ESSAY 18 THE DYNAMIC SONG STYLINGS OF MIE Several months ago when I did my essay on Kei's post Pink Lady solo work, I had a thought in the back of my mind about giving Mie equal time by doing a similar piece on her solo work to post in time for her 55th birthday, and so, here we are as I cover Mie's offerings which were as varied as they were dynamic. Unlike Kei who took what I considered the bold step of going the adult contemporary route, despite being only 24, Mie stayed true to her Pink Lady roots, at least the roots from late 1979 through 1980 when they graduated from cutesy bubblegum pop to soft rock/power pop songs, a la "Agiri Giri" and "World Hero History", and the nearly two dozen singles Mie released between 1981 and 1995 reflected her stylistic taste in music. Four months after the Farewell Concert, Mie hit the ground running with her first solo single, "Brahms Loves Rock", a flashy, uptempo number with horns and a good beat you could dance to, and I'm guessing that was probably the goal as that tune established her as being a power pop songstress. Following "More More" (1/21/1982), a funky and jazzy pop number came what I thought was Mie's most famous single ever, the theme song to the movie "Call Girl". |
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LEFT: "Brahms Loves Rock", Mie's first single; RIGHT: "Call Girl" (click on the sleeve to hear the song) |
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For anyone reading this who might be a newbie to Pink Lady history, or my website, in 1982, Mie starred in her first ever motion picture where she played a saucy prostitute, quite a startling (well, startling to me anyway) change from her years as a sweet and wholesome pop star. Anyhoo, the theme song to the movie by the same name was a smoky, bass thumping, bluesy number that blew me away with its subtle power, and Mie, sporting a sassy pageboy hairdo like she had in the film on numerous TV appearances to promote "Call Girl" (both the song and the film I suppose) sang it with a brand of raw, unbridled sexuality that I found to have been absolutely amazing. The song was steamy, it was sultry, just like the character Mie portrayed in the film itself, it was like she boldly said to the Japanese entertainment world, 'there's more to me than just a cute, prepackaged pop singer'. Another song that Mie got a lot of mileage out of was a cover of "Never" (6/1/1984) from the soundtrack of the movie "Footloose". That was my second favorite Mie single which she really belted out, and did so several times during TV appearances she did to promote the single, and, on top of that, a video she did of the song in 1985 was, in my mind, superb. Just as Kei hit her own stride with adult contemporary music, Mie hit hers with power pop and soft rock, and she turned out some truly fabulous stuff, such as the scorching hot "Love Jail" (11/25/1995), the first time I heard this song was when she performed it live during the 1997 Pink Lady reunion concert, and that was really awesome, then there was a cover of "Hallelujah! It's Raining Men" by The Weather Girls on a greatest hits CD Mie released in 2005. Yep, there's no doubt in my mind that Mie loves to rock the house. |
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LEFT: "Never" (click on the sleeve to watch the video),; RIGHT: "Love Jail" |
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Even though Mie turned out some nice slow jams and elegant ballads from her solo albums like "Memory" and "Sicilian Wind", Mie's best work was when she did power pop and soft rock. She knew how to belt out those sort of potent songs and that made you want to tap your feet and move to the beat, something I'm sure her fans, like myself most definitely appreciated. |
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