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.
True to age and the state of my memory, I was on the way to create an article on 1970's folk group Belle's"Coffee Ippai no Shiawase"（コーヒー一杯の幸福）...only to realize that I had already done so way back in 2021. Not sure if I should be increasing or reducing my intake of coffee on that situation.
Anyways, to compensate, I did find an earlier 1975 single by Belle called "Denwa" (Telephone). In terms of arrangement, it has a similar style to that of "Coffee Ippai no Shiawase": quite lush and classical (with that familiar background chorus of the 1970s), although this time, it even has a hint of exotic kayo through the use of one particular instrument that I can't readily identify. Both songs were created by Masami Koizumi（小泉まさみ）. Also, another common point between the two is that it involves a reunion between two former lovers; of course, the phone is the connector here.
Out of a sense of curiosity, I wanted to check out whether veteran enka singer Kazuko Mifune（三船和子）was related at all to the legendary actor Toshiro Mifune（三船敏郎）. Alas, this doesn't seem to be the case. In any case, I saw the Aichi Prefecture singer for the first time on a recent episode of "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）last year and she tenderly related her time under the tutelage of the late songwriter Minoru Endo（遠藤実）. Not surprisingly, she said that though he could be very gregarious and jaunty, he could also be quite the fist-thumping and furiously dissatisfied teacher. That probably describes a lot of kayo kyoku creators and singers.
The first several singles of Mifune, who debuted in 1965, were indeed created by her master Endo and that includes "Tanin Bune" (A Ship of Strangers), her 4th single released in December that year. It was also the song that I heard on that episode of "Shin BS Nihon no Uta". A very bittersweet tune with a lot of kobushi, it relates the story of a woman about to say goodbye to a lover forever as he gets on that ship. She even says outright in the lyrics that she would rather be told by her soon-to-be erstwhile paramour to go die somewhere rather than endure the reality of parting as such sweet sorrow. The song would become a big hit for Mifune throughout 1966 and sell over 100,000 records. However, she only got onto the Kohaku Utagassen for the first and only time thus far in 1995 to sing a completely different song.
Well, in less than a month, the Winter Olympics will begin anew through the joint organization by the Italian venues of Milan and Cortina. It feels as if it were only several months ago that I was writing something for the Paris Games in 2024.
Of course, with the Olympics being just around the corner, NHK will have its own coverage which means their own theme song for these Games. As well, the national network has been careful to categorize it blandly as "winter sports theme song", probably not to get the IOC's feathers all ruffled about copyright, official recognition and that sort of stuff.
This time, it's the pop-rock band back number that has gotten the gig, and although their "Doushite mo Doushite mo" (No Matter How, No Matter How) was only released as their 13th digital download single on December 27th, NHK viewers have already been hearing it for some weeks, and in fact, back number performed it on the 76th edition of the Kohaku Utagassen during their 2nd time on the New Year's Eve special. A suitably inspiring and optimistic number about basking in the glow of ultimate achievement after working one's tail off, it will hopefully get some or a lot of Team Japan onto the podium. Of course, I've got my own nation to root for as well.
Although I've heard about the band from southern Gunma Prefecture for some time, this is the first time for them to get onto KKP, and I was wondering about how they got their name. Well, apparently, the way it's been described on both their J-Wiki and Wikipedia pages, there was enough sturm und drang behind the naming to fill an entire cour of J-Drama. One big surprise to me that I discovered while looking up the band was that back number has been around since 2004 so it's already celebrated its 20th anniversary. Anyways back in the old days, vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Iori Shimizu（清水依与吏）had an ex-girlfriend who ended up as the girlfriend of a rival band member so he self-flagellated himself as a "back number" (maybe something like a "used tissue") and resolved to make his newly-named band, back number, better than the other band so perhaps his ex would return. Not surprisingly, that didn't quite happen and there were various disagreements and stuff on the odyssey to create a stable successful group over the next few years. Hey, maybe "Doushite mo Doushite mo" could also be the official song for back number's own journey. In any case, the current lineup also has bassist Kazuya Kojima（小島和也）and drummer Hisashi Kurihara（栗原寿）.
I've given my translation of the title above but the official English title for "Doushite mo Doushite mo" is "Want Want Want". Unfortunately, I couldn't find the footage but that really avaricious English title reminded me of one Japanese Olympic swimmer who had just earned a silver medal but in the ensuing interview, she cheerfully admitted to some disappointment in her results and yelled out "I want gold!".
