Shizue Abe -- Yurameki（ゆらめき）

 

It's finally feeling like a decent spring day out there after several days of chilly snaps and wet weather. Hopefully, Sunday has been a decent one for you as well.

Shizue Abe's（あべ静江）"Yurameki" (Fluttering) was her 11th single, released in February 1977. I first heard it when I was watching an old episode of "Yoru no Hit Studio"（夜のヒットスタジオ）the other day and the singer made her appearance. Written by Jiro Sugita（杉田二郎）and composed by Tsuzuru Nakasato（中里綴）, it doesn't quite have the impactful percussion that started off her classic hit, "Coffee Shop de"（コーヒーショップで）from 1973, but the 1970s kayo sweetness with a pinch of uncertainty are there. Abe sings about a couple holding onto dear life figuratively as they wonder about the fragility of love during one sunset.  Y'know...investing in some life insurance can take the edge off a bit.

Not sure how it did on Oricon but may I say that it was a cute touch to have the fan blowing in Abe's "Yoru no Hit Studio" footage above. Anyways, I finally decided to put this one up after catching that scene of Ethan and Ilsa having one last tender moment in "Mission: Impossible ~ Dead Reckoning Part 1" (I've been going over some of the scenes recently). Talk about the fragility of love!

Jiro Sugita -- Umi（海）

 

I think I'll have that chocolate fondue now, please...😋

Sorry, but whenever I hear this song "Umi" (Ocean) by Jiro Sugita（杉田二郎）, I simply feel as if I'm at a bayside resort restaurant in Japan enjoying the night view. This is one heck of a B-side for the Kyoto-born singer-songwriter; to explain, "Umi" was the flip side of the vinyl "Magdalena"（マグダレーナ）which was his 22nd single released in May 1985. 

Written by Osamu Kitayama（北山修）and composed by either Sugita himself or Hiroshi Shinkawa（新川博） depending on whether you will go with J-Wiki or Kashi-Get, this is a cool evening breeze of a Resort Pop song made even richer (yep, I'm still thinking chocolate fondue here) with that trumpet behind the singer (still marveling from Guy Barker's solo on Masami Tsuchiya's（土屋昌巳）song last night). Bossa nova will always get me right here💓 and Sugita's crooning vocals here almost make me forget about his 70s folk roots.

Although I'm being the foodie here, Kitayama's lyrics have Sugita feeling a lot more lovelorn as the sea seems to beckon to him like a lost lover. I can just imagine the number of sighs that must have emanated from him.

Jiro Sugita -- Hitori ni Nareba（ひとりになれば）

I mentioned this in passing in my article for Akiko Kobayashi's（小林明子）"Kokoro no Honoo"（こころの炎）, her cover version of "Somewhere Out There", the poignant duet between Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram for the 1986 animated movie "An American Tail". Although the single was released with just Kobayashi singing the tune, she actually did do a duet version of "Kokoro no Honoo" with singer-songwriter Jiro Sugita（杉田二郎）at one of her concerts which was recorded on her "In Concert ~ A Changing".

That was actually the first time that I had ever heard of Sugita, and from his performance of the song with Kobayashi, my impression was that he was more of a jazzy crooner like Akira Fuse（布施明）. Little did I know at the time that he was responsible for the 1971 folk hit "Senso wo Shiranai Kodomo Tachi"（戦争を知らない子供たち）when he was in his folk group Jiros（ジローズ）.

Last night, when I was listening to the New J Channel radio, I heard this haunting and attractive song from Sugita's first solo album "Apartment 1109"（アパートメント 1109）which was released in October 1972. "Hitori ni Nareba" (If I Were Alone) struck me with a woman's dreamy reprise of the title that swept through my headphones as Sugita gave his gentle view on loneliness. Written by Kohei Oikawa（及川恒平）and composed by the singer, "Hitori ni Nareba" has that folksy lilt but I think the melody even tilts a tad close to New Music or City Pop because I could envisage that individual young person making his/her way through life in the big city while cooped up in the danchi.

Although according to Sugita himself in the above concert video footage, it's Hiro Yanagida's band backing him up here, I read in his J-Wiki file that Off-Course（オフコース）had also been his backing group when they were still paying their dues. Regarding that video, it's just too bad that Sugita's live performance couldn't have that woman's haunting reprise included. For me, that's the secret sauce for "Hitori ni Nareba".

Masa Takagi -- Omoide ga Ohsugite（想い出が多すぎて）

About four years earlier, I had written about singer-songwriter Masa Takagi's（高木麻早）debut single "Hitoribocchi no Heya" (ひとりぼっちの部屋) from 1973, a folk song that sounded so country-western that I wondered whether she had actually gone to visit the relevant part of the United States for inspiration. Well, that was a big hit for her, but she had other singles to release as well.

For instance, her 2nd single was "Omoide ga Ohsugite" (So Many Memories) released in January 1974, and this one sounds more conventionally folk. Written by fellow folk singers Jiro Sugita（杉田二郎）and Osamu Kitayama（北山修）and composed by Takagi, the singer goes into the aftermath of a relationship and admits that there are too many cherished memories for her to ever completely forget the time with her former boyfriend. Most of the song has her voice, a guitar and some percussion, but then to add some depth, the strings then come on in to finish off.

I don't know how "Omoide ga Ohsugite" did on Oricon; I hope it did quite well since I enjoy the relaxation that comes with the song. Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）handled the arrangement.

Jiros -- Senso wo Shiranai Kodomo Tachi （戦争を知らない子供たち）

I remember hearing this one over the years and regarded this as a very pleasant oldie-but-goodie, not knowing much about the story behind it. Jiros （ジローズ）started life as an amateur band headed by Jiro Sugita（杉田二郎）, while he was a student at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto in 1967. The name was chosen since Sugita and the two other members had similar first names. However, this version of the band broke up a year later.

Then in 1970, Sugita started the 2nd version of Jiros, this time with Jiro Morishita（森下次郎） partnering up with him, with their 2nd of 6 singles, "Senso wo Shiranai Kodomo Tachi"(Children Who Don't Know War) becoming their biggest hit. Released in February 1971, it was composed by Sugita and written by musician Osamu Kitayama（北山修） who also had his own big hit during that year. According to the Wikipedia entry on the song, with the Vietnam War raging and US troops stationed in Japan at the time as citizens were still dealing with the aftermath of World War II, the song was seen as a mild and happy-go-lucky anti-war song, although Jiros never reflected any direct association with the peace movement.

And going through the lyrics, I don't see any particular anti-war sentiment, although Jiros sing about the then-young generation being as happy as sheep in their long hair, growing up in a time of no war and humming peace songs. If anything, I think the two were pushing (ever so slightly) more for hedonism. And in the same Wiki article, lyricist Kitayama later considered the song "....a puerile effort to satirize, and rebel against, the contempt felt by older generations who experienced WWII for younger people born in the postwar period--who were denounced for weak-mindedness and lack of self-discipline...". Uh, ouch!

Yeah, I think the song is so pleasantly sung that those same older generations that Kitayama referred to probably happily clapped along to it. I didn't especially get any feeling of lyrically sharp slashes slicing through the fabric of society any more than a plastic knife would carve through a frozen block of butter. But that's me. In any case, the song was a pretty decent hit with it peaking at No. 11 on Oricon, and winning two Japan Music Awards for Best Newcomer and Best Lyrics.