Hiromi Iwasaki -- Oreta Rouge（折れた口紅）

 

Earlier on Facebook, singer Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）reported that her first grandchild became all of one year old today. Many congratulations to her!🎆 I was only going to do my usual two articles but considering the good news from one of the first Japanese pop singers that I got to know, I've decided to add in one more for the day.

Initially, I'd thought about doing a list of my favourite Hiromi songs but I found out that I had already beaten myself to the punch by providing such a list almost ten years ago. What is a Hiromi fan to do? Well, as my own catchphrase goes, never forget those B-sides!

My choice was to make a beeline to one of Iwasaki's most representative songs, her hit "Shishuuki"（思秋期）from September 1977 which has been lauded as a truly beautifully delivered ballad with a melancholy theme of aging and loneliness although the singer herself was really put through the wringer trying to convey the message at the age of 18. With something like "Shishuuki", I figured that the B-side had to be something lighter and peppier. Perhaps a hip-swinging disco delight?

Not quite. "Oreta Rouge" (Broken Lipstick) is more of a mid-tempo pop song with that touch of class in the arrangement that would hint at her future releases in the 1980s. Created by the same team behind "Shishuuki", lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composer/arranger Takashi Miki（三木たかし）, "Oreta Rouge" also has autumn as a seasonal setting (always symbolic of loss of love) but unlike the A-side, there's more of a hopeful que sera que sera emotion surrounding Iwasaki in her white coat walking among the fallen leaves on the university grounds. The hint is that she's recovering from a broken romance and that she's all the more mature from the experience although she's wondering about the broken lipstick in her purse and whether it's a symbol of something.

Miki's made an interesting arrangement with a softer pop intro involving the flute and then come the shimmering rising strings and a sharp horn section adding a hint of City Pop fragrance. There's also the suddenly jaunty pre-chorus section; perhaps the entire song reflects the lass' walking pace through the university. Overall, I think it does fit as a B-side but "Oreta Rouge" is still a worthy and pleasant song in the Hiromi oeuvre. Anyways, once again, many congratulations to Hiromi on completing her first year as a grandmother.