Noriyuki Makihara -- Shouri no Egao（勝利の笑顔）

 

It's been just about six years since I put up my most recent Noriyuki Makihara（槇原敬之）song onto the blog, so allow me to rectify this situation.

Back in November 1991, singer-songwriter Mackey released his 4th single, the classic "Fuyu ga Hajimaru yo"（冬がはじまるよ）, a really jolly song for the Yuletide with that wonderful harmonica playing. Well, I've found out that the coupling song for that one is lovely in its own way, if quite wistful.

"Shouri no Egao" (The Smile of Victory) has nothing to do with Christmas and it tells of a romance that never got to be due to various circumstances such as the eddies of fate forcing a pair to drift apart. Starting with a riff that sounds like it was inspired by 1970s soul, Makihara sings about a man suddenly bumping into a woman he had feelings for way back in his high school years as a soccer player. They exchange pleasantries politely but it seems like the woman never really reciprocated those feelings and after she even gives him her contact information, he ends up tearing the memo later on. He has moved on and if there's not even an ember of romantic hope and it was more about lip service, then why bother? They'll probably see each other at a distant school reunion. 

Ryuichi Sakamoto -- Dancing in the Sky

 

Fairly busy day today. Met up with an old friend of mine for lunch (that was one spicy steak sandwich from Bear Steak in The Well) and stopped off at Sonic Boom to pick up an LP for my niece's Christmas present. Needed a double nap when I got home tonight. But I'm ready to do some blogging for Hump Day.

A few months ago, I posted up a Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）song which was his March 2008 single "Koko", a elegiac piece for a Japan Post commercial which could have easily been a musical elegy for Sakamoto himself since he has left us. Well, here is one of the coupling songs from the single which will go down as the shortest song that I've ever covered on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" since I started all the way back in 2012. 

"Dancing in the Sky" is only a minute and nine seconds along but even within its very short time, it manages to weave together a story of sorts. Just with his wonderful piano, The Professor could have been melodically describing a little boy or girl sneaking down to the living room early on Christmas morning to open up those presents. Maybe the dancing in the sky is the joy the kid feels at getting what he wanted. Nope, it's not a Christmas song per se, but it certainly feels really jingly.

Miyuki Kajitani -- Kiss The Sunlight

 

So far, singer-songwriter Miyuki Kajitani（梶谷美由紀）has been represented on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" for her contribution to the "Sailor Moon" franchise with the happy-go-lucky ""Rashiku" Ikimasho"（”らしく”　いきましょ）ending theme. And on her J-Wiki page, it's been said that she's been mostly known for her anison.

However, Kajitani did release her 5th single in November 1996, "Kiss The Sunlight", which apparently didn't have any anime connections (although it was used as the ending theme for a weekly animal documentary program on TBS). It's also quite the peppy bossa-pop number that starts with a rollicking keyboard sequence that I quite like. For a while, I thought maybe it could also qualify as a Shibuya-kei piece but ultimately I went with Latin and Pop. Kenzo Saeki（サエキけんぞう）and Kajitani were the lyricists here while Hirofumi Suzuki（鈴木博文）took care of the amiable melody.

TOM★CAT -- Summer Time Graffiti（サマータイム グラフィティ）

663highland via Wikimedia Commons

 

I regret that I never took the opportunity to visit Okinawa during my years in Japan. I have a friend who lives in Naha and we've exchanged correspondence and Christmas cards once a year for many years now. Maybe I'll get that chance someday. Certainly would love to try Okinawan cuisine such as goya champloo and their distinct brand of soba.

One reason that I mentioned the above is that this particular song was used as the campaign jingle for Japan Air Lines' 1985 campaign for Okinawa. "Summer Time Graffiti" was the second single released by the band TOM★CAT. I wrote about these guys back in 2022 with their November 1984 debut song "Furare Kibun de Rock 'n' Roll"（ふられ気分でRock'n' Roll） and they stood out for their main vocalist TOM, aka Atsumi Matsuzaki（松崎淳美）with her distinct look of J-Roy Orbison in hair and sunglasses as she manned the keyboards.

