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.
Unfortunately, this was one aspect of Japanese culture that I never got to participate in...but then again, I get seasick rather easily, so by not doing so, I may have saved my friends from disgust and the tatami on the boat from something rather noxious.
The yakatabune are boats that can be seen sailing in bays and rivers and they can be chartered for private dinner parties. They are regular sights in Tokyo Bay and along the Sumida River, and I would think that at around this time, they must be very busy because it is the year-end party season. Nothing like a traditional seaside cruise and dinner to finish off the year.
Considering how much I've seen enka singer Mika Shinno（神野美伽）on television via programs such as "Uta Con"（うたコン）, I'm surprised that she's only popped up once on KKP, so I must rectify this situation. The Osaka native appeared on an episode of "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新・BS日本のうた） recently to perform a March 1989 single of hers, "Shunka Shuutou Yakatabune"(Yakatabune Throughout the Seasons) which was written and composed by Yoshikazu Fukano（深野義和）. It's a gentle and refined enka that emphasizes the gentle sailing of the boats hundreds of years ago with perhaps the only passengers being a romantic couple. No over-boisterous salarymen singing karaoke here. The song reached No. 47 on Oricon.
I managed to get through a wet snowy night last night to meet up with some friends for good hearty Greek cuisine about an hour away by bus. We don't get together all that often anymore but when it comes to the Holidays, we try to make our best efforts to gather and catch up on the year.
Scott from "Holly Jolly X'masu" introduced this one from one of his podcasts this year, but it was news to me that the entertainment legend that is Yuzo Kayama（加山雄三）released some Christmas music. In November 1966, he put out a single, "Jingle Bells/Boku no Christmas" (My Christmas)."Boku no Christmas" is a friendly country-style Xmas ditty that was composed by the man himself under his songwriting pseudonym of Kosaku Dan（弾厚作）with Tokiko Iwatani（岩谷時子）providing the lyrics. He somehow even got his buddies, Alvin & The Chipmunks, apparently to chime in behind the mike (really, some of Kayama's associates on helium).
So, Kayama-san doesn't always man a surfboard after all. He can ride the sleigh as well.
"LA-LA-LU" is a gem of an acoustic ballad that is said to be a casual opening declaration by Makoto Saito（斎藤誠）in his debut album. Listening to it in his "Ballad's Best", I was once again surprised by its freshness and high quality that makes it hard to believe that it's more than thirty years old. With lyrics that have a universality and allows the listener to project his/her own thoughts on it, there is no doubt that this is one song that clears all of the conditions for it to become a masterpiece.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised"(2020).
The above is a photo of a fan made up of fake 10,000-yen bills. I received it as a souvenir from a hostess club in Ginza that my friend took me to back in 2017. Although I was grateful for the experience of seeing with my own eyes what such a club looks like, I was also a little embarrassed for looking distinctly underdressed for the occasion (had no idea that he was planning to take me there); I was just in my T-shirt and jeans and from what I've seen on television, T-shirts and jeans aren't exactly usual fashion in hostess clubs. However, the staff were very professional and gracious to me and I got some of the best-tasting pear slices that I've ever had.
So, the above is a money fan. But the topic of this KKP article is "Money Tree" which is the first track on duo TINNA's August 1979 album"Doumu ~ DOME IS A CHILD'S DREAM"（童夢...Child's Dream）. It served as the soundtrack for the TBS movie "Eikou no LeMans 24-ji ~ Doumu Chousen no Kiroku"（栄光のルマン24時 - 童夢挑戦の記録 -...The Glorious 24 Hours of Le Mans ~ The Record of Going for a Child's Dream）. As a first track, "Money Tree" starts off pensively enough before Tomoko Soryo（惣領智子）and Mariko Takahashi（高橋真理子）get into some real downtown funk accompanied by a saxophone to further add onto the flavour. Bill Crutchfield took care of the lyrics while Yasunori Soryo（惣領泰則）took care of the driving music. For anyone who isn't too familiar with the famous race, you can take a look at the trailer for the 1971 Steve McQueen movie"LeMans" below.
A commenter sent a missive last night regarding the late singer-songwriter Yoichi Takizawa（滝沢洋一） (and I have to admit that I had forgotten to mention that he had passed away in 2006 from complications due to liver cancer at the age of 56). They informed me that there had been a mysterious 2nd album to add onto his once one-and-only album "Leonids no Kanata ni"（レオニズの彼方に） that was supposed to have been released in 1982. "Boy", for whatever reason, was put back onto the production shelf and didn't see the light of day until a few days ago.
Happily for fans and the spirit of Takizawa, "Boy" has broken through the bounds of red tape and is now out on CD and LP with a lot of new material. The commenter also noted that the cover is rather humourous which has Takizawa looking like a young yuppie Clark Kent getting a new view of Lois Lane (maybe the album should have been titled "Boys Will Be Boys"). Actually, the image also reminds me of scenes from "The Naked Gun" and that Thomas Dolby music video of "She Blinded Me With Science".
