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.
Well, I guess this is a bit of a reversal of the usual Yutaka Kimura Speaks session. It was usually the case that I'd already written about a particular song before good ol' Kimura gives his two cents on the song via the YKS article. But as regular readers know from last night, the last edition of YKS provided the music specialist's take on Masamichi Sugi's（杉真理）"Vacance wa Itsumo Rain" (It's Always Raining on My Vacation） although I had yet to write an article on it. That changes here and now.
To be frank, I'm still not an expert on Sugi's discography which is why I had never realized that his 8th single from October 1982 became such a turning point and revelation for the singer-songwriter according to Kimura. Still, I have heard some of his earlier material such as his third single"Catch Your Way" from October 1980 and it's perfectly fine. But perhaps Sugi himself had been gradually approaching a certain crisis of faith up to that point just before "Vacance wa Itsumo Rain" which led to that important piece of advice that Eiichi Ohtaki（大滝詠一）had given him.
So I gather that Sugi was probably a faithful Beatles fan deep inside so he brought some of that into the song right from the get-go with that harmonica and the familiar melody. It's a happy-go-lucky song about a guy who just seems to be rather unlucky in the love department but remains ever hopeful. Certainly, Sugi felt as if a rather huge existential knot was massaged out of his shoulders via this hit judging from how cheerful it sounds. Incidentally, "Vacance wa Itsumo Rain" was also used for a Glico commercial.
The whole family went out last night for dinner and we had it at a Swiss Chalet not too far away. As a bit of a change from my usual choice, I ordered a Hot Chicken Sandwich. It turned out to be somewhat less than the sum of its parts, however, since although there was plenty of bread and gravy slathered on, there wasn't a whole lot of chicken. I think the saltiness and the volume of gravy were meant to cover up for the deficiency. It just seemed like this restaurant's equivalent of the cheap Chinese takeout version of Deep Fried Shrimp...90% fried batter and 10% shrimp.
However, a club sandwich has never let me down no matter where I've eaten it. Most of the time, it's been at the diner franchise Eggsmart. I will always be a sucker for the bacon and chicken combo with generous smearings of mayonnaise. Found some good information on the famous dish at Wikipedia, too.
Last Wednesday, when I put up those two burger kayo, commenter AL replied that he actually found a club sandwich kayo and it was performed by none other than aidoru of the 1970s, Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）. "Club Sandwich wa Ikaga?" (How About a Club Sandwich?). It's truly an unusual tune since this whimsical ditty actually sounds like something from a century back with its playful jazz arrangement by Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）. Even Momoe-chan herself gets in on the act by sounding like she was recorded via an old-fashioned gramophone.
"Club Sandwich wa Ikaga?" was also one track on Yamaguchi's successful August 1976 album"Yokosuka Story"（横須賀ストーリー）with that famous trademark title tune, and indeed all of the tracks, including "Club Sandwich wa Ikaga?", were written and composed by husband-and-wife team Yoko Aki and Ryudo Uzaki（阿木耀子・宇崎竜童）. Usually when I hear those two names and Yamaguchi's in the same breath, my mind will usually go to one of the singer's more world-weary and rough-and-tumble hits such as "Imitation Gold"（イミテイション・ゴールド）, so it is pretty revelatory when I hear something as comical as this particular song by the three. Heck, Momoe even predicted my drink of choice with my beloved club sandwich: hot coffee!🥪☕
The lead single from his 1983 album"Stargazer" and his first smash hit as a commercial jingle, "Vacance wa Itsumo Rain"（バカンスはいつも雨...It's Always Raining on My Vacation） was an important number and a turning point in Masamichi Sugi's career.
The previous year, Sugi had participated in the collaboration album "Niagara Triangle Vol. 2" with Motoharu Sano（佐野元春）and Eiichi Ohtaki（大滝詠一）. Advice that he had received from Ohtaki was the spark behind the creation of "Vacance wa Itsumo Rain" and that advice was to appeal to people by bringing more of himself into his music. From there, he rediscovered himself and developed a catchy chord progression which featured a harmonica intro with a beloved Beatles' rhythm. It was from this that clearly showed his own roots, something that he had never shown before.
And then, with his famous "Stargazer" completed and filled with all of this passion, he successively came out with the fulfilling albums "Mistone" and "Symphony #10", and managed to stake an unshakeable position in the Japanese pop scene.
