Masako Takasaki -- Konuka Ame（こぬか雨）

 

If any of you regular "Kayo Kyoku Plus" readers see that song title on the byline and find it familiar, then you must have been around the blog for a very long time and I thank you for that. "Konuka Ame" (A Light Rain) was first posted back in 2014 and it was created in 1977 by singer-songwriter Ginji Ito（伊藤銀次）, a member of Sugar Babe（シュガー・ベイブ）. I provided not only the original by Ito but also some cover versions by EPO, jazz singer Rika Tanaka（たなかりか）and even Sugar Babe itself. It was especially comparing the original dreamy 1970s City Pop song by Ito with the sunny and upbeat cover by his old band and the contemplative take by EPO in the mid-1980s.

Now, the whole reason behind providing yet another cover version of "Konuka Ame" over a decade later can be explained through a commenter finally solving a riddle under the article for Kinokuniya Band's（紀の国屋バンド） "Hangin' Around". At the time, I hadn't been able to discover who was responsible for words and music of the song. Well, that commenter just happened to be the vocalist for Kinokuniya Band, Masako Takasaki（高崎昌子）, who now goes by the name of Masako Ezaki（江崎昌子）, and she informed me that it was the late singer-songwriter Shizuru Ohtaka（おおたか静流）behind "Hangin' Around". Once again, I'd like to thank her for that.

Takasaki herself joined the "Konuka Ame" club back in those 1970s herself by providing her cover of the song in the female vocalist-only 1978 compilation album "Loft Sessions, Vol. 1"（ロフト・セッションズ　VOL.１）, which also included the aforementioned Ms. Ohtaka for "Black Coffee"（ブラック・コーヒー）. Takasaki's gently rolling take on the song occupies an area between the dreamier original by Ito and the happier version by Sugar Babe, accompanied by some funky bass and keyboards.