[Song Review #27 "Anna hito no dokoga" by Tomoko Koyano
Hi. Today's song is "An-na hito no dokoga" (Why I'm attracted to the man like that?) by "Tomoko Koyano".
It's a little mysterious & quiet urban pop-song performed by a '70s popular folk-pop singer "Tomoko Koyano".
If you like, please listen to.
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Song data
| Title | An-na hito no dokoga |
|---|---|
| Artist | Tomoko Koyano |
| Album Title | |
| Catalog Number | KICS-3091 |
| Track No. | 2 |
| Duration | 4:01 |
| Released | 1979 |
| Publisher | |
| Lyricist | |
| Composer | |
| Arranger |
About the creators
Tomoko Koyano Lyricist & Composer
"Tomoko Koyano" is a lyricist & composer, and also a performer of this sing.
So, we would like to come back to her later in "About the artist section."
Shigeru Suzuki Arranger
"Shigeru Suzuki" is a guitarist, singer, composer, arranger, music producer, and a former member of a legendary rock band "Happy End", active since 1968.
One of the most prominent musician as a guitarist as well as a music producer.
Early days
Shigeru Suzuki started his professional career in 1969 by becoming a member of a rock band "Sky".
In the same year, "Suzuki" was invited from a known young bassist "Haruomi Hosono" to join a newly formed his rock band, "Happy end" which will be called as a legend later.
Though the "Happy end" broke-up in 1972, "Suzuki" continued to be with "Hosono", and teamed up an instrumental band "Caramel Mama" which was going to be developed into a famous music creator's band "Tin Pan alley".
And he continued to be a member until the band came to a natural end in around 1977.
Solo career
Back in 1975, "Suzuki" released his first solo album "Band Wagon" while he was an active member of "Tin Pan alley".
Since then, he has released 8 single records, 8 studio albums, and 1 box-set until now, as a solo artist.
As a music producer
"Suzuki" is perhaps the most well known as a music producer since he has been participated in a record number of albums of the many J-pop artists.
And offered melodies, music arrangements, or play the guitar as a backing musician in diverse opportunities.
According to Wikipedia, "Suzuki" has took part in 71 singles records and 517 studio albums of the various singers.
We are not sure but imagine this might be one of the highest number.
-
(Ref: suzuki-shigeru.jp,
Shigeru Suzuki Biography)🇯🇵
Video clip
Lastly, here is a live performance video of "Shigeru Suzuki" GET BACK Sessions on their "Band Wagon Live" at "Shibuya WWW" (double-u x 3) in 2014.
The song title is "Snow Express" from Suzuki 's first album, "Band Wagon" in 1975.
Members are,
- Electric Guitar
- Shigeru Suzuki
- Bass
- Akihiro Tanaka (HUCKLEBACK)
- Drums
- Manabu Sakata
- Keyboard
- Toshifumi Shibata
- Keyboard
- Ryuta Yamamoto
- Percussion
- Tomoya Matsumoto
40 years has been past since release, but still the coolest.
If you like, please listen.
Cover art today
Song image & Lyrics
Open
Link to the lyrics
Copyright notice on the lyrics link
Sound impression
Urban & mysterious
This is a little calm & mysterious urban-pop ballad in a moderated speed.
naturalness
The bass, drums, electric guitar, percussions, and keyboard begin an introduction in mysterious & cool atmosphere. And thr jazzy saxophone join.
In the main melody, "Tomoko Koyano" sings a bit tender lyrics in her soft voice. And it sounds quite realistic perhaps because it is so natural.
The last 1 minutes of this song is given to the saxophonist to perform solo play.
It is sexy & stylish, and making this a lot more attractive.
Reference
About Google translate
About the artist
Tomoko KoyanoTenderly folk to city-pop
"Tomoko Koyano" is, or used to be a singer & songwriter active since 1974.
She is one of the first generation female singer-songwriters who bridged between the college folksong of the early '70s and a modern urban-pop emerged in the mid '70s.
Like, "Sumiko Yamagata", "Keiko Maruyama", or "Hiromi Ohta".