It looks like the tracks for "Boy" are up on YouTube. However, I'll begin with an appetizer in the form of "Endless Summer". A nice slice of tropical summer and a cocktail, I couldn't help but feel that there is a feeling of the band TOTO in this tune that can fit equally on the deck of a cruise ship as well as in a fashionable restaurant in Tokyo. Thanks to the commenter for providing this succulent piece of information for Takizawa fans.
It's been over eighteen months since I put up a Maiko Nakano（中野麻衣子）song on KKP, but I figure that today is the right time since it is Urban Contemporary Friday and with Japan also in Christmas mode, people are probably getting into the party spirit.
And yep, I was nicely reminded how snazzy her discography was back in the 1990s. The last song that I wrote about her back at the end of March 2023 was "Imitation Blue" from her 1991 album "Bay Side Story". Well just a couple of tracks down from that one is "Shuumatsu no Lovelorn Girl" (Weekend Lovelorn Girl). Written by Shun Taguchi（田口俊）and composed/arranged by Tatsuya Nishiwaki（西脇辰弥）from the band PAZZ, it seems to possess that feeling of caviar-and-champagne brand of City Pop brought over from Bubble Era Japan, just the thing to stride down that big boulevard at night while savoring some rich times.
Well, welcome to the final Friday before Christmas. Toronto got its icing sugar dusting of snow overnight so maybe there's a chance that we may get a White Christmas on Wednesday. Even the Kanto area including Tokyo may get some of the white stuff in the next few days.
The late singer-songwriter Yuuichiro Oda（小田裕一郎）has continued to make his presence known on the pages of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" for his songwriting prowess for other clients...80s aidoru Mikako Hashimoto（橋本美加子）being the most recent one on the blog. But the last time that Oda himself was on the byline was way back in late 2019 for his 1984 "Spanish Girl".
However, I have one here today which was Oda's 1985 single"Let Me Know". It can also be found on his album from the same year, "ODA 3", and it's a pleasant and mellow AOR tune which sounds a fair bit like a Western ballad from the 80s that I used to know. Unfortunately at this time, I can't remember the title or the singer, but perhaps one of you readers might recognize it from listening to the song. In any case, Oda was in charge of the melody with Makoto Yano（矢野誠）behind that arrangement. Jim Steel was the lyricist here but I'm curious whether that is the name of a real lyricist or an Oda pseudonym. I couldn't find any presence of a Jim Steel as a singer or songwriter online. Let me know.😋
Well, for the fourth year in a row, "Kayo Kyoku Plus" has managed to reach 1000 articles in a year. I'm pretty sure that we won't be breaking the 1,103-article record that we achieved last year but that's OK. There's no need to push things anymore. Anyways, this year's 1000th article will be dedicated to the weekly Reminiscings of Youth and also we'll be covering Christmas again as we approach December 25th.
Let's take a look at a Yuletide classic that is literally centuries old. "Deck the Halls" goes all the way back to the 16th century to a Welsh melody when it was a winter carol known as "Nos Galan". The English lyrics were written by Thomas Oliphant back in 1862. My first time with "Deck the Halls" was back probably in kindergarten in the early 1970s when my teacher sang it and then taught it to us moppets.
Then, not too long after, my family got that Ronco album which was making the rounds on TV commercials, "A Christmas Gift", with one of the tracks being "Deck the Halls" as performed by Percy Faith and his orchestra. Faith already has representation on the blog for being the original provider of "Theme from a Summer Place" which was covered by AOR duo The Milky Way in 1979. However, Faith tackles his rendition of "Deck the Halls" with gusto as it sounds like something from a King Arthur movie soundtrack as he and his Knights of the Round Table go forth to celebrate Christmas. Apparently, this version first appeared in 1954.
Of course, there have been tons of renditions of "Deck the Halls" over the years, but one of the most unusual covers was by the jazz vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross in 1962. Now, I've heard of Dave Lambert, Jon Hendricks and Annie Ross as the pioneers of vocalese which involves placing nimbly-delivered words and phrases within the usual improvised arrangement of jazz instruments, replacing those instruments. The Manhattan Transfer also picked up on the hip lingo, even coming up with their 1985 album"Vocalese".
Lambert, Hendricks & Ross' version was something that I found in a Xmas jazz compilation while I was living in Japan, and it was actually titled "Deck Us All With Boston Charlie". Before you could say Weird Al Yankovic, I could tell from the title and the intro that this was going to be a wacky parody of the original "Deck the Halls". I had assumed all these years that Boston Charlie was some near-lethal form of hooch that boozehounds could get in the various dives and saloons in the not-so-nice areas of town but it was actually just a play on the title. However, that fade-in intro where the three start shrieking the chorus in improbable harmony has always had me imagining the sots stumbling around at night trying to get into that hole in the wall.
Then, everything gets set right with a snappy drum and Lambert, Hendricks & Ross plow into the song with some major scatting while a piano player nimbly skates over the keys like a Gold Medal-winning figure skater. But just before the three end up taking us listeners to something far more respectable, we get thrown back into the back alley as Boston Charlie does its thing and the trio shriek their way off into the darkness. So, "Deck Us All" is more scat than vocalese but below you can see them handle the latter.
