[Breezy Bossa]
No.203 "Sayonara tricolor" by Miyoko Nagao
Hi. Today's song is "Sayonara tricolor" (Good-bye tricolor) by "Miyoko Nagao".
This is a gentle & breezy Bossa Nova song released by a mysterious singer "Miyoko Nagao" in 1981.
Not only this song, but a whole album is well reflecting an atmosphere of the young who were dreaming of a bit luxury & refined life style at that time, such as enjoying yachting in posh resort.
If you like, please listen to.
Drying up sample links
Listening samples for this song is vanishing away. So we hurried up posting this song.
Please check the music sample, while it is still available. The link is located in "Samples from online music stores" section.
(On Youtube, You can still find some music clips of this song though.)
The 2014 reissued CD, contains today's song, is still purchasable from on line music shop "Tower ecords".
If you like, please also check.
Mysterious singers
Even "Miyoko Nagao" has left an excellent album, her profile is not known, and even searched, it remains vague.
It is just an impression, but from the late '70s to the mid '80s, there were more singers, or groups like "Nagao" who's songs are well-known, but their profiles remains unclear.
We often call those artists "Mysterious singers" due to their shadowy profiles, but what social conditions of that time generated such singers in that particular period?. It might be an interesting question.
Since the information about "Miyoko Nagao" is very limited, we had some space to fill. Then we also looked at the above point, and wrote a bit of our thought also in "About the artist" section.
If you like, please have a look.
A link to a music shop, offering song sample, is 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.
If you find anything odd, please kindly let us know.
Thank you.
Cover art today
Song data
| Title | Sayonara tricolor |
|---|---|
| Artist | Miyoko Nagao |
| Album Title | |
| Catalog Number | NCS-10080 |
| Track No. | 6 |
| Duration | 4:12 |
| Released | 1981 |
| Publisher | |
| Lyricist | |
| Composer | |
| Arranger |
About the creators
Kyōko Matsumiya Lyricist
"Kyōko Matsumiya" is a Lyricist active since the late '70s.
She has written many lyrics mainly for female singers, and idol stars in Japanese popular song field.
Short Bio.
There aren't much information about the early time of her. But according to Wikipedia, "Matsumiya" entered a "Yamaha Popular song contest", a famous & prestigious popular song competition for amateur, as a songwriter in 1975. And presented a cute, but inspiring environmental message song "Willy-will" (the name of the fairy of green leaves, appearing in the song).
Her song "Willy-will" won a prize in the contest, together with a great song like "Jidai"(days, years) of "Miyuki Nakajima", which won a grand prix in the same heat.
And thanks to this wonderful achievement, "Matsumiya" started her career as a songwriter, but mainly as a lyricist.
As a professional
"Kyōko Matsumiya" has written many pop songs quite a few of popular young female idol stars in the '70s & '80s, like,
etc, etc.
And around the mid '80s, "Matsumiya" also began to write songs for TV anime series. And in relation to this, she also offered many lyrics to some of shining female voice actors, for example,
For more information, please have a look at the Wikipedia page of "Kyōko Matsumiya"
Kayoko Ono Composer
"Kayoko Ono" is the composer of this song.
"Ono" is a famous singer-songwriter in the '70s who won the grand prix in "The 13th Yamaha Popular Song Contest" in 1977.
But she is perhaps more well known as the only Pop-Con grand prix winner who didn't debut as a professional singer, even the debuting had been guaranteed by the promoter. (She chose to be an English teacher, than a pop-singer. And went to the US for studying.)
A talented pop singer, not debuted
As the winner of The 13th Yamaha Popular Song Contest, "Kayoko Ono" had been guaranteed to debut as a professional singer-songwriter.
As a convention for grand prix winner, she recorded 2 original songs to prepare for a release of the debut single. But at the end of the day, she decided not to debut as a singer, but chose to go to abroad for study.
They say "Ono" married in the US and has been living there.
And also playing music with her families as an amateur, according to an article in someone's web site.
5 songs for Nagao
As long as we see, today's is one of the only few albums which "Kayoko Ono" has been credited as a songwriter.
(She released no record at all under her own name.)
Therefore, writing 5 songs for 1 album is quite an exception.
Someone says, "Kayoko Ono" had some sympathy with "Miyoko Nagao", since their music style were closer.
That might be why "Ono" provided rare 5 songs for her.
