[Bright & airy]
No.222 "Kuroi kami-ni hanabira" by Simons
Hi. The song we would like to introduce to you today is, "Kuroi kamini hanabira" (Gifting a flower leaf on your raven hair) by "Simons" ([simonzɯ], not [ˈsaɪmənz] .)
The hero image looks unseasonal. Because the song sings the heroine's memory of spring, but she remembered it the other day, possibly in the autumn.
This airy, sunny and elegant pop song was released by a women folk duo "Simons" in 1971 as one of the song in their debut album.
Bright & beautiful harmony of "Simons" is well known, and they are still popular even the original duo called time on its career in almost five decades ago.
According to our writer "Satsuma", "Simons" was a group that he became conscious of "Light & mellow" type pop music in his childhood.
He says "Simons" might be one of the buds, or emergences of "Light & mellow" group, while they were often categorised into "Folk song", because there were no other category name suit for their music at that time.
The songs of "Simons" is not yet such stylish nor urban like modern "Light & mellow". But we imagine you might pick up the hint of it.
If you like, please listen to.
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.
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Thank you.
Cover art today
Song data
| Title | Kuroi kamini hanabira(Gifting a flower leaf on your raven hair) |
|---|---|
| Artist | Simons |
| Album Title | Koibito-mo inainoni(While I am not in love with anyone) |
| Catalog Number | JRS-7152 |
| Track No. | 3 |
| Duration | 3:00 |
| Released | 1971 |
| Publisher | RCA |
| Lyricist | Yumiko Tanaka |
| Composer | Yumiko Tanaka |
| Arranger | Bob Sakuma |
About the creators
Yumiko Tanaka Lyricist & Composer
The Lyricist & composer of this song is "Yumiko Tanaka" (or Yumi Tanaka in stage name), and she is actually a member of "Simons".
So, We would like to come back to her in "About the artist" section later.
Bob Sakuma Arranger
"Bob Sakuma" is a composer, arranger, violinist, music director, and conductor active since 1968.
He is not only well known as a composer of modern classical music, but also eminent as a composer and arranger for theme songs of very popular TV anime series, or pop songs in the '70s.
Early times
As stated by some references, "Bob Sakuma" started to learn the violin and the piano at the age of four.
He took a music course at his high school. And after graduation, he joined "Tokyo Symphony Orchestra", a reputed private orchestra, as a violinist directly from school in 1967.
After few years, he left from the orchestra, and began to work as a Jazz pianist.
And at the same time, he started some creative activities as a music composer.
Became a popular composer & arranger
In 1972, one of the pop song he composed moved into the domestic final, at the large scale & international music contest, "Tokyo Music Festival".
And by this achievement, "Bob Sakuma" began to draw attention from professionals in Japanese music industry.
"Sakuma" started as a composer and arranger, and wrote, or arranged dozens of pop songs as well as soundtracks for various TV drama series and variety shows.
He also wrote theme musics for animated TV series in the '70s.
And he is still praised by anime fans as a composer of those theme musics, since those series were super popular at that time, and his melody was very impressive too, though he wrote just a few.
As a conductor
In 1977, "Sakuma" temporarily stopped all his works in Japan. And moved to the United States to explore his music further.
After eight years study in there, he returned to Japan in 1985, and started again as an extra boosted musician.
In 1995, "Sakuma" was invited from "The Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra", one of the most reputed orchestra based in Nagoya-city, as a conductor and music director of "Nagoya Philharmony Pops Orchestra" which is a Popular music section of Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra.
"Sakuma" accepted the offer, and played the role until 2012.
And gave a impressive public performance good many times in various venues during that 17 years.
Recent
"Sakuma" seems to be quite active, and performing as a conductor in various music concerts at the moment.
References
For more details on "Bob Sakuma", please have a look at the references linked below.
Song image & Lyrics
Open
Link to the lyrics
Some notes on the lyrics link
Sound impression
Thrilling & elegant
This song seems to be a sunny, thrilling, but elegant pop song in an upper middle tempo.
Idyllic, delicate, but dynamic
The Cembalo, Glockenspiel, bass, percussion, acoustic guitar, horn, and strings begin a bright, delicate, but thrilling introduction, then main part starts.
In the main section, the two vocalist begin to sing main phrase in unison, but later they move to sing in harmony.