"Summer Time Graffiti" was written and composed by TOM and released in April 1985. It's definitely got that 80s sound with those orchestra hits launching the song off and TOM's keyboard work which almost had me sprouting a mullet from the back of my head. I think that JAL was quite happy with this one for their campaign since it's dynamic enough to make tourists think about parting with their money for a trip down to Japan's southernmost prefecture. "Summer Time Graffiti" made it to No. 13 on Oricon.

Seiko Matsuda -- Futari dake no Christmas（二人だけのChristmas）

 

And here I thought that Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）got all her Xmas feelings out when she released her 1987 "Snow Garden". Well, apparently not.

At the very least, she did have one more Christmas song in the form of "Futari dake no Christmas" (A Christmas Just For Two) which was a track on her December 1989 album "Precious Moment". Seiko-chan herself came up with the lyrics (as she did for all of the tracks) with Minoru Komorita（小森田実） as the composer and Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）as the arranger. Speaking about arrangement, "Futari dake no Christmas" has this solemn and hushed atmosphere but also seems to possess a child-like wonder about the Holidays as if a couple were getting married in an ancient church on Christmas Eve. As for "Precious Moment", it scored a No. 6 ranking on Oricon.

Susumu Hirasawa (Mandrake) -- Iriyou Hachi no Yuuwaku（いりよう蜂の誘惑）

John Severns via Wikimedia Commons

 

I'll tell you...I get all kinds of images when I listen to this one by technopop pioneer Susumu Hirasawa（平沢進）. This is about the earliest that I've gone in his long career and "Iriyou Hachi no Yuuwaku" (Temptation of a Bee) is part of his discography when he was with the progressive rock band Mandrake. 

Mandrake was a band I mentioned in my previous Hirasawa article back in October for "Dummy no Sakuryaku"（ダミーの策略）. By the time that this particular song came out, the band was pretty much on its last legs and to be honest, I don't think "Iriyou Hachi no Yuuwaku" sounds really anything prog rock. It sounds as if Hirasawa really wanted to show off this wonderful new genre called technopop. Anyways, "Iriyou Hachi no Yuuwaku" was a track on the compilation record titled "Synthetic Space" which was released in 1978.

Starting off with a ticking that reminded me of a disco version of the theme from the famed American newsmagazine show "60 Minutes" and then some really furious tearing out of pages from a book, the synths in this one really do sound as if a bee were falling into temptation. Then, it goes into something out of a Tex Avery cartoon before there is an ominous fadeout and fade-in which takes we listeners into a fearsome odyssey out of yet another 1980s "Doctor Who" episode. The intrepid bee comes sonically back leading to an apocalyptic conclusion...maybe this is the Butterfly Effect brought to its ultimate power. I can't even imagine what the production staff must have thought when this was recorded.

Masamitsu Tayama/Yoko Kishi -- Tabi ni Detai（旅にでたい）

 

Back in September this year, I posted an APB for Neff for a group of Chinese-language covers of Japanese and Western songs. Basically, the mystery was solved and that included the final song of the compilation whose original version was "Tabi ni Detai" (I Want to Go on a Trip). What I hadn't realized at the time was that I had already written about it through Kyo Nishimura's（西村協）1982 cover of the song. I did realize that the windmills of my mind were getting a little tattered.

Mind you, although I did give my brief two cents' worth of the original song by folk singer-songwriter Masamitsu Tayama（田山雅充）and another cover version in the aftermath of the APB, I figured that both should get their own article so I've got them both here. Starting with Tayama's "Tabi ni Detai" which was the final track of his May 1977 album "Kouyou"（紅葉...Autumn Colours）, it's a truly folksy introspective number with that acoustic guitar as Tayama sings about taking those close to him to pleasant places outside the city such as that tiny seaside town or a small forested hill, thanks to Tsuzuru Nakasato's（中里綴）lyrics.

In January 1978, the late Yoko Kishi（岸洋子）released her cover version of "Tabi ni Detai"  as her 14th single. This version has a more conventional kayo arrangement including those silky strings and what sounds like a harpsichord.