidoru tunes). On the other hand, songs based on university experiences have been much more folksy (not all that surprising considering all of the angry folk songs of the 1960s performed at university) or nostalgically tinged with sepia.

It was just last month that I covered aidoru Midori Kinouchi's（木之内みどり）Xmas tune "Hitotsuki Okure no Christmas"（ひと月おくれのクリスマス）, but this time, I'm introducing her 5th single from February 1976, "Gakusei Douri" (Student Avenue). Created by some heavy songwriting hitters in lyricist Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）, composer Kazuo Zaitsu（財津和夫）and arranger Masataka Matsutoya（松任谷正隆）, it's a bittersweet song about reminiscing over a past romance at university. What adds to the poignancy is the addition of bells, a French horn, shimmering strings and that keyboard for which I can never remember the name. The aural effects makes it sound as if the university senior is about to graduate and leave campus for good, thus tying off one major period of his life and his connection to his old flame.