Chu Kosaka & Four Joe Half -- Sukinan dakara（好きなんだから）

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The late singer-songwriter Chu Kosaka（小坂忠）who left us a little over three years ago had been involved with a number of groups, beginning with his Group Sounds band The Floral（ザ・フローラル）in the late 1960s. The next decade over, he was associated with Tin Pan Alley（ティン・パン・アレー）. In 1972, he formed a band known as Chu Kosaka & Four Joe Half（小坂忠 と フォージョーハーフ）with drummer Tatsuo Hayashi（林立夫）, keyboardist Masataka Matsutoya（松任谷正隆）, bassist Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）and steel pedal guitarist Hiroki Komazawa（駒沢裕城）. 

First though, I felt that I had to give some clarity to that name of Four Joe Half. I believe that it is a humourous translation of the term yojouhan（四畳半）which directly means four-and-a-half tatami mats, basically a small tatami room or even small tatami apartment. From what I've learned, there has been a certain romanticism or nostalgia added to this tiny room since such places were residences for the poor and hungry high school or university student in Japan trying to study but also to make ends meet. It was also a meeting place for the resident and his/her buddies to carouse, drink and play music perhaps. Speaking of which, when a music genre is associated with such humble living back in the 1960s and 1970s, it's usually folk.

The living room in my 2K apartment was probably a yojouhan and true to what I said up above, I did have my friends come over for dinner parties such as hot pot. At one time early in my residency there, I had as many as twenty folks squished in that room. I may as well have called my living room a TARDIS! Well, nowhere near as roomy...

And that's where we come back to the main line here. Chu Kosaka & Four Joe Half were able to release a live album in July 1972 called "Motto Motto"（もっともっと...More and More） and from it, we have the second-last track "Sukinan dakara" (Cause I Love You). Written and composed by Kosaka, it's a Sunday-relaxed tenderhearted ballad about declaring one's love for a live-in partner in what is probably that yojouhan apartment. Maybe things aren't financially resplendent, but as long as the couple are together, then things will work out. Kosaka's soothing vocals, that lovely piano and Komazawa's just-as-soothing pedal guitar keep things very nicely introspective and pleasant.