I haven't seen "Uta Con"（うたコン）today but according to what I heard last week and seen on their schedule, this week's episode will be the annual tribute to the Queen of Kayo Kyoku, Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）, who would have been 89 years old on May 29th. Just looking at the lineup, it appears that I've already covered the songs to be performed such as the triumphant "Yawara"（柔）, so I've opted to find one of my own from her vast discography to pay a KKP tribute.
This time, I'm going way back into her career. In fact, I'll be focusing on her 8th single from September 1950, "Uramachi Paradise" (Back Street Paradise). Written by Toshio Nomura（野村俊夫）and composed/arranged by Hideo Hirakawa（平川英夫）, it's a pretty jaunty kayo kyoku about meeting that significant other and realizing that everything...even the dark and ominous streets of the city...can be filled with light and hope as a result. It's a stroll-worthy tune and let's remember that Misora was all of thirteen years of age when she recorded this.
美空ひばり (Hibari Misora) was a prodigy from the very beginning, and while I believe that Matsuda Seiko and Akina Nakamori are the dueling princesses supreme of the 1980s music scene, Hibari Misora was clearly the undisputed Queen of Kayōkyoku of the Showa period.
ReplyDeleteHello, Brian. I'm pretty confident that both Seiko and Akina would agree and even kowtow before Misora herself.
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