Kinokuniya Band -- Goodbye Again

 

Once again, we have come to the end of our broadcasting day here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", and being Friday night after all, perhaps something soulful and bluesy would be just the tonic.

I haven't written about Kinokuniya Band（紀の国屋バンド）in about three years, so I think it's time to get another track up from their 1979 album "Street Sensation". Here is "Goodbye Again" which is a nearly 6-minute dreamy ballad that has that feeling of something to be played near the end of a session at 2 am before the nightclub declares lights out. In fact, the songs that I've heard so far from "Street Sensation" have that impression of having been taped live on the stage, and yet "Goodbye Again" is just Track 2 of the album.

Composed by Keitaro Ikuta（生田敬太郎）and written by Noriyo Ikeda（池田典代）, another City Pop singer, vocalist Masako Takasaki（高崎昌子）just knocks it out of the park while her fellow bandmates run around the bases with aplomb, especially guitarist Motoki Ichisaki（市崎元輝）. I'm not saying that this was true, but I could imagine Takasaki having inspired band vocalists such as Yoshie Nakano（中納良恵）from Ego-Wrappin'. Takasaki and Ichisaki together make the core for this performance that leaves the listeners wanting more...before club management yells everyone to go home.

I'll just be polite and friendly here and wish everyone a good night.

Noriyo Ikeda -- Sunday Morning

 

Yep, I realize that it's neither Sunday nor the morning that I write this, but hey, it's still a statutory holiday today so I'll give myself a pass here.

Of course, whenever all those City Pop fans hear the name Noriyo Ikeda（池田典代）, the Pavlovian response will be "Dream in the Street", the funky and nimble melodic strut concocted by Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）alongside Ikeda's lyrics. Well, now I have here "Sunday Morning" which was totally created by the singer.

There's a lighter and breezier feeling with "Sunday Morning", as there should be for a day of the week where folks usually like to kick back and enjoy a big breakfast, even with the spike of those horns and a tempo that gets increasingly faster. Ikeda's vocals even differ somewhat here from her delivery on "Dream in the Street" with a little less breathiness and a little more push and depth. It sounds like that Sunday morning involved a happy ride out on the bayside highway.🌊Incidentally, "Sunday Morning" shares space with the title track on the 1980 album "Dream in the Street".

Noriyo Ikeda -- Hitonemuri（ひとねむり）

Continuing with my story of that DIY Van Paugam City Pop Radio from my previous article on "Kizuita Toki wa Osoi Mono"（気づいたときは遅いもの）by Masataka Matsutoya（松任谷正隆）, I'm providing another track from "Light Mellow ~ Wing". I just happened to use that disc to enjoy a Tokyo drive via one of YouTube channel J Utah's videos.

Noriyo Ikeda's（池田典代）"Hitonemuri" (A Nap) was originally the B-side for her debut single "Adios"（アディオス）from 1979. Written by Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）and composed by Ken Sato（佐藤健）, the breathy vocals by Ikeda and the Coffee Mate-mellow arrangement make "Hitonemuri" a nice accompaniment for that afternoon respite, as she sings about the transformative effects of a good nap, especially where romance is concerned. It certainly made for a fine music buddy as I was going through that J Utah drive in Tokyo.

It was about time that I added a second song to the Ikeda file here, next to her most notable contribution, "Dream in the Street". Not sure but this may be the first time that "Hitonemuri" has been recorded onto CD via "Light Mellow" since it hasn't been included on any CD releases of the album "Dream in the Street", although it hadn't been given that asterisk beside its title on the playlist on "Wing". Maybe it's been included onto other City Pop compilations.

Noriyo Ikeda -- Dream In The Street

This is another track I found in one of my CDs of the long-running series of "Light Mellow" representing City Pop/J-AOR, this one being labeled "Moment".

"Dream In The Street" is originally the title track from the debut album of Noriyo Ikeda（池田典代）, another one of those hidden treasures in the world of urban contemporary Japanese pop from way back when. There is virtually nothing written about this mysterious singer aside from what I could find on one Yahoo Japanese-language music blog which had her getting her start in the late 1970s as a performer in clubs located in Shinjuku and Shimo-Kitazawa in Tokyo.

There is even some dispute as to when the album "Dream In The Street" was released with the liner notes in "Moment" stating it was in 1980 whereas a few online sites state that it was actually 1979 (I will go with 1980 for now). In any case, what is notable about this City Pop gem is that it was composed and arranged by Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）with Ikeda providing the lyrics about the general goings-on on a night in the big city. The late Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）was on keyboards and even Yamashita was there as one of the guitarists providing backing vocals.

Ikeda has vocals here which remind me to a certain extent of the voice of Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）...that breathy and coquettish quality. Plus "Dream In The Street" just bursts onto the street with that familiar City Pop beat shuffling things happily along the sidewalk, and as much as I've mentioned the Doobie Brothers whenever I write about the genre, this particular song has that little addition of Steely Dan this time around. And to wrap up, there is that cool little bit near the end when you hear the drums rattling away and then the bass doing its fine plucking. Those were grand years by Tats.

I don't know how many albums Ikeda released but my impression is that "Dream In The Street" may have been the only one.