Akina Nakamori -- Me wo Tojite Excursion（目をとじて小旅行）

 

I think this may be one of the relatively few times that both Larry Chan and I have posted articles on Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）right on her birthday, July 13th. It's been a ritual between the two of us for many years now that whenever we meet up for lunch or dinner in winter or spring that we decide on who will provide the Akina birthday article. Of course, Larry posted his article on Akina's wistful "Merry X'mas - Snow Tears" (メリークリスマス - 雪の雫) yesterday and I'd like to thank him for letting me know at least about a song that I had yet to hear by her.👏

One other ritual that Larry and I have had which I'm hoping has come to an end is asking whether Akina has been OK or not. She's had her issues, medical and otherwise, in the past, but it seems as if due to an increase of her public profile in the last several months, the Tokyo lass has been doing much better. I certainly hope so, and yep, it is indeed her 60th year on Earth, and as Larry mentioned yesterday, that means Kanreki（還暦）which can be compared to how people treat their 50th birthday in other parts of the globe. 

From Amazon.jp

As someone who will be celebrating (or commiserating) his own Kanreki himself in a few months, I still don't know what would be involved in such a major birthday milestone. But I do know that the birthday boy or girl has to wear something red on the big day. Well, I do have that old vest I bought at The Bay decades ago. Hey, Akina (ahem), if I may make a sartorial suggestion, you know that getup for "Tattoo"...?😅

Anyways, I wanted to make my own contribution to Akina 60 today and that would be to take things back to Akina 17 when she released her third album in March 1983, "Fantasy"（幻想曲）. One of the tracks there is "Me wo Tojite Excursion" (An Excursion with Eyes Closed) which was written by Mayumi Shinozuka（篠塚満由美）and composed by Yasuhiko Shigemura（茂村泰彦）with Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）arranging all of the tracks on "Fantasy". 

A surprisingly chipper song about romantic betrayal as a woman discovers that her boyfriend now has eyes for someone else, I was drawn by the melody by Shigemura and arrangement by Hagita which incorporates some of that Margaritaville AOR. I'm once again reminded that the superstar singer had once been an innocent aidoru, once the powers-that-be finally decided not to push further with that tsuppari image.

I was so intrigued by Shigemura's melody, and especially since I had never heard of him before, I opted to look him up. And I have discovered that the Hiroshima-born singer-songwriter and producer had once been part of the vocal group Circus（サーカス）, just a year before they officially hit the big time with their second single "Mr. Summertime" in 1978. So, time to find out more about really early Circus.

Anyways, my good wishes to Ms. Nakamori on her birthday. Hopefully, she had a wonderful birthday celebration with friends and family, and for once, I'm glad that I don't have to express my hopes that she's doing OK. She's doing OK.