Nothing like a cool City Pop ballad to add that sensation of drama and urban contemporary refinement to any commercial about tires...in this case, Yokohama Rubber (try 1:50 of the above video of TV ads). Well, after all, tires are integral parts of cars and cars are literally the vehicles for some good City Pop.
I'm talking about Junichi Inagaki's（稲垣潤一）"Blue Jean Pierrot" (A Clown in Blue Jeans). His 8th single from March 1985, this is a downright bitter ballad about being tossed aside from a relationship with the paramour feeling like the title. It's too bad since the song has a cool and measured tone before the flowing chorus...something good for the highway. Written by Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）, composed by Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）and arranged by Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）, "Blue Jean Pierrot" reached No. 30 on Oricon. The song also found itself on Inagaki's May 1985 release "No Strings" which peaked at No. 3 on the album charts.
Junichi Inagaki is giving off some strong 'Kazumasa Oda' vibes here. There is something about this song that really reminds me of 「ラブ・ストーリーは突然に」。So, I like the soothing yet a little moody and reflective feeling of this 1985 city pop ballad.
ReplyDeleteOda's Off-Course band was known for coming up with some rather lovely if lyrically depressing tunes so I'm not surprised that you got those Oda vibes with this Inagaki ballad.
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