[Light & refreshing]
No.205 "Kitchen Bed" by Yūko Yamaguchi
Hi. Today's song is "KITCHEN BED" by "Yūko Yamaguchi".
This is a light, airy and refreshing pop song performed by a singer-songwriter "Yūko Yamaguchi".
"Yamaguchi"'s songs are in a sense unique in terms of its combination of direct & impressive words, and light and gentle melody. This song might also go into the same "Yamaguchi" world we suppose.
If you like, please listen to.
Regarding today's song title, "KITCHEN BED", frankly, we are not quite sure what it means.
It is really a fascinating name, but might not be a bed?? So, we are guessing it is possibly a "Meal in bed" like thing. (could be wrong...)
If you know something, please tell us about it.
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 continuously 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 | KITCHEN BED |
|---|---|
| Artist | Yūko Yamaguchi |
| Album Title | |
| Catalog Number | PHCL-5126 |
| Track No. | 1 |
| Duration | 3:22 |
| Released | 1999 |
| Publisher | |
| Lyricist | |
| Composer | |
| Arranger |
About the creators
Yūko Yamaguchi Lyricist & composer
The Lyricist & composer "Yūko Yamaguchi" is also a singer of this song.
So, We would like to come back to (her) in "About the artist" section later.
Robin Eaton & Brad JonesArrangers
So far, we haven't found the name of the arranger for this song.
But we guess the arrangers of this song might be Robin Eaton & Brad Jones, American musicians, since they were the producer for this album.
Alex the Great Studios
Robin Eaton & Brad Jones are both musician, and also joint owners of their "Alex the Great" recording Studios in Nashville, in the United States.
According to some references, it seems they are not just owners of the studio, but more actively involving in the recordings of various artists, as producers, musicians or recording engineers.
For more details, please see the references linked below.
With Yūko Yamaguchi
It is not so clear why Jones & Eaton began to participate in Yūko Yamaguchi's recording. But they first became producers for Yamaguchi on her 5th album "Fessey Park Rd." in 1998.
They tagged again on the 7th album "Garage".
That is the one we are introducing today.
Song image & Lyrics
Open
Link to the lyrics
Copyright notice on the lyrics link
Sound impression
Sound impression
This is a light, warm, and flowing pop song in comfortable rhythm.
Acoustic flavor
The drums, bass, acoustic guitar, percussion, and mixed backing chorus begins joyful & refreshing introduction.
In the main part, the electronic organ, and a rhythm box also join and add characters.
Rhythmic strumming of the 2 acoustic guitars, and beautiful backing chorus accompany, and support the singer from the beginning to the end.
Reference
About Google translate
About the artist
Yūko YamaguchiIdol turned singer-songwriter
"Yūko Yamaguchi" is a singer, songwriter, and used to be an idol star active since 1987.
She is known as a good example of an "idol star" -turned- "singer songwriter" in the '90s.
As a solo singer, "Yūko Yamaguchi" debuted in 1988 with a single, "Ikusen-no namida-wo okuritai" (I wish to gift thousands of teardrops of mine to you). Since then, 18 singles, and 9 original, and 2 best albums have been released until now.
(Ref: Wikipedia-en, Yūko Yamaguchi)
Early times
According to Wikipedia, "Yūko Yamaguchi" is originated from "Shikoku", a southern island of Japan.
In 1987, she entered a talent scout contest titled "The 1st Young Magazine Idol-gumi Contest" held by a popular weekly Young Adult comic, "Young Magazine" (Caution: A picture of a woman in Bikini appears).
About 10,000 contestants competed in the contest. And 3 Lucky girls, including "Yūko Yamaguchi" eventually won the Grand Prix.
A-Cha
The 3 winners were requested to form a new idol group from a talent agency.
And in December 1987, they are debuted as a 3-piece idol group "A-Cha" with their first single, "Oita-na fifteen" (naughty fifteen. "Oita" is basically a nursery word for "Mischief". But convey different nuances depending on the usage.)
The group had been active just as same as many other idol groups like themselves, Like appearing on TV varieties, magazines, or acting in a movie.
But in 1988, after released their 2nd single, "Honey Moon", their activity as a group virtually stopped, since the members began to act as solo.
Solo debut
"Yūko Yamaguchi" too, she released her first single, "Sen-no namida-wo okuritai" (I wish to gift thousands of teardrops of mine to you) in December 1988, and started new career as a solo singer.
Actually, this was a opening theme for the last portion of an action movie series, "Be-Bop high school", which "Yamaguchi" also performed as a heroine.
Since then, "Yūko Yamaguchi" continue to release few singles & albums as an idol star, until mid '90s.
Singer-songwriter
While "Yamaguchi" was singing as an idol star, all the songs prepared for her were basically written by professional lyricists & composers.
But in April 1994, she released a new single with her original songs on both side, for the first time in her life as a singer.
This was a beginning of her new career as a singer-songwriter.
And finally in September 1994, "Yamaguchi"s 3rd album, "Shiawase-no mitsuke-kata" (How to find happiness) was released.
On this album. "Yamaguchi" wrote almost all (except for 1 song) songs by herself, and it became a memorable first album for her as a singer, as well as a songwriter.
This album was actually "Very good", and it caused a little bit of surprise among fans, since they didn't know her such talent.
Fans clearly became aware of her ability for writing songs, and also understood what kind of music she had been wishing to perform.
Smash hit
After that, "Yamaguchi" began to release singles and albums a lot more constantly.
And quite luckily, her single records were often selected as TV series theme songs, or commercial jingles.
Thanks to those good fortunes, the music and name of "Yūko Yamaguchi" became known as a singer-songwriter.
In Feb 1999, "Yamaguchi"'s 14th single, "believe" was launched.
This, a little sentimental piano ballad, was also selected as a theme music for a popular TV drama series, "Over Time".
The song attracted a lot of new fans and became a smash hit.
And "Yamaguchi" gained recognition as a remarkable singer by this success.
Her own pace
Even after this joyful achievement, "Yamaguchi" continued to release fine original albums at least until 2001.
Perhaps due to many reasons, "Yamaguchi"s new album has not been released after her 8th full album, "Hotel Scandinavia" in 2001.
But as far as we can see, she is continuing music activities in her own pace according to her blog.
We are hoping to listen to her new album in the near future.
-
(Ref: ameblo.jp,
Yuko Yamaguchi blog)🇯🇵
Video clip
We looked for nice music video related to "Yūko Yamaguchi", but couldn't find any. Sorry about that.
If we happen to discover a good music clip, we would like to quickly update this section.
On Youtube, there are dozens of videos of "Yūko Yamaguchi", but today's song "Kitchen Bed" does not seems to be covered.
Any way, If you like, please check.
Music Samples
11
(試聴する)
Today's album "Garage" is not really available in the market place at the moment. Then, we would like to introduce one of her best albums instead of it.
The digital version of the best album is available from several on-line music stores, and the track No. will be 11.
AD: Listening samples (Free)
Amazon JP(en)
mu-mo.net
music.apple.com (Track No.1)
Japanese Letters
| Song Title | KITCHEN BED |
|---|---|
| Artist | 山口由子(Yūko Yamaguchi) |
| Album Title | GARAGE |
Comments