Well, another televised sign that the year is nigh along with the announcement of the Kohaku Utagassen lineup (probably in a couple of weeks) and the presentation of the Top 20 Buzzwords and Catchphrases of the Year arrived on screens today. Yup, it was time for another round of "Waga Kokoro no Osaka Melody"（わが心の大阪メロディー...Our Beloved Osaka Melodies） by NHK in their Osaka studios. I would have loved to have written something about the songs there but either I already did or I don't intend to.
So I opted to find an Osaka kayo kyoku on my own through YouTube. It didn't take too long before I came across one by enka veteran Ayako Fuji（藤あや子）. "Ame no Osaka" (Rainy Osaka) is a story of a lady who's just broken up with her paramour in the titular city and while she's trying to be rather nonchalant about it, deep inside, she hurts like crazy. Of course, with the rain in there, I figured that it would be a heartbreak kayo (other signs would be migratory birds and the season of autumn in the title).
I couldn't track down any sign of it as a single on Fuji's J-Wiki page although it was apparently a track on her February 2008 BEST compilation "Enka Shikisai"（艶歌色彩...The Colours of Enka）, so I'm going with that for now (and from what I've seen elsewhere, this could actually be a cover version of a song from several years back). The lyrics were written by Shohei Mouzu（もず唱平）and it was composed by Shosuke Ichikawa（市川昭介）.
Hey, J-Canuck, I think you once had a collection of Osaka-themed songs, and this would be a great contribution to that list. I like that the author opted for rain in the title rather than tears or crying. Tears do, however, show up in the lyrics, but then again, that only makes the title all the more poetic.
ReplyDeleteYup, I think I did have such a list on the blog somewhere. Glad that it's just not enka but also some blues and City Pop as well.
DeleteI am not 100% sure, but I think that list might have shown up earlier this year or late last year.
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