I can only tip my hat in admiration to his sense as a melody maker which has had him dubbed as Japan's Paul McCartney and his talent in churning out song after song. After all, so many of his trademark songs in any of his albums come across as tunes that grab the listener's heart and don't let go.
By the way, I wonder how many people there are who remember the joint concert "Wonder Full Moon" with Sugi, Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）and Kaoru Sudo（須藤薫）in 1982. I have rarely seen such a dreamy and exciting stage performance since then and I would have loved to have seen a reprise of the three of them getting together again.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised" (2020).
Well, I gotta say that as a Misia fan along with tons of other people, I was rather surprised and delighted to see the famed singer-songwriter show up on two NHK shows within as many nights. First off, she appeared on the morning information variety program "Asaichi"（あさイチ）as a guest on the Premium Talk segment and then earlier tonight, she was even one of the panelists on the popular "Chiko-chan" quiz show. And in both cases, she was talking up a storm. The "Asaichi" appearance alone was the most that I had ever seen her converse with anyone.
My history with Misia has been long and has had its ups and downs. When I first heard about her in the late 1990s, I considered her to be one of the biggest vocal powerhouses and pioneers of J-R&B going into the turn of the century, mixing in soul, hip-hop and dance music into an intoxicating blend. Of course, she came through with some heartrending ballads and for a number of years, I lost touch with her because I just thought that she was overdoing it with the love songs. I also enjoyed her upbeat and danceworthy tunes, too.
Well, somebody has got to update the J-Wiki article for Misia's discography because the R&B diva has just released a new single in the last few days titled "Love Never Dies". Of course, she introduced it on "Asaichi" and one YouTube commenter noted that it sounds like some of her old dance stuff, and that person is right and doesn't mind at all. I certainly don't mind at all. Created by Toshiaki Matsumoto（松本俊明）and Misia, the above has gotten a remix by Eric Kupper.
A considerably shorter version of "Love Never Dies" is the soundtrack for the official music video starring the vivacious Naomi Watanabe（渡辺直美）in a Cinderella-esque role.
Man, all this song is missing a mullet and a view of the California coast. I'm talking about a track from the late guitarist Masaki Matsubara's（松原正樹）3rd album from January 1983, "Sniper".
I mean, "I Remember" is so American AOR, it just hurts. Although Matsubara is manning the guitar, it was Terry Shaddick and Jesse Barish behind words and music respectively with Barish also singing the song. Going into the last third of "I Remember", a melancholy tune about remembering a past romance, the key changes are so sublime that any City Pop songwriter can only turn green in envy.
It's been a good long while since Matsubara's name has gotten onto the byline although he's still popped up in Labels in later songs as a songwriter. But my last article with him is "Shining Star", a track from his "Painted Woman" album which was released later that year in November.
Yes, Martin. Do please contemplate about life...because you look so cool doing so!
Strangely enough, I did cover "Sayonara Itoshi no Baby Blues"(Farewell, My Beloved Baby Blues) when I wrote that 2019 article on Masayuki Suzuki's（鈴木雅之）BEST compilation"MARTINI II" but I'm OK with another go-round of this slow-cooking banger. Along with its inclusion in his original 1992 album "Fair Affair" and "MARTINI II", it was also the coupling song to Martin's 14th single in May 1992, the splendid "Mou Namida wa Iranai"（もう涙はいらない）, and my opinion on B-sides on those old 45"s also applies to the coupling songs for those tiny CD singles. They should be checked out as well.
And certainly "Sayonara Itoshi no Baby Blues" is one soulful cool-down tune after "Mou Namida wa Iranai" which can sound good on the stereo at home or in the car while rumbling down those Tokyo highways. Written and composed by Hideki Andoh（安藤秀樹）and arranged by the late Nobuo Ariga（有賀啓雄）, the song was also performed by Suzuki in its entirety sometime during the third season of the cop show "Deka Kizoku"（刑事貴族...The Detective Aristocrats） on NTV which used "Mou Namida wa Iranai" as the theme song.
Let us hope that it's the type of day outside today where you can be like Mr. Calico above and just sip an iced coffee while whiling away the time peacefully at a stylish café in the big city.
