Nakahara Miki 愛のイエスタディ
Trio Records – 3A-116 Released Oct 21, 1973 JAPAN
TRACK B: 愛のイエスタディ (Yesterday)
So here’s another one I am filing under “Mysterious & Unknown”. Another one that has become an obsession, and has that alluring dreamy, misty gentleness. Embracing like a hallucinogenic lullaby from a faraway lost world in another time. But again, that place is Japan, and the year was 1973. Can anyone out there tell me anything about Nakahara Miki?
I can’t explain it, or describe it. There’s something I adore about hazy and quirky foreign and unknown releases from the sixties and seventies. I can’t place them in a category or genre. Somewhat seductive, and with both an outer space and under water atmosphere, and dripping with over the top romanticism. And part of not knowing what the song is about only adds to the desire and intrigue. This track sits nicely alongside the Naomi Chiaki – Asa Ga Kurumaeni track I featured a little while ago.
I could only find one isolated release from Kiki, this only 7″ single. Recorded through the same label as Tonpei Hidari – Hey You Blues , and released the same year of 1973. This makes me really want to dig into the Trio label’s archives to see if I can dig out any other lovely but odd jewels. I have done a bit of searching into the Japanese label’s catalogue, but there’s a fair bit to sift through, and it is ever so varied, with some very strange releases, and definitely not exclusive to Japan only artists.
The feature track is the B side of Kiki’s (possibly) only release. Side A 花嫁の手紙 (Bride’s Letter), is more of a typical soft rock ballad where Kiki uses her range to crescendo through soaring strings along the standard pop beat. She does do a thing I do like, that whole bridge thing where the singer narrates over the top, maybe telling a story or encounter perhaps. It’s kinda cheesy, but it is completely allowed by me if it’s coming from this kind of Japanese context. Hidari also does it in Hey You Blues. I know it was a “thing”, in a time, and in a lot of foreign countries. It’s just adorable!
But the Side B Track 愛のイエスタディ (Yesterday), is astonishingly beautiful… to me. Nothing typical here. So much melancholy from the very start, but it’s pure and just so lovely. The kind of sweetness bordering on”Lynchian”. The chorus is so distant and dream like. And yes again, we get some of that great narration. I suppose I could use some kind if AI app to translate it all. But I don’t need it. I love it all, with or without knowing the story or lyrics.
So if that is it from Nakahara Miki recording wise, then the next thing I do is search the trusty IMDB for any possible clues of film work, via music talents or other. “Nakahara Miki” does come up as an actress that possibly worked on approximately 7 films, between 1974 to 1991. But without any photo evidence and hardly any write ups of any of the films, I’m just not a good enough detective to confirm this is the same artist featured here.
So I’m going to leave this all here, and just wait in hope for someone out their to please enlighten me on Miki. The woman behind this truly beautiful, divine and poetic song I have deeply fallen for. And I hope someone out also feels the same way about it.
– del Piero
If you fancy this, you may dig these…
Victoire Scott 4ème Dimension
Decca – 461.163 France Released April 1968
Track A1: 4ème Dimension
Track A2: Une Fleur Dans Le Coeur
So the whole purpose of this blog was initially to contain information of all the things I have discovered about some of the musicians that have recorded on some my favourite 7″s. Artists or songs, that aren’t so well known, that has taken me hours and nights of digging into very particular music websites, elusive but specific forums, archival news articles, linar notes and even old fashion books. But there’s so many artists I want to feature here that for the life of me, I just cannot find anything on them! So I’ve decided to start a new “mysterious unknown” category on Seven45RPM, in hope that someone out find has something to enlighten me with, that I can add. This track, from Victoire Scott, has to be in my top sixties french femme list, and it needs to be shared!
Her real name apparently is Claudie Deneuville, and the only consistent word on this singer that I’m hearing, is that her whereabouts is famously unknown. We do know she released eight 7″ releases, between 1968 and 1971, with 3 ep’s include in that small mix. Decca released her french EP’s in the sixties, then possibly new management, or a deal, for her CBS releases for her early seventies releases. Her two canadian single releases were on London. So no real overseas pursuits by the looks of it?
