[Song Review #77] "Kon-ya wa dramatic" by Tatsuhiko Yamamoto
Hi. Today's song is "Konya wa dramatic" (Dramatic tonight) by "Tatsuhiko Yamamoto".
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Index
1. Song data
| Title | Konya wa dramatic (Dramatic tonight) |
|---|---|
| Artist | Tatsuhiko Yamamoto |
| Album Title | Romantic View |
| Catalog Number | CT32-5236 |
| Track No. | 6 |
| Duration | 4:18 |
| Released | 1983 |
| Publisher | Toshiba EMI |
| Lyricist | Kazumasa Sakusa, Yukio Matsuo, & Tatsuhiko Yamamoto |
| Composer | Tatsuhiko Yamamoto |
| Arranger | Tatsuhiko Yamamoto & Cross beat |
- About the creators
About the creators
The lyric of this song seems to be a collaboration of the 3 creators.
Kazumasa Sakusa
It seems "Kazumasa Sakusa" was a known veterinarian running a popular animal hospital in Tokyo. But also an author of animal related books and a few of children's books.
Interestingly, he worked for a publishing house for a while after college, and the timing coincided with the release of this album. So, there might be some chance for him to take part in.
Yukio Matsuo
"Yukio Matsuo" is a professional lyricist and an editor. He was particularly active in the '80s and offered many lyrics to the various artists.
Tatsuhiko Yamamoto
Tatsuhiko Yamamoto is an expert for music creation, and the most of his songs are written, composed, and arranged by him.
He is also keen to adopt the lyrics of the other artists, if they would fit with his song image.
Cross beat
Cross beat was a session band supporting Tatsuhiko Yamamoto by their aggressive professional play.
There were 4 members namely,
Yoshiaki Kanō(G), Masaharu Ishikawa(ds), Kunihiko Ryō (Key), & Takashi Enomoto(b).
Among them, Kunihiko Ryō (Yang Bang-ean) is now also active in South Korea.
For example, the music director of the recent winter olympic "PyeongChang 2018" was him.
(Wikipedia, Kunihiko Ryō)
Thanks for him posted a sample on Youtube.
* Echoes for PyeongChang
Cover art
- Sound impressions
Stylish & exciting
This is a very typical, fine example of the '80s "City-pop", which projected a stylish & exciting image of urban life to the listeners of the time.
The drums, bass, electric guitar, and the acoustic piano start the play at the same time, and open up the introduction.
Brilliant sound of the horn section quickly join the slightly slower 8-beat melody, and add a gorgeous atmosphere.
Tatsuhiko Yamamoto has the marvelous sweet voice, and captures the listeners particularly women.
- Reference
- About the artist
Prince of city-pop
Tatsuhiko Yamamoto debuted in 1978 with single "Toppū-SUDDEN WIND". Since then, 34 singles, and 31 original, 3 live, and 15 best albums has been released by 2008.
(Wikipedia, Tatsuhiko Yamamoto)
(* Please someone in a fan club make a full list of albums. Thank you.)
"Prince" or "Yama-tatsu"
Not sure who said, but he is sometimes called "Prince of city-pop" from some point of his career.
But if we remember, fans were simply calling him "Yama-tatsu" since debut.
We imagine that the catch-phrase might be developed for differentiate him from other famous "Yama-tatsu".
Here is a bit of baseless thought since there are no useful information so far. So, please read as an idle talk.
Love to shorten
Japanese people often abbreviate the long name of individuals by picking up the initial "Kanji" letter of each word. It is a same idea with "Acronym" in western languages.
For example "Nichi-gin" is a shortened form of "Nippon Ginkō(Bank of Japan)". The name of "Toshiba" comes from "Tokyo-Shibaura electric", and so on.
A pair of "Yama-tatsu"
In the late '70s, there were 2 rising stars in new wave J-pop. Both were man, and was playing remarkably fine and stylish pop-rocks.
One is our prince "Tatsuhiko Yamamoto" obviously. And the other is "Tatsuro Yamashita", a popular singer and artist since mid '70s, released a many of hit songs so far.
Naturally, the name of both artists were shortened to "Yama-tatsu" by fans.
Fairy tales for adults
Their musics are in the same region as a whole, but on the other hand, there is a interesting contrast in them.
Both were aspiring front-line "city-pop", the coolest ever pop music in Japan if you like.
In the music and overall image of "Tatsuro Yamashita", there is a smell of the man like a bandit. And curiously it appealed to men.
Contrary, the world of "Tatsuhiko Yamamoto" is rich in a dreamlike image, which is like "fairy tales for adults".
Because of such song image and his handsome mask, he attracted a lot of female fans.
So, someone in charge of his promotion might developed such fitting epithet to highlight his name. Just an imagination though.
Thank you for reading. We will correct the article in the future if we learn something new.
- Samples from online music stores
About the samples
Please go to the page below, and just play or click track No.6.
Trial button is on the left side of the song title.
AD : Free listening samples
Amazon JP(en)
recochoku.jp
Apple Music(jp)
6
8. Japanese Letters
| Song Title | 今夜はドラマティック (Konya wa Dramatic) |
|---|---|
| Artist | 山本達彦 (Tatsuhiko Yamamoto) |
| Album Title | Romantic View |
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