Favorite J-Pop Singles: Lindberg / Believe In Love

Up next is LINDBERG executing an explosive, emotional performance of BELIEVE IN LOVE, a kick-ass rockin’song that must surely rate as one of the Ten Greatest J-pop songs of all time- or at least in MY opinion!

From my friend Dan, I knew the group to be a pretty good  Rock’n’Roll act with songs like Aitakute~LOVER SOUL, and then from another friend Dave l learned other Lindberg classics like Imasugu KISS ME and JUMP!, but little did I know that the BEST was yet to come!

Renting an old MUSIC STATION video (for Shinohara Ryoko and Moritaka Chisato, natch), it was an added bonus when I saw that Lindberg was one of the featured guests, but their performance would eclipse everything else on that episode!

Taking a look at the group at this time, I was surprised at how “Garage-Band” looking they were, and I figured (rightly) that this must be quite an early appearance. The drums kicked in and the band took off, and I realized that I was looking at the band at the peak of their powers- they are fully GOING for it!!! And though the Music Station guests usually mime their instruments to a track (with a live vocal), this performance of Believe in Love sounds 100% LIVE!

“Believe in Love” would go on to become Lindberg’s signature tune, and I would see them play this song on just about every special they were on, whether it be on the Hey Hey Hey Music Champ or the FUN Showcase show and no matter how much times I hear it, every one of them rocks the house!!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Lindberg / Aitakute~ Lover Soul

Awhile ago I mentioned how a chance recording of a Japanese video show called UtanoLunch Box introduced my friend Dayone to the thrills and wonders of CoCo and Rieko Miura, in the post about Rieko’s “Dakishimete Destiny”…It seemed he’d set his timer to catch a sports show, but inadvertently left the dial on the Japanese channel, so when he came home, instead of baseball, he got this cool j-pop video show!

That really was a fateful comedy of errors as that show introduced him to CoCo which he then passed on to me, and it was my love of those Otomejuku girls that ceremoniously began my ongoing infatuation with idols and all things j-pop in general!

Introducing us to CoCo would have been enough to place this video show in the classic category, but that wasn’t all! Besides the girls, that show also gave us our very first exposure to super-cool rock ‘n’ Roll group LINDBERG with the kick ass song AITAKUTE~LOVER SOUL!

LINDBERG - Aitakute ～Lover Soul～ (1993PV)

The first time seeing the band made quite an impression- the video begins with people spending a Sunday afternoon at the park. Suddenly, this garage band begins playing in the middle of an open field, and as the tunes draw listeners nearby, a small crowd starts gathering, happily diggin’ the rockin’ sounds of the group and before you know it word of mouth has spread throughout the park, and there’s a substantial audience as the band delivers!

Dayone really dug Lover Soul, but at the time, the only copy of the song he was able to get was a live track off on the “Lindy Wingding” album (all collected in a beautiful tin container!), and the only way we could hear the studio version was by watching that video…trust me when I say- we got to know that video QUITE WELL!! Despite all our attempts at getting ahold of the single, it had sadly gone the way of the dreaded “out of Print” status that seemed to befall so many of the treasures we were seeking!

Eventually both Dan and I managed to get a copy of the awesome song, first by picking up the incredible greatest hits album FLIGHT LOG as well as the Lover Soul Parent LP “LINDBERG IV” and so was finally able to get a hard copy of that song we’d loved for such a long time!

In an interesting side note, some Karaoke videos would utilize the actual PV behind the scrolling lyrics, and I was happy to see that Lover Soul was one of them! I didn’t realize just HOW MUCH I’d watched that video, but as I sang the song at karaoke one night, til they pointed out that as I sang, my body moves were mimicking Maki’s motions exactly!!! AHAHAHAHA, that’s true osmosis!