It was just a little over fourteen years ago that musician and singer George Yanagi（柳ジョージ）left this mortal coil at the untimely age of 63. He's probably one of those guys who fit that Japanese fashion meme of slightly rascally middle-aged men that was making some headlines on TV twenty or so years ago.
Yup, he's still looking very kakkoii on the cover of that April 1993 album "Yokohama AREA 2" in which I serve you a track "Araburu Tenshi-tachi" (Scarface Angel). Just from the title of that song, I'm guessing some well-meaning guy is taking the hits and rolling with the punches as he tries to clean up his area of town. There's almost something Batman-like about this.
But Batman gets orchestral soundtracks. Over here, it's Yanagi backed up by a chugging and churning bluesy-rock horn section as the singer is growling out his lyrics but not in an overly raspy way. Listening to "Araburu Tenshi-tachi", I also feel some similarity to Tomoyasu Hotei（布袋寅泰）, although Yanagi's stuff has a bit more soul in there. Toshi Sumikawa（トシ・スミカワ）took care of the lyrics while the melody was handled by Toshiro Masuda（増田俊郎）. "Yokohama AREA 2" reached No. 45 on the yearly Oricon rankings.
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