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.

Saturday, February 24, 2018

Akina Nakamori -- Aitsu wa Joke(アイツはジョーク)


It's sometimes a bit jarring to see Akina Nakamori(中森明菜)now, and then compare her to how she started out in the music business over 30 years ago. When some of us Akina fans on the blog talk about her, we can't help but express some concern considering that fragility she has displayed for many years. And yet, my impression of her early days was that the Tokyo aidoru of the early 1980s had initially been groomed to be the anti-Seiko Matsuda(松田聖子)through her music: a punk girl in a school uniform with the big booming hairdo talking rough and tough. Perhaps she was the Rolling Stones to Seiko-chan's Beatles although some of those cute smiling photos of her in "Myojo" and "Heibon" magazines (as above) probably undercut that tsuppari image.


Being an Akina fan, it was those very early days of her career in the early part of the decade that I actually know the least about since my interest in her and her music didn't begin until the middle of the 1980s. So there is stuff to learn about still.

I've come across this track from Akina's 3rd album "Fantasy ~ Gensoukyoku"(ファンタジー〈幻想曲〉...Fantasia)which was released in March 1983 titled "Aitsu wa Joke". Now, as for a little bit of Japanese vocabulary information, aitsu isn't exactly the nicest word to use in public discourse since although it is technically defined as another word to represent the third-person singular (he/she), practically it can mean "that jerk" or worse. So perhaps in the intention of imbuing the translation with Akina's feelings, I will probably go with "Jerk's A Joke".

Written by the late Tsuzuru Nakasato(中里綴)and composed by Kuniko Fukushima(福島邦子), "Aitsu wa Joke" has that sound that I've often associated with early aidoru Akina uptempo tunes: wailing electric guitar, sweeping-and-staccato strings and a slightly lower-than-usual aidoru voice that can straddle between defiance and pleading. I can also hear and understand why Nakamori had been compared to the big aidoru of the previous decade, Momoe Yamaguchi(山口百恵).

Going through the song's lyrics, Akina spends virtually the entire song castigating a former beau as if he were the most offensive cockroach oozing from under the refrigerator only to give hints that her vitriol may just be a front until the very last line where she basically confesses that he still pines for the lug through the tears reflected in the mirror. I still haven't gone through many of Akina's songs during this time but thematically, the words remind me of one of her early hits "Shojo A"(少女A)in which within all the tough talk, there is that vulnerable hidden center inside of her. Perhaps this was a common trait with her songs.

As for "Fantasy", it did hit No. 1 on the Oricon weeklies. Well, perhaps this can be another item on the wish list.

8 comments:

  1. I've been following your blog for a few years now and it's always nice to see a new post about Akina since she's my favorite artist.
    I've read some reports on her Christmas dinner shows and people say she is more or less healthy, even if she looks frail from the pictures. I've heard rumors of some concerts this year but they aren't confirmed yet, as far as I know. She's joked about not appearing in TV so I guess that won't happen anytime soon. But one never knows.
    To me her early albums sound more or less the same but there are some gems. I need to give them a new listen one of these days.
    Keep up with the good music and posts :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello, Joana. Thanks for your comments and for following the blog for the past number of years.
      It's good to hear that Akina is doing well. I have heard that she has been doing those Xmas dinner shows. I think at this point, she's pretty content in keeping off the media radar (i.e. TV); not sure, but I don't think she was ever all that comfortable on live TV.

      BTW, how did you get interested in Akina's songs? As I mentioned above, I was a bit of a late bloomer. Came in around "D404ME" and then "Bitter & Sweet".

      Delete
  2. Sorry for the late reply!
    I discovered Showa idols only 3 years ago. A particular anime (Ore Monogatari) led to me knowing Seiko-chan. Then I started exploring YouTube recommendations and got into Momoe and then Akina.
    I actually got hooked on the song Shoujo A for a long time before I started listening to the rest of her stuff, but I ended up falling in love with her lol
    Now I own a DVD-box of her and my ultimate dream is to go to a dinner show, but I wonder if I'll achieve that. She's been doing them for the past few years but I can't help thinking about how unpredictable she might be.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, Joana!

      No worries about the reply...folks reply when they can. :)

      YouTube has been quite the playground for people searching for Japanese singers. There have been quite a few that I've found just by browsing there. As for folks like Seiko and Akina, it was through my fateful trip in 1981, radio, rental videos and visits to the record shop in Chinatown.

      I got to know "Shojo A" really well since one of the old gang from university used to sing that at karaoke all the time in the late 80s. Her personality kinda struck me as being rather ideal for the girl in the song.

      As for the dinner show, don't give up quite yet. I haven't heard anything about Akina quitting the dinner show circuit. From what I remember from seeing her concerts on video, she can get quite emotional but I haven't heard of any major incidents. If that had been the case, I would have already heard about them through Japanese media.

      Delete
    2. Hello!

      I wasn't even born in 81, so it's nice to hear from people who knew Showa idols in Showa era. I don't feel like I was born in the wrong age as I feel like there is a different charm to that time period now.

      Yes and thank you, I am not intending to give up as long as there are positive news in regards to her. I'll possibly just have to wait a few years due to various matters, but I really look forward to going.
      Even if I can't go to the show, I want to visit Japan and try to get some CDs or second-hand goods. I'm a fan of modern idols as well such as AKB and Nogizaka.

      By the way, you inspired me to start a blog about Showa era music in Portuguese, but I ended up giving up because Portuguese people don't seem very interested about it.

      Delete
    3. Hi again.

      By the same token, it's good to hear from young people who weren't born in the Showa era who like the aidorus from the 70s and 80s. It's been an amazing few years because of the many folks who are not just discovering singers like Akina and Seiko but also some of the urban contemporary material back then as well.

      Hopefully you'll be able to make it to Japan in the near future and get those goodies. If you like, there is a Sites category in the Labels on the right. Noelle, nikala and I have also written about some of the shops we have frequented in Tokyo, and a couple of them at least deal in secondhand albums.

      I'm flattered to hear that you were inspired by KKP to create your own blog and I'm sorry to hear that it didn't work out. But if you're interested, you can provide some of your input here.

      Delete
    4. Hello!

      Yes, some of my friends who are aware of my tastes send me some music they listened in future funk remixes and other mixes of the kind. The vaporwave craze has also brought some people to the city pop genre.

      I have read some of those posts in the past and I intend to use them as references when I visit Tokyo someday.

      English is not my first language but if I got what you meant, I'd really like to collaborate to the blog, to be honest! I've been into the Japanese music scene for some time already. I'd love to talk about both Showa and modern aidoru, and some non aidoru music as well, such as anisong. Let me know if you'd be interested.

      Delete
    5. Hi, Joana.

      I was talking with a former collaborator, JTM, tonight and we were sharing our delight that a lot of younger people have been discovering the older songs thanks to the vaporwave craze. Seems like "Plastic Love" by Mariya Takeuchi has been the big winner so far.

      Yes, the final sentence in my last response is an offer for you to collaborate. As you have already known, all of us who have put in our articles love our music and I'm always looking for people who have shown a similar interest in Japanese pop music. If you can, send a message through the Contact Form at the upper right of the page and then I can tell you how to get started. Right after that, I can send you an invitation from the blog so that you can make access.

      No worries about your English. You write very well!

      Delete

Feel free to provide any comments (pro or con). Just be civil about it.