[Song Review #151] "Sekidō-wo koeta Somerset Maugham" by Sonoko Kawai
Hi. Today's song is "Sekidō-wo koeta Somerset Maugham" (A Somerset Maugham crossed the equator) by "Sonoko Kawai".
"Sonoko Kawai" is a popular singer, and used to be a member of "Onyanko club", which was a girls-pop group popular in the '80s.
And this is a calm and refreshing pop song of her.
If you like, please listen to.
By the way, the name of "Somerset Maugham" has no particular meaning at all on this song.
But it gives an image, that the person in this song might be a literary girl.
Links to the music shops, offering song samples, are located on the bottom of this page.
Some contents have been put away in tabs with "▶" mark in each section, so please click it to see.
We are now working on improving appearances of our posts.
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Thank you.
Cover art today
Song data
| Title | Sekidō-wo koeta Somerset Maugham |
|---|---|
| Artist | Sonoko Kawai |
| Album Title | Rouge Et Bleu |
| Catalog Number | 32DH697 |
| Track No. | 8 |
| Duration | 4:42 |
| Released | 1987 |
| Publisher | |
| Lyricist | |
| Composer | |
| Arranger |
About the creators
Yasushi Akimoto Lyricist
"Yasushi Akimoto" is a lyricist, scenario writer, film directer, and a music producer active since 1977.
As a lyricist
According to wikipedia, "Akimoto" has written more than 4000 songs to the various artists.
There are so many famous hit songs. Just a few of notable examples are,
- Kyōko Koizumi
- Nante-tta-tte idol
- Jun-ichi Inagaki
- Dramatic rain
- O-nyanko Club
- Sailor-fuku-wo nugasa-naide
- Minako Honda
- 1986-nenn-no Marilyn
- Tunnels
-
Ame-no Nishi-Azabu
(Nishi-Azabu in the rain) - Hibari Misora
-
Kawa-no nagare-no yōni
(Like a flow of the river)
All of the above are very well known by the Japanese people.
Particularly, Hibari Misora's "Kawa-no nagare-no yōni" was once selected as "The most moving song of the 20th", in the research carried out by NHK in 1997.
As a producer
In the mid 80s', "Akimoto" involved "Onyanko-club" project which gathers dozens of cute and friendly young women, and make them an idol star in both as individuals, and as a team.
Eventually, the project achieved a triumphant success, and "Akimoto" was actually playing a key role in the project.
Since then, he has been producing quite a few unit in a similar concept.
In 2005, he gathered 48 young woman this time, and began to produce them as a performance team, "AKB48".
It took a bit of time, but by 2009, AKB48 had become Japan's No.1 idol group, whose new songs are always ranked at the top of the chart.
Since then, Japan's hit chart are almost occupied by "AKB", and its sister groups by now. All of them are produced by Mr. Akimoto.
Great businessman.
Video clip
In Japan, there is a girls pop big group called, "AKB48", which is composed of 48 members.
And the group is almost solely, produced by Mr. Akimoto.
They have been an unbeatable, absolute hit maker since they debuted.
And this song, "Koi-suru fortune cookie" (The Fall-in-Love Fortune Cookie, 2013), which we are introducing today, is also one of their biggest hit songs.
If you like, please listen.
Tsugutoshi Gotō Composer & arranger
"Tsugutoshi Gotō" is a bassist, composr, arranger, music producer, and the partner of "Sonoko Kawai", active since 1971.
The composer, "Tsugutoshi Gotō" is also a singer of this song.
So, We would like to come back to (her) in "About the artist" section later.
Early days
"Gotō" started his music career by playing the guitar when he was a student of a middle school.
In the high school, he joined a light music circle, and was playing music as an amateur.
In 1971, while he was a student of the university, "Gotō"'s music peer. and a drummer "Tatsuo Hayashi, who later became the drummer of "Tin Pan allay", called him, and said "We need a bass man now".
"Gotō" had no much choice but to say OK, and played the bass in a concert tour of a pop duo "Bread & Butter", as a member of backing band.
Thanks to working together with Bread & Butter this time, "Gotō" began to be called as a player for their album recording.
And this turned out to be the beginning of "Gotō"'s professional career.