Anyway, we think "Miyoko Nagao" was lucky, since she was one of the rarest singer who were able to perform the songs of "Kayoko Ono", a legendary songwriter.
Video clip
Maybe you can find a few video clips of her on Youtube, if you search for her name on that site.
If you like, please check.
Takayuki Hirano Arranger
Takayuki Hirano is a popular arranger & pianist active since the early '80s.
"Hirano" has arranged hundreds of songs of various Pop singers, but particularly deeply involved in the album production of the artists originated from, or related to "YAMAHA music foundation".
Short Bio.
As usual, there aren't much information about the musicians like "Hirano" who is primarily a dedicated arranger.
But as long as we see, "Hirano" already became one of the second place winners in "The 10th Yamaha Popular Song Contest" in 1976, as a composer.
The 10th contest seems to be one of the most competitive round in the series, since the winner was "Miyuki Nakajima", and many known names were appearing as contestants.
"Hirano" seems to have gotten a music related job at "Yamaha music" in the late '70s.
In 1979, "Hirano" become a support member of "Chage & Aska" as a keyboardist. From this point, "Hirano" began to support the duo quite closely.
In 1982, "Hirano" participated in a production of a new album of "COSMOS", a 3-piece female pop keyboard instrumental group, as one of the arrangers.
"COSMOS" was a very popular band in the Japanese Fusion scene in the early '80s.
"COSMOS" is also known as the group which a popular Jazz keyboardist "Keiko Matsui" (or Keiko Doi, maiden name) originated from.
As an arranger
Since then, "Hirano" supported many artists, mainly "Yamaha" related, as an arranger.
The names like "Chage & Aska", "Yūko Ishikawa", "Hiroko Taniyama", "Haruhi Aiso", "George Yanagi", "Asuka", "Aming" or "Hiromi Iwasaki" are among them.
Video clip
Lastly, we would like to introduce a small video clip of "Takayuki Hirano", playing the piano in a session with a Japanese born, rare string instrument, "Violyre".
Since around the mid 2000s, "Hirano" is supporting an album production of a singer-songwriter "Hiromi Katsura".
"Katsura" is also a player of the rare instrument, "Violyre", (say a hybrid of the steel guitar x violin, made of wood).
About "Violyre"
The "Violyre" is originated from a string instrument "Taishō-goto", which was born in Japan in 1912, as a smaller variation of traditional "Koto" harp.
In 2001, a Japanese musical instruments company "Yamaha" remodelled the "Taishō-goto" by applying solid body and electronic pickups to it instead of an acoustic chamber.
"Yamaha" launched the new instrument as the "Violyre", and began to sell them in the market. It was the start of the history of the "Violyre".
The appearance of "Violyre is like a compact "Koto". But is playable like the viola (by bow), or mandolin (by pick or fingers), or even like the Cimbalom, if played by striking sticks.
"Katsura" recorded an instrumental track on her album, which she was playing "Violyre" with accompaniment of the acoustic piano played by "T.Hirano".
She played "Violyre" with bow at this time. Then, the basic sound character is like the elegant string instrument Viola or Cello. But interestingly, it also has a noticeable exotic or oriental nuance.
If you like, please listen to.
Song image & Lyrics
Open
Link to the lyrics
Copyright notice on the lyrics link
Sound impression
Elegant & breezy
This is a cute, elegant and breezy nice Bossa Nova song in a relaxed middle speed.
Calm atmosphere
The strings, classical guitar, semi-acoustic guitar, Glockenspiel, acoustic piano, and piccolo flute begin a breezy and elegant introduction.
In the main melody, the classical guitar, and the electronic piano (Rhodes Piano?) with mellow tone gently accompany with a shiny vocal of "Miyoko Nagao".
In the latter part of this song, there are many tricky & high technique chorus works. Self over dub, female backing chorus, mixed chorus work... There may be more than 6 singers performing as backing chorus.
Reference
About Google translate
About the artist
Miyoko NagaoA mirage like singer
"Miyoko Nagao" is a singer & songwriter who was active only for a limited period in the early '80s.
"Nagao" did not release many records, nor almost never appearing on the mass media. So today, the information about her is scarce, and her profile remains obscure. Even the album she left has often been praised as a pearl of city-pop.
People, (or at least ourselves), often call a singer like her a "Mysterious singer". And we have an impression that the "Mysterious singers" are often found from the singers, or groups debuted from the late '70s to the mid '80s.