Having this as your musical accompaniment isn't bad either. It's been nearly five years since I posted the most recent entry for the obscure Japanese fusion group Air Suspension Club Band, and the last time I did so was to provide information on their energetic "Seaside in the Twilight" track from their 1982 album"Another World".
I found out on Tower Records that "Seaside in the Twilight" had been released as a single and its B-side is the subject of this article. "Daydream" sounds perfect for the title as it's far more chill and it's tempting to go into lazy gaze mode while slowly savoring that iced coffee. I was able to find out that the song was composed and arranged by Mr. Theodore (sounds either like the name of a James Bond thug or a butler) that could actually represent the entire band. Anyways, for KKP City Pop fans, enjoy another Urban Contemporary Friday today with a bit of relaxation in mind.
I put this particular celebratory birthday photo of Naoko Kawai（河合奈保子）up and then checked when her birthday was. Well, as it turns out, I'm still about a couple of months away from the big 62 for one of the 1980s' most representative aidoru.
Anyways, as I've always said on KKP, never forget about those B-sides. And for Kawai today, I've checked out the B-side for her 2nd single "Young Boy"（ヤング・ボーイ）released in August 1980. "Aoi Shisen"(Blue Gaze) is a slightly less dramatic song than its A-side, but it's still a spirited number that has hints of disco and summer-side fun...kinda like a lot of other aidoru tunes from those days. Written by Akira Ito（伊藤アキラ）and composed/arranged by Makoto Kawaguchi（川口真）, those Naoko-chan vocals soar like crazy and I do like it when the synthesizer warps from one headphone to another a couple of times.
As is the case with "Young Boy", "Aoi Shisen" deals with some innocent romantic sturm und drang. A boy and a girl who have feelings for each other are still literally and figuratively distanced from each other at some beach locale...neither willing to make that forward move and even having problems trying to initiate even the most furtive eye contact. Talk about hard to get! 😳 I think they both need Orange Mimosas to take the edge off.
The last time I wrote about singer Chiyono Yoshino（吉野千代乃）was in late 2022, so I figured it was time to get her back up onto "Kayo Kyoku Plus". And when I discovered that it was Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）taking care of the composition and arrangement for this particular song, it suddenly demanded my attention.
"Birthday Eve" is a track on Yoshino's one-and-only album under the Toshiba EMI label, "Crescent Moon" which was released back in October 1994. Arisu Sato（佐藤ありす）is the lyricist for this pleasant song that kinda hovers between pop and 1990s City Pop. Perhaps it alights on the sophisticated pop leaf of this specific plant. In any case, I love Yoshino's vocals here and some of those cool key changes.
By the late 1980s, I'd gotten the distinct impression that the multi-week megahit on video shows and radio programs was beginning to fade in frequency. It wasn't quite like the early 1980s when there would be a song by a music superstar taking the baton from the previous artist to be the new No. 1 (or slightly below) person for the next little while. But perhaps that was just my perception.
So, it was something when Brenda Russell's"Piano in the Dark" first appeared in the pop culture zeitgeist as a single in February 1988. I'd never heard of this singer-songwriter before and to be honest, I never quite heard from her again. But for a long time that year, this soulful song was getting the heavy rotation on radio and TV. Created by Russell, Jeff Hull and Scott Cutler, it was this melancholy tune about wondering whether to leave a guy, only for his piano playing to draw the protagonist back in (kinda reminded of a famous "The Godfather Part III" quote here). The moody and smoky arrangement was such that it had me thinking of Quiet Storm again along the lines of Anita Baker.
In Canada, "Piano in the Dark" did OK by scoring a No. 23 ranking on RPM but did far better in the United States where it reached No. 6 on Billboard. It was also a track on Russell's fourth studio album"Get Here" which came out in the same year.
So, what else was coming out as singles in Japan in February 1988?
I can't say that I'm an expert on NHK's morning drama serials. However, and not surprisingly, when the 15-minute show is based on several decades ranging from prewar to postwar Japan, World War II acts as the crucible for the characters. Currently, I'm watching "Anpan"（あんぱん）and the episodes are now on the cusp of entering the war years so it'll be interesting to see who survives into the 1950s and beyond.
