STEEM RADIO Haruomi Hosono, Shigeru Suzuki and Tatsuro Yamashita's 1978 Pacific Part 1 of 4

Hello fellow steemians!!

Today I will initiate my musical blog with the first part of a four part post and I would like to talk to you a bit about this 1978 masterpiece called...

First of all let me familiarize you a bit with the major artists involved:

HARUOMI (HARRY) HOSONO 1947

He is best known internationally as a member of the rock band Happy End and the electronic titans Yellow Magic Orchestra with Yukihiro Takahashi and Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Like that waren´t enough he also released many solo albums covering a vast variety of styles, including film soundtracks and a variety of electronic ambient albums.

As well as recording his own music, Hosono has done considerable production work for other artists such as Miharu Koshi, Sheena and the Roketts, Sandii & the Sunsetz, Chisato Moritaka and Seiko Matsuda.

SHIGERU SUZUKI 1951

Fellow band member along with Hosono, Ohtaki and Matsumoto in Happy End.
Impressive session musician! An authentic jack of all trades.

Before joining Happy End in 1969, Suzuki was in a band called Sky with Tatsuyo Hayashi and Ray Ohara (Sadistic Mika Band).

When Happy End disbanded in 1972, Suzuki and Haruomi Hosono formed Caramel Mama with Hayashi, Masataka Matsutoya and Hiroshi Sato in 1973. They changed their name to Tin Pan Alley a year later.

Suzuki released his first solo album, Band Wagon which was recorded in Los Angeles with musicians from notable acts such as Little Feat, Santana and Sly and the Family Stone, in 1975.

TATSURO YAMASHITA 1953

In my opinion Yamashita is a monster!

In every album of his that I listened too he manages to provide at least 5 or 6 monster tracks!
Awesome groove and baseline and that voice!
Oh god that voice.

In 1973, Yamashita formed the band Sugar Babe with musicians including Taeko Onuki and Kunio Muramatsu, and released their sole album Songs two years later.

After the group disbanded in 1976, Yamashita signed to RCA and launched his own career, with release of the solo album Circus Town.

That same year he teamed up with Eiichi Ohtaki, who was the producer of Sugar Babe, and brief Sugar Babe member Ginji Ito to release an album titled Niagara Triangle Vol. 1.

The collaboration was cited by MTV as one of the six Japanese supergroups that changed the history of Japanese music.

When his 1979 award-winning album Moonglow gained moderate success, Yamashita rose to fame.

In 1980, his song "Ride on Time" peaked at #3 on the Japanese Oricon, and the same-titled album topped the chart subsequently.

As a solo artist, Yamashita has released 17 studio albums, 2 live albums, multiple compilations and over 40 singles.

He has been one of the most commercially successful Japanese male solo recording artists in the history of the Japanese album chart, selling approximately 9 million albums in total.

He has also composed for films and television commercials, and worked on records by other artists.

BONUS: RYUICHI SAKAMOTO 1952

Master Sakamoto transcended both his two band members as well as the rest of the scene as he became a more versatile more complete artist.

Musician, composer, record producer, pianist, activist, writer, actor and dancer

During and after YMO he concurrently pursued a solo career, releasing the experimental electronic fusion album Thousand Knives (1978), and later released the pioneering album B-2 Unit (1980), from which "Riot in Lagos" influenced the development of electro and hip hop music.

He went on to produce more solo records, collaborate with many international artists, and pursue a wide variety of projects, in different genres ranging from electronic to classical and world music.

He composed music for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics opening ceremony, and his composition "Energy Flow" (1999) was the first instrumental number-one single in Japan's Oricon charts history.

As a film composer, he has won an Academy Award, BAFTA, Grammy, and two Golden Globe Awards, and has received three BAFTA nominations and four Golden Globe nominations.

I mean it´s just plain genius joint together to make a masterpiece. Some of you may not like it, may find it sometimes corny or cheesy or idunno plain stupid.

Just give it a close hear and notice all the virtuoso details.

First track on the album is Hosono's :

Watch Haruomi Hosono, Shigeru Suzuki & Tatsuro Yamashita - 1978 - Pacific - Last Paradise video on DTube

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Drums – Yukihiro Takahashi
Guitar – Hirofumi Tokutake
Keyboards, Piano, Percussion – Ryuichi Sakamoto
Percussion – Shigeya Hamaguchi
Written By, Bass, Keyboards – Haruomi Hosono

I imagine myself just waking up to this in the morning, make a smoothie or a juice and just hit the beach and slack off all day.
Just watch the clouds pass by.

It may seem like child's play for many but if you take a closer look or hear you find out the majetic subtleties as I said earlier.

The second track, Coral Reef, is composed by Suzuki.

Watch Haroumi Hosono, Shigeru Suzuki & Tatsuro Yamashita - 1978 - Pacific - Coral Reef video on DTube

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And with the second track you just hop in your convertible, pick up whoever you fancy, get some breakfast on the way and you're off! Hahahaha!

On the adventure of a new day right?

Backing Vocals – Kayoko Ishu Group
Bass – Kenji Takamizu
Drum, Drum Machine – Tatsuo Hayashi
Keyboards – Jun Sato
Percussion – Shigeya Hamaguchi
Piano – Ryuichi Sakamoto
Strings – Yoshihisa Tamano Group
Tenor Saxophone – Jake Concepcion
Trombone – Eiji Arai
Trumpet – Koji Hadori
Written By, Guitar – Shigeru Suzuki

This music belongs to CBS/Sony and the sole purpose of me posting this is to educate and encourage the user to buy the record.

I now own these records and I discovered them digging online blogs.

Anyway thank you for y our time steemians and stay tuned for the other 3 parts!

I hope this post doesn't result too long or boring and I expect some feedback from you on the music!

Peace, love and respect!