Hiroshi Uchiyamada and Cool Five

Artist: Hiroshi Uchiyamada and Cool Five

LP: 7" single

Song: "Nagasaki wa Kyo mo Ame Datta"
aka. "It's Raining Again In Nagasaki"

[ listen ]

While in Boston for work in November of 2009, I found a bunch of neat-looking Japanese singles from the late '60s/early '70s, all by the same spiffy looking sextette. Unfortunately, I didn't know the name of the group or any of the song titles—until now! Earlier today I met a Japanese friend for coffee, and I brought some of the singles for him to translate. It turns out they're performed by Hiroshi Uchiyamada and Cool Five (read about them here), who are from my friend's home town of Nagasaki. (Nagasaki is on the southwest coast of Japan and so wasn't really effected by the earthquake and tsunami that caused so much damage on the northeast coast near Sendai last week.) "Nagasaki wa Kyo mo Ame Datta" or, "It's Raining Again In Nagasaki," was the group's first single and one of their biggest hits, going all the way to #2 back in 1969. I have about 14 singles by these guys, but I only brought six to be translated, figuring I'd post one every day this week to show my support for Japan. Of course, with 8.9 earthquakes, tsunamis, no electricity, a food and drinking-water shortage, melting nuclear power plants, thousands of people dead and thousands more still missing, I'm sure nobody in Japan really gives a shit what I post on my blog this week. There's a list of seven better ways to support the people of Japan here.