Interestingly for Reminiscings of Youth this week, this particular ballad had been mentioned years before I even decided to start the ROY series. When I wrote up Saburo Tokito's（時任三郎）"Kawa no Nagare wo Daite Nemuritai" (川の流れを抱いて眠りたい）back in 2012, I noted that it sounded just like Michael Johnson's "Bluer Than Blue".
"Bluer Than Blue" hit the record shelves and radio stations back in April 1978 and it's one of the first songs to stick in my head as perhaps a prelude to my opening up to music in general going into the 1980s. I hadn't heard of Johnson before and I haven't really listened to anything else by him since but "Bluer Than Blue" contains this beautiful combination of gently rolling piano and shimmering strings that frankly entranced the heck out of me any time I heard it at home or in the car. Randy Goodrum was the one who created this quiet masterpiece and perhaps I can thank him for planting the seed to enjoy AOR/soft rock ballads. I didn't really pay much attention to the lyrics but I'm rather glad that I'm putting this one up this week rather than next week which gets really close to Valentine's Day as a man tries and fails to rationalize his new existence without his old love.
As I said, I used to hear this on the radio all the time so I was surprised to realize that there had been a music video. In fact, this was the eighteenth video played on MTV on its opening day of August 1st 1981. Wow! I know it was the debut day but I hadn't even thought that a video of a 1970s AOR tune would ever appear on the music channel. In Canada, "Bluer Than Blue" hit No. 6 while in the United States, it reached No. 12.
Well, let's see. What was up at the top of the charts on April 3rd 1978?
1. Pink Lady -- Southpaw （サウスポー）
2. Candies -- Hohoemigaeshi （微笑がえし）
3. Masaaki Hirao and Yoko Hatanaka -- Canada Kara no Tegami (カナダからの手紙）
A lot of hits were released in 1978! Pink Ladies’ song is an allusion to a baseball player by the name of Tamotsu Nagai, and the song even sounds like a superhero song. And, speaking of pronouns again, some of the lyrics were recently and for a short time considered offensive because of the use of "Omae" to refer to a baseball player. Candies’ song is also well known and still gets some air time every once in a while. And, then there is Masaaki Hirao and Yoko Hatanaka’s mysterious ballad that led to an increase in Japanese tourists to Canada and that also always seem to be on top ten list. I still wonder what inspired Jun Hashimoto to write this song and hopeful I will one day find an interview of Jun explaining the meaning of this song.
ReplyDeleteIf "Omae" was considered a little offensive, I wonder about how "Kimi wa 1000%" was taken. I always thought that "kimi" was also a little personal as a second-person pronoun.
DeleteSo far I could not find any account of anyone finding 'Kimi' in Kimi wa 1000% offensive.
DeleteAs for Omae (that offensive is kind of a recent thing) see this from Wikipedia:
流用
当時放送されていた「NTV紅白歌のベストテン」では、白組の応援合戦でこの曲を演歌調にアレンジした「演歌サウスポー」が堺正章らによって歌われたことがある。シングル発売から45年以上経過した現在でも、山本リンダの「狙いうち」（同曲も同じく作詞・阿久悠、作曲・編曲・都倉俊一）などと共に、日本の高校野球の応援歌として定番である。また応援するチームや選手により、様々な脚色が施されている。2014年からは中日ドラゴンズの私設応援団「中日ドラゴンズ応援団」がチャンステーマとして使用していた。ところが2019年7月、このチャンステーマに含まれる「お前が打たなきゃ誰が打つ」の歌詞の部分に、中日の監督である与田剛から「選手を“お前”と呼ぶのはいかがなものか」という指摘があったことを受けて、球団側が歌詞の一部変更を求めた結果、当面の間当楽曲の使用を自粛することを発表した。「シャワランきらめきの夏」（「星から来た二人」にコマーシャル・ソング・メドレーの1曲目に収録）で、未発表ヴァージョンのメロディが流用されていた。これは、「続・人間万葉歌〜阿久悠作詞集」に収録（後にSingles Premiumに収録）されて、初めて認知された事である。シャワランのCMでは、後期でもオリジナル・ソングが使われている。これが、未発表曲の存在を期待させる要因である[独自研究?]。
Wow! It would be one thing if a veteran team member made that observation, but for a manager to state that is something else. I've been accustomed to hearing managers and coaches use "omae" all these years as if the team members were their sons. I still get referred with "omae" from my father from time to time and though I know its place and my place in the family, I occasionally still get a little irked.
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