"Koyano" debuted in 1974 with a single, "Ame" (Rain). Since then, 4 singles, and 4 original albums have been released until now.
(Ref: Wikipedia-en, Tomoko Koyano)
Early times
There aren't much reference on the very early days of "Tomoko Koyano".
But in 1974, while she was a high school student, she entered "The 11th Japan chanson concours", and sung her original song "Ame" (Rain).
Luckily, she won the first prize. This created an opportunity for her to debut, and this seems to be the beginning of her career as a professional. She was seventeen years old at that time.
Personalized Folk
The early '70s was the most flourish, and chaotic time for the Japanese folk songs. Because the messaging folk like "Nobuyasu Okabayashi" was singing, and more personalized, or pop-oriented folk which "Takurō Yoshida", or "Yōsui Ino'ue" etc were performing, were mixed together, and creating am excitement.
But the debut year of "Koyano", which was 1974, was already in the transition period from motivated folk songs to more personalized pop-folk.
For such movement, the female folk singers debuted in the early '70s, namely, "Rutsuko Honda", "Keiko Maruyama", "Sumiko Yamagata", or "Tomoko Koyanao" contributed a lot.
Like an idol star
The '70s was a decade that the main stream pops was also thriving.
There were a lot of cuties appearing on TV, and attracting fans.
On the surface, folk song fans didn't show any particular interest for the cuties to pretend to be stoic. But obviously, they also like cuties on the inside.
For those a bit shy young men of folks fans, singers like "Tomoko Koyanao" were the parallels to the idol stars in the main stream pops.
Urban pop
"Tomoko Koyanao" is a good singer-songwriter writing folks songs basically in orthodox style.
But in the late '70s, more modern & stylishly arranged pop songs, called "New Music" was getting popular, and folk singer like, "Koyano" was also looking for a new approach.
In 1978, a talented musician "Shigeru Suzuki", who are also a former guitarist of "Tin Pan alley", became a music producer for "Koyano"'s new album.
In the same year, "Tomoko Koyanao" released her 7th studio album "NEUTRAL TINTS" by having support from a lot of first class musicians who were assembled by "Shigeru Suzuki".
It came out as a really pop, nice album, but a little too pop for "Tomoko Koyanao".
Then in 1979, a new LP, "From inside" was recorded by having the almost same members for the core, but used less "Suzuki spice" this time.
And it was released as "Tomoko Koyanao"'s 8th album in the same year.
By the way, the musicians took part in this album were,
- Drums
- Tatsuo Hayashi, Yukihiro Takahashi
- Bass
- Haruomi Hosono, Tsugutoshi Gotō, Rei Ohara
- Keyboard
- Ryūichi Sakamoto, Hiroshi Shibui, Elton Nagata
- Acoustic Guitar
- Chūei Yoshikawa
- Electric Guitar
- Shigeru Suzuki
We can assure that they are all first class musicians, and created a best ensemble for this album of "Tomoko Koyano".
Marriage
Like that way, "Koyanao" had been releasing albums constantly on her own pace.
But in 1980, she married with a very popular folk-pop singer "Shōzō Ise", and basically stopped her activity on music, except for writing songs under "Komoto Sei" name.
("Komoto sei"'s songs were mostly offered for another popular folk singer "Iruka".)
In the early '80s, it was still quite common that the married women set, or needed to set the priority on their families.
But her children has grown up already, so we wish if she start singing again even only with one guitar or the piano.
-
(Ref: plaza.rakuten.co.jp/katorigod,
Tomoko Koyano)🇯🇵 -
(Ref: rakuten/airpocket0428(not available),
Tomoko Koyano,)🇯🇵
Video clip
We couldn't find any suitable video to introduce.
We would like to put a link if we find any good one in the future.
Music Samples
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Japanese Letters
| Song Title | あんな男性のどこが(An-na hito no dokoga) |
|---|---|
| Artist | 古谷野とも子(Tomoko Koyano) |
| Album Title | FROM INSIDE (2014 Remaster) |
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