Zuutorubi -- Koi ga Abunai（恋があぶない）

 

I think there is that trope of whenever a couple of lovers have had a spat, some time is given for things to cool down and then the guy sheepishly ambles up to his love with a bunch of flowers or some chocolates as a peace offering. Not sure if that is frankly a cornball myth, but I remember one time when I found out some days after the fact that one of my old friends had brought a bouquet for his girlfriend following a tough conversation.

Well, the comical guys in the 1970s aidoru group Zuutorubi（ずうとるび）gave their own two cents on the topic through their 4th single "Koi wa Abunai" (Love Is Dangerous) from March 1975. Written and composed by their go-to songwriters at the time, lyricist Fumiko Okada（岡田富美子）and composer Juichi Sase（佐瀬寿一）, Takao Yamada（山田隆夫）and his group sing about a husband or boyfriend imploring his significant other to just verbally tear off strips whenever she's displeased but also to let her know that he still loves her. Awwww!

Along with the usual strings and whining electric guitar in this 70s kayo, the other thing that I noticed was how that intro sounded like the Carpenters' take on "Please Mr. Postman". According to the J-Wiki article on "Koi ga Abunai", the song was Zuutorubi's biggest hit although it doesn't list an Oricon ranking. In the same month of release as the single, their third album "Zuutorubi Third ~ Koi ga Abunai"（ずうとるびサード 恋があぶない）also went onto the record shelves.

This is also the third article that I've written on Zuutorubi, but unfortunately my second one had to be put back into Draft status because the video was taken down. Luckily though the first one for "Mikan Iro no Koi"（みかん色の恋）is still fine and you can take a look there for general information on the band.

Zuutorubi -- Mikan Iro no Koi（みかん色の恋）

TV Japan has the venerable rakugo comedy battle series "Shoten"（笑点）on Sunday nights at 9:15 as opposed to its original running time of 5:30 on that same day (the TV Japan broadcasts are about 3 months behind). I do watch it and although there are times when I don't quite understand the humour due to language difficulties, it's still pretty fun. Of course, along with the regular rakugo storytellers and the host Shota Shunpuutei（春風亭昇太）, there is the frizzy-headed man in red, rakugo-ka Takao Yamada（山田隆夫）, who is always introduced last, as the smiling guy who takes care of the giving and taking away of the zabuton cushions depending on how his fellows do. Occasionally, Yamada even throws in some punishment if one of them takes a verbal poke at him.

Basically, that's all I had known about Tanaka up to now.

But then I discovered this song on YouTube recently and realized that Yamada had been a 1970s teenybopper in his own aidoru group called Zuutorubi（ずうとるび）. Incidentally, the idea for this group to form came straight from an old segment right in "Shoten". Apparently, Yamada had actually been part of the junior brigade of the joking rakugo-ka lineup and since he earned the win with ten zabuton literally under him, he got to make his own aidoru group.

In February 1974, Yamada as side guitar/vocal along with lead guitar/lead vocal Hirotoshi Eto（江藤博利）, drummer Yasuhiro Arai（新井康弘）, and bassist/vocal Yoshiki Imamura（今村良樹）released their debut single, "Toumei Ningen"（透明人間...Invisible Man）which was written and composed by Yamada. The above here, though, is their 3rd single, "Mikan Iro no Koi" (Orange Love) which came out in November the same year. Written by Fumiko Okada（岡田冨美子）and composed by Juichi Sase（佐瀬寿一）, "Mikan Iro no Koi" is a sparkly and cheerful 70s pop tune about a fellow pretty much promising the moon and perhaps several other planetary bodies for the love of his life. It did quite well on the charts, hitting No. 14 on Oricon. 

Yamada actually left Zuutorubi in 1977 after which he was replaced by Yoshihiko Ikeda（池田善彦）. Up to their final days in 1980, the group released 18 singles and 9 original albums with 4 BEST compilations. They even appeared on the Kohaku Utagassen once in 1975. As for the weird name, the group said that it was formed by just sorta flipping around the kana in the Japanese transcription of The Beatles（ビートルズ）. Personally, I had been a bit excited since I'd thought that Zuutorubi was going to end up as the final word in Labels, but alas, I forgot that the band ZYYG was there.