.jpg)
My usual impression of a serenade, and I know that a lot of kayo kyoku have used the word in their titles, is of a tenderhearted love song weaponized by a suitor underneath the window of the target of their affections.
Well, "Jounetsu Neppu Serenade" (Passionate Tropical Wind Serenade) isn't a heavy metal anthem but I don't think it's a soft ballad either. Released by aidoru Masahiko Kondo（近藤真彦）in January 1982 as his 5th single, it's a pretty upbeat tune about falling hard in love from afar for that lovely young lady, presumably in those sylvan glades in the warmer areas of Earth. Written by Ayumi Date（伊達歩）, composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）and arranged by Kazuo Otani（大谷和夫）, there's nothing rock-n'-roll about the song, which is usually my genre impression for Matchy. It's more of an easy-listening tropical-tinged tune.
According to the J-Wiki article for "Jounetsu Neppu Serenade", the characters of the crescent moon and star were meant to be included in the title to reflect the starlight mentioned in Date's lyrics. Apparently, this particular song was enough of a tangent from what Matchy usually tackles so that it actually did become quite the long seller in the stores. It hit No. 1 on Oricon and ended up as the 9th-ranked single for 1982.
Matchy the face of 1980's male idol and the forever ladies’ man or maybe heartbreaker. But aside from his crazy crazy crazy romantic adventures, he has been pretty industrious and brave in terms of career choices. From Singer, to Actor, to Car racer, even the manager of car racing! Seems he has done a bit of it all.
ReplyDeleteHi, Brian. Yeah, I had been thinking of remarking above how Kondo didn't need to have much in the way of fashion or background imagery to sell a record. Just his face...and that was apparently the case of this single (along with the aforementioned different type of arrangement).
DeleteIt's really cool to see that there are still people who use the old posting model like Blogger. It reminds me of my childhood/adolescence, around 2006-2010, when I was 10 to 14 years old, which also coincides with the period when I became fascinated with Japanese music, especially J-rock/pop with Orange Range, Aqua Timez, and Flow. Now that I'm older, I stumbled upon this blog while looking for more information about the song "夜空のイヤリング" by 八神純子. I wanted to say that it makes me very happy that there are still people who maintain this interactive format with information that is so difficult to find here in Brazil. Obrigado!
ReplyDeleteHello, Johnson and thanks for your kind comments. To be honest, when I first started up KKP on Blogger fourteen years ago, I think the blogging boom had already started to wane. But I still needed a platform and Blogger was able to provide one. And they've still been able to support me when I've had any technical issues. Please keep on reading!
Delete