[Mellow ballad]
No.99 "Ame no Wednesday" by Ei-ichi Ohtaki
Hi. Unusual hot weather here in Japan. How about in your place?
Today's song is "Ame no Wednesday" (A rainy Wednesday) by "Ei-ichi Ohtaki".
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Index
1. Song data
| Title | Ame no Wednesday (A rainy Wednesday) |
|---|---|
| Artist | Ei-ichi Ohtaki |
| Album Title | A LONG VACATION |
| Catalog Number | SRCL 8000〜1 |
| Track No. | 6 |
| Duration | 4:26 |
| Released | 1981 |
| Publisher | NIAGARA CBS SONY |
| Lyricist | Takashi Matsumoto |
| Composer | Ei-ichi Ohtaki |
| Arranger | Ban-nai Tarao |
- About the creators
Takashi Matsumoto
Takashi Matsumoto is one of the leading, and most respected lyricist in J-pop active since the '70s.
He started his music career as a drummer of the legendary rock group "Happy end". But at the same time, he had been a main lyricist of the band.
After the breakup of the band in 1972, he tentatively joined in with other group, but in 1974, he finally decided to be a dedicated lyricist in pop music field.
Since then, he has written enormous amount of songs, and offered them to the singers in various music field in J-pop. And quite a few of them has been a million hit.
(Ref: Wikipedia, Takashi Matsumoto)
Ei-ichi Ohtaki
"Ei-ichi Ohtaki" was a singer-song writer, composer, arranger, music producer, and a researcher of pop music particularly deep in American oldies.
He is the main cast today, and we would like to come back on him in a later section.
(Ref: Wikipedia-en, Ei-ichi Ohtaki)
Ban-nai Tarao
"Ban-nai Tarao" is an alias which "Ei-ichi Ohtaki" often used when he worked as an arranger.
It was originally a name of the popular detective-hero from the Japanese entertainment movies of the 1940s.
Cover art
- Sound impressions
Mellow ballad
This song seems to be a high quality gentle mellow ballad in moderate speed.
The folk guitar, electric guitar, acoustic piano, bass, strings and the congas start a calm and emotive introduction, and the drums join soon.
Th song keeps this beautiful tone until its end.
The play of each musicians and its ensemble are a kind of extra-special.
"Walk On By(Dionne Warwick)" ?
You might possibly recollect Dionne Warwick's 1964 hit song "Walk On By" from the ending phrase of the piano.
This is a distinctive feature of Ohtaki's music. His songs almost always contains an impressive short passage of old American pops which he deeply respects. And challenging to the listeners if they can pick them up, and find out where the passages are from.
It is said that there are sometimes 3 more melodies embedded in tricky way.(like play a phrase in backward.) Please try to detect if you like.
Happy end & Tin Pan Alley
For this song, all the former members of "Happy end" had been participated, namely, "Haruomi Hosono"(Bass), "Shigeru Suzuki"(Guitar), "Takashi Matsumoto"(as Lyricist), and "Ei-ichi Ohtaki"(Vocal).
So, we feel that some light aroma of "Happy end" is coming through from this song.
On top of that, super keyboardist "Masataka Matsutoya" and a drum master "Tateo Hayashi", both are the former members of legendary session band "Tin pan alley", had also joined on this song.
Dream team
So, it is like joint session of "Happy end" & "Tin pan alley". In other word, It is a dream team.
It is quite rare. Please enjoy the tasteful and stable play of them.
- Reference
- About the artist
Unique star of J-pop
Ei-ichi Ohtaki debuted in 1970 as a member of the legendary rock band "Happy end", and released the first album "Happy end" as a group.
As a solo artist, he produced his first album "Ohtaki Ei-ichi" in 1972. Since then, 20 singles, and 28 original, no live, and 1 best album has been released as a solo artist until now.
(Ref: Wikipedia-en, Ei-ichi Ohtaki)
Happy end
became a member of now famed pioneering rock group "Happy end" in 1969, by a request from other members "Matsumoto" and "Hosono". It was a start of his professional career in music.
He was a guitarist and vocalist at the band. And was a leading melody maker together with "Haruomi Hosono".
For the history of the group, please check the linked Wikipedia article.
Niagara label
In Dec 1972, the band broke up.
Since then, each member started new life. Ei-ichi Ohtaki shifted the center of his work to the creation of advertising music, as well as a music producer.
For these purposes, he established his own record label "Niagara" in 1974.
After this, all his album, commercial song albums, and the albums of the artists he produced had released under this label.
By the way, the "Niagara" name has come from his family name. The literal translation of "Oh-taki" is "Big water fall"(Oo means big, Taki means water fall.)
For him, the big water fall seems to be "Niagara falls".
A long vacation
In 1981, "A long vacation" was released as his 5th original album.
Each song and the album itself are both well created, and matched with the taste of the times.
The album initially attracted the young women and became a kind of "must listen item".
This shocked the young men. They grabbed a few of 1000yen bank notes, and rushed to the music shops to buy a record. Because the girls might wash him out from a list of the boyfriend candidates, if he doesn't know Ohtaki!
It is just a joke, but "A long vacation" was a very rare album caused such social phenomenon.
As a result, the album became a million seller.
And in 2010, the album is ranked top in the article titled "The Japanese rock album best 100('80s')", published by the "Record collectors" magazine.
In this ranking, firstly, 30 experts(writers, critics, DJ etc.) selects 25 albums, and rank them from 1-25. It is then calculated, and the final result will come out.
So, this is telling us the fact that how vivid impressions the album "A long vacation" gave even for the professional listeners.
(Ref: Wikipedia-en, Ei-ichi Ohtaki)
(Ref: Wikipedia-en, A long vacation)
(Ref: Takarajima hitori, Japanese Rock Album Best 100 in 80's)
We would like to take a break in here and continue about him in the next opportunity since it is getting too long.
Thank you.
- 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
itunes.com (Track.6)
6
8. Japanese Letters
| Song Title | 雨のウェンズデイ (Ame no Wednesday) |
|---|---|
| Artist | 大滝詠一 (Ei-ichi Ohtaki) |
| Album Title | A LONG VACATION |
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