So, what were some of the big Japanese hits coming out in 1962? I've got three right here.
The first time that I had ever heard of the word "runt" was back when I was a boy while I was reading the series of books "Clifford The Big Red Dog". One of the books actually goes into Clifford's origins when he was ironically born as the smallest of the litter...or the runt...and hadn't been expected to survive too long. Well, he ended up becoming one mighty large canine to even give Paul Bunyan pause.
It's not the smoothest segue into this band called Runt Star but let me go on. What information I could get on this group which probably focused on pop and rock has been through a couple of individual members' own J-Wiki profiles and it looks like Runt Star lasted between 1999 and 2007. Consisting of vocalist and guitarist Tetsuya Takatsu（高津哲也）, keyboardist Kazuya Saka（坂和也）, bassists Kazuyuki Murata（村田知之）& Shige Murata（村田シゲ）, and drummer Toshiyo Okada（岡田年世）, they apparently released most of their output between 2000 and 2002.
Their last album or EP was "Floral Words" in May 2002 with one track being "Daylight". The YouTube video has been up for over fifteen years, so that's a lot of staying power. I'm glad that it still exists because "Daylight" is a very pleasant tune to hear in a Spitz sort of way. It's so mellow that I would probably categorize the song as a pop melody without really any rock. In fact, it rather approaches the works of Blue Peppers and Kirinji. I can even hear an echo of Al Stewart's"Year of the Cat".
I remember one of my friends who once went on business to Monaco, of all places. As a quick geography lesson, Monaco is the second-smallest sovereign territory in the world (just next to the Vatican) but it is also one of the wealthiest countries. Whenever I think of the place, my mind goes to car racing, casinos and lots of tuxedos and evening gowns. My friend was frankly bewildered by the opulence especially when he found himself within the Monte Carlo district. That's something I can relate to completely; if I were there, I would probably be sweating a ton in my plebeian clothes and feebly asking where the nearest McDonalds is located.
Well, maybe we can all take a tour of the place vicariously via J Utah's driving video through Monaco. I do have to say that it does look glorious out there. I wonder if the state has a dress code along with a postal one.
Musing about Monaco did leave me wondering whether there was ever some sort of kayo kyoku based on the country. I imagined that it would be an exotic kayo from the late 1970s to join Mayo Shouno's（庄野真代）"Tonde Istanbul"（飛んでイスタンブール）and Saki Kubota's（久保田早紀）"Ihojin"（異邦人）. Strangely enough though, I couldn't find anything from that era and it took me a fair while before I finally found one song which had been created a few decades later.
There's absolutely no information on the singer Aki Saotome（早乙女あき）except for the fact that she released a single in 2012 titled "Monaco no O-Hime-sama" (Princess of Monaco). It was written by Hiroko Iwakiri（岩切浩子）and composed by Kazuya Jun（順一弥）, and it's quite the jazzy Mood Kayo, reminiscent of the 1970s and 1980s with Yujiro Ishihara（石原裕次郎）behind the mike. However, it is the breathy and fragile vocals of Saotome here and that swinging jazz is perhaps reflective of the titular surroundings with clinking glasses of champagne and spinning roulette wheels. No mention of the legendary Princess Grace of Monaco in the lyrics, though.
For a few minutes though, considering the paucity of data on Saotome and the names involved that I had never seen before, I had even allowed the possibility that I encountered my first example of an AI Mood Kayo song, but then that production year of 2012 cropped up. And so, I figured that Ms. Saotome is a flesh-and-blood human being who recorded "Monaco no O-Hime-sama". I just find it a tad eerie though that there is absolutely no other information on the lady, unless she's just a regular person who recorded it on a lark and then decided that it would be a one-and-done for any professional singing career. But it is a pretty refined tune.
Veteran singer-musician Mariko Takahashi（高橋真梨子）will be returning to the Kohaku Utagassen in less than a couple of weeks, and I'm wondering what she will be singing. Perhaps it will be her solo debut single from November 1978, "Anata no Sora wo Tobitai" (あなたの空を翔びたい）, the 1984 hit "Momo Iro Toiki"（桃色吐息）that she sang on her first Kohaku as a solo artist, or even "Johnny e no Dengon"（ジョニイへの伝言）, the folk classic that she had sung as the main vocalist for her old group Pedro & Capricious in the early 1970s. We'll probably find out within the next number of days.
As I mentioned, "Anata no Sora wo Tobitai" was her debut single and then her third single was "Heart & Hard: Toki ni wa Tsuyoku, Toki ni wa Yasashiku"（ハート&ハード：時には強く時には優しく）from June 1979. Both songs had been created for Takahashi by singer-songwriter Ami Ozaki（尾崎亜美）and both are wonderful songs that rather cemented my musical image of Takahashi as a chanteuse of New Music.
