Friday, October 16, 2026

Naomi Sugimura -- Bohemian(ボヘミアン)

 

Uh, nope. This "Bohemian" has nothing to do with the more famous "Bohemian" recorded by the late Yuki Katsuragi(葛城ユキ). We're far from the rock genre with this one.

In fact, I would say that "Bohemian" as performed by singer-songwriter Naomi Sugimura(杉村尚美)has more to do with cruise liner-friendly Latin-spiced City Pop. Released with its A-side, Sugimura's 2nd single "Kaze no Nostalgia"(風のノスタルジア...Windy Nostalgia), in 1982, this B-side has a lot of bop to boogie onto the Lido Deck. Written by Keisuke Yamakawa(山川啓介)and composed by Sugimura herself, it fairly sweeps over the ocean before a searing keyboard riff suddenly swoops over everybody to finish things off.

2 comments:

  1. I always associated Naomi Sugimura with folk music! So, the sophisticated, rhythm-driven pop arrangements of Bohemian came as a surprise!

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    1. Her old group Higurashi started out as folk but then as the 70s went by, they did what quite a few folk singers and bands did and made a jump into City Pop. I guess they wanted to go from ramshackle tatami-mat rooms to more luxurious condos! 😊

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