At first, when I encountered this lively ditty, I assumed that the title was "Campus Gal '81" as if the title had referred to the belle of the ball in some tony Tokyo university such as Waseda. But I focused my eyes a little better and realized that it was actually "Campus Gai '81" (Campus Street '81).
No matter though. It's still a really wicked City Pop song about someone having the time of their life as a university student in the big city, and indeed Waseda University is not far away from hubs such as Takadanobaba, Shinjuku and Ikebukuro. And the singer is Saki Kubota（久保田早紀）who I last wrote about back in 2022 for her "Ennui"（アンニュイ）on her May 1981 4th album "Air Mail Special"（エアメール・スペシャル）. "Campus Gai '81" is also a track on the LP with Kubota taking care of music while Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）is the lyricist and the arranger is Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）.
The song starts off with a feeling of great anticipation as if the protagonist were about to tackle a big adventure overseas (or on campus). Following that, the usual City Pop mellowness comes in via the keyboards and rhythm before some Latin beat invites itself into the chorus. As well, the strings and electric guitar provide a nice layer of sophistication and coolness respectively.
I am curious when did you first hear this? Was it back in 1981? And you withheld the knowledge of this awesome song and tune from all your readers and kept it for yourself? Yes, this is a example par excellence of Japanese city pop! Maybe someone should create a new sub-genre of citypop: campus pop?
ReplyDeleteI didn't even know about Kubota until well after my trip to Japan in 1981 when I first heard "Ihojin" on "Sounds of Japan" here in Toronto. "Airmail Special" was something that I discovered only when the City Pop boom began back in 2018.
DeleteCampus pop might be something more along the lyrical lines rather than melodic. I've heard a number of campus-set kayo kyoku that crosses from folk to pop to City Pop.
I think ihojin was the only song I really knew of Kubota's before you introduced me to this post's song.
ReplyDelete"Ihojin" is the only one I'd known in Kubota's discography until I learned about City Pop and then started this blog. She may be considered a one-hit wonder but she's actually got some very nice tunes under her belt.
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