Credits

I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.

Sunday, February 25, 2018

Kuniko Fukushima -- Bye Bye City


After doing that article for an Akina Nakamori(中森明菜)song that singer-songwriter Kuniko Fukushima(福島邦子)had composed, I decided to see if there were any other tunes that the Okayama Prefecture-born artist herself had recorded.


Sure enough, I was able to find a fun one called "Bye Bye City" that she had released back in 1979 and was also a track on her debut album "I'm Ready" from June of that year. "Bye Bye City" has the feeling of a good road trip song as Fukushima sings about getting a fresh new start somewhere other than her old burg where her friends were drifting away. Fukushima's melody was paired with Takashi Matsumoto's(松本隆)lyrics.

I like the tune for that airy happy tone of 70s American AOR/pop and perhaps even a bit of New Wave through the keyboards especially in the intro. In a way, her voice reminds me of the delivery of Junko Ohashi(大橋純子)in a more down-home environment. I read on both her J-Wiki entry and the YouTube comments for the song that "Bye Bye City" was used as the campaign song for Nihon Car Ferry, now known as Marine Express Co.,Ltd.

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