That did get me to thinking about what were the kayo kyoku that made their presence known in 1945 going forwards. I couldn't find anything that year that didn't have anything to do with the war effort. However, I saw that Ichiro Fujiyama（藤山一郎）was back in his crooning ways in 1946 as if nothing had changed during those previous fateful years. He released "Ginza Serenade" as a love song for those couples traipsing through the famous neighbourhood Ginza in Tokyo.
The legendary Ryoichi Hattori（服部良一）came up with the Habanera tango melody while a fellow named Masao Murasame（村雨まさを）was behind the lyrics. Well, it was actually Hattori here, too, under a pseudonym. Not sure what inspired the songsmith to come up with a castanet-happy arrangement but it sure added a new level of oomph so I can only imagine what Ginza was already looking like in the first full year without the war. Also what caught my ear was how Fujiyama was pronouncing most of those English words.
I was watching the local news this morning when I found out that apparently today is National Burger Day here in the Great White North. Ah...wonderful...and I'm not going anywhere for lunch or dinner.😞 But those cheeseburgers did look rather sumptuous on television. Interestingly enough, I've heard that within the Japanese gastronomical world, the hamburger in all its different forms (sliders, smashed burgers, etc.) is getting its second wind. I was there for the first big blossoming of the burger there when all sorts of burger shops popped up throughout the Greater Tokyo Area.
After catching that TV segment, I was wondering about any burger kayo out there. The only one I knew was Kirinji's（キリンジ）bubbly "Pizza VS. Hamburger" from the band's "cherish" album of 2019. However, although I'd assumed that I would be lucky to find even one after several minutes, I was able to track down two within just a few minutes. So, for your listening (and perhaps future eating) pleasure, here are the double portions with cheese.
I have to really get better at distinguishing folksy singer Masato Shimon（子門真人）from Tatsuo Kamon（嘉門タツオ）. Shimon was the one behind the biggest-selling single in Japan, "Oyoge! Taiyaki-kun" (およげ！たいやきくん）, also a song about food but nothing to do with lots of protein. Kamon, on the other hand, is an entertainer who started out as the apprentice for a rakugo comedian in the late 1970s before becoming a singer-songwriter of comical novelty tunes from the 1980s.
His 34th single was released in December 1995. "Totsugeki! Hamburger Shop"(Bang! Hamburger Shop) comes across as a comedic country-western tune with Kamon acting in two roles: the grumpiest customer in a hamburger shop dealing with a super-polite employee and the grumpiest hamburger shop owner dealing with a nervous nellie of a customer. Basically, he brought in his old rakugo techniques into this one. Kamon composed the song while Tsuyoshi Sugimoto（杉本つよし）took care of the lyrics.
Meanwhile, Chisato Moritaka's（森高千里）"Teriyaki Burger" is one upbeat jukebox-friendly pop-rock track from her October 1990 album"Kokon Tozai"（古今東西...All Times and Places）. The title is the only thing that concerns any patty between two buns; Moritaka just lets loose on her ambitions to take over the world her own way without things such as formal education and borders getting in her way. In a way then, "Teriyaki Burger" could share something with the food-themed title "Sukiyaki" being slapped onto Kyu Sakamoto's（坂本九）classic "Ue wo Muite Arukou" (上を向いて歩こう) by that British DJ decades ago. "Sukiyaki" has nothing to do with the meaning of the lyrics but it's easier to pronounce that particular title. In any case, Moritaka took care of the lyrics while Hideo Saito（斉藤英夫）was the composer.
Now, here's a special video. I don't think I've ever seen Princess Princess and Moritaka collaborate. Cherish it and that hamburger today.🍔
Over the time of the blog, I believe I've mentioned that I grew up watching cartoons such as anything from Disney, Peanuts and Warner Brothers. I also have to say that "Popeye the Sailor Man" can be included. Even before I could actually eat the iron-rich vegetable, I got to know Popeye and his love for spinach along with the rest of his gang including Olive Oyl and Wimpy. And of course, there is that famous theme song by Sammy Lerner and Danny Long.
In the disco era of the 1970s, I knew that some of the older songs were getting disco-fied such as the "Star Wars" theme and Beethoven's "Symphony No. 5". So it was no surprise to find out that the "Popeye" theme got its treatment of boppy bass and silky strings. But this time, it was on the Japanese side of things that a disco version of Popeye's theme was made.
