"Wine Red no Kokoro" by Anzen Chitai
WHO-ARE: "Anzen Chitai (安全地帯, literally "Safety Zone") is a Japanese rock band, formed in 1973 by five musicians in Asahikawa, Hokkaidō, Japan. It debuted in 1982 in Tokyo, Japan. They became one of Japan's most successful rock bands in the 1980s.". (Wiki)
The discography is vast, and quite frankly most of the tunes found on YT were somewhat foreign to me, except for their 1984-track "Wine Red no Kokoro (ワインレッドの心)" (from their album "Anzenchitai 2" - 25/11/1983) - immediately recognisable, but I have failed to remember WHERE it was exactly when I saw or heard the song. Multiple incarnations have been posted in this feature, from audio only, to MV, to live performances and Lyrics Videos, so do bear with me.
Back in the 80s, there were no local radio airplay (that I know of), nor existed a "MTV" (*Even though MTV started 1981, we didn't get it on our free-to-air channels back in the day, before the advent of "cable television"), or even "Listening Booths" (from the 90s where I snagged a ton more albums from folks I have not heard of or from) ... with the only suspect being a annual "Red & White" song festival on broadcast television, that Singapore would air. I have found no recorded trace of that online, so I'd decided to let that slide and be a unanswered memory.
I remembered liking two JPOP-themed groups in the 80s - alongside my British New Wave contemporaries - with a focus on THE CHECKERS more (as visually they were more appealing to be on my montaged hand-held folder for school), while ANZEN CHITAI were the "underdog" which I realized very quickly none of my own contemporaries (aka "school mates") listened to, and being the awkward insecure adolescent teenager then (as if much has changed since lol), I somewhat buried my liking for them.
WHO-IS: "The Checkers (Japanese: チェッカーズ) was a very popular Japanese band in the 1980s. They were a pop icon of their time as kids copied hair styles and fashion of the band members."
None too ironically decades later, it would be ANZEN CHITAI's "Wine Red no Kokoro (ワインレッドの心)" that would be the tune I remembered, while listening to songs from The Checkers on YT, served up zero recollections lol
This single song is a reminder of an age where I abandoned what I loved and enjoyed, to make myself fit into what others expected of what is "cool". And I followed that path for decades, until I grew confident and quite frankly protective of my own tastes and preferences - in this case for music - finding opportunities to join up with folks for particular genres, and even avoided folks who disagreed with my music preferences (which I've never understood how listening to certain music made me "weird" or "less than" OMFG lol) but hardly found anyone who shared all that I liked, not that it would be an achieveable thing, as everyone's preferences and influences differ, of course.
I sit alone now in my continuing mid-life music journey, sonically content to share to the void my Soundtracks to Life and have since come to terms with that, without beating or blaming myself of that. Listening to this track, as I type all of these was strangely and decisively empowering, a grand witness to its enduring legacy, at least in my song-book!
Years later, I would chance upon lead singer Koji Tamaki's solo album, and would remain my sole album purchase from the legend. We'll take a listen to that soon, meanwhile, here is a selection of Anzen Chitai broadcast TV appearances+performances :)
0:00 愛にDESPERATE
0:22 愛の水中花
0:32 私はピアノ
0:51 Love is over
1:11 Summer Eyes
1:30 悲しみにさよなら
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