However, I had never heard her second single fromMay 1979, "Yume Yurari"(Dream Swaying). Written by Aki Fukunaga*（福永史）and composed by Kuni Kawachi（クニ河内）, it stands out because the arrangement sounds a little more conventional kayo kyoku (even with the very slight bit of funk in the intro and the mandolin) in contrast to the more Western-sounding New Music or even her folk music from years earlier that she's more famous for. The strings though, which had been a Takahashi arrangement staple, and her vocals are the only things that make "Yume Yurari" a familiar Takahashi song.
*The given name 「史」has multiple readings according to Jisho so I'm just guessing here. If anyone can correct or confirm lyricist Fukunaga's name in full, that would be most appreciated.
Well, we're in the homestretch now at seven day's worth of sleeps before Christmas. I was playing around with the Bing AI to see if I could get some lovely Christmas Town images (Unionville would be our local one in the Greater Toronto Area), and I could get at least a couple of them. This one seems to have that pleasant mixture of contemporary and old-fashioned with a café at the corner.
I was also searching around to see if there were any aidoru Xmas tunes within the last fifty years or so, and I got lucky with AKB48's"Totteoki Christmas"(Special Christmas). I say lucky because the video is set in one of those happy and shiny Christmas Towns. To be honest, I half-expected a KFC to pop up in one corner but then we'd have copyright issues and the like, wouldn't we?
Anyways, "Totteoki Christmas" was a track on all of the iterations of AKB48's 29th single, "Eien Pressure"（永遠プレッシャー...Eternal Pressure） from December 2012. Of course, written by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）and composed this time by Kazunori Watanabe（渡辺和紀）, the song is a typically jingle bell-happy tune about a young lady wanting to spend that romantic Yuletide with her boyfriend. For all those veteran AKB48 fans out there, watching the music video above should bring plenty of nostalgic feelings with a lot of AKB48 members from those days showing up in appropriate Christmas garb. And isn't it nice to hear a Japanese Christmas tune that isn't all about heartbreak?
"Eien Pressure" was another No. 1 hit for the group and despite it being released in December, it quickly became the 5th-ranked single for 2012. If I'm not mistaken, I've only had one other AKB48Xmas song up on the blog, and that would be the earlier "Anata to Christmas Eve"（あなたとクリスマスイブ）.
About six weeks ago, I posted an article regarding the band Signal（シグナル）and their warm and reassuring City Pop tune "Slow Down", and yep, it did make me want to slow down and smell the flowers or coffee. ☕
Well, I've got another Signal song here. "Aoi Kage"(Blue Shadows) was released as their August 1981 single, and I'd say that this tune here isn't a City Pop or J-AOR example of their discography. Once again, written by guitarist Akio Asami（浅見昭男）and composed by fellow guitarist Masanori Sumide（住出勝則）, this time this song is slightly more rock-driven and chugs away at a good pace. I've listened to "Aoi Kage" a few times now and I've enjoyed that inclusion of what sounds like a mandolin strumming away to give it a bit more of an exotic edge. Both "Slow Down" and "Aoi Kage" are included on Signal's 1981 album"Passing Shower".
I'm not sure whether this gimmick would raise the ratings for the annual Kohaku Utagassen (Edition No. 75 is due in a couple of weeks) any, but I've only just noticed that one genre that hasn't really been represented in the New Year's Eve special on NHK has been Group Sounds. Yes, perhaps the original fans for bands such as Ox and The Tigers are septuagenarians now but I know that surviving members of those groups have periodically shown up on music programs to perform their hits to good applause. Anyways, that's enough from me.
Something else that I don't see a whole lot of regarding Group Sounds is vintage footage of those bands back when they were young and long-haired. However, I did luck out with The Golden Cups（ザ・ゴールデン・カップス）, which I haven't written about in quite a while...at least not since 2016 when I posted an article about their June 1967 debut single"Itoshi no Jezebel" (いとしのジザベル).
I came across the above video for one of their cover songs, the fairly bristling "I'm So Glad". Apparently, according to one commenter for the video, the footage comes from the band documentary movie "The Golden Cups ~ One More Time"...complete with go-go dancers and in-and-out camera bobbing. The video is also cited as being from 1968 although the band website has listed a recording of "I'm So Glad" on their live album "Super Live Session" as a 1969 release.
"I'm So Glad" was released by the British rock group Cream as a track on their September 1966 debut album"Fresh Cream". On the Wikipedia article for the song, it's been categorized as an electric blues rock tune. Meanwhile, even Cream's song is itself a cover of the original Delta blues tune by Skip James in 1931.
In my career as an English conversation teacher, along with my base schools, I also had my side gigs teaching private lessons. Some of them went swimmingly and therefore, they lasted for a number of years while others seemed to just stumble a lot (i.e. kids' lessons). However, I made my yen and it was a nice living for a long time.
Of course, I don't think I was ever in Miyoko Yoshimoto's（芳本美代子）situation in her rendition of her 2nd single"Private Lesson" from June 1985. A nice bloopy and shuffling aidoru tune about a student falling for her private tutor, I'm not sure how the kid could focus with all those valentines flying around her head all the time. For that matter, it must have been frustrating for the handsome tutor trying to pound in some education into her head.