You can thank Spinach Power（スピニッヂ・パワー）for the disco take on that theme, and what better group to take that on but a band whose name exemplifies everything the sailor stands for. Released as the band's first single in September 1978, of course, the main chorus is in there but there is also a driving disco part which had me wondering how people danced to that.
Tetsuo Nishihama（西濱哲男）was on vocals while fellow Spinach Power member Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）and City Pop singer Yumi Murata（村田有美）were helping out on chorus. Apparently, veteran producer Daiko Nagato's（長戸大幸）introduction to the legendary comic book character was the impetus behind the making of the song, according to J-Wiki.
I would love to fly out to my old stomping grounds of Japan more often but the three things that have stymied me over the past several years are 1) the cost and 2) the time needed to get there and 3) I have loved ones that I have to keep an eye on. Until recently at least, I've heard all these aeronautical wish lists of activating ramjet airliners to get from Toronto to Tokyo in less than two hours. Wouldn't that be the thing?
Well, until that day comes, we can all continue to dream. Anyways, I have a pretty upbeat song that has a jet theme. Over a couple of years ago, I mentioned about the technopop group FILMS which included musicians that have made their own fame and fortune such as keyboardist Taku Iwasaki（岩崎工）and drummer Saeko Suzuki（鈴木さえ子）. They put out a couple of singles and a couple of albums including the 1980 release "Misprint". which has the entire band all snazzily dressed up with diving masks to show their avant-garde wackiness.
From "Misprint", I have here "Take Me On The Linear Jet" which was written and composed by vocalist Chuuji Akagi（赤城忠治）, although this time, the vocals were handled by co-vocalist Yoko Kojima（小島洋子）. It's a rather fun and playful technopop piece that even has some feelings of old-fashioned Vaudeville arrangements. I can imagine some ancient video game with a jet soaring out over the ocean while this is playing.
I don't know much about this duo known as Sonic Coaster Pop (or SoCoPo) that had its run between 1999 and 2002 but they were categorized as being part of the Akishibu-kei（アキシブ系）hybrid genre of Shibuya-kei rhythms as applied to anime and game music, which was (and maybe still is) concentrated in Tokyo's pop culture Akihabara district. Akira Suzuki and Chinatsu Furukawa were the two here and they provided their music through a number of releases and compilations.
One such compilation came out apparently after SoCoPo's disbanding. "Good compi" was released in 2003 under abcdefg*record and the second track is "Usagi-chan Dancin'" (Little Rabbit Dancin'). It's a bouncy number that occupies Track 3 of "Good compi" and as one person said on one site: "Think YMCK meets Perfume." I would probably push further on that analogy and posit that it can be a mix of YMO bleeps and bloops, Pizzicato Five's Shibuya-kei paint-the-town-red arrangement and a bunch of Precure vocalists on a major bender. The music video above is such that I can even suggest some Vaporwave (I do remember that Pocari Sweat commercial with Sae Isshiki). It's like tripping the light fantastic in a digital world.
I'm not sure whether Alcoholics Anonymous would appreciate the sentiments expressed in this particular song, but I heard this one, "Sake Akari" (The Light of the Drink) by enka singer Hiroshi Miyama（三山ひろし）last night on NHK's"Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）as his 20th single from January 2025.
Usually when it comes to Miyama's enka tunes, I've gotten his exhortations on the grand nature of the countryside which is a common enka trope. However, this time around, the native of Kochi Prefecture is singing about the healing qualities of a good drink and companionship at the local nomiya. Written by Daizo Saito（さいとう大三）and composed by Tetsuya Gen（弦哲也）, the gentle beckoning melody seems to be a reflection (literal and figurative) of the welcoming and glistening light of the just-as-gentle sloshing of the alcohol, most likely sake, made from the purest water. Perhaps even the mesmerizing effects of the sake moving about is enough to bring some ASMR recovery. "Sake Akari" reached No. 14 on Oricon.
I also heard his "Hokkai Minato Bushi"（北海港節）last night which was the last article I did on Miyama back in 2023.
Earlier this month, I was doing my usual maintenance through the entries under the year 1980 and discovered that the YouTube video for obscure sister duo Bal Balloon's（バル・バルーン）1980"Stardust Serenade"（スターダスト・セレナーデ）had been taken down. Quite disappointing especially since it was a pretty decent City Pop tune, although I was able to find an excerpt of it on Apple.