It's been a semi-tradition that for the fifth slot for an article on Utban Contemporary Fridays on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I have sometimes placed a song by a contemporary singer or a band that has exemplified those AOR values of the past. Therefore, a lot of times, the slot's been occupied by the good guys of Young Gun Silver Fox.
"West Side Jet" is a track from Young Gun Silver Fox's 2022 album"Ticket to Shangri-La" and it's another winner. When I first saw the title, my assumption was that the song whirled around a mighty fine luxurious private jet making its rounds off the coast of California. However, looking at the lyrics, the jet is actually one decent cool cat with his own conquests and problems. Still, I compare him favorably with Jojo and The Dude. Who would have thought that he would resemble Super Mario according to the video?
It's one fine tune and at the risk of acting like a silly AOR sommelier, I can pick up a bit of Santana, Steely Dan and just some general West Coast pop from the early 1980s. The only downside is that it stops so abruptly.
I can't say that I'm a great purveyor of brandy though perhaps I may have imbibed it as part of a cocktail. But I am certain that brandy has been a favourite of Japanese palates for decades and its disposition in the various containers above is rather handsome.
Now I can say that I have a second "brandy" Japanese song to add to Yujiro Ishihara's（石原裕次郎）classic "Brandy Glass" (ブランデーグラス）. Alongside his "Hachibu Onpu no Uta"（８分音符の詩）and "Lady Pink Panther", I can also post Shigeru Suzuki's（鈴木茂）"Brandy Wine" from his December 1976 album "Lagoon". Aside from the fact that this is an instrumental, so no Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）as the lyricist here, "Brandy Wine" is a cousin to "Lady Pink Panther" in that it is something in the City Pop/New Music genres with that bossa nova. It even has some jazziness.
Its afternoon upbeat nature may not exactly match the atmosphere that a brandy may engender (relaxation, nocturnal) but there's no denying that it's another Suzuki success. Plus, that meshing of the flute and the scatting woman is amazing!
I only had very glancing experiences with the hostess club culture in Japan when I was much younger. An English conversation teacher doesn't quite make enough in the income tax bracket to even rarely darken any door of such a club in a major centre in Tokyo. However, one year at one of my schools, there was a noticeable number of young women in our year-long course who worked in the hostess industry. It was very much study during the day, entertain at night. Of course, some of our male teachers had to be warned more than once to actually stay focused on the textbook.
One such statuesque student once approached me after recognizing me at the nearby Excelsior (Japanese Starbucks clone) coffee shop and engaged me in English conversation (apparently, she's quite good at that...conversation, that is). She admitted that there were parts of her job she wasn't very fond of but I didn't press on what those were.
But that's what has gotten to put up this particular song by Miyuki Yokoyama（横山みゆき）. I've got a few of her other songs on the blog but this one, "Mistress - Aijin" (Lover), is about as City Pop as I've heard of her thus far. A track from her March 1983 album"Aishite Gomen ne..."（愛してごめんね...Forgive Me For Loving You）, the song was written by Shigeru Amano（天野滋）from the band NSP along with Fuyuko Moroboshi's（諸星冬子）further assistance while the melody was composed by Toshiharu Jitsukawa（実川俊晴）. Speaking of that melody, it is quite pleasingly melancholy and images of either Rajie or Melissa Manchester have been dancing in my head on hearing this one. Perhaps there is even a feeling of resignation in the music considering the titular character and her ultimate fate.
I always liked that sunset filter on my old departed Casio digital camera. It was the first one I ever owned. By the way, the above is a shot of West Shinjuku centering on the Cocoon building.
Anyways, this particular song has had me thinking about a typical Friday night in the hustling and bustling areas of Shinjuku and Shibuya. All those masses of humanity streaming in all directions like wayward amoebae looking for food.
I am talking about singer-songwriter Anna Takeuchi's（竹内アンナ）"ALRIGHT" which was included as a track on her first official single "at ONE" from August 2018. Written and composed by the singer, it's got quite the dreamy intro followed by a fairly fast-paced melody which could signify navigating the crowded streets of Tokyo, en route to a restaurant or bar to meet up with good buddies. The instruments used here enhances that feeling of City Pop and other music from decades past.
According to her J-Wiki discography, there was a pre-debut single released in April of that same year titled "alright" in small letters. Not sure if that is the same song with a dramatically different arrangement.