"Private Lesson" managed to reach No. 18 on Oricon. The lyricist was Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）with Daisuke Inoue（井上大輔）as the composer and Satoshi Nakamura（中村哲）arranging it all.
Happy Monday! Welcome to the penultimate full work week of 2024 as we head into the Holidays.
Last week, I received an inquiry from a commenter about a singer that I had never heard of before. Yuko Fukushima（福島祐子）is listed on J-Wiki as a composer and arranger who's provided soundtracks for primarily TV programs and anime since the early 2000s. However, the commenter asked specifically on one album that she had released as a singer back in 1992 titled "Toki no Kioku"（時の記憶...Memories of Time）. In fact, her J-Wiki profile states that she had put out only two albums in the 1990s including this first one before apparently going on a route of just composing and arranging music.
The commenter first read about Fukushima and the album on a blog posting in which the author was fairly gushing about the ethereal style of the songs and how each track paints its own piece of Japanese beauty. As someone who had never heard of the singer until the last several days, I wasn't quite ready to tackle the entire album, but it was fortunate that one track was up on its own on YouTube so at least I could listen to that and give my impressions.
"Heian Eiga"(The Splendor of Heian) starts out with a bizarre and woozy guitar riff which ends up sounding like one of those flying cars from "Blade Runner". Then it gets into some avant-garde mixture of ancient court Japanese and contemporary musical sensibilities with Fukushima's Kate Bush-like or Akiko Yano-like（矢野顕子）vocals skating over the water like a mayfly.
For those who may not be up on their Japanese history, the Heian era (794 AD - 1185) had been the final classical period before feudalism started making its inroads in the rule of the country. It was known as a peaceful time with the Imperial court at its apex and famous for its arts including poetry and literature. The era also saw the blossoming of true Japanese culture including the formation of the two syllabaries of hiragana and katakana and the move of the capital to what is now Kyoto (thank you, Wikipedia). To be honest, the traditional side of "Heian Eiga" sounds like what I would expect from the soundtrack of a J-Drama based in the Heian era.
Many thanks to the commenter for letting me know about Ms. Fukushima. Hopefully, I'll have a chance to listen to some more of the tracks.
Hello. It's been a while since I've opened the AI art gallery, and nope, this isn't a second Xmas edition like the last one I did back on November 24th. The next Xmas edition will come out on Christmas Eve, I promise you. However, take a gander at today's selections.
It's a bit of a surprise but after all of those wonderful City Pop songs and other creations that singer-songwriter Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）made from the 1970s into the 1980s, I found out that this particular song from September 1986, "Traveling ~ Alan Person ni Sasagu" (Travelling on the Road ~ Dedicated to Alan Person), was his first official single.
A commenter noted under one of the YouTube videos for this atmospheric song that they couldn't believe that Matsushita had written and composed "Traveling" for a mere Nissan Pulsar commercial. Well, I wouldn't exactly call an ad for a major automobile company known around the world as a mere thing but I do get the context. "Traveling" is one rich and reassuring song which would make one want to take the car, Nissan or not, and head for the hills on a long sunset drive. Come to think of it, those Nissan execs must have swooned about this one.
(6:50)
Now, as for that extended title...the single had it written down in English as "Dedicated to Alan Person". Who the heck is Alan Person? Was he a personal friend of Matsushita? Then I listened and scrolled through Matsushita's lyrics. It was as I'd thought...this was a tribute to the Alan Parsons Project and I gather their music which also went into the soft rock category. I have no idea how the staff behind the production of the single allowed that misspelled name into the final product but I can only hope that Parsons had a sense of humour about it if and when he did find out.
Incidentally, the jingle that preceded "Traveling" in the above montage of Pulsar commercial songs over the years is a very familiar one.
I'm providing a special Reminiscings of Youth here today. No, not because today is a national holiday or anything to do with the Christmas season. It's just that I finally got to see a movie that I had always wondered about: Fritz Lang's 1927"Metropolis". Former writer and good friend JTM was kind enough to send me a copy of the nearly century-old film some weeks ago so this was an opportunity for an old-movie aficionado like myself.
Probably there are a lot of people who aren't silent film fans or simply can't really understand the appeal of old Hollywood black-and-white movies in general (one friend told me that he really couldn't stomach "Casablanca"...I bit my tongue there). Yeah, I get that...but after seeing "Metropolis", I can still feel that this was probably one very heady and ambitious experience for the original viewers at the theatres with the overall design of the sets and costumes, the special effects and the original gorgeous soundtrack by Gottfried Huppertz. Since I was a kid, I have had an affinity with the whole Art Deco movement (some of those Bing AI images that I've made have had some Art Deco thrown in by me) and "Metropolis" includes this with other artistic influences.
