70年代の邦楽 (Japanese music in 1970s)

1970年代、私は小学生でした。当時の歌番組に出てくる歌手の方は総じて歌がうまく、口パクではない素晴らしい生歌を披露していました（と信じています。外国から来る歌手は明らかに口パクだったと思いますが。）　当時私が好きだった3曲です。
In the 1970s, I was an elementary school student. The singers on singing shows in those days were generally good at singing, and they had great live singing that wasn’t lip-synching (I believe. I think the singers coming from abroad were obviously lip-synced though).　Here are three favorite songs of mine at the time.

１．喝采：ちあきなおみ（Kassai; Cheers by Naomi Chiaki)
1972年発売です。亡くなった恋人のことを思いながらステージで歌う、という内容で、9月発売ながらその年のレコード大賞も受賞した曲です。もっとも小学生だった私は当時その意味は理解できませんでしたが。
Released in 1972. The song was released in September, but it won the Japan Record Award of that year. I was in elementary school and didn’t understand the meaning of the song at the time.

２．まちぶせ：石川ひとみ（Machibuse; Ambushing, Hitomi Ishikawa)
1976年発売で、ミドルテンポながら物寂しい曲調の女の子の片思いの曲です。石川ひとみさんは1959年の生まれとのことなので、この曲の発売当時は17才ということになります。小学生ながら、世の中にこんな可愛い人がいるんだ！と思った記憶があります。　現在60代ですが、相変わらずお綺麗ですね。　この歌詞と同じようなご経験があるとか。
Released in 1976, and is a song about a girl’s unrequited love with a sad mid-tempo tone. Ishikawa Hitomi was born in 1959, which means she was 17 years old when the song was released. I remember that I was so surprised to see such a cute girl like her in the world, even though she was in elementary school! Her age is over 60 years old, but still look as beautiful as ever.　It is said that she had a similar experience with these lyrics.

３．みずいろの雨：八神純子 （Mizuiro no ame; Rain in the sky: Junko Yagami)
1978年発売です。この方の歌唱力には度肝を抜かれました。　現在の歌手でこの方を超えられる方はいないと断言できます。　高音の伸びは目を見張るものがあります。
他にも、「ポーラー・スター」「パープル・タウン」といった佳曲があります。
八神純子さんは現在は米国在住のようです。
Released in 1978. I was blown away by her singing ability.　I can assure you that there is no other singer today who can surpass her.　His high tone extension is remarkable.
There are other fine songs such as “Polar Star” and “Purple Town”.
It is said that she lives in the United States now with her American husband.

おまけ：　Dancing Queen (アバ)　Extra; Dancing Queen (ABBA)
ABBAも70年代を代表するグループで、私も小学生ながらこの曲を聴いたとき一種の衝撃を受けましたし、ボックスセットを購入するほど好きです。　但し、YouTubeには明らかに口パクとわかる動画があります。　スタジオレコーディングの音そのままですし、体がマイクから離れても声の強弱に変化がないんですね。　悪く言えば、わざわざ遠い日本に来て、ライブでもない普通の歌番組で大事な喉を使って真面目に歌う必要もない、、とされたのかもしれませんね。ご本人たちの意図はわかりませんけど。
ABBA is also one of the leading groups of the 70s, and I was shocked when I heard this song when I was an elementary school student, and I like it enough to buy the box set.　However, there is a video on YouTube that clearly shows a lip-synch performance.　The sound is exactly same as that was recorded in the studio, and the intensity of his voice doesn’t change even when his body is away from the microphone.　To put it badly, their promotor decided to perform lip-synch on a regular singing show that is not gorgeous live performance – thinking that it might be risky to perform live-singing in Japan, far eastern country far away from home country Sweden. I don’t know what their intentions were, though.