Go Ahead!
Go Ahead! is the third studio album by Japanese singer-songwriter Tatsuro Yamashita, released in December 1978.
| Go Ahead! | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | December 20, 1978 | |||
| Studio | CBS/Sony | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 42:15 54:05 (2002 reissue) | |||
| Label |
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| Producer | Tatsuro Yamashita | |||
| Tatsuro Yamashita chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Go Ahead! | ||||
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Overview
"A masterpiece third solo album that marked the creativity of Yamashita's brilliant and versatile writing style which determined his subsequent path."[1]
In commercial music, etc., there was a high demand for Yamashita as a musician who works under anonymity, but Yamashita's evaluation as a contract musician for a record company, was favorable, but he wasn't meeting the sales figures RCA wanted. Yamashita himself felt that the world of rock and folk that he had lived in had entered a new stage at that time, and thought that if he went on like this, he would probably have to give up his records and live activities. So he had a pessimistic prediction that this album would probably be the last. The album was criticized by critics and listeners for being disorganized, but it can be said that the writer's principle, which began to suffer, was the sprout of the album production policy that followed.[2] However Tatsuro Yamashita was told that one of his songs in the Go Ahead! album "Bomber" was a hit song in a disco in Osaka. Therefore, in 1979, a promotional single was released under the title of "Bomber".
The songs "Let's Dance Baby", "Bomber" & "潮騒 (The Whispering Sea)" would've be featured in his 1982 greatest hits album "Greatest Hits! of Tatsuro Yamashita". Meanwhile, the song "This Could Be The Night" would get re-recorded in 1984 as part of his soundtrack album "Big Wave".
In 2002, a remastered reissue (BVCR-17015) was released as part of The RCA/AIR Years 1976–1982 series. The reissue would include remastered tracks and three additional tracks that were previously unreleased before. It would enter the Oricon charts, peaking in at number twenty-five.
Track listing
All lyrics are written by Minako Yoshida(ja); all music is composed by Tatsuro Yamashita, except where noted[3]
| No. | Title | Lyrics | Music | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Overture" | — | 0:48 | |
| 2. | "Love Celebration" | James Ragan | 4:26 | |
| 3. | "Let's Dance Baby" | Osamu Yoshioka | 4:12 | |
| 4. | "Monday Blue" | Tatsuro Yamashita | 7:12 | |
| 5. | "ついておいで (Follow Me Along)" | 4:48 | ||
| Total length: | 21:26 | |||
| No. | Title | Lyrics | Music | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Bomber" | 5:58 | ||
| 2. | "潮騒 (The Whispering Sea)" | 4:23 | ||
| 3. | "Paper Doll" | Tatsuro Yamashita | 3:27 | |
| 4. | "This Could Be The Night" | Harry Nilsson | Harry Nilsson | 3:56 |
| 5. | "2000トンの雨 (2000t Of Rain)" | Tatsuro Yamashita | 3:05 | |
| Total length: | 20:49 | |||
2002 remastered edition
| No. | Title | Lyrics | Music | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Overture" | — | 0:47 | |
| 2. | "Love Celebration" | James Ragan | 4:25 | |
| 3. | "Let's Dance Baby" | Osamu Yoshioka | 4:14 | |
| 4. | "Monday Blue" | Tatsuro Yamashita | 7:12 | |
| 5. | "ついておいで (Follow Me Along)" | 4:51 | ||
| 6. | "Bomber" | 5:56 | ||
| 7. | "潮騒 (The Whispering Sea)" | 4:22 | ||
| 8. | "Paper Doll" | Tatsuro Yamashita | 3:28 | |
| 9. | "This Could Be The Night" | Harry Nilsson | Harry Nilsson | 3:55 |
| 10. | "2000トンの雨 (2000t Of Rain)" | Tatsuro Yamashita | 3:09 | |
| 11. | "潮騒 [英語ヴァージョン-English Version-]" | Eddie de Joy | 4:21 | |
| 12. | "2000トンの雨 [カラオケ-Karaoke-]" | — | 3:06 | |
| 13. | "潮騒 [カラオケ-Karaoke-]" | — | 4:19 | |
| Total length: | 54:05 | |||
Personnel
Love Celebration
• Tatsuro Yamashita: Electric Guitar (Left), Hammond organ & Vibraphone
• Yutaka Uehara: Drums
• Akihiro Tanaka: Bass
• Kazuo Shiina: Electric Guitar (Right)
• Hiroyuki Namba: Electric Piano
• Shigeharu Mukai: Trombone
• Tadanori Kogawa: Trombone
• Takeru Muraoka: Tenor Sax
• Shunzo Sunahara: Baritone Sax
• Tadaaki Ohno: Strings Concert Master
© 1977 ALFA MUSIC LTD.
Let's Dance Baby
• Tatsuro Yamashita: Electric Guitar (Left), Percussion, Bang! & Background Vocals
• Yutaka Uehara: Drums & Percussion
• Hiroyuki Namba: Electric Piano
• Akihiro Tanaka: Bass & Percussion
• Kazuo Shiina: Electric Guitar (Right) & Percussion
• Hiroyuki Namba: Keyboards & Percussion
• Tomoo Okazaki: Alto Sax Solo
• Minako Yoshida: Background Vocals
• Ryuzo Kosugi: Background Vocals
© 1978 J&K MUSIC PUB.
