I'M BA-A-A-A-A-CK!
That was a declaration by Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）when she appeared at an Oita Prefecture music festival which was held on April 19th and 20th. Larry Chan, fellow KKP co-administrator, foodie partner, good friend and Akina fan had informed me over the weekend that the Tokyo singer had made a comeback there by singing some of her old hits. Good to see that her health is getting back into gear. Now, let's see about getting her to Toronto for a few concerts. 😃
In celebration, I'm posting up another B-side from one of her earlier singles, "Twilight - Yugure Dayori" （トワイライト -夕暮れ便り-）which was released in June 1983. As soon as I saw the title "Drive", I immediately thought some raunchy rock (well, at least, enough that could be permitted on an aidoru tune back then) and Akina on the back of some high-speed motorcycle on the highways and byways of Japan while her high school punk boyfriend is fleeing from the authorities. After all, "Twilight" is an aidoru ballad with the singer in high-toned voice. In comparison, I would expect such a B-side with Akina plumbing the lower depths of her vocals to contrast with the more innocent A-side.
However, "Drive" doesn't go into that direction at all although it is still quite different from "Twilight". her voice does go a bit lower and softer compared to the higher and more strident of that A-side. Nope, I'd say "Drive" is Akina in classy City Pop mode with a goodly amount of bossa nova for that added metropolitan feeling. Written and composed by Jun Horie（堀江淳）, famous for his "Memory Glass"（メモリーグラス）which was the subject of the very first article for KKP back in 2012, and arranged by Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）, the mode of conveyance here is simply an unidentified car with a young couple taking that trip in the evening while the lady is hoping for some further escalation in the relationship. Maybe a stop at Inspiration Point is called for. 💕
Anyways, instead of me hoping for Akina to be in better health as I have usually done for years, I can see that she is in better health. May that continue for a good long time.
I glad that Akina is well enough to sing publicly. Also, she probably would go to Toronto if she could, she did love to travel.
ReplyDeleteGlad that she's ready to be active in singing as well. There are quite a few acts from Japan that have come over here for a gig or two such as Atarashii Gakko no Leaders. If she's a soccer fan, she can drop by for the World Cup next year. :)
DeleteI thought you’d write a blog post when I sent you the article. Thank you. Also, thanks for finding the footage of that concert. Unfortunately, I think her voice is not as good as a few years ago. It’s less stable and getting more husky. 😢
ReplyDeleteHi, Larry. Good to have seen you guys for lunch the other day, by the way. Yeah, it's not quite as powerful as it used to be, but hopefully, she might be able to find some sort of happy medium for any future recordings.
DeleteI think Akina performed FANCLUB LIVE「ALDEA Bar at Tokyo 2024」if I am not mistaken. So, this year might be her big public comeback, but last year I guess she made a limited audience comeback.
ReplyDeleteHello, Brian. I've also heard that she's been making the rounds on a few variety shows at least, so maybe she's also making the transition as a semi-regular TV personality.
DeleteThanks for posting about this. I'd forgotten that Akina was going to be playing this show and was surprised to see that her appearance was a collaboration with Tetsuya Komuro. She recently posted new videos of herself singing some of her old songs with acoustic jazzy backing, which were not terribly exciting to me as she's done plenty of similar self-covers in the past. But the possibility of new work with TK would be very welcome news.
ReplyDeleteHello, Robert. Yeah, it would be nice if she and Komuro could come up with some new material. Their work on "Aibu" was pretty cool a few decades ago.
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