Mayumi Itsuwa 五輪 真弓 / Tabaco no Kemuri 煙草のけむり



...and now it's time for some blatant self-indulgent linking to stuff I find cool.

The reason for this particular link at this particular time has nothing to do with anything in the external world, but I happened to hear a folk rock song on TV the other day, which reminded me of the folk rock movement in Japan in the early 70s, which reminded me of this song.  Tabaco no Kemuri (煙草のけむり) by Mayumi Itsuwa (五輪 真弓).  And since I've been humming that song to myself for the past two days, I thought I'd just share it here just in case anyone else digs it.

Live TV version above.  Studio version with corny accompanying video below.



In my 2007 article on Japanese oldies, I wrote of the 1970s folk rock boom: This may come down to personal preference, but for my money this is when Japanese pop ceased being a cheesy rip off of the West and really came into it’s own.  And I'm still inclined to agree with myself.

(Note: I've actually linked to this song once before 7 years ago.  But, that was a long time ago, so I'm linking to it again.  Plus the original videos I first linked to are no longer available anyway.  In fact just about all the Japanese songs on Youtube I've linked to over the years have disappeared.  Only to pop up elsewhere on Youtube by different users.  It's a strange type of wack-a-mole game being played by copyright holders and Youtube uploaders.  Anyway, enjoy this video while it lasts.)