Pandaful-House -- Shiroi Bouquet（白いブーケ）

 

I was just mentioning Kaguyahime's（かぐや姫）"Ohayou Oyasumi Nichiyoubi"（おはようおやすみ日曜日）over the weekend and saw the composer's name, Kaguyahime bassist Tsuguto "Panda" Yamada（山田つぐと）. That rang a few bells and I remembered that last fall, I had written an article on the short-lived band Pandaful-House（パンダフルハウス）which had Yamada as the leader along with Keiko Yoshino（吉野恵子）and Yamada's younger brother Toshihide Yamada（山田智秀）,

"Kaze Gurashi"（風ぐらし）was the Pandaful-House 1979 single that I wrote about. That had quite a few familiar faces behind the songwriting: fellow Kaguyahime member Makoto Kitajo（喜多條忠）as the lyricist, singer/composer Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）and bassist arranger Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）, and the song was quite the peppy tune. Another single by them that year was "Shiroi Bouquet" (White Bouquet) which is a fair bit more introspective and melancholy as the protagonist remembers a friend who has now gone away for a new life. The song was written and composed by Yoshiki Tachikawa（立川義喜）, another singer-songwriter although he didn't seem to have any overt connection with Pandaful-House. The violin certainly adds to the more wistful tone.

Pandaful-House -- Kaze Gurashi（風ぐらし）

 

The first time that I heard this song, I thought I could hear a bit of Richard Harris' "MacArthur Park" (I will definitely have to cover that as a ROY sometime soon) in there. "Kaze Gurashi" (Living Like the Wind) is not only new to my ears but the originating band is also a first-timer for me.

Pandaful-House（パンダフルハウス）sounds like a children's fashion brand but it was actually a folk trio led by Tsuguto "Panda" Yamada（山田嗣人）who used to be the bassist of the far more well-known folk group Kaguyahime（かぐや姫）in the early 1970s. It had a short life, just between 1977 and 1980, but managed to release seven singles and a couple of albums. "Kaze Gurashi" just happened to be their third single from April 1979 and it's an artfully whimsical folk/New Music tune led by some good ol' country strings. Written by Kaguyahime member Makoto Kitajo（喜多條忠）and composed by Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）which indeed caught my ears, the song was also arranged by bassist Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）. 

As I mentioned above, there's something about "Kaze Gurashi" that reminded me of "MacArthur Park" but instead of reminiscing over a past love, Pandaful-House's tune is about a Harajuku-based love that never was. A young man sighs over his unrequited crush on a force of nature who has since left the neighbourhood; realizing that there was no way that he could ever win over her affections, the lad just hopes that she's doing OK wherever she may be now. "Kaze Gurashi" was also a track on the band's 2nd album "Settle Down" released in June 1979.

In addition to Panda Yamada（山田パンダ）, there were also Keiko Yoshino（吉野恵子）and Yamada's younger brother Toshihide Yamada（山田智秀）. There had been another member by the name of Osamu Uchiyama（内山修）who was with folk groups The Ligannies（ザ・リガニーズ）and Neko（猫）in the 1970s.

(24:30)