Artist: Mako Ishino / 石野真子Title: Ookami Nanka Kowakunai /
狼なんか怖くない
Released: March 25, 1978
Oricon Peak Rank: 17
B-Side: ひとり娘
(download)
The Nippon Television Network talent show Star Tanjou! [スター誕生!] (A Star is Born!) has produced a significant number of highly successful singers that graced the Japanese charts during the 70s and 80s, two of them have been featured here in this blog: Hiromi Iwasaki , Akina Nakamori and Momoe Yamaguchi. We'll be looking at another one of the show's successful alumni: Mako Ishino.
Despite her homely appearance and slightly crooked teeth (Asian dentistry wasn't so great at the time), her cute image and decent singing (of a Japanese cover of a Danièle Vidal tune) won the judges over, among them the lyricist Yuu Aku, who would later pen the words to several of Mako's earlier songs. She signed onto the Victor Entertainment label and released her debut single "Ookami Nanka Kowakunai" ("I Ain't Afraid of Wolves"). The song is a breezy number playing up the metaphor of men as wolves in the game of love. As per habit for Japanese singing, the song had its own trademark moves, in this case Mako pursing her right hand to imitate a wolf's head when singing the chorus. Her singing character straddles between the voice of the typical pop teen voice and that of a feminine and mature woman, giving her the potential for versatility in song material that is not very common for most singers. Needless to say, her producers took advantage of that, the results we'll see when we get back around to her again later on.
(Hit Studio Night [夜のヒットスタジオ])
狼なんか怖くない (Ookami Nanka Kowakunai)
Music: Takuro Yoshida / 吉田拓郎
Lyrics: Yuu Aku / 阿久悠
あなたも狼に変わりますか
はじめてのルージュの色は
紅過ぎてはいけない
大人の匂いがするだけでいい
唇をすぼめたままで
くちづけは出来ない
鏡に向かってあれこれ思う
鼻が邪魔だと誰かがいってたわ
古いと映画の台詞(セリフ)だったかしら
あなたも狼に変わりますか
あなたが狼なら怖くない
あなたも狼に変わりますか
あなたが狼なら怖くない
ハイヒール両手に下げて
逃げたりしちゃいけない
片目をつぶって 見るだけでいい
あのひとはいいひとだから
傷つけたり出来ない
その日を思ってあれこれ悩む
熱が出るわと誰かがいってたわ
ヒットソングの言葉だったかしら
あなたも狼に変わりますか
あなたが狼なら怖くない
あなたも狼に変わりますか
あなたが狼なら怖くない
2 comments:
Was going over your blog and found this entry, man I love this song. But wanted to note that the translation of "Ookami nanka kowaku nai" doesn't means (Wolves, I fear). 'Nanka' is a Japanese word used to show contempt for something, sort of like the American English word 'ain't' So the translation would really be: "I ain't afraid of wolves" or "Wolves ain't scary" though the former sounds better to me than the latter.
Thanks for the correction Adam! Yeah, given I know little of the Japanese language a lot of what I understand is via translation sites so things can be pretty rough.
I'll make the correction.
Post a Comment