My observations can start with my surprise that this was indeed a feature-length movie of two hours that sped by surprisingly quickly. I hadn't been aware that there were silent films that went on that long back then and even without using the fast forward function, Lang kept the pace going at a fairly zippy pace like some blockbuster. Even having repeatedly seen and known about some of the iconic scenes such as the transformation to the evil Maria from the Machine-Man, it was still thrilling to encounter them again within the near-entirety of the film (apparently, according to the trailer above, my version was still several scenes shorter than this new one that has been plugged). Another observation is that the main actress Brigitte Helm had only been 17 when she began work and this was her first motion picture role, and even with the hamminess that had been part and parcel of being in silent movies, she was very impressive.
I also realized that "Metropolis" showed off a lot of movie tropes that we've gotten accustomed to over the decades and may now find as rather cliché such as two old enemies reluctantly working together for a common goal, one young man fighting against institutional evil by raising his own resistance through kindness and decency, and even the good and evil doppelgangers. But back in 1927, these may have been very fresh ingredients. It was apparently the first time as well for a movie to include a robot, albeit briefly.
I've read that although perhaps regular viewers were enthralled with "Metropolis", the critics weren't nearly as kind with H.G. Wells himself calling it silly. But since then, it's gained a lot of cachet, popularity and respect and it's certainly provided a lot of influences for the sci-fi movies to come such as "Blade Runner", "Star Wars" and "Logan's Run".
But the people that I have to thank for introducing that "Metropolis" even existed was the band Queen via the music video for their January 1984 hit"Radio Ga Ga". Getting lots of love on radio and music video programming back in the day, the song itself was Freddie Mercury and band kindly telling folks that radio should still be loved but the video was a lavish tribute to the movie (and Queen itself), even recreating certain backgrounds and sets from "Metropolis". When I first heard it, I thought it was the band getting with the 1980s program and bringing in all those synthesizers while still retaining that anthemic rock stance that they've had since the 1970s. Even watching the movie finally, I could still hear echoes of "Radio Ga Ga" in my head during certain key scenes.
In Canada, "Radio Ga Ga" hit No. 11 on RPM while in the States, it reached No. 16. Meanwhile, several countries in Europe had it go all the way to No. 1. So, what else was being released in January 1984?
As was the case for the singer in my previous article, singer-songwriter Makoto Saito（斎藤誠）hasn't been on the blog recently for quite a while. In fact, the last time he was on the byline was back in 2020 with "NEED YOUR LOVE". Mind you, one of his works has also been included in Yutaka Kimura's Top 100 City Pop masterpieces: the smashing "Aru Gray na Koi no Baai"（或るグレイな恋の場合）.
But for his return to KKP today, I offer you his "LA-LA-LU" which is the title track from his October 1983 debut album. A tenderhearted AOR ballad whose arrangement and vocals remind me of Eric Clapton unplugged, the song also takes listeners on the road to Margaritaville as well with plenty of libations available. In other words, it's quite the relaxing tune. As for the title, don't worry about it; just accept it as the onomatopoeia for pure laidback presence on a gently swaying hammock by the sunny seashore.
Y'know...I've heard about the legendary Brill Building and the fact that an entire genre of American pop music was woven around it thanks to folks like Neil Sedaka, Burt Bacharach and Carole King. But I never got to see the actual building in New York City...until now, thanks to Wikipedia.
There have been some Japanese adherents to the Brill Building sound to a certain extent. I often think of Kaoru Sudo（須藤薫）and Masamichi Sugi（杉真理）, but it also looks like singer-songwriter and former lead guitarist of Sugar Babe, Kunio Muramatsu（村松邦男）, also had his hand in that distinctive sound. It's been several years since he's had a byline on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" so I'm happy to have him back with "X'mas Rock" which was his November 1984 single. Yup, I do pick up on the Brill Building influence with the doo-wop, and the song seems inspired from "Jingle Bell Rock" and "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus".
Back in the day (or night), whenever I traipsed through Tokyo around the Xmas season, I didn't particularly think "holy night". It was more "blisteringly bright night" with all of the seasonal illumination. I wondered often about how much power TEPCO possessed to light up all of those Christmas lights everywhere especially Roppongi and Omotesando.
All this to segue into "Tokyo Holy Night", a track from 70s and 80s aidoru Ikue Sakakibara's（榊原郁恵）November 1982 album"Variety Box". I figured that Ikue-chan, being a former teenybopper and all, just had to have a Xmas song hidden among her many tunes and sure enough, I finally found one. Written by Yukinojo Mori（森雪之丞）, composed by Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロー）and arranged by Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）, it's one jaunty march that is one dance beat away from being considered Eurobeat and it starts with a great keyboard riff. The song centres around a couple who often bicker throughout the year but they call a truce during the Xmas season and have a romantic time of it. Can't really say that there is anything religious about it despite the title but Japan has mostly been about the Santa Claus side of things.
"Yume Miru Nagisa"(Beach of Dreams) is a Masamichi Sugi（杉真理）resort song masterpiece that directly expresses his gratitude to the big man, Eiichi Ohtaki（大滝詠一）, himself through the singing of "The beach cassette is...always 'Long Vacation'" in his lyrics. Along with Ohtaki, there is also a hint of songwriter Kosaku Dan（弾厚作） (aka singer Yuzo Kayama). I think this is one song where you can really enjoy the charm of Sugi, who as a songwriter has based himself on the traditions of Japanese pop that has continued non-stop from the 1960s.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised" (2020).
