I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
Credits
I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.
When I first got to know singer-songwriter Mitsuko Komuro（小室みつ子）via the blog some years ago, it was through her City Pop songs from the early 1980s including her "Highway Rendezvous"（ハイウェー ランデブー）. However, most recently, I did listen to her take on "Get Wild", the song that she made alongside composer Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉） (and yes, there's no familial connection between the two of them oddly enough) which has become one of the most popular anison. Her cover also contains some of that pop-rock edge.
Now, I've gotten a few listens to her 7th single from June 1991, "Beginning", and it's also something that takes a different direction. It's a power pop ballad that sounds like it could have been created for one of her namesake's earliest clients, Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）, and in fact, Mitsuko herself sounds a bit like Misato in her delivery. The arrangement also lends itself to that theory. The singer-songwriter provided words and music but also had some help from Issei Yoshioka（吉岡一政）; that first name can be read in four ways according to Jisho.org and since I couldn't find a romanized version of the name, I just went with "Issei", but if someone can confirm or deny my choice, please let me know.
Several years ago, I posted a song by an 80 technopop group called Kidorikko（きどりっこ）whose sound as far as I could get from their April 1985 debut single"Momoiro Kingyo"（桃色金魚）reminded me a lot of the collaborations between Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）and Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）in the early 1980s. It sounded quite zippy and fresh.
Well, in the last couple of days, commenter YMOfan04 contacted me regarding a very rare creation by the group consisting of keyboardist/composers Kimitaka Matsumae（松前公高) and Ryuichi Sato（佐藤隆一）along with vocalist/lyricist Chiyumi Ten（てんちゆみ）. According to Kidorikko's J-Wiki article, they released several self-produced albums via audio cassette between 1985 and 1990, the third one being the September 1985"Tamatebako"（玉手箱...Pandora's Box）. The tape managed to squish in 28 tracks on both sides so although I haven't heard the entire album, it strikes me as getting bits and bites of songs instead of whole pieces.
One of the tracks that YMOfan04 recommended was the light and classical "Shitsuren"(Heartbreak) above (at 18:33 on the album itself via the link) which only seems to last a minute and a half before it abruptly smashes into the next track. I would have liked a fuller version since again that feeling of Ohnuki/Sakamoto popped up.
"Penelope" is actually the second track on "Tamatebako" at 2:25 on the album but uploader cydthezombie wanted to focus on this one because they thought it was so good. This one is of a much longer and more reasonable length and is a whole lot peppier in arrangement. Again, I get some of the Ohnuki/Sakamoto feelings but at the same time, I also feel that there is YMO floating around in there. In fact, I think this might be an example of a hybridized City Pop/technopop creation.
I was posting up my usual five articles for Urban Contemporary Friday including the anniversary ones when I got word online that Toronto-born-and-raised comedian, actress and screenwriter Catherine O'Hara passed away rather suddenly today at the age of 71 in Los Angeles. As has been the case with a number of celebrities who had worked with her and her fans who had enjoyed her work over the decades, I was absolutely stunned since she's been so well-known as one of the funniest ladies I've ever seen on the telly.
Although I didn't know who she was at the time, in retrospect, I did see O'Hara for the first time in my life when she was featured in a commercial for headache medicine. Although the title mentions that this was filmed in 1979, I have to go with one commenter underneath the video and disagree. I think I saw this much earlier in the decade. All this time, I'd assumed that O'Hara's companion in the ad was fellow "SCTV" alumna Andrea Martin but I was wrong there.