In the bridge, the strings and the horn plays a pure and charming passage, and create an idyllic soundscape.
No drum set
Interestingly, this song seems to be played without drum set, though there is a minimum sound of percussion instrument. (like a snare drum playing with brush.)
And instead of the drum set, the electric bass, the strumming of two acoustic guitars, and minimum percussion instrument create bouncy and thrilling uptempo rhythm of this track.
So, the sound of its ensemble is natural, acoustic and idyllic, and seems to go well with maidenly harmony of the singers.
About the artist
Simons Beautiful harmony
"Simons" [simonzɯ] was a women folk duo active from 1971 to 1974 (original) formed by two female singers, namely "Yumi Tanaka" and "Tae Tamai".
They were one of the most prominent female folk duo in the '70s for their bright & beautiful harmony.
And the duo is still popular with not only the old fans, but also new fans, who have come to know songs of "Simons" through the internet.
Just for your information, "Simons" was once revived as new "Simons" from 1996 to 1999 (2nd season) by "Yumi Tanaka", by inviting "Mariko Aoki" of "Janets" as a new member.
But it seems there weren't any new single or album released from this team.
"Simons" (original) debuted in 1971 with a single, "Koibito-mo inainoni" (While I am not in love with anyone). Since then, 12 singles, and 4 original, and 9+(?) best albums have been released until now.
Early time
As stated by some references, A folk duo "Simons" was first formed as an amateur group by "Yumi Tanaka" and "Tae Tamai" when they were fellow students at high school in 1970.
As you imagined it, their group name "Simons" was named for a great American folk duo "Simon & Garfunkel".
Because, both "Tanaka" and "Tamai" were zealous fans of "S&G".
Public audition
"Tanaka" and "Tamai" of Simons began to sing covers of a very popular women folk duo "Betsy & Chris", because they were a good model for Simons as a folk duo.
And "Simons" started to perform in various live music venues in Kansai area where members were based at.
(Just for your information, "Betsy & Chris" was a female folk duo teamed up in Japan by American singers "Elizabeth Virginia Wagner" & "Christine Anne Rolseth" in 1969. And the duo was very popular in the early '70s.)
A beautiful harmony by "Tanaka" and "Tamai" charmed audience, and the duo swiftly grew to popularity even it was still an amateur group.
"Tanaka" and "Tamai" began to feel a good response, since "Kansai" was one of the centers of folk song in the early '70s, and the most competitive place for folk singers at that time.
"Tanaka" and "Tamai" of Simons decided to take part in a popular amateur band contest held by a popular radio program in Osaka.
They say there were few thousand contestants, since it was a fairly influential radio program.
Quite marvellously, "Simons" won first prize in the contest. The host of the contest, namely the radio station gave a unique privilege to "Simons" as a prize.
In other word, the broadcaster will set the winning song of "Simons" as the "Monthly song" of the program. And they will air that song everyday for one month in the program.
"Simons" soon became a popular duo among the listeners of the program. (Actually, AM radio was the most influential media particularly for the young in the early '70s.)
Naturally, a record company came from Tokyo to see "Tamai" and "Tanaka", and contract with them.
And "Tamai" and "Tanaka" were prompted to move to Tokyo for debuting, after graduating from high school.
Debut
After moving from Osaka to Tokyo in the spring of 1971, they began to prepare for debuting, by recording both the debut single and also the debut album.
And in August 1971, "Tamai" and "Tanaka" debuted as a women folk duo "Simons" with their first single, "Koibito-mo inainoni" (While I am not in love with anyone).
[C/W Furimuka-naide] Simons [2022] [Digital Single]
Smash hit
Bright, cute, fancy, and slightly sentimental pop song "Koibito-mo inainoni" (While I am not in love with anyone) sold surprising 0.6 million disks (single records), and became an unexpected smash hit.
Why this was a surprise? Because "Simons" debuted as a folk duo, and "Folk song" was a music genre which had far less potential audience compared with main stream pops in the early '70s.
In fact, "Folk song" at that time was somewhat advocative, self-conscious, cynical, or rough, and it had not been a music category for everyone yet.
But the song like this performed by "Simons" were charming enough to also attract young music fans who do not usually listen folk song.
We imagine that was why it became a surprise hit.
