Numbers 23-51: James Gang, Paul Simon, Chicago, Queen, The Brothers Johnson, Bob Dylan
Following up on the last time, I've decided to list my favorite songs that have numbers in their titles, this time starting from "23" and moving forward. From here on out, I'm going to be skipping quite a few.
"Strawberry Letter 23" - The Brothers Johnson
I loved The Brothers Johnson around the time of their first album. I thought of them as a funk band. However, before I knew it, they had become more of a fusion/blue-eyed soul type of artist, and in Japan, they were loved by people who read magazines like "ADLIB." "Strawberry Letter 23," included on their second album, was a hit song from that transitional period, and I remember liking them up until this song. As for why it's "23," it seems that a couple had exchanged 22 letters, and the 23rd one is this song. It's romantic and wonderful, but I pray that the subsequent letters don't turn into "Durian Letters."
"25 or 6 to 4" - Chicago
During my college days, there was a senior in my club named K-san, who treated Eikichi Yazawa's "Nariagari" as his bible and usually listened to new music artists like Alice and Satoshi Kishida. One day, K-san came up to me and said, "Bobby, 'Nagai Yoru' (Long Night) is great, isn't it!" I was happy, thinking he had finally opened his eyes to rock music, but when I asked him more about it, it turned out he was talking about the new song Chiharu Matsuyama had released around that time. For a long time, I wondered why the Japanese title of Chicago's "25 or 6 to 4" was "Nagai Yoru," but it seems "25 or 6 to 4" means "It's 25 or 26 minutes to 4 a.m. (the time of night I've been staying up until)." Come to think of it, there is another Chicago hit called "Baby, What A Big Surprise," but that song isn't about "morning mist"; it just has a "morning mist" kind of vibe, so it seems they just gave it that Japanese title.
" '39 " - Queen
Since I can't easily find songs from "26" onwards, I'm going to skip ahead quite a bit and go with Queen's " '39 ". Among Queen's songs, there are many by Freddie Mercury and John Deacon that I like, but " '39 " is a fine song written by Brian May, included on the masterpiece "A Night at the Opera," and it features beautiful acoustic guitar tones. The meaning of this " '39 " is quite difficult; I interpreted it on my own as a story like the sci-fi movie "Project Hail Mary," which was a big hit this year: "They flew into space in 2039 to save the Earth from the brink of destruction, but when they returned a year later, it was 2139, and the person they loved was only visible in the eyes of their grandchild."
"Funk #49" - James Gang
"42" and "49" are unlucky numbers that are shunned by Japanese people, so I've never heard of a Japanese professional baseball player wearing these jersey numbers. However, when foreign players join, I wonder if it's really appropriate to have them wear these kinds of numbers just because they don't mind. Since a gang wouldn't be afraid of "49," here is James Gang's "Funk #49." I don't know the meaning of 49, but when I looked it up, I was surprised to find out there is also a song called "Funk #48"!
"50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" - Paul Simon
I had included Paul Simon's "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" as a candidate from the beginning. I don't know the situation, but if he is asking his new girlfriend for ways to break up with the woman he wants to leave, then this protagonist is a terrible man. Just thinking about 50 ways to leave makes me unable to sleep at night. Perhaps the girlfriend he thought was his new one is actually the woman he wants to leave, and if he is asking such terrible things to make her lose interest, then this protagonist is truly the worst kind of man. In this case, the protagonist is juggling three women, and if I start thinking that this might actually be four or five, I won't be able to sleep at night either. Someone in charge, come out here!
"Highway 51 Blues" - Bob Dylan
I thought about stopping at the nice round number "50" this time, but if I were to start the next one from "51," I would have to start with this low-key "Highway 51" included on Bob Dylan's debut album, and I wanted to avoid that at all costs. So, even though it's not a clean stopping point, I decided to introduce this song as well. It's not his own composition, but if you listen closely, his groaning vocals are wonderful. If you consider that without this song, the masterpiece "Highway 61 Revisited" might not have existed in this world, you should understand the importance of this song.
Since I decided to skip numbers without hesitation this time, the progress has become faster. If I try to keep the numbers consecutive, I might end up including songs I don't even like. I have songs I want to introduce that are "52" and above, so I will continue this for a while longer.