 |
| Wikimedia Commons via Junkyardsparkle |
Happy 4th of July to those American readers of KKP down south. Hope you are enjoying the beginning of your long weekend. I was thinking of doing another special Holiday ROY article with a USA theme to start Urban Contemporary Friday on the blog, but then I just encountered this sparkler of a song uploaded only today by the YouTube channel Kimi no Station: The Home of City Pop. My apologies to the channel if I seemed a little hasty in suddenly soaring down on this one like a hungry bald eagle but considering today, the song's title and the fact that it got me immediately shimmying in my chair (and likely lessening its lifetime), I just couldn't resist using it for an article. By the way, the image and the video above are of the Ventura Freeway in California, one symbol that has always had me thinking AOR or City Pop.
What I'm talking about is "American Highway" by the late Latin fusion musician Naoya Matsuoka（松岡直也）and his band Wesing（ウィシング）. It was the B-side to the 1979 12-inch single "Lovin' Mighty Fire" which was given much of its vocal flamethrowing action by the soulful stylings of one Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）. This had me from Note One with the disco strings and boppy beat as it merges us into this freeway of music with bumper-to-bumper party animals and musicians including the Wesing brass and saxophonist Yasuaki Shimizu（清水靖晃）.
Never got onto the Ventura myself but if it's anything like it sounds through "American Highway", then I'm all game for a drive there. If anyone else out there has been on the famed California route, let us know, or if you think this song is more suitable for another one of America's major roads, let us know that, too.
Oh, had forgotten that it was the 4th of July! Well, I knew it was the fourth of the month but wasn't thinking about the celebrations back home.
ReplyDelete