Keisuke Kuwata -- Kanashii Kimochi （悲しい気持ち）

 

Commenter Fireminer thankfully and recently reminded me of a song that I hadn't heard in a few decades...basically since I used to watch rental videotapes of "The Best 10"（ザ・ベストテン）.

The chorus is what got the memory engrams going. I'm talking about Keisuke Kuwata's（桑田佳祐）"Kanashii Kimochi" (Sad Feelings) or the official English title of "Just a Man in Love". Released in October 1987 as Kuwata's debut single as a solo singer, this comes some time after putting a hold on Southern All Stars（サザンオールスターズ）and Kuwata Band activities, so I'm sure that there was a lot of attention on the leader of those two bands about what he would come up with.

Although Kuwata's lyrics are about heartbreak, his melody is supremely upbeat Motown, something, according to a couple of interviews via the J-Wiki article on "Kanashii Kimochi", where he had wanted be a little more personal. 

"I wanted to do something more personal, both musically and spiritually. Specifically, I wanted to revisit the feelings and music from when we were in high school. It wasn't about imitating the sound of that era, but rather returning to that state of mind." 

In that way, I think Kuwata was perhaps following folks like Billy Joel ("An Innocent Man") and Donald Fagen ("The Nightfly"). At the same time, he seemed to be following the usual kayo line of happy melody and sad lyrics.

One would think that "Just a Man in Love" was used for some trendy drama back in those 1980s. However, it was actually used for a number of different commercials over the years. The hit for Kuwata reached No. 2 on Oricon and ended up as the No. 46-ranked single of 1987 and then went even higher the following year, when it reached No. 38. It was also a track on the singer's July 1988 solo debut album "Keisuke Kuwata" which resided at the top of the charts for two weeks in a row.

Speaking of Kuwata and Fagen in the same breath, I recall seeing a video on YouTube featuring the former in concert as he sings the latter's classic "I.G.Y.". Alas, the video has disappeared.