Sadistic Mika Band
In 1975, "Gotō" joined a legendary rock band Sadistic Mika Band by an invitation from one of the band members, and an excellent drummer, "Yukihiro Takahashi".
"Gotō" took part in a recording of their 3rd album "Hot Menu", and a following London tour as well.
And while he was with them, "Gotō" showed brilliant performance in recording and live stages of Bread & Butter.
Through these reliable performances, "Gotō" earned a good reputation as a competent player.
TOKIO
"TOKIO", we are talking about here is "Kenji Sawada"s big hit song in 1980, and not a famous male pop group, "TOKIO" of "Johnny's"
So, please do not confuse. But their band name might be, possibly inspired by "Sawada"'s this hit song, we are not sure though...
Anyway, around 1977, "Gotō" began to work as a composer as well as arranger.
And in 1980, a popular singer "Kenji Sawada"'s song "TOKIO", which "Gotō" offered a song arrangement, became a big hit.
For this song, a "Japan record award, Best arranger award" were later given.
By this achievement, "Gotō" established his name also as an arranger.
Full speed
Since then, "Gotō" became a popular composer & arranger, and involved recordings of many various artists.
The singers, or groups like,
- "Issei-fūbi sepia"
- "Sonoko Kawai"
- "Koji Kikkawa"
- "Shizuka Kudō"
- "Kenji Sawada"
- "Shibu-gaki-tai"
- "Tunnels"
- "Miyuki Nakajima"
- "Hound dog"
- "Rebecca"
- "Onyanko-club & its sister groups"
- "AKB48 & its sister groups" etc,
are notable examples, that "Gotō" supported them to have hit songs.
Recent
In the '80s & '90s, "Gotō" was a little too busy because he was a popular composer and arranger.
But after year 2000, it seems that "Gotō" is trying to increase the live stages to show his performance on Bass guitar.
According to an interview, he is feeling that the period he can play the bass in full capacity would not be eternal.
Now a days, "Gotō" is like an indispensable bassist for the live concerts of "Masayoshi Takanaka", since they are peers from the "Sadistics" in the '70s.
-
(Ref: jasrac.or.jp,
Tsugutoshi Gotō interview)🇯🇵
Song image & Lyrics
Open
Link to the lyrics
Copyright notice on the lyrics link
Sound impression
Calm & daydreaming
This is a calm, peaceful, but a bit twinkling pop song in a moderated speed.
It is just like cruising a calm tropical ocean on a boat in a relaxed afternoon.
Starry
A shiny sound of the keyboard signals the opening, then the bass, percussion, electric guitar, and string synthesizer join.
In the main part, "Kawai" and her self chorus perform an interesting call & response.
After the middle point, the drums also joins, and the impression of the becomes more rich and festive.
Reference
About Google translate
About the artist
Sonoko KawaiA singer from Onyanko
"Sonoko Kawai" is a singer, songwriter, idol star, and used to be a member of an idol group "Onyanko Club". in the mid 80s.
As a solo singer, "Kawai" debuted in 1985 with single "Namida-no Jasmin love" (Tearful Jasmin love). Since then, 9 singles, and 7 original, 5 live Videos, 1 CD box-set, and 5 best albums have been released until now.
(Ref: Wikipedia-en, Sonoko Kawai)
Early days
"Sonoko Kawai"'s first approach to the entertainment business was in 1983.
She auditioned a popular song contest called "Teens Pop Contest" hosted by a leading record company, CBS Sony. And luckily, won 2nd prize.
This did not provide immediate opportunity for her to debut as a singer.
But it turned out as a good chance for debuting as an idol star.
"Yūyake Nyan-nyan"
In the mid '80s, there was a popular TV variety show for young, titled "Yūyake Nyan-nyan". (Sunset Nyan-nyan, "Nyan-nyan" primarily means a call of cat, like meow. But it often implies something girlish, or childish.).
It was a program for teenagers, and broadcasted in an after school hour of the week days.
"Yūyake..." was basically an orthodox variety show for teenagers at a glance. But it quickly became very popular, and caused a phenomenon in the society.
The biggest cause of it was a fine showings by the members of a historic young female idol group, "O-nyanko Club". (Like AKB48)
"O-nyanko Club" was founded in April 1985, and continued to be active until September 1987.
