Back in 2023, I wrote about a singer that I had no idea about named Kimiko "Kiiko" Shiba（芝紀美子）, and apparently since she was more of a part of the underground Japanese music scene in the 1970s, maybe a lot of people in Japan hadn't been aware of her either. The article for her was on her languid and relaxing song "Nagarete Ikitai"（流れて行きたい）, a track on her 1975 album "Shikomegari"（醜女狩り...Ugly Woman Hunting） which contained kayo kyoku, blues, folk and soul.
Well, another track from "Shikomegari" is "Little Jimmy" which seems to have all of those genres wrapped up unto itself. Written totally in English by Irene or Eileen（アイリーン）...maybe Shiba under a pseudonym?...and composed by Yasuo Inada（稲田保雄）, perhaps all involved were big fans of Ray Charles considering the scotch-soaked arrangement. I was even surprised that Charles had nothing to do with this song at all while I was listening to it. Shiba sings about the title character of Little Jimmy who has long gone; maybe he's left this mortal coil or arrived in a new area somewhere but although his old friend misses him terribly, he/she hopes that wherever he is, he's doing well.
The interesting thing is that there are parts of the song that sound just like "Memory" from "Cats", although the musical wouldn't come out for several more years.
This was just pure fun! The ending of this song reminds me a bit of Charlie Corsey's performance of "Nice Guy Lupin”.
ReplyDeleteHello, Brian. This was definitely New Music with all the letters in caps. I couldn't believe that it hadn't been created by someone from the United States. But then again, I've heard a fair number of country-western tunes created and performed by Japanese artists since I started the blog.
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