I've mentioned this before, but whenever New York is featured in some sort of Japanese TV documentary or variety show segment, the accompanying BGM is invariably something jazzy or funky. Perhaps viewers are expecting New Yorkers to be perpetually doing the Charleston or breakdance.
Just a couple of months ago, I noticed keyboardist Yuka Noda（野田ユカ）for the first time via her 1989 album"Carib no Yume"（カリブの夢）and the Latin-tinged title track. It seemed perfect for cocktail-sipping or window shopping through a Jamaican port. This time around, we have another track here titled "Manhattan Blue" by Noda and it's got the jazz and funk fused together (great bass solo, by the way). It's no surprise that the under title for the album is "Light Fusion Fantasy"; it truly is light fusion for shopping in the Big Apple and I also think it would be ideal as soundtrack music for the trendy dramas that were populating Japanese TV at the time.
Back in early 2023, I posted my first article on the band YONA YONA WEEKENDERS, a group that's embraced the genres of City Pop, J-Pop and punk in their performances. I didn't get any punk in their 2019 "Yoru no groovin'"（夜のgroovin'）, but the song is one relaxing cocktail mix of nocturnal inner-city Tokyo urbane and a soupcon of dream pop.
In May 2020, YONA YONA WEEKENDERS released their second single as a major act, "Tokyo Midnight Cruising Club" along with a music video of going through a late-night Japanese urban neighbourhood filmed with that split mirror effect. It provides an eerie yet romantic atmosphere of a seemingly futuristic cityscape. Just like "Yoru no groovin'", there is the YYW arrangement of urbane and dreamy pop whipped up by songwriter and vocalist Isono-kun（磯野くん）.
At the same time, I noticed the lyrics midway through the song where Isono-kun invites listeners to join his little club. The whole thing is wistful since at the time the single was put out there, the entire planet including Tokyo was in the middle of the pandemic so I can imagine that a lot of Tokyoites were restricted to their apartments and computer screens. Perhaps the video was even more of a source of comfort for people to even take a virtual walk outside. It could have also served as an open invitation for folks to finally walk around the area in person at midnight once the lockdowns were lifted.
"Tokyo Midnight Cruising Club" was also a track on YYW's 2nd EP from June 2020, "Machi wo Oyoide"（街を泳いで...Swimming Through the City）. Hopefully, people are truly appreciating their night sojourns now in 2024.
No, no...don't let the title fool you. This has nothing to do with the Morning Musume（モーニング娘。）disco hit from 1999. Even the title is displayed a little differently here.
Mind you, there is disco in Junko Ohashi's（大橋純子）"Love Machine" as well although it's woven into Ken Sato's（佐藤健）melody and arrangement somewhat more subtly. The song was placed as the B-side to her August 1978 hit number "Tasogare My Love"（たそがれマイ・ラブ）. Now, unlike that A-side which has more of that wistful kayo pop feeling thanks to Kyohei Tsutsumi's（筒美京平）work (and it's just Ohashi's name attached to that one), "Love Machine" has the official singing act as Junko Ohashi & Minoya Central Station so it's definitely on her familiar side of City Pop including the fluttering disco flute. Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）was the lyricist here.
Not sure if the sentiment still exists in 2024, but I remember when the whole Japanese City Pop boom was on a few years back, listeners were swooning about wanting to see what the time and place were like in Tokyo of the late 1970s and early 1980s. I was actually there in the early 1980s so perhaps any swooning on my part has been more blunted, but listening to "Love Machine", I can sympathize with my fellow City Pop fans. This would be an ideal accompanying tune while walking among the skyscrapers of Shinjuku at night.
If I'm not mistaken, singer-songwriter Fujii Kaze（藤井風）wasn't included on the 2023 Kohaku Utagassen lineup so it's nice to see him back for 2024 for his third appearance on the New Year's Eve special. Strangely enough, he had released the single "Hana" (Flowers) last October but either he simply didn't get invited or he declined the invitation for last year.
Well, for those who have always wanted a cheerful spin on the fragility and transience of life itself, "Hana" is the perfect song. I've always loved a groovy piano pop tune and "Hana" fulfills that, and so I'm reminded of acts such as Blue Peppers when I hear this one. Although I realize that it's been over a year since its release, I wouldn't mind seeing Fujii Kaze tackling this one on the Kohaku. It reached No. 6 on Oricon.
"Hana" was also used as the theme song for the Fall 2023 Fuji-TV drama "Ichiban Suki na Hana"（いちばんすきな花...My Beloved Flower）.
Well, I guess the Author's Pick articles keep on giving this month. I did the "Snow" songs last week and here we are with another one. But considering that we are at the end of the year, I guess having some of these compilations to commemorate the rush of "______ of the Year" lists is perhaps quite obvious.
This morning, Japanese news announced "The Kanji Character of the Year" and it turned out to be "kin"/"kane" which means "gold" or "money". It was chosen because of the gold medals that had been won by the Japanese athletes at the Paris Olympics back in the summer and also because of all of the money hijinks involving the ruling Liberal Democratic Party this past year (probably not the only party to be guilty of that). So, there is a good side and a bad side.
