Fluid -- Side by Side

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I always liked the "Side by Side" series of English textbooks for all levels. There were plenty of opportunities for listening, drilling, practicing and role-playing that could be extrapolate from the pages here. Used them in my schools and in my private lessons as well.

But to start off the usual Urban Contemporary Friday segment of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" this week, we're going with a different "Side by Side" that I found in that issue of the Japanese-language journal "Record Collectors" that I mentioned a few days ago for the 1970s folk group Ginga Tetsudo (銀河鉄道...Galaxy Railway). This was the last of the six albums to date that the duo Fluid released.

Fluid is quite the name for a Japanese group and it was Anglicized from the kanji for "furuido"（古井戸）which actually means "Old Well". Consisting of Yoshitaro Kanazaki（加奈崎芳太郎）from Hokkaido and Reichi "Chabo" Nakaido（仲井戸麗市）from Tokyo, the two had met in 1970 in a Shibuya music café and they got along so well that they decided to form Fluid. Being a folk group, I was surprised to see a lot of their earlier works on YouTube so I'll have to take a look at some of those soon enough including their hit 1972 debut single "Sanae-chan"（さなえちゃん）.

However, we do have "Side by Side" here which was released in May 1978 and the writer for the entry on "Record Collectors" mentioned the album as an example of folksy City Pop. So, not surprisingly, we have another example of Japanese folk musicians making that jump over to New Music and City Pop. I don't have the album myself but I'd like to take a look at the first three tracks at least. Unfortunately, for all those Fluid YouTube videos, the above is the only one of the entire album. If I'm not mistaken, Nakaido is responsible for all words and music.

First off is "Date Song" which is a folksy jazz tune that gets me thinking of jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt & violinist Stephane Grappelli, one of the scintillating combos of the genre that ever existed. Nakaido's lyrics literally talk of a woman planning, prepping and even budgeting for that big swinging date in Ginza. 

At 3:26 is "Dai Tokai"（大都会...The Big City）, a song that belongs to the sunny and summery Margaritaville sort of 70s City Pop alongside stuff by Bread & Butter and The Milky Way. It's the equivalent of Tokyo streetside café peoplewatching on a nice June afternoon (any later, and the poor customers would be broiling in their own juices).

Finally at 6:53, "Dakareta Ato de"（抱かれた後で）can be directly translated into "After Being Held" but I really think that it's "After Making Love". It's a pretty sharp and friendly tune with a pleasantly smoky harmonica solo and a touch of bossa nova as a couple enjoy the view from their window, perhaps fully in the afterglow. Feel free to pass around the cigarette.

Fluid broke up in 1979 but in 2015, Nakaido and Kanazaki got together again in Shibuya to commemorate the former's 45th anniversary in the music business with a concert. Please feel free to enjoy the rest of "Side by Side".