When I hear the name Michiyo Azusa（梓みちよ）, I always think of her lasting kayo classic from 1963 "Konnichiwa Aka-chan" (こんにちは赤ちゃん）where she croons her first greetings to a cute little baby.
Fourteen years later in 1979, I don't think her audience was located in a maternity ward. In fact, I would surmise that she was probably addressing a group of jaded women in a bar or club somewhere in Shinjuku, Tokyo. What I have here is a track from her 1979 album "Onna ga Otoko wo Kataru Toki"（女が男を語るとき...When Women Talk About Men）, "Joke" and considering the titles of track and album, I don't believe that Azusa is talking about men in a particularly complimentary way.
The obi for the album states that this is Azusa singing some Neo-Chanson and it's true that through "Joke" at least, she's doing so with that Gallic panache that's so common with the French genre of music. However, I think it's also a blend of kayo kyoku and City Pop...certainly, there is that urbaneness to it, and if I can throw in a French expression, it also has some of that je ne sais quoi that makes me think of New Music in general. Furthermore, the chorus does remind me of Circus' big hit "Mr. Summertime" from the previous year. Quite the musical sangria here. Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）was behind the melody while Tokiko Iwatani（岩谷時子）provided the lyrics.
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