It was originally an internal team of young women assisting the program as cast members, but the team gradually increased its presence, and became independent later. Then, it started to name themselves as and "O-nyanko Club", and began to perform as a pop group.
"O-nyanko..." was started with 11 members, but it was increased to 19 due to its unique in-program scouting system. The ages of members were from 15 to 20 years old, because the target audience were the generation of the same age.
Now a days, there are many large-sized female pop groups, like AKB48, Morning Musume, Keyaki-zaka-46, etc. But people might agree that the first such example was this group "O-nyanko Club".
Become an idol star
As mentioned, there was a unique public talent scout session in "Yūyake Nyan-nyan" program.
If a young woman wish to be a member of "O-nyanko Club", she can enter an in-program public audition, and if passed, she gets a unique membership number, and becomes a member of "O-nyanko".
Thanks to this scouting system, 44 new idol stars were born in 2 years time until the end of the program.
In case of "Sonoko Kawai", she was invited to this contest at the very beginning of the program, because there was a recommendation from a record company she once auditioned.
"Kawai" gave it a try on this casually, but unexpectedly, she was passed the audition with very high score.
As a result, she was given a membership number "12", and become a first new member of "O-nyanko Club".
And this became a start of her career in the entertainment business.
Become popular
"Kawai" quickly gained popularity, and came to be more notable among the team.
In the "O-nyanko Club", each members were secretly competing to be the first to release a solo single record, since it is a proof of an independent idol star.
But "Kawai" finally won the race, and released her first single record, "Namida-no Jasmin love" (Tearful Jasmin Love), as the first one up from the team.
Through these success, "Kawai" was recognized as one of the front runners in the "O-nyanko Club".
"Graduation"
In Japan, the word "Graduation" is often used when someone is leaving from a team, regardless on why.
In March 1986, "Kawai" graduated from the "O-nyanko Club" as one of the first team mates leaving from the club in its history.
All the remaining members of "O-nyanko Club" congratulated her, since "Kawai" was about to debut as an independent singer & idol star, which the most of members were longing for.
And from the next day, "Sonoko Kawai" went on her first concert tour in all over Japan.
As a singer-songwriter
In 1986, "Kawai" spent very busy days throughout the year, since she had to perform at so many concerts in all over Japan.
Because, she was a top idol star in the "O-nyanko Club", and a lot of fans were wishing to join her live stages.
Despite such busy days, "Kawai" released 2 new studio albums, and 1 special album in this year.
And by doing so, she gradually moved from an idol star to a singer.
Dedication
In 1987, she released a French, or European taste new album, "Rouge et Bleu", which we are introducing today, as her 4th full studio album.
This was really a good album, and clearly explaining what kind of music she'd been wishing to do.
It seems she succeeded to change herself from an idol star to a singer, by releasing this album.
Since then, she continued to release creative, and aspiring albums until 1990.
Marriage and break
In 1990, "Kawai" released a fully self-composed album, "Replica" as her 7th studio album.
But after a short while, perhaps she had been exhausted, "Kawai" switched herself into a break mode.
While she was taking a break, fans were wondering since there were no information about her.
But in 1994, "Kawai" finally came back with an information, that she had been married with a bassist and composer, "Tsugutoshi Gotō", who had been taking care of "Kawai" since she was a member of "Onyanko-club".
And also said that she will spend her time for her family life, than music for the moment.
Come back?
Since then she has kept quiet, though her best albums were occasionally released.
But in 2010, she came back as a cast of a cosmetic TV commercial, after a long interval.
We are hoping if she could also start music activities again, but it seems that is still in preparation.
Video clip
Finally, this is a trailer video of "O-nyanko 30 years anniversary CD-BOX" released in 2014 from Ponycanyon.
"Sonoko Kawai"'s debut song, "Namida-no Jasmin love" (Tearful Jasmin love) will be appearing as the 2nd song of the video, but the duration is about 5 seconds, since many other songs have to be introduced within a limited time.
If you like, please listen.
Music Samples
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AD: Listening samples (Free)
Amazon JP(en)
Tower records online
hmv.co.jp
Japanese Letters
| Song Title | 赤道を越えたサマセットモーム(Sekidō-wo koeta Somerset Maugham) |
|---|---|
| Artist | 河合その子(Sonoko Kawai) |
| Album Title | Rouge Et Bleu(Red and blue) |
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