The Tubes -- Sushi Girl

 

The Tubes is a rock band from San Francisco that has been around since 1972, and they already have some representation here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" due to their participation on the "Xanadu" soundtrack. In addition, vocalist Fee Waybill was also one of the backup singers on Kahoru Kohiruimaki's（小比類巻かほる）"Dreamer" hit in 1989.

This week's Reminiscings of Youth then will take us to my very first encounter with Waybill and the rest of the Tubes, and it happened to be on "SCTV", the beloved Canadian sketch comedy series from the 1970s and 1980s. When "SCTV" was hitting its peak, one of its segments was "The Fishin' Musician" which was a parody of another beloved Canadian TV program "The Red Fisher Show" that featured ol' Red fishing the lakes and rivers with friends. The parody had the late John Candy portraying Gil Fisher as he brought some of the more intriguing musical acts of the time for a round of fishing. And indeed, the Tubes came aboard for some mighty bass fishing while still dressed in their concert gear of suits with skinny ties (oh so 80s)

Of course, along with the good humour, the band brought their own song to perform at Scuttlebutt Lodge which is where I heard "Sushi Girl" and saw Waybill eat some rice out of a fish carcass. I just hope that the fish was properly washed.

"Sushi Girl" is a track on the band's April 1981 album "The Completion Backward Principle" and it's got a lot of the tropes that would have been known through Japanese pop culture. I thought that the performance on "The Fishin' Musician" was plenty bizarre but the song itself was good ol' New Wave with a rock beat that I could get into since it was around that time that I was starting to get into music big time. However, I did not know that there had been a music video for "Sushi Girl" until literally a few minutes ago and it's about as tongue-in-cheek as the song itself.

Let's go a little whimsical here and see what was in the Oricon Top 10 of April 1981 in the middle of the lineup. We will check out Nos. 6, 7 and 8.

6. Akira Terao -- SHADOW CITY

7. Tetsuya Ryu -- Oku-Hida Bojou （奥飛騨慕情）

8. Akiko Yano -- Harusaki Kobeni （春咲小紅）