4ème Dimension is her first release and her best. Haunting intro and versus, with psychedelic power pop bursts into choruses. The lyrics picture a dream like moment, where the world around is all unknown, perhaps lost in a 4th dimension. It’s all very psychedelic, fantastical, and paints all the images you need for a the surrealist’s journey. Shattered glass, one eye window and golden butterflies. It’s all so perfectly dreamy and bliss!
But this is not a “must have one track” EP, or no! The following track is also brilliant and beautiful. “Une Fleur Dans Le Coeur” follows a similar pattern to the opener, with it’s gentle but eerie start, but this time we are lead more into a prog garage blues shift, albeit still with catchy pop choruses. This track is actually a take on The Shamrocks* “Rich Life” from 1967. But it’s not a cover. Scott’s song title translates to “A Flower In The Heart”, and the lyrics are very different, this being a love song, again, quite pure and dream like. Where as The Shamrocks talk about Chevy’s, Swimming pools, Egyptian jewels and king size beds. No guessing which portrayal I prefer. French writer Christian Schaeffer gets a credit for “Une Fleur Dans Le Coeur”, but so do Shamrocks’ Keith Chambers and Peter Pawson, which would be for the rights to use the melody and song construction. Scott’s take blows away the original into fragments of rainbows. The following two B side tracks are also great, similar in spirit, and just adds to this whole package of pysche sixties delight.
Scott would release a second EP in October of 1968 and is another worthy release if you like her first release. The title track ” Un Garçon, Une Fille” is psychedelic floating pop, but has a really strong and catchy chorus, and wonder why this is obscure, as it has everything and more, than other more popular hits of the time, in he similar genre. Maybe the radio french weren’t into the psychedelia. Or maybe they were and it did well? I just don’t know. But it’s brilliant! And as an extra treat, there’s a clip of her singing this track (search it on you tube), so maybe the expectations were hopeful for this release, by record executives?
Her 1969 Ep “Le Petit Train De Sasfé” doesn’t just have that amazing surrealist collage pic sleeve, but it also includes the incredible haunting “Abigaël”, which I’ve always been in love with. This is Victoire Scott, her voice, her mystery, her sound, and her everything. Some other artists that I love of this time, would release a one off psychedelic track, perhaps it was a thing that they felt needed, to fit all that was so happening at the time. But in Scott’s case, I feel it was coming from a more genuine place.
Scott would release “Hey Mamma” in 1970, and now she’s moved more in to a harder edge sound, not too far from what the Beatles were moving into, with an early taste of glam, and guitar heavier than early releases. Then 1971 saw the release of her much more radio friendly “Bientôt San Francisco”. And this is where it stops for Scott and her recording releases…as far as I know.
I will always respect artist’s privacy, especially when I have no idea of what their recording experiences were like, or their lives at that time or in following years. So I have to appreciate if these singers and musicians prefer to stay secluded and away from recognition. But I also hope that they do know how much their music is valued and loved all these years later. So, please, if anyone out there knows anything about the wonderful and mysterious Victorie Scott, please shine a light!
– dj del Piero
* The Shamrocks were a phenomenon as they never charted in Sweden, but were the most successful Swedish Rock band in Europe in the the ’60s, and charted in German, France, Netherlands and even Japan.
Other things I found out:
Therion “Une fleur dans le cœur” in 2012.
Scott appeared on “Musicolor” in the Episode Les moyens de locomotion that aired on June 19, 1969.
Writing credits for “4ème Dimension” go to Guy Bonet and Christian Turban, the older brother of Alain Turban who covered this song as a disco track (!) in 1978 on Carrere.
Victoire Scott starred on Au Risque De Vous Plaire rare tv show directed by Jean-Christophe Averty. The clip below supposedly is taken from her appearance in 1968 and includes surreal artworks by Belgian surrealist Paul Delvaux and Dutch graphic artist M. C. Escher.
If you like this you may also like Maki Asakawa.
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