Of course, in the years since, O'Hara has become famous for her roles in "Home Alone" (even Japanese media has mentioned her passing because of her role as Kevin's mother) and "Beetlejuice". And even more recently, she gained a lot of acclaim in the sitcom "Schitt's Creek" and in the hit program "The Last of Us". All throughout the past few hours here in Canada, various stations have had tributes to the comedian and interviews with those who worked with her with one question being a common denominator: "What will you remember her best for?". Of course, depending on the interviewee, the movies came up and "Schitt's Creek" but for me, it will always be "SCTV" which started in the mid-1970s. For those who have been steady readers of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", you may already know that I have never hidden my love for the show and have even devoted ROY articles indirectly to it such as for Joe Flaherty who passed away a few years earlier and my favourite theme by Ira Newborn among the different themes used for the show
I literally grew up with her and laughed at her when she was doing some of her celeb impressions (Lucille Ball, Kate Hepburn, etc.) and her original characters for the "SCTV" network such as Lola Heatherton and the exasperated English teacher, Lucille Hitzger. I can sympathize with Ms. Hitzger to a certain degree.
I had heard of the CBC sitcom "Coming Up Rosie" which had a two-year run starting from 1975 but never saw it myself. O'Hara and the late John Candy were already working on the earliest iteration of "SCTV" at the time at Global Television Network, but they also had recurring roles on "Coming Up Rosie" as well.
My condolences go to the O'Hara family, friends and many fans. It will be a very sad few days in Canada, but I hope that Catherine will give all of our respects to John, Joe, Tony and Harold wherever they are now.
In the dozen years since I first posted about the City Pop band Piper, there's been more information about this group which started up in 1980 including a J-Wiki article at last. I've learned that vocalist Keisuke Yamamoto （山本圭右）and company did release five singles between 1980 and 1986 and seven albums including a live album that came out in April 2024.
Even since my first posting, I don't consider myself a Piper expert by any means, but I did read that there had been some Early Installment Weirdness in their 1981 debut album "I'm Not In Love" in that there was a whole lot more singing there when compared to their later efforts which had a lot of instrumentals. Still, one of the tracks "Dance" is very pleasant on the ears. Written by George Hikidashi（疋田ジョージ）and composed by the aforementioned Yamamoto, it's about as comfy as a warm woolen blanket on a cold winter's day with that arrangement of City Pop from the late 1970s going into the early 1980s. Yamamoto's vocals sound a little reminiscent of 60s doo-wop and it may be the first time I heard both the Haze effect of the 1970s and the Evian bottled water effect of the 1980s in one tune. A baton being passed?
I started thinking about the anniversary day's plans including the cover versions for "Memory Glass" a few weeks back, and so finding the covers, I then thought about some of the other songs that singer-songwriter Jun Horie（堀江淳）had recorded in the decades between now and the 1980s. It wasn't particularly easy since "Memory Glass" was the one big hit for him.
However, I did find one song which was some years after "Memory Glass". There was his 1993 maxi-single or mini-album titled "Tokyo"（東京）which for some reason doesn't exist in his J-Wiki discography but exists on Apple Music. One of the tracks is "La Regina" which has that urbane feeling of 1990s Tokyo and sounds like something that could have been a theme song for a J-Drama suspense during a weeknight. Horie's high-pitched voice is unmistakable.
For a brief period in my childhood, I had a fascination with labyrinths or mazes whether they showed up in puzzle books or in huge parks. So, you could imagine that one of my favourite old-timey game shows from the 1970s was "The Money Maze" which was hosted by Nick Clooney who was none other than George Clooney's father. You'd be surprised at how much faster a human being could be over a mouse when $10,000 is involved.
I recollect that there was a Hall & Oates' song "Method of Modern Love" which was a big hit in the mid-1980s. Strangely enough, I've come across this opening track from jazz singer Eri Ohno's（大野えり）1985 album"L'eveil"(Awakening) which is titled "Maze of Modern Love". I think a maze of modern love would be truly messy and complicated (more so than a method) but I'll just leave it at that.
Written and composed by Joe Rinoie under his pseudonym of（李家毅）, "Maze of Modern Love" has some of that City Pop but I think it also makes use of some of those upbeat American pop arrangements of that particular time in the 1980s. I keep thinking of Melissa Manchester and Madonna because of those rhythms.
Seeing that today is KKP's 14th birthday, one more thing that I've decided to post to celebrate is a short list of some of our regular singers' 14th singles.
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