I also mentioned in that article that Rika Matsuda（松田りか）and Mami Matsuda（松田マミ）had once started their career in the early 1970s under the name Chewing Gum（チューインガム）. They were much more into the folk music back then, and here is their 2nd single from October 1972, "Okada-san no Tegami"(Okada-san's Letter). Ahh...that oboe. Anyways, Mami was the lyricist and Rika was the composer as this bittersweet song talks of the usual tearful splitting of a friendship or romance between the titular Okada-san and the significant other as the former's family is on the verge of moving away to another town.
The name change didn't stop with Chewing Gum going to Bal Balloon. Bal Balloon had its day between 1980 and 1982 before it then underwent another change to Lucky Lips（ラッキーリップス）and then back to Chewing Gum in 1983. But wait there's MORE! No, what I mean is that the Matsuda sisters took on the name MORE in 1985. The fans probably demanded year-by-year updates.
With a name like Nomad Pop, readers can be forgiven if they thought that ol' J-Canuck came up with a new genre heading again. Actually, that's not the case here. It's the name of a rock band that first assembled in 2019 with a first EP coming out later that year. Led by vocalist and songwriter Ryusuke Sameshima（鮫島竜輔）, it's a five-piece group that, according to its own biography, takes on the topics of isolation and doubt with some rich sounds and humour. Another site mentions that Nomad Pop bases its sound on R&B, rock and hip-hop.
In January 2024, Nomad Pop released their single "We Live" which actually had me thinking Neo-City Pop for the first several seconds but ventured more into the crystalline world of technopop, if anything. Gliding through the lyrics, it's about a man who initially proclaims that he's over someone from a past relationship but isn't really fooling anybody except perhaps himself. Meanwhile, the music video seems to be set in the final decade of the 20th century with the first half of the video centering around an old-fashioned phone booth as an alien tries to connect with someone late at night. By the end, a few other mild happenings take place with no one noticing the alien. Yeah, I think those themes of isolation and doubt are infused. And it's pretty much a cliché now that aliens have those feelings of isolation and doubt ranging from Superman to Mr. Spock.
No, folks. I haven't gotten my months mixed up here. It just has to do with the title.
I am talking about "Kaze mo Tomaru Juu-gatsu"(October, When the Winds Stop) which was a track on aidoru Junko Tokumaru's（徳丸純子）2nd and final album"Ao no Nai Palette"（青のないパレット...Palette Without Blue） from December 1983. The singing part of her career ended not long afterwards, although she was able to keep on acting for quite a while longer. However, this particular song is (ironically considering the title) a pretty breezy affair with a touch of old-time pop thanks to the melody and arrangement by Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）. I'm just a sucker for shimmering strings and nostalgic chorus. Yuuho Iwasato（岩里祐穂）took care of the lyrics.
You can also give a listen to the song's track mate, "Koi wa Seesaw Game"（恋はシーソーゲーム）. I was wondering about the meaning of the title depending on how it's read. Is it "Kaze Motomaru Juu-Gatsu" or "Kaze mo Tomaru Juu-Gatsu"? However, when I defined the first reading as "Wind Calculating October", I figured it was probably the second reading.
When it comes to the good-time rock n' roll group, the Downtown Boogie-Woogie Band（ダウン・タウン・ブギウギ・バンド）, almost all listeners will be reminded of "Minato no Yoko, Yokohama Yokosuka"（港のヨーコ・ヨコハマ・ヨコスカ）from 1975.
But immediately before that, their 3rd single"Smokin' boogie" was said to be the song that got the band into listeners' ears. Written by bassist and vocalist Takeshi Arai（新井武士）and composed by fellow bandmate Ryudo Uzaki（宇崎竜童）, it starts off rather rootsy before we all get that reminder of what it must have been like to cut a rug on the dance floor back in the 1950s. Meanwhile, Arai's lyrics talk about how one probable teen got into a life of cigarettes. Japan Tobacco must have loved this one while anti-cancer campaigns probably did not. Even the chorus makes like the sound of the guy puffing away.
However, as they say, "Wait, there's more!". It turns out that "Smokin' boogie" was inspired by American blues guitaristElmore James' 1961 "Shake Your Moneymaker", itself inspired by previous songs according to Wikipedia.