Anyways, I was thinking about putting up a few songs tonight that have some connection with gold or money and even just the presence of the winning kanji in the title. It wasn't that easy but I managed to find four of them who already have a presence on the blog.
In late October, I posted an article featuring a track from Masamichi Sugi's（杉真理）Xmas-ish compilation "Winter Gift Pops" from 1997. The song was Miwako Saito's（さいとうみわこ）cover of Kaoru Sudo's（須藤薫）"Anata dake I Love You"（あなただけ I LOVE YOU）. Now, I had never heard of Saito before but learned back in the late 1970s going into the 1980s, she had been involved with a couple of bands, Neko Musume（猫娘）and then Tango Europe（タンゴ・ヨーロッパ）, the latter of which consisted of five women including Saito, the main vocalist who also went by the nickname of Nyanko（ニャンコ...Kitten）.
Well, I was able to track down Tango Europe's 4th and final single from June 1984, "Tokyo Cinderella". As you can see from the kanji, the usual characters for Tokyo「東京」 aren't utilized here but replaced by「桃郷」which literally means Peach Village. From the lyrics, I gather that a peach village was quite the utopia.
Written by the vocalist under her nom de plume of Nanako Saito（さいとう菜々子）and composed by fellow bandmate, guitarist Junko Koresawa（是沢淳子）, "Tokyo Cinderella" begins rather dreamily before it goes into a jangly and upbeat tune of an odyssey through Japan's largest metropolis. The protagonist leaves her small hometown for Tokyo to search for a man that she fell hard for through a chance encounter and although she realizes that he's already spoken for, she stays in the city despite reservations from her loved ones to see if she can still find a Prince Charming. Sounds like the perfect story for any rom-com J-Drama.
I hadn't noticed it before, but I now think that after listening to both "Tokyo Cinderella" and her later cover of "Anata dake I Love You" in 1997, Saito has a similar vocal tone and style to future aidoru superstar Shizuka Kudo（工藤静香）. At this point, I've only heard the one song by Tango Europe but there is that 50s/60s girl pop vibe that made Saito quite a good match to cover a song by Kaoru Sudo, a singer who also enjoyed singing the music of yesteryear.
Along with Saito and Koresawa, Tango Europe also included bassist Kaoru Sakaguchi（坂口かおる）, drummer Mikiko Ishida（石田美紀子）and saxophonist/keyboardist Yukari "Yukarie" Tsukakoshi（塚越優香）. During their 1980-1984 run, they tried to exhibit their music as a genre called Mi-ha- Funky（ミーハー・ファンキー...Starstruck Funky）. So far, I see their music as being prototypical of what I would hear from Princess Princess and Jitterin' Jinn later in the decade.
Welcome to the weekly article for Reminiscings of Youth where I bring forth a song that I remember from my childhood and adolescence (most of the time) and give some of my memories about it.
I was never a fan of legendary rock band The Who although even as a rock-averse child, I'd known about Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, John Entwistle and Keith Moon going nuts on the stage and smashing guitars via television footage and radio station commercials. In my first year of high school and final year of ever picking up a clarinet again, we even had to practice selections from The Who's 1973 "Quadrophenia" album. I can guarantee that our attempts to play those selections didn't help me to appreciate or even remember any of the tracks.
But my image was set that The Who was a very angry group of musicians and singer-songwriters. And of course, in the decades to come, the "CSI" franchise made it a tradition to use their songs as themes for their individual shows. Personally, I've learned to enjoy the scream-worthy "Won't Get Fooled Again" for "CSI: Miami" while watching sunglasses-toting Lt. Horatio Caine spout one of his droll musings.
However, that was obviously much later in the century. Some years earlier, when I had that image of Townshend raging and transforming his Fenders and Gibsons into so much kindling and metal parts, he rather surprised me when I was a university student. I caught a music video of his where he transformed himself into an old-fashioned 1940s bandleader in a cheesy tuxedo in charge of a group of happy musicians playing some high-energy jazz and rock. Townshend looked stylish (as a mix of Nicolas Cage and Ralph Fiennes) and apparently absorbed a bit of Cab Calloway showmanship.
I've read that "Face the Face"and its November 1985 source album of "White City: A Novel" weren't exactly warmly welcomed by critics who probably didn't enjoy seeing and hearing a hardcore rock musician going allJoe Jackson jive all of a sudden. However, I actually was good with the catchy song, and according to what I've read in the comments for the various YouTube representations of the tune, the song has amassed its popularity. For example, whoever was on the drums all throughout "Face the Face" should have received a massive bonus for providing that cool and percussive storm to get the folks up and dancing along with those happy and jamming horns.
"Face the Face" reached No. 17 on Canada's RPM and then No. 26 on America's Billboard charts. The highest that it got anywhere else around the world was in Sweden where it hit No. 8. Now, what was hitting the Top 3 of Oriconin November 1985?
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