[Relaxing Waltz]
No.19 "Tsuki ga warau" by Yōsui Inoue (Page 2)
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Cover art today
Song image & Lyrics
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"Yōsui Inoue" is very well known by his deep, mysterious, and often equivocal lyrics.
So, even for the Japanese people, it is not an easy task to feel confident enough if they have received a message of the lyrics correctly or not.
Therefore, translating his lyrics into different language could be even more empty works, since the correct reading is possibly the total opposite. Or possibly, there aren't any meaning at all.
Today's is also one of those type of lyrics.
Unlike its relaxing melody, it seems it is singing an end of love of a couple. But depending on the way of reading, we can understand it other way round.
Anyway, let us introduce a rough plot.
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In the evening
A man and woman are in their (or his) home.
Before someone notices, it's already night time.
The man noticed a white ring mark on his (or her) finger, and realized the length of time he (or they) spent.
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The moon smiles
The conversation between the man and woman now seems to be over, And the moon is smiling....
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Multisense
We've noticed, but no matter how we write, this could be misleading. So, we will leave it as it is.
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Prof. Robert Campbell
Dr. Robert Campbell, (Professor Emeritus, Tokyo University) is a famed researcher of modern Japanese literature.
In 2019, Dr. Campbell published an "Inoue Yōsui Eiyaku shishu"
(English-translated song book of Yōsui Inoue, at Amazon.co.jp) for the first time in the world.
In all respects, we can't imagine anyone better than him for writing this book.
Today's song, "Tsuki ga warau" (1974) does not seem to be lucky enough to be included in the list of "translated 50 songs" on the book this time.
But we think the book is still very helpful to feel "Inoue"'s lyrics more.
(It might not be perfectly convenient for English speakers. Since only lyrics part are written in English, but original lyrics and expository writings are described in Japanese. Even so, it might be worth reading, perhaps.)
If you like, please have a look.
(ref. Tsuki ga warau, Yōsui Ino'ue, 1974)
Link to the lyrics
Copyright notice on the lyrics link
Sound impression
Relaxing waltz
This seems to be a calm and relaxing pop song in a moderated slow waltz rhythm.
Warm & a bit sentimental
The acoustic piano, bass, drums, strings, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, and steel guitar start calm and relaxing introduction in three-quarter, waltz rhythm.
In the main part, a warm sound of the steel guitar accompanies with a beautiful harmony of self chorus, performed by "Yosui Inoue" himself.
And in the development part, the strings grow their presence, and create a bit sentimental, but elegant atmosphere.
Musicians
As introduced in "Gene Page" section, quite a few of notable American studio musicians, like Ray Parker Jr. (G), David T.Walker (G), Harvey Mason (Ds), Wilton Felder (B), or Joe Sample (Key) took part in the recording of this album.
The names of the musicians are credited as a "Participants List, of this album (as a whole)", on the leaflet of the album by hand writing of "Yōsui Inoue".
(You can check the names on this reference, music-calendar.jp)
Therefore, we are not able to find out who played which track at the moment, since it has not been disclosed, but we would like to update it if we happen to know about it someday.
Reference
About Google translate
About the artist
Yōsui Ino'ueA super star of the J-pop
"Yōsui Inoue" is a singer, lyricist, composer, and music producer active since 1969.
He is one of the most acclaimed, and influential singer-songwriter in the history of modern J-pop, and broadly understood as a pioneer of self writing and singing music style, which was not very common in Japan at that time.
As a current stage name, "Yōsui Inoue", he debuted in 1972 with a single, "Jinsei ga nido areba" (If we could live life again.). Since then, 50 singles, and 23 original, 5 live, and 19 best albums, plus 7 CDbox have been released until now.
"Yōsui Ino'ue" first debuted in 1969 as "Andre Kandre", and released 3 singles by 1970.
But these records had not been usually included in the discography of "Yōsui Inoue", before inter-net.
They are however more openly talked by many people now, since a lot of old fans have begun to introduce stories about them on the inter-net.
(Ref: Wikipedia-en, Yōsui Ino'ue)
Early days
In the mid 60s, "Yōsui Inoue" began to sing at high school, by performing the cover songs of the Beatles.
After graduating from high school, "Inoue" took entrance exam to a dental university. But maybe by a twist of fate, he could not pass the exam, even he tried it for multiple times.
"Inoue" gave up his wish to be a dentist, and began to think making his living by singing.
He wrote a original song, and made a demo tape by recording his singing by himself.
Almost recklessly, he took it to a certain music program at a local radio station. But very luckily, he gained the favor of a director of the program.
One thing led to another, "Inoue" made a successful solo debut under his first stage name "Andre Kandre" in 1969.
Start again
Despite the efforts, he couldn't achieve enough sales, and "Inoue" decided to stop his activity as "Andre Kandre" in 1970.
In 1972, he was invited from other record company, and debuted again in new stage name, "Yōsui Inoue".