As lightly touched also in "Greeting" section, we thought a bit about the reasons why more of "mysterious singers" are found from that particular period, and what was the background?
So, we would like to refer to that point as well, just after the introduction of "Miyoko Nagao"'s profile in this section. Since information about her is very limited.
If you like, please have look.
Miyoko Nagao debuted in 1981 with a single, "Sayonara tricolor" (Good-bye tricolor). Since then, 1 single, and 1 original album have been released until now.
By the way, her only album "Miyoko Rivage" (1981) has been reissued by "Tower records" in CD format in 2014, as one of their "Light Mellow's Picks" series.
(Ref: Wikipedia-en, Miyoko Nagao)
About Miyoko Nagao
Indeed, the information about the singer "Miyoko Nagao" is limited.
According to the stories on some websites, "Miyoko Nagao" came from the western side of Kyushu island, and grown in an urban city in Kansai, which is famous as a residential area where the rich families prefer to live.
So, it is often said that "Miyoko Nagao" is a daughter of a wealthy family. But there are no trustable reference as long as we have checked.
"Nagao"'s musical background, and her activities before debut are not known.
But in August 1981, while she was a student of a college in Kansai, "Miyoko Nagao" debuted as a Pop-singer by releasing her first single, "Sayonara tricolor" from "Invitation" label.
Actually, this is the song we are introducing today.
In September 1981, soon after the release of her first single, "Nagao" released excellent first album, "Miyoko Revage", which was recorded by having a strong supports from various talented music creators.
And In February 1982, "Nagano"s 2nd single "Bonjour Koi (Hello Love) was launched. And this seems to have been the last record she released so far.
After that, there are no information about her music activities. Seemingly, she has not been doing music as a professional at the moment.
Gorgeous creators
Leaving a topic about "Nagao"s shady profile aside, her first album "Miyoko Revage" is actually a jolly good album.
It is understandable that the album is often praised as a "pearl of city-pop" by music fans.
A remarkable fact on this album is a gorgeous line-up of the creative team members.
Many of the prominent music creators & players, like "Shigeru Suzuki", "Yoshiko Miura", "Tatsuo Hayashi", or "Chūei Yoshikawa" were taking part in both song-writing team, and backing team.
In addition to that, an urban legend like singer-songwriter, "Kayoko Ono", who won the grand prix at "Yamaha Pop-con", but didn't debut, has written exceptional 5 songs for this album.
"Ono" wrote only a dozen plus songs during her brief active period in the early '80s. So, in this sense too, "Miyoko Revage" is a precious album.
List of the members
The song creators & musician participated in this album (Miyoko Rivage) are as follows. (The numbers in () are track numbers.)
- Lyricists
- Chizuru Matsunaga(1), Miyoko Nagao(1,2), Yoshiko Miura(3,4,5), Kyōko Matsumiya(6), Kayoko Ono(7-10)
- Composers
- Chizuru Matsunaga(1), Yasuhiro Kido(2), Tetsuji Hayashi(3), Yasuhiro Abe(4,5), Kayoko Ono(6-10)
- Arrangers
- Shigeru Suzuki(1,4,5,7,8), Ichizō Seo(2), Tetsuji Hayashi(3), Takayuki Hirano(6), Hiromoto Tobisawa(9,10)
- Drums
- Yūichi Togashiki, Hideo Yamaki, Tatsuo Hayashi, Eiji Shimamura
- Bass
- Shigeru Okazawa, Tsugutoshi Gotō
- Keyboard
- Nobuo Kurata, Hiroshi Shibui, Haruo Togashi
- E.Guitar
- Shigeru Suzuki, Masaki Matsubara
- Acoustic Guitar
- Chūei Yoshikawa, Toshiaki Usui
- Percussion
- Motoya Hamaguchi, Pecker
- Saxophone
- Jake H. Concepcion
- Chromatic harmonica
- Nobuo Yagi
- Chorus
- Yasuhiro Abe, Hiroshi Narumi, Tomotsugu Hosokawa, Buzz, Eve
What a gorgeous members!
Commitment
We imagine that no small amount of budget was prepared for asking these leading writers & musicians to join.
Actually, it might be fair to call this recording as luxurious & ambitious one. And from this fact, we presume that the music agency, namely "Yamaha music foundation", had committed to promote "Miyoko Nagao" as a star singer.
