Nobody is perfect. Good to know. And that’s also a point in a discussion between Kafka Tamura and Oshima in Kafka am Strand (on the Shore, (海辺のカフカ, Umibe no Kafuka). They talk about Schuberts sonata while Oshima is driving his car at 140 km/h (87 miles/h) on there way to Oshimas domicile in the mountains. Oshima thinks, that there is no pianist in the world, that can play the difficult all parts in d-dur in four sentences, maybe two in a row. “Weil es das Schwierigste ist, die Sonaten von Franz Schubert vollkommen zu interpretieren.” (p. 154 g.e., most difficulties lay in the interpretation of Schuberts sonates.). Kafka himself is bored by listening to that music. As Oshima mentioned: you have to get a feeling to listen to that kind of music, get used to it. That kind of feeling needs pratice in listening to it - over and over again.
Because there is no title told in the story, we are here listening to Alfred Brendel. The pianist is playing Schubert Sonata D. 958 (1988).

If you read Kafka am Strand (on the Shore, 海辺のカフカ umibe no kafuka 2002, german 2004) on your way through the pages 636 (german edition) you find a lot of quotes to very good and famous musicians (e.g. The Beatles) and largely muscians unfamiliar to mainstream, however, they are/were great performer and artists with strong a influence on today’s music. One of them (to me) is John Coltrane and his Song: My Favorite Things. In this recording from 1961 you see The John Coltrane Quartett performing live in Baden-Baden (Germany) with Eric Dolphy (flute, alto sax), McCoy Tyner on the  piano, Reggie Workman (bass), Elvin Jones on the drumsand - of course Mr. Coltrane (soprano sax, tenor sax). yesterday, i watched this one in a loop of four times. very relaxing. as i read in Afterdark: “Tja also… Damit Musik wirklich Tiefe erreicht, muss sie den eigenen Körper physisch bwegen und zugleich auch die Körper der Leute, die sie hören. Einen Zustand der Übereinstimmung erzeugen.” (p. 115, g.e.) Here you can see that the Quartett is deep and also physically involved into the song they are performing.

Todays song comes from a great man: Marvin Gaye(1939-1984) with I Heard It Through The Grapevine (1967). This Song is mentioned in Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (und das Ende der Welt, in japanese  世界の終わりとハードボイルド・ワンダーランド sekai no owari to hādoboirudo wandārando) from 1984 with a bridgework to Mr. Wells. In Germany it was published in 1990. You can find it in the english hardpaper book on page 219.
Big up Mr Gaye!

The first entry and music comes from Curtis Fuller and the Blues-ettes. I think, this song is orignally recorded in 1959. You see a live performance at Mt Fuji Jazz Festival (1993).
In the german version from Afterdark you’ll find this song on page #26.