[Calm Bossa]
No.88 "Ame-no nichi-yōbi" by Sumiko Yamagata
Hi. Congratulations to all the couples married today.
The song for today is "Ame no Nichi-yōbi" (A rainy Sunday) by "Sumiko Yamagata".
Some articles have been put away in a "Memo" tab in each section, so please click it to read.
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1 min detour - Hydrangea
We are just entering monsoon rain season(called plum rain), which usually lasts until mid July.
In Japan, the most typical flower for rainy season is Hydrangea.
There are many parks or temples famous with Hydrangea(Ajisai in Japanese). They are often called "Ajisai-park" or "Ajisai-dera", and popular in flower season.
This is a photo of one of the famous "Hydrangea" temple "Tōkei-ji" in Kamakura-c, 1 hour travel to the west by local train from central Tokyo.
Not just Tōkei-ji, there are many nice "Ajisai-temples" around Kamakura-area like a video in below.
(This is a well made clip. You can easily catch the image of an "Ajisai-temple".)
* Ajisai-temples in Kamakura
There are many "Ajisai-temples" all over Japan. Please visit and have a look if you happen to come.
Sorry for the excursion as usual.
Thank you.
Index
1. Song data
| Title | Ame no Nichi-yōbi (Rainy Sunday) |
|---|---|
| Artist | Sumiko Yamagata |
| Album Title | Summer shade |
| Catalog Number | CORR-10239 |
| Track No. | 4 |
| Duration | 4:03 |
| Released | 1976 |
| Publisher | Columbia |
| Lyricist | Sumiko Yamagata |
| Composer | Toshiyuki Watanabe |
| Arranger | Toshiyuki Watanabe |
- About the creators
Sumiko Yamagata
Sumiko Yamagata started writing lyrics and melodies when she was a Junior high school student.
They are all very well made, casual folk songs in the most popular style at that time.
We would like to talk about her later in "about the artist" section.
Toshiyuki Watanabe
Toshiyuki Watanabe is a composer, arranger, conductor, and a professor at Senzoku Gakuen College of Music.
He started professional career as a drummer of the popular folk group Akai-tori(red bird) in 1973, and continued being a member until the end of the group.
Producer for "Masashi Sada"
After break up, he started to work with "Masashi Sada",(a popular folk singer now), as a producer and lead him to a success.
As a composer & arranger
At the same time, he went to the US to study at Berklee College of Music.
After come back, he resumed the collaboration with "Masashi-Sada, and in addition to this, he began to produce TV and movie scores for various popular programs including animes.
Movie clip
Here is an advertising clip of his instrumental album "Prayer" of 2017. This would gives you a general idea of his sound.
* Prayer
Cover art
- Sound impressions
Peaceful Bossa
This is a calm and peaceful Bossa nova in slow rhythm.
The string synth, electric guitar, electric piano, bass, drums and the percussion start the introduction, and the acoustic guitar follows with Bossa nova rhythm.
Interestingly, the string synth part seems to be emphasized throughout the song.
It maybe, the sound of polyphonic synthesizer was still state of the arts at that time, and appealing to the people.
On this song, the vocal of Sumiko Yamagata is clear, pure and feminine.
She used to sing in more cute and girlish way, and it was one of her character.
But she turned 20 years old when releasing this album, and her singing changed into more natural way for her age.
- Reference
- About the artist
Folk song cutie
Sumiko Yamagata debuted in 1973 with single "Kaze-ni Fukarete ikou". Since then, 12 singles, and 12 original, 1 live, and 4 best albums have been released until now.
(Ref: Wikipedia, Sumiko Yamagata)
Message songs by men
In Japan, folk song became popular in accordance with the swell of campus activism in the late '60s.
Folk song of that time tended to be a tool to raise a political social issues to the public. So, it sometimes contained drastic messages, and there were pressures on performers from various parties.
As a result, the vast majority of singers were men.
But, in early to mid '70s, folk song reduced its protesting nature, and became more casual personal type music.
(Ref: Wikipedia-jp, Folk Song)
Breath of girl's folk song
On the other hand, less radical folk song in solo acoustic style also existed since mid '60s. "Tokiko Kato" or "Ryoko Moriyama" may be the representative singers in this category.
In 1969, an American girl's folk duo "Betsy & Chris" released a beautiful chorus song, and it became a smash hit.
Here is a sample.
* Betsy & Chris
Like this track, they sang friendly folk songs in excellent chorus, with playing a guitar.
In fact, they established a new style of folk song.
Betsy & Chris became a good model for the female folk singers wishing to debut at that time.
Quite a few of excellent followers, like "Chewing-gum", "Simons" released a good albums later.
(Ref: Wikipedia, Betsy & Chris)
Folk song cutie
Our Sumiko Yamagata also debuted by singing a song in this style in 1972, when she was 17, and a high school student.
Here is her first song "Kaze ni fukarete yukou" (Go with blowing wind).
This is more or less a typical folk song style of young women of the day. Please check.
"Kaze ni fukarete yukou"
(Go with blowing wind)
Luckily, this bacame a hit song, and she was recognised as a "folk song cutie".
To be a pioneer of Light & mellow
From debut to the 4th album, she adhered this song style, and maintained her popularity.
But from the 5th album in 1975, her music style began to change more light and mellow direction.
And in this 6th album "Summer shade", her trade mark "friendly folk song" has been remodeled into a smooth city-pop sound.
(Ref: Wikipedia, Sumiko Yamagata)
Sorry, but it seems getting too long. So we would like to take a break now, and continue in the next occasion. Thank you.
- Samples from online music stores
About the samples
Please go to the page below, and just play or click track No.4.
Trial button is on the left side of the song title.
This song is also included in her best album "Light mellow", which is available in digital format, and even cheaper than original album.
Additionally, there are no sample is available on the page of the original disk, so we have put the link to the best album "Light mellow". Thank you.
AD : Free listening samples
Amazon JP(en)
recochoku.jp
Apple Music(jp)
4
8. Japanese Letters
| Song Title | 雨の日曜日 (Ame no Nichi-yōbi) |
|---|---|
| Artist | やまがたすみこ (Sumiko Yamagata) |
| Album Title | サマー・シェイド (Summer shade) |
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