So, "Nagao" was definitely not one of them for "Yamaha".
"Asami Kado"
In "Yamaha", there was a female pop singer "Asami Kado" in the early '80s.
"Kado" was very popular with her light, mellow, stylish and a bit alluring urban Pop songs, and regarded as one of the leading artists in the category.
On the other hand, she was also famous as a "Mysterious singer". Since her personal profile remained obscure, and she almost never appeared on mass media, except for only one local radio program, which she was a personality.
(You can see the "profile of "Kado" on Wikipedia now a days. But we think such information was not really available at that time if we remember.)
Different from the singers in main stream pops (say "Kayō-kyoku") category, not opening up personal history or private, is not so unusual for the singers taking an "artistic" stance.
Mysterious singer
This is just our imagination, but judging from the taste of music of "Miyoko Nagao", "Yamaha" was hoping "Nagao" to be a singer like "Asami Kado".
That was why the way of promotion for her was similar to "Kado". Just an imagination though.
But in 1982, "Miyoko Nagano" decided to stop singing for unknown reasons. And silently left from the popular music scene.
It must be a very sad happening for "Yamaha", since "Nagano" was showing a high potential as a pop singer.
In this way, "Nagao" walked off the stage. And her profile remained unclear.
Historical & social backdrop
"Miyoko Nagao" might be one of the typical cases. But we have an impression that the "Mysterious singers" like "Nagao" were not very rare, particularly in the period from the late '70s to the mid '80s, and it might be true.
We just thought about the reason why more "Mysterious singers" were born in that particular period. And came to notice few facts from the historical & social backdrop at that time.
If we try to summarise, the things we noticed are,
- Thriving, and therefore proactive music industry
- Wider selection of careers
- No internet
Proactive music industry
Thanks to the expanding Japanese economy, music business was also doing very well in the late '70s, and the industry was enjoying a prosperity.
Naturally, considerable amount of money and opportunities were flowed into the industry, and it magnetized a lot of talented musicians, engineers, music creators, and young amateurs with high potentials.
In this situation, the music industry too became enthusiastic to discover new talents. And actually found many.
And, Once they find an amateur with high potential, record companies & music agencies were happy to spend more than enough amount of money for their debuting, and supportive promotion.
As a result, really wide variety of musicians, or singers were given the opportunity in this period.
As you would rightly expect, they were not always very successful. Since some were a little too unique, and some were really too ahead of the times, and couldn't get a favourable result in those days.
But interestingly in recently, we sometime come across the case, but some songs of those singers are "re-discovered" by new fans, and occasionally achieve a revival hit.
It's a really joyful news, because the artists finally won a fair evaluation after more than 30 years from the release of those songs.
The thing is, a lot of information related to the artists has been lost during this 3 decades. Then, they ended up to be called as "Mysterious singers", willingly or not.
Wider selection of careers
In the early '80s, Japanese economy was also thriving, and it provided surprisingly wide selection of job for younger generation.
In such social circumstances, even singers, or musicians could feel free to choose different career if they wish, since there were no apparent barrier at all.
We presume quite a few of "Mysterious singers" took this route.
No internet
And this might be the most important factor, but there was no internet in the world in the early '80s.
This allowed keeping your private & profile from public eyes.
In the modern world, wherever you go, whatever you do, whoever you are, everything will be reported on the internet by unknown someones, if you are a public figure.
So, in a sense, No-internet environment was providing people a space to hide, and allowing you to return back to an ordinary person.
It might be a precious thing we have lost.
Closing
Because the information about "Miyoko Nagao" was so scarce, we briefly looked at the reasons why the "Mysterious singers" like her, whose profile remained obscure was born, and what was the back ground.
And we also learned an interesting aspect of the early '80s, through writing this article.
Since this is not a simple issue, our explanation might not have been sufficient, we presume. But hope, we have communicated the fact that there are multiple reasons behind.
Thank you for reading.
Video clip
We couldn't find a good music clip for this post. Then we would like to leave this section blank for the time being.
For all that, some music clips of "Miyoko Nagano" can be found if you search for her name on Youtube.
Just for your information.
Music Samples
6
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Japanese Letters
| Song Title | さよならトリコロール(Sayonara tricolor) |
|---|---|
| Artist | 永尾美代子(Miyoko Nagao) |
| Album Title | 美代子・リバージュ(Miyoko, Rivage) |
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