Hironobu Kageyama -- Kyou wo Ikiyou（今日を生きよう）

 

A week ago, commenter Night Mirage and I were talking about when Hironobu Kageyama's（影山ヒロノブ）"Into The Night" first came out. It was part of  "THE BEST OF HIRONOBU KAGEYAMA", a 1989 compilation of his finest works up to that point, but Night Mirage stated that "Into the Night" sounds as if it came from a time much earlier in his career, and I had to admit that it probably was. However, I haven't been able to track down an origin time for this particular song, so if any Kageyama fans are out there who can help out, we would appreciate it very much.

That did get me to think though about the leather-lunged rocker's early days. A few years ago, mind you, I had written about his old band LAZY's "Baby, I Make A Motion"（ベイビー・アイ・メイク・ア・モーション）from 1979. Yet, I hadn't gone into Kageyama's earliest solo material. Well, this ends now as I show his first single as a lone singer, "Kyou wo Ikiyou" (Let's Live for Today), which was released in October 1981.

That English exhortation of "let's live for today" in the chorus rang some memory bells in my coconut, and as it turns out that Kageyama's debut was a cover for the Grass Roots' 1967 hit "Let's Live For Today". My toddler memory distinctly remembers that chorus. The interesting thing about Kageyama's cover is how it's been given that kayo kyoku or City Pop influence as Rumiko Hoshika（星加ルミ子）provided the Japanese lyrics.

As the commercial pitchman says though, "Wait, there's more!". The Grass Roots' song was itself a cover of Italy-based English band The Rokes' 1966 single "Piangi Con Me". Band member David Shapiro came up with the original melody.