When I think of "Gas Tou" (Gaslight) as a Japanese song, my memories will always go to Ruiko Kurahashi's（倉橋ルイ子）"Gas Tou" from her 1986 "Main Course" album. Riffing off of "I'm A Fool To Love You", it's a jazz torch song that fits the atmosphere of a gas light-lit street of romance on a foggy or rainy evening.
I was surprised to find out that there were a lot of other songs titled "Gas Tou" in the JASRAC database when I was looking up information on the identically-titled song for this article including Kurahashi's classic. However, one song that I haven't been able to find out on the database definitively is indeed this article's "Gas Tou" by urban contemporary songbird Taeko Rei（令多映子）. I could imagine a jazzy ballad with this title but I never thought there could be a funky City Pop tune having to do with fuzzy gaslights.
Unfortunately, I couldn't track down the songwriters behind Rei's "Gas Tou" but the song is on her 1988 album "Dear Yesterday", so anyone who has the album can discover the mystery creators. As I said, it is quite funky but as was the case in the Kurahashi "Gas Tou" and "I'm A Fool To Love You" comparison, Rei's "Gas Tou" also reminds me rhythmically of The Fixx's "Saved by Zero".
You have uncovered yet another mystery! I am searching and searching but so far the only think I can find on Taeko Rei's Gas Tou is your post and something on Youtube.
ReplyDeleteUnless the powers-that-be have gone on another search-and-destroy mission regarding Rei's videos, when I last checked, there were a fair number of her songs on YouTube spanning a few of her albums.
DeleteYeah, I could and still can find her on Youtube, but off of Youtube there seems to be very little about her song Gaslight, I can not even find it on Amazon.co.jp I did find her Album called シルキーエモーション though.
ReplyDeleteI think it's a bit of a minor miracle if her actual albums can be found through online shopping.
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