Credits

I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.

Monday, July 29, 2013

Iruka -- Itsuka Tsumetai Ame ga (いつか冷たい雨が)



I first heard this tearjerker of a song by Iruka(イルカ) when I'd bought her BEST compilation years and years ago. "Itsuka Tsumetai Ame ga"(Someday, A Cold Rain) was the final track of this album, and it struck me pretty hard with the softness of her the folk singer's voice before giving way to an angry power. The melody followed this pattern as well....a gentle lullaby followed by a near-anthemic song of hope.



Both melody and lyrics were created by Iruka, and I was also moved by her story which describes that poor stray dog at a station staring sadly at some scraps thrown it by someone or about that cat who has just been run over and left dying at the side of the road while the singer looks helplessly at it from a train. Her point is that animals should never be taken for granted, even going against her mother's opinion that fauna such as chickens and cows are for humanity's benefit. It is a musical manifesto which should get pet owners hugging their charges a little closer.

This was the title track on Iruka's 6th album, released in September 1979, which hit No. 1 on the album charts.

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