Naomi Chiaki -- Yoru e Isogu Hito（夜へ急ぐ人）

 

For those people like myself who's known singer Naomi Chiaki（ちあきなおみ）for her biggest hit "Kassai"（喝采）from 1972, this song by her might be a tad different. I heard it performed on a recent episode of "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）.

"Yoru e Isogu Hito" (A Woman Running into the Night) was Chiaki's 26th single released in September 1977, and it was one of a number of songs for her around that time which had the singer requesting works by New Music singer-songwriters such as Miyuki Nakajima（中島みゆき）and Eigo Kawashima（河島英五）to record. For "Yoru e Isogu Hito", folk singer-songwriter Kazuki Tomokawa（友川カズキ）was the one behind words and music here.

The whole thing about this song from my vantage point is that it's about all of the potentially sordid goings-on within an inner city neighbourhood somewhere in the metropolis whether that would be an area like Kabukicho in Tokyo. The titular woman escaping somewhere among the laneways and alleys is the central figure surrounded by a person who stops her by grabbing her by the shoulder, people who are ignoring the scene and passing by and other folks who are staring and laughing at the plight of the lady. Not exactly Mr. Rogers' neighbourhood we are talking about.

"Yoru e Isogu Hito" is also interesting in its arrangement by Hiroshi Miyagawa（宮川泰）. It may have been created by a New Music fellow but it still sounds like a kayo kyoku with elements of rock and funk. For that matter, it also sounds custom-fit for Chiaki, albeit a Chiaki who's gotten a little wilder and devilish. In fact, when the singer performed the song on the 1977 edition of NHK's Kohaku Utagassen, she put in quite a lot of theatricality in her performance including some throaty screams at the end, all to emphasize the lyrical theme of a woman in a frenzy. I'd probably say that there was even something of the horror movie in this one. Apparently, the captain of the White (Male) team right after Chiaki's performance admitted that he was somewhat freaked out by what he had just witnessed...saying that was quite the gross-out song.