[Light & bouncy]
No.83 "Japanese Woman" by Bread&Butter
Hi. Today's song is "Japanese Woman" by "Bread&Butter".
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Index
1. Song data
| Title | Japanese Woman |
|---|---|
| Artist | Bread&Butter |
| Album Title | Monday Morning |
| Catalog Number | MHCL-642 |
| Track No. | 6 |
| Duration | 3:52 |
| Released | 1980 |
| Publisher | Alfa |
| Lyricist | Fumiko Okada |
| Composer | Satsuya Iwasawa |
| Arranger | Masaki Matsubara |
- About the creators
Fumiko Okada : Lyricist
Fumiko Okada is a talented lyricist active since 1972.
She has written nearly 2000 amount of original lyrics and translations of foreign lyrics for the singers of J-pop. And quite a few of them have become a big hits.
(Ref: Wikipedia, Fumiko Okada)
Here is a sample of a hit song performed by a popular singer, "Rumiko Koyanagi", which "Okada" wrote a lyrics.
Lime light
(dream comes, a person comes)
Rumiko Koyanagi(1980)
Satsuya Iwasawa : Composer
Actually, the pop duo "Bread & Butter" has been formed by Iwasawa brothers, namely "Satsuya" and "Fuyumi", but Satsuya is the elder.
Both of the brothers are good composers, and Satsuya Iwasawa has written 5 in 10 songs on this album.
(Ref: Wikipedia, Bread & Butter)
Masaki Matsubara : Arranger
Masaki Matsubara was a professional guitarist and arranger, and a former member of the super fusion group "Parachute".
He started his career in 1974 as a member of "Garubo-jin", which was the back-band to a popular chorus trio "Hi-fi set".
In 1979, he and 6 other members teamed up a fusion instrumental group "Parachute", which became very popular at that time, but stopped activity in 1982.
After Parachute, he continued solo & various band activities until recent.
Cover art
- Sound impressions
Simple & bouncy
This is a simple, and a bit jokingly pop music in bouncy 8-beat rhythm.
Cool and jumpy
The drums, bass, keyboards and the electric guitar used many effectors start cool and jumpy introduction.
Later, the acoustic piano joins and the sound becomes richer. In the bridge, there is nice short solo play of the electric piano.
The chorus work of "Bread & butter is cool and beautiful as usual.
- Reference
- About the artist
Pop duo by brothers
Bread&Butter debuted in 1969 with single "Kizu-darake no Karuizawa" (Heartache Karuizawa*). Since then, 41 singles, and 20 original, 1 live, and 22 best albums has been released until now.
(Ref: Wikipedia, Bread & Butter)
* Karuizawa is the name of a famous resort town in central Japan.
A root of City-pop
The typical image of Bread&Butter song is smooth, light, and mellow popular music. The band might be an important root of the music category called as "City-pop" in Japan later.
Here is an example of their album which is predicting their future devotion to fine quality light & mellow pop musics.
* Bread&Butter - BARBECUE
What is "City-pop"?
"City-pop" is the term describing a once popular music category in Japan.
It maybe characterized with its smooth, light and mellow sound, then often called as "Japanese AOR".
In fact, the most of songs we are introducing can go into this category. There are a lot of clips on youtube under "City-pop" category, so you can check for catching the image.
The "City-pop" became popular from around the end of 1970s and lasted until mid '80s.'
The boom was ended at that timing, but the "City-pop" has been remained as one of the format of popular music, so, we can still enjoy new songs in "City-pop" style.
Not so "City-pop"
For the first 2-3 years, the music of Bread&Butter was not like their trade mark "City-pop", but more like a mixture of folky pop music and soft rock.
It was perhaps partly because of the influence of "Simon & Garfunkel"
Travel to America"
"Satsuya Iwasawa", the elder brother of Bread&Butter was already had a passion for music. But at the timing of college graduation, he traveled to the US to think again about his future career more seriously in the mid '60s.
He deeply breathed the air of freedom in that country, and decided to go with music.
Simon & Garfunkel (S&G)
During the stay, he had a chance to see the music of the renowned American folk rock duo, "Simon & Garfunkel".
He was impressed with them, and made up his mind to form a brothers duo performs the music like S&G after come back to Japan.
Here is a sample of Bread&Butter's earlier song. You might feel folky touch like S&G.
* Bread&Butter - Live
Go for City-pop
We would like to continue, but have already written too much for one time. So, please allow us to carry on the topic for the next time.
(Ref: shokutaku-ongaku,2008,09,i_just_called_to_say_i_love_yo_1)
- 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 | Japanese Woman |
|---|---|
| Artist | ブレッド & バター (Bread&Butter) |
| Album Title | Monday Morning |
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