Popular folk duo
"Simons" released new singles in waves, and they were well received by many fans.
"Tamai" and "Tanaka" of "Simons" began to appear not only on music programs but also on variety shows on TV.
And their faces and beautiful harmony became familiar to TV viewers.
Take a break... suddenly
In 1974, "Simons" suddenly announced a temporary halt of their activity, even they were at the pinnacle of there career as a pop group.
Because one of the member "Tae Tamai" was about to get married with a rising male bassist.
In the early '70s, it was still quite common, or customary that women stop, or give up their career upon their marriage, and often called "Happy marriage retirement".
Maybe it was a sort of silent social pressure for gender role at that time.
In fact, not a few of female singers or artists chose to follow this custom in the '60s and '70s, like "Tamai" did.
Restart
At no distant date, "Yumi Tanaka", the other member of "Simons", also got married.
In contrast to, "Tae Tamai"'s case, "Yumi Tanaka" resumed her music activity, and started again as a solo singer.
Since then "Tanaka" has been continuing her career in music industry until now.
In 1996, "Tanaka" formed new "Simons" with "Mariko Aoki", a former member of folk duo "Janets" in the '70s, and started to sing mainly the songs of "Simons" with "Aoki".
"Tanaka" & "Mariko Aoki" continued New "Simons" until 2007. But they had to stop the activity at that point of time, perhaps because both members were getting busy for individual activities.
Recent
In July 2009, "Yumi Tanaka" cerebrated 40 years anniversary of "Simons" at her concert in Osaka.
Former member "Tae Tamai" also joined as a guest singer, and sang some songs of "Simons" together, for the first time in 35 years.
In the same year, "Yumi Tanaka" announced that she would internally put an end to Simons, as her stance.
She made a fresh start as a solo singer, and is holding concerts in various venues actively.
Albums & music
One of the amazing things about the folk duo "Simons" is the number of greatest hits album released so far.
At least 10 (we believe) different issues of best-of album have been released fairly constantly since the early '70s.
Actually, the active period of original "Simons" was only for four years. And the number of studio album released was also just four.
In spite of those facts, few variety of greatest hits albums of Simons are still on sale, and renewed regularly.
Because there are demands.
If you look at the music clips of "Simons" being uploaded on Youtube, you might notice that some music videos have been viewed more than a million times.
Indeed, this is a marvellous episode, since original "Simons" has stopped their activity 50 years ago.
Seemingly, not only older fans but also new or young fans are buying or listening to the lovely songs of "Simons".
In the modern world, there aren't any songs like Simons's which are lovely, pure, and elegant.
And in addition to that, the harmony of Simons is so shiny & beautiful, and liked by diverse listeners.
Even in the '70s, Simons was group one step ahead of others in the same category, in terms of the quality and quantity of the songs. (Of course, each groups had their own uniqueness though.)
Regrettably, there are no equivalent group in modern Japan at all, because of many reasons.
We imagine there is a silent, but fairy stable cluster of fans beyond generation, who prefer the music like this.
That maybe why the songs of "Simons" are still popular.
For light & mellow fans, we would like to recommend songs in first and second albums for your first choice, since they are less folky but more elegant and refined.
If you like, please give them a try.
References
For more details about "Simons" & "Yumi Tanaka", please have a look at the references linked below.
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(Ref: www.aoki-mariko.com,
Mariko Aoki profile)🇯🇵
Video clip
You can find music clips of today's song on Youtube.
Please search the music video by inputting the artist name "Simons" and the song title "Kuroi kamini hanabira" at the site.
There are many other songs of Simons have al uploaded on Youtube. So, if you like, please have a look.
But due to copyright concerns, we would like to refrain from putting links to them on this article.
There aren't any music clip of Simons we can link at the moment.
So, we would like to introduce an interview video to "Yumi Tanaka" instead of them.
If you like, please have a look at her face, which look incredibly young.
Music Samples
3
(試聴する)
AD: Listening samples (Free)
Amazon JP(en)
recochoku.jp
music.apple.com (Track No.3)
Japanese Letters
| Song Title | 黒い髪に花びら(Kuroi kamini hanabira) |
|---|---|
| Artist | シモンズ(Simons) |
| Album Title | 恋人もいないのに(Koibito-mo inainoni) |
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