Monday Blue
• Shuichi "Ponta" Murakami: Drums
• Akira Okazawa: Bass
• Tsunehide Matsuki: Electric Guitar
• Hiroshi Sato: Keyboards
• Keiko Yamakawa: Harp
• Tadaaki Ohno: Strings Concert Master
© 1978 P.M.P.
ついておいで (Follow Me Along)
• Tatsuro Yamashita: Electric Guitar (Left) & Background Vocals
• Yutaka Uehara: Drums
• Akihiro Tanaka: Bass
• Kazuo Shiina: Electric Guitar (Right)
• Hiroyuki Namba: Electric Piano
• Motoya Hamaguchi: Percussion
• Shigeharu Mukai: Trombone Solo
• Minako Yoshida: Background Vocals
© 1978 P.M.P.
Bomber
• Tatsuro Yamashita: Electric Guitar & Background Vocals
• Yutaka Uehara: Drums
• Akihiro Tanaka: Bass
• Kazuo Shiina: Electric Guitar Solo
• Hiroyuki Namba: Keyboards
• Minako Yoshida: Background Vocals
© 1978 P.M.P.
潮騒 (The Whispering Sea)
(Same personnel for the English version)
• Tatsuro Yamashita: Electric Guitar, Arp Odyssey Synthesizer (Bass), Percussion & Background Vocals
• Yutaka Uehara: Drums
• Akihiro Tanaka: Bass
• Hiroyuki Namba: Acoustic Piano
• Chuei Yoshikawa: Acoustic Guitar
• Ryuichi Sakamoto: KORG PS-3100 Synthesizer
• Motoya Hamaguchi: Percussion
• Minako Yoshida: Background Vocals
© 1978 P.M.P.
Paper Doll
• Tatsuro Yamashita: Electric Guitar, Percussion & Background Vocals
• Yutaka Uehara: Drums
• Akihiro Tanaka: Bass
• Ryuichi Sakamoto: Keyboards
• Minako Yoshida: Background Vocals
© 1978 P.M.P.
This Could Be The Night
• Tatsuro Yamashita: Drums, Bass, Electric Guitar, Acoustic Piano, Glockenspiel, Percussion, & Background Vocals
• Chuei Yoshikawa: Acoustic Guitar
• Ryuichi Sakamoto: Poly Moog Synthesizer
• Motoya Hamaguchi: Percussion
© ROCK MUSIC
2000トンの雨 (2000t Of Rain)
• Tatsuro Yamashita: Electric Guitar, Percussion & Background Vocals
• Yutaka Uehara: Drums
• Akihiro Tanaka: Bass
• Ryuichi Sakamoto: Acoustic Piano
• Tomoo Okazaki: Alto Sax Solo
• Ryuzo Kosugi: Percussion
• Minako Yoshida: Background Vocals
• Tadaaki Ohno: Strings Concert Master
© 1978 P.M.P.
Credits
"From the inner sleeve notes of the album (RVL-8037)."
PRODUCED BY TATSURO YAMASHITA FOR P.M.P. INC
ALL SONGS ARRANGED BY TATSURO YAMASHITA
Directed by Ryuzo "Junior" Kosugi (RCA)
Engineered by Tamotsu Yoshida
Session Co-odinater – Ryuzo Kosugi
Disk Mastering Engineer – Tohru Kotetsu
Assistant Engineer – Toshihiro Itoh (Onkio Haus)
| Recording Studios: |
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Mastering Studio: Nihon Victor Yokohama Mastering Studio
Art Direction – Kenkichi Satoh
Cover Design – Kenkichi Satoh, Akira Sugiyama
Special thanks to Akira Ikuta, Kunio Muramatsu for their assistance
ALL SONGS PUBLISHED BY 1978 P.M.P., 1977 P.M.P., EXCEPT; "LOVE CELEBRATION" BY 1977 ALFA MUSIC LTD.,
"LET'S DANCE BABY" BY 1978 J&K MUSIC PUB., "THIS COULD BE THE NIGHT" BY ROCK MUSIC, THE RIGHTS FOR JAPAN ASSIGNED TO TOSHIBA MUSIC PUB.
Chart positions
| Year | Album | Country | Chart | Position | Weeks | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | Go Ahead! | Japan | Oricon Weekly LP Albums Chart (top 100) | 75 | 5 | 7,000[4] |
| 2002 | Go Ahead! [Remastered edition] | Oricon Weekly Albums Chart | 25 | 3 | 17,000[4] | |
Release history
| Country | Date | Label | Format | Catalog number[3] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Japan | December 20, 1978 | RCA/RVC | LP | RVL-8037 |
| CT | RCJ-1602 | |||
| February 21, 1985 | CD | RHCD-513 | ||
| March 15, 1987 | R28H-2803 | |||
| November 21, 1989 | RCA/BMG Victor | B25D-13005 | ||
| August 21, 1990 | BVCR-7003 | |||
| June 4, 1997 | RCA/BMG Japan | BVCR-1030 | ||
| May 21, 1999 | BVCK-37008 | |||
| February 14, 2002 | RCA/BMG Funhouse | BVCR-17015 | ||
| February 20, 2002 | LP | BVJR-17005 |
References
- "Discography｜山下達郎 OFFICIAL SITE". www.tatsuro.co.jp.
- (2002) Tatsuro Yamashita's "Go Ahead!" album booklet notes. RCA/BMG Funhouse (BVCR-17015)
- "Go Ahead!" (in Japanese). Retrieved March 26, 2022.
- "Tatsuro Yamashita" (in Japanese). Archived from the original on November 11, 2007. Retrieved March 19, 2008.