あのイントロはどうなっているんでしょう。青い波間を突き抜けていくような，水中のくぐもった音の感じまで伝わるようなあのイントロがかかると，夏にワクワクしていた頃を一瞬で思い出してしまいます。夏と言えば心に浮かぶ曲はたくさんありますが，自分にとって，どうしても上位にくる1曲が，この「ビッグ・ウェイブのテーマ」です。
I’m not sure why I’m so attracted by the introduction of the song. The introduction, which makes me feel as if I were going through among the waves in the blue ocean or hearing the muffled sound in the water, always reminds me of the time I was exhilarated by summer in an instant. There are many songs that comes into my mind when I hear the word “summer”, and this song “The Theme from Big Wave” is the one particularly I like.
Tatsuro Yamashita - The Theme From Big Wave
山下達郎さんご自身の楽曲がすばらしいのはもちろんですが，山下達郎さんがすごいと思える一番の理由は，様々なアーティストや音楽のジャンルについて聴き手の興味の幅を広げてくれることです。高校生の頃だったと思うのですが，達郎さんのラジオで流れた曲をたまたま録音し，だれの曲かも知らないまま気に入って，ずっと聴き続けていました。それがトレイドウィンズというアメリカのバンドの「New York's A Lonely Town」だとわかったのは何年も経ってからでした。この曲は達郎さん自身，1991年発売のアルバム「ARTISAN（アルチザン）」の中で「Tokyo's A Lonely Town」という曲名でカバーされています。初期のビーチボーイズを思わせるこの「New York's A Lonely Town」も夏にピッタリの曲です。
I know Yamashita Tatsuro’s songs are great, of course, but the main reason why I pay my respects to him is that he always expands listener’s interest in artists or genres of music。Maybe it was when I was a high school student that I happened to record a song aired in a Tatsuro’s radio program to end up being into it for a long time without knowing whose song it was. It was not until after many years had passed that I knew the song’s title was “New York's A Lonely Town” sung by an American band called Tradewinds. Yamashita Tatsuro covered this song with the different title “Tokyo's A Lonely Town” in an album named “ARTISAN” which was released in 1991. “New York's A Lonely Town” somehow reminds me of some early works of The Beach Boys so I think this song is also good to listen to in summer.
