As kids, my brother and I had a huge toy box but unlike the one above (BleuPaon Bakeshop, Japan) shown by Yoshihito Miki via Wikimedia Commons, our box was merely a very large cardboard box which had everything stuffed into it. Indeed, it was a very humble container that gradually crumbled over time but it did hold what was very dear to us.
Coincidentally enough, it was around this time that singer-songwriter Kazuhiko Kato(加藤和彦)came out with his debut single as a solo artist after years with the famed folk group The Folk Crusaders(ザ・フォーク・クルセダーズ). "Boku no Omochabako" (My Toy Box) was released in April 1969 and it came out when Kato was a little uncertain about where his career was going after the breakup of his old band, according to the article for the song itself.
Written by his now-former bandmate Osamu Kitayama(北山修)and composed by Kato, the singer had wanted to try something other than folk when making his first solo song. As it is, "Boku no Omochabako" sounds just like the type of languid pop ballad that had been made in America back in those days. There is the gently strumming acoustic guitar, a harmonica and those warm honey-toned horns while Kato delivers his song in a somewhat quivery way which actually works well for it. Lyrically, he is inviting a beloved one to join him on a journey to a happier place while gifting his toy box to her, something filled with tears but hopefully some happy memories, too. The feeling is that the protagonist and his loved one could be of any age.
Kato cited Jimmy Webb and Glen Campbell (another name from my past) as influences for "Boku no Omochabako". The song didn't hit too high...only No. 70 on Oricon but it was the beginning of a successful songwriting career.
As, I red through this post I kept feeling that somehow I know of Kazuhiko Katō (加藤 和彦)? Sure, the writer of Lupin the third Monkey Punch is also named Kazuhiko Katō (加藤一彦), but with slight different Kanji. However, it then dawned on me that I know of Kazuhiko Katō because he composed one of the very first (if not the first) Japanese song I listened to as a kid in the 1980's「愛・おぼえていますか」preformed by 飯島 真理 (Mari Iijima)!
ReplyDeleteIndeed, he was one and the same. Did a fair bit of City Pop, too.
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