I take a look at the band Kazushi Inamura and Dai Ikkan Dai Hyakusho's（稲村一志と第一巻第百章）album cover for their 1977 sophomore "Free Flight", and it looks like the guys were taking an overnight drive in their native Hokkaido. And yet, the song that comes from the album is plenty sunny and summery.
"Koi wo Suru Nara" (If You Fall in Love), written and composed by the late Inamura, feels like there was some inspiration from Tatsuro Yamashita's（山下達郎）sound back around the same time, and it's about falling in love (or lust) in the big city. The arrangement of keyboards, percussion and guitars makes the song a classic-sounding 1970s City Pop tune. So, perhaps the image of being stuck out on a lonely dark Hokkaido road with a malfunctioning car ought to be replaced by one of a smoothly thrumming red convertible racing out on the highway to Hakone. You can also give another track on "Free Flight" a try: "Ni-gatsu no Nioi"（二月の匂い）.
The very thought of being stuck on a country road in Hokkaido is a bit ominous with all the bears running around out there. But Hokkaido does make up for this by having very mild summers.
ReplyDeleteYes, those bears have been a big item on the news, haven't they? I hope most of Hokkaido has been having mild summers. I heard that Sapporo, though, has been getting hit with heat waves recently.
DeleteMy daughter lives in Kushiro, Hokkaido, and today it is about 13°C. By next Saturday, it might go all the way up to 22°C before dropping to 18°C if the forecasts are accurate.
Delete22 degrees C must sound like a paradise to all those in Tokyo...even now, perhaps.
DeleteI’m working through a backlog of albums I bought, one of them being One On One by Yukio Sasaki, who I believe was a member of this group (?)
ReplyDeleteEither way this post came up when I was searching around about the group, and what a great find this blog is! A wonderful spot to find some great music.
Appreciate your time and effort!
El
Sydney, Australia
Hi, El, and thanks for your comments. Yes, Sasaki was indeed a member of the band if you want to take a look at the first article for Inamura I wrote:
Deletehttps://kayokyokuplus.blogspot.com/2022/01/kazushi-inamura-and-dai-ikkan-dai.html
Keep on reading! All the best to you in Sydney.