Chikara Ueda & The Power Station -- Breeze in Memories

 

There's nothing like an old-fashioned Japanese cop program to show how things are probably not done in real-life law enforcement in Tokyo. But dang, it's crazy and cool at the same time. The above program was basically a one-and-done series titled "Keishichō Satsujin-ka"（警視庁殺人課...Metropolitan Police Department Homicide Division） that was broadcast between April and October 1981 on TV Asahi. The big thing about this one is that it starred the late actor Bunta Sugawara（菅原文太）, who had usually been getting cinematic roles as antiheroes and mobsters, before getting this good-guy role as Inspector Taro "Mister" Godai, a blood-and-guts police commander who had spent ten years with the NYPD before returning to Tokyo. Apparently, this was also Sugawara's first foray into television.

Last week, I posted a City Pop/jazzy number for the suspense "Inubue no Tehma"（犬笛のテーマ）by Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）, so I guess it might be becoming a thing for me to put up such tunes from law enforcement-based TV shows on Urban Contemporary Fridays. Chikara Ueda & The Power Station（上田力＆パワーステーション）were partially responsible for the soundtrack for "Keishichō Satsujin-ka" and in 1981, they released the soundtrack for the show simply titled "Mr." after the lead character.

One track is "Breeze in Memories" by the band which fits perfectly with the usual Japanese TV cop show. There is that feeling of the million stories in the big city along with some fervent jazz noodling via saxophone. I assume that "Breeze in Memories" was used as background music whenever Mister and one of his officers hit a nightclub for pleasure or a bust. Of course, I can also imagine the guys with tumblers of scotch in their hands during the same song, too.