Go Ahead!

Go Ahead! is the third studio album by Japanese singer-songwriter Tatsuro Yamashita, released in December 1978.

Go Ahead!
Studio album by Tatsuro Yamashita
Released	December 20, 1978
Studio	CBS/Sony
Genre	City pop Jazz Funk Soul Pop Jazz rock
Length	42:15 54:05 (2002 reissue)
Label	RVC RCA Records BMG Funhouse (2002 reissue)
Producer	Tatsuro Yamashita
Tatsuro Yamashita chronology
Spacy (1977) Go Ahead! (1978) Moonglow (1979)
Singles from Go Ahead!
"Let's Dance Baby" Released: January 25, 1979

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 music is composed by Tatsuro Yamashita, except where noted.^[3]

Side A

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

Side B

No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Length
1.	"Bomber"	Minako Yoshida		5:58
2.	"潮騒 (The Whispering Sea)"	Minako Yoshida		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)"	Minako Yoshida		4:51
6.	"Bomber"	Minako Yoshida		5:56
7.	"潮騒 (The Whispering Sea)"	Minako Yoshida		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

Overture

 • Tatsuro Yamashita: All Voices^[3]

1978 P.M.P.

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

 • Shin Kazuhara: Trumpet

 • Yoshikazu Kishi: Trumpet

 • Shigeharu Mukai: Trombone

 • Tadanori Konakawa: Trombone

 • Tomoo Okazaki: Alto Sax Solo

 • 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

 • 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:

Onkio Haus 1st, 2nd, & 3rd Media 2nd, RCA 1st

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