Ayumi Ishida & Tin Pan Alley Family -- Bye Bye Jet（バイバイJet ）

Wikimedia Commons
by Inunami

Welcome to Urban Contemporary Friday on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" as usual. I wanted to continue my tribute to actress and singer Ayumi Ishida（いしだあゆみ）who sadly passed away almost a couple of months ago on March 11th. 

Leafing through the original "Japanese City Pop" guide by Yutaka Kimura, I was surprised to find out that kayo kyoku singer Ishida had also dove into the new pond of the groovy uber-genre City Pop in the late 1970s via her collaboration with the band Tin Pan Alley in their one-and-only album together "Our Connection"（アワー・コネクション）from April 1977. I posted on the first track "Watashi Jishin"（私自身）back in 2018 and noted her light and feathery vocals flying over the burbling and funky notes of city life.

Well, I'm here today to talk about the final track "Bye Bye Jet" also created by lyricist Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）and composer Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）with Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）providing an interesting arrangement of a laidback reggae rhythm in the beginning before the melody gives way to something with a romantic twist. Meanwhile, Ishida sings about being at Haneda Airport in the early evening to see if she can spot her old flame with his new bride as they head off on the next jet. She doesn't seem to be too perturbed and in a way, she is gallantly if perhaps surreptitiously seeing the newlyweds off with her blessing. Love the background chorus, by the way.

Considering the release year of 1977, I thought it was rather poignant that "Bye Bye Jet" is set at Tokyo's Haneda. Maybe it was one of the last songs to feature the downtown airport because by that point, Narita Airport in Chiba Prefecture had probably already been open and gaining in prestige while Haneda shrank over the decades.  Happily though, Haneda was back in the ascendant over the last ten years as a boffo international airport.