Mieko Nishijima -- Nondakure（のんだくれ）

 

Knowing singer-songwriter Mieko Nishijima（西島三重子）since the early years of listening to "Sounds of Japan" on CHIN-FM here in Toronto, I've come to know her for her wistful creations delivered through her tenderhearted vocals.

There is her 2nd single and perhaps her first big hit "Ikegami Sen"（池上線）and then her 4th single, "Gin Lime"（ジンライム）, which is closer to some evening City Pop. Both were written by Jun'ei Sato（佐藤順英）and composed by Nishijima, as was the case with her very first single, "Nondakure" (The Drunk).

Nishijima's debut single from September 1975 is a very sad and folksy one, punctuated by a crying guitar, as Sato's lyrics describe a tragic fellow who's been brushed off as some perpetually drunk loser living inside a bottle. However, what got him to steadily drink himself into a hole is the sudden disappearance and death of the love of his life. There's no mention about how she ended up leaving this mortal coil, whether by accident or murder...only that because of that incident, the guy has been completely obliterated. From what I know of Nishijima's discography, "Nondakure" is very much in keeping with the folksier music that she would continue to create thereafter and it's the type of song that would be perfect in an intimate setting, although I don't think that it would be the happiest thing to be performed in a bar.

Mieko Nishijima -- Gin Lime （ジンライム）

Hey, it's Friday night....time for the weekend and to get together with a bunch of buddies for a drink, eh? In the 1970s, the Japanese economic miracle was still chugging away like a well-oiled machine (aside from the Nixon Oil Shock), and the workers were hitting the izakaya and nomiya after many many hours toiling away at the desk or on the assembly line. Of course, those who were going up the corporate ladder and starting to mass up on the seasonal bonuses were also starting to climb the ladder of drinking sophistication into Western-style bars. Kayo kyoku was kinda paralleling this upward trend via singers who were crooning tunes with a swirl of jazz and bossa nova incorporated into them with the skill of a tuxedoed mixologist (just came up with that last phrase sober, ironically enough). And the sub-genres of City Pop and Mood Kayo were more than happy to have them.

Keiko Maruyama's（丸山圭子） "Douzo Kono Mama"(どうぞこのまま) and some of Junko Yagami's（八神純子） early hits (both are already profiled) are among the best examples of Japanese popular music via a bit of Henry Mancini and Antonio Carlos Jobim. However, I'd also like to put in one song by Mieko Nishijima（西島三重子） titled "Gin Lime"(Gin & Lime). A few of her other songs have already been profiled here, and they come under the category of folk ballads, but "Gin Lime", as the title makes abundantly clear, is an urban contemporary song made for the expensive hotel top bar in Shinjuku or Ginza or Roppongi in Tokyo. Written by Jun'ei Sato（佐藤順英） (also responsible for Nishijima's big hit "Ikegami-sen") and composed by Nishijima for release in September 1977, the song has that languid guitar and strings which somehow always make a great accompaniment while nursing that cocktail. Nishijima hints through the lyrics that the protagonist is starting to appreciate drowning those sorrows through the titular drink after a failed romance.

"Gin Lime" also evokes that atmosphere that would have a lot of hard-working young men and women thinking or fantasizing about being able to enter a wood-and-brass bar and proudly ordering that sophisticated cocktail with the Western name. Not sure if a lot of people remember this song, but for me, it makes for a nice little tonic from the past.

Mieko Nishijima -- Ikegami Sen （池上線）

"Ikegami Sen"(Ikegami Line) is arguably Mieko Nishijima's（西島三重子）most famous hit. It was her 2nd single, originally from her debut 1975 album, "Fuusha"（風車...Windmills） before it was given its own release in April 1976. Written by Jun'ei Sato（佐藤順英）and composed by Nishijima, the title refers to one of Tokyo's private train lines on which a young couple is undergoing a sad but quiet breakup. Listening to Nishijima's soft but unyielding vocals, her description of the situation and the couple's neighbourhood creates an intimate atmosphere; something akin to one of the most famous folk songs in Japan, "Kandagawa"（神田川）by Kaguyahime（かぐや姫...Princess Kaguya) a few years back (already profiled). It would probably make a lot of listeners give off a wistful sigh.

Although Nishijima has had a career for the past few decades as an illustrator, less than a couple of weeks ago, she released a new single titled "Ikegami Sen Futatabi"（池上線ふたたび...Ikegami Line Revisited), created by her and lyricist Kenji Kadoya（門谷憲二）.