Thanks to a smart promotion strategy implement by a new producer, "Inoue" gradually gained popularity, and the sales of his single records began to take off.
In fact, as some of the real time listeners, we felt strong impacts from his 2nd, 3rd, and 4th singles, namely,
- "Kasa-ga nai"
(No Umbrella, 2nd,1972) - "Yume-no naka-he"
(Into Our Dream, 3rd, 1973) - "Kokoro moyō"
(Images of the Heart, 4th, 1973)
Among them, the 3rd single, "Yume-no naka-he" became an amazing hit song as a non-mainstream popular music,
Kōri no sekai (A World of Ice)
His success with these single records set the stage for him to make the leap.
In December 1973, "Inoue" released a brand new album, "Kōri-no sekai".
This album was half recorded in London by inviting excellent musicians like, Ray Fenwick, John Gustafson, Pete Robinson, Ann Odell, or Nicky Harrison.
The musicians joined from Japan side were also superb, and achieved a great sound quality of this album.
The type of songs contained varies from simple &: quiet folk song, to exciting & gorgeous pop-rock, or progressive rock,l and achieving a very good balance as an album.
This well-made album caused a phenomenon. It remained in the top 10 in the charts for more than 100 weeks, and after 2 years from release, it achieved a million sale in 1975, for the first time in the history of Japanese popular music.
By this triumphant success, "Inoue" rocketed to stardom as one of the hottest singer song writers.
Clever
Since then, "Inoue" started a life as a leading singer-songwriter.
As is often the case for instant celebrities, he was also surrounded by a media frenzy.
But "Inoue" was clever enough. He kept himself away from such excitement until it calmed down, even in a strong pressure for him to appear. And continued to concentrate on creating music.
Eventually, his choice, such as being distant from media, had a positive impact on him, since it simply increased his mysticality, and attractiveness.
Influential
Since the release of this epoch making album, "Inoue" has released 16 studio, 4 live, 5 self-cover, and amazing 20 best albums constantly until today.
Among them, 1 self-cover album ("9.5 Carat") achieved another million sale in 1984. And surprisingly in 2003, his 2xCD best album "Golden Best", first released in 1999, became a double-million seller.
They are already great accomplishments which are hard to follow for other musicians.
But what's more important is perhaps the high standard which his music is always clearing.
That might be why other musicians respect him, and admire as legend.
As a song-writer
"Inoue" is not only writing songs for him to sing, but also he has been writing for other artists since the early '70s, though it's not like a full time writer.
The number of songs he has offered is not many, but some of them became well known hit tunes.
For example,
- Seri Ishikawa
- Dance-ha umaku odore-nai (Can't dance well, 1977)
- Yutaka Mizutani
- Harbor light (1977)
- Momoe Yamaguchi
- Crazy love (1980)
- Kenji Sawada
- Senaka-made 45 fun (45 min to her back, 1983)
- Anzen Chitai
- Wine-red no kokoro (Your heart in wine-red, 1984)
- Akina Nakamori
- Kazari-jya Naino-yo Namida-ha (Tears aren't just a frill, 1984)
- PUFFY
- Asia no junshin (Artlessness of Asia, 1996)
- Nagisani matsuwaru etc. (The etceteras associated with beach, 1997)
Yes. it is quite surprising but these famous hit songs are also his creation.
If you have a chance, please listen.
Recent
Even as "Inoue" reached his 70s in 2018, he is still actively holding concerts.
In 2019, "Inoue" celebrated his 50th debut anniversary. And in commemoration of it, "Inoue" planned and carried out a nationwide concert tour, consisted of 24 individual concerts, which were all held in different cities.
He named the tour, "Time flies like an arrow, Art is long, life is short - The 50th anniversary tour".
Very much like him isn't it?
In 2020, DVD and Blue-ray disk of the concerts were launched, and they are available at the moment.
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(Ref: yosui.jp,
profile)🇯🇵
Video clip
Finally, we would like introduce one of his well known hit song "Yume no naka-he" (Into Our Dream), originally released in 1973.
Bright, rhythmic, and lively pop song was launched as "Inoue"'s 3rd single record, and became his first smash hit.
And a notable success of this song might lead to a triumph on his 3rd album "Kōri no sekai" (The world of ice), a significant mile stone.
For more information about this song, please have a look at the references like here (jp.wikipedia.org 'Yume-no naka-he'), or here (Weekly Gendai, 27.05.2017).
This is a remastered version done by a famed American mastering engineer Ted Jensen, who is known by many mastering works including "Hotel California" by the Eagles.
The sound is a lot more modern compared with the original version by emphasizing high-tone range.
If you like, please listen.
Music Samples
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Amazon.co.jp(en)
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Apple Music(jp)
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Japanese Letters
| Song Title | 月が笑う(Tsuki ga warau) |
|---|---|
| Artist | 井上陽水(Yōsui Ino'ue) |
| Album Title | 二色の独楽(Nishoku no koma) |
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