Around Christmas last year, a commenter alerted me about the late Yoichi Takizawa（滝沢洋一）having a mystery 1982 album "Boy" which had been undeservedly shelved for decades until its unearthing in 2024. So I was happy to listen to the tropical City Pop from "Endless Summer" as one of the tracks on "Boy". One reason that I'm here in this article today is that a good fellow by the name of Ryusei Miyakodori（都鳥流星）let me know of his own English article on the album, so if you can follow this link right here, you can get his own personal take on Takizawa and his history with music from his childhood.
Well, today I'll be starting this session of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" with another track from "Boy", "Morning with Venus". Composed by Takizawa and written by Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）, this takes things more into downtown Tokyo starting with a really attenuated twangy guitar before we have the lovely duo of Takizawa and an especially sultry-voiced Sumiko Yamagata（やまがたすみこ）coming up with a whimsical combination of City Pop and American variety show jazz. I was half-expecting the two to suddenly break into either a tap dance or a soft-shoe on stage during the instrumental bridge. I'd say that is one happy morning with Venus and one more reason that I'm glad for the revelation of "Boy".
This is cool! I love when long lost albums are discovered and released! Also, thanks for the link to the article that provide me with a lot of interesting back ground information.
ReplyDeleteNo problems. Miyakodori was able to score a lot of good connections through his research.
DeleteThanks for uploading the link to the article. I hope many people will read the article.
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure, Mr. Miyakodori. Brian above has read it and I hope plenty of other people read it, too.
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