For people who had mainly listened to music centering on American and British pop and rock, Taeko Ohnuki's European music approach must have sounded oddly fresh. "Romantique", "Aventure", "Cliché", "Signifie" and then "Copine" in 1985 followed the same road, but what is notable here is that most of the songs were created in Tokyo under that quasi-European sound. Some of the songs on "Cliché" were actually recorded in France, but the vast majority of them were made in Japan's capital alongside people such as Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）. For that matter, you can say that they really were of the City Pop world.
People become the most imaginative when they are heads-over-heels in love. They actually head off in the direction of the place of their desire that they only knew via their records, and so creating these songs while in thrall to their imagination everywhere can often take on a charm that is even bigger than recording them. When talking about City Pop, this is an extremely important element. Music of a refined Western taste that retains the scent of Tokyo...wouldn't this be the true essence of City Pop?
Another thing that can't be forgotten is the presence of Sakamoto. From "Romantique" to "Copine", it can be said that with him as the arranger and Ohnuki as the artist, it was a golden time. When he departed with his skill, the singer's European path could no longer move forward.
After that, Ohnuki created pop masterpieces in the 90s with "Drawing" and "Shooting Star in the Blue Sky", and always kept up the quality and freshness of her works through working with these excellent sound creators of that time.
The way to enjoy her City Pop is not just by listening to her as an artist, but also by focusing on her amazing behind-the-scenes work as a producer, arranger and musician.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised" (2020).
Back on Wednesday, I wrote up an article based on the late Hiroshi Narumi's （鳴海寛）"Ame Agari"（雨あがり）and since I will always think of him and singer-songwriter (almost always the latter) Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）as the City Pop duo Tohoku Shinkansen（東北新幹線）, I decided to whimsically throw her name into the YouTube search engine to see if she might have popped up with anything on her own. After all, in Part 4 of that translation that I did of the liner notes for Tohoku Shinkansen's one-and-only "Thru Traffic" (1982) last year, it was noted that Yamakawa hadn't been too fond of being front and centre behind the mike.
Well, I actually hit an unexpected Bingo when I put her name into the search engine. In July 2024, she released a digital single called "Do Yah!" with her behind the melody with veteran Goro Matsui（松井五郎）behind the lyrics. Perhaps time and circumstances mellowed her out on the old unwillingness to sing out on her own. In any case, she sounds great in a cute and kittenish way while handling her own tune which is reminiscent of late 80s-early 90s Bubble Era City Pop with some of that funk intertwined in there. Plus, there are some nice subtle harmonies in the background. For me, "Do Yah!" is Oh Yeah! Nice to hear her behind the mike again after 42 years.
Ahhh....it's so nice to hear the velvet tones of Kanako Wada（和田加奈子）once more after so long. And the crazy thing is that this song "Wake Up Dream" was included on her "Golden Best" compilation but I never mentioned it in its article.
Well, allow me to rectify. "Wake Up Dream" was Wada's final single to date, released in July 1991, and it's been given the subtitle of "New Arrange Version". Thing is, I can't find the so-called "old arrange version" anywhere in her other singles or albums. But in any case, this arrangement is a fine one with that refreshing feeling of bossa nova in the morning. Haven't heard this in so long that hearing it again a few days ago brought some hairs to attention.
Neko Oikawa（及川眠子）was the lyricist while Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）took care of the soothing melody. Some very nice background vocals accompanying Wada's own lovely voice which would make it sound quite ideal for radio. The song was also used in a Morinaga Piknik ad; it looks to be some yogurt drink. Below is a commercial for the product but from 1987.
A little over a month ago, I profiled a 1987 song by singer-songwriter Masatou Higashi（東正任）titled "Singapore no Yuki"（シンガポールの雪）. I noticed that the song had been composed by Ryohei Yamanashi（山梨良平）, someone that I haven't really written about in a few years and that was a pity because as I recall, he came up with some pretty snazzy songs himself, mixing in some jive jazz with the City Pop.
One such song was his "Jungle Love" track from his 1984 album"La Habanera" which was pretty darn close in tone to some of the songs that Kid Creole & The Coconuts were releasing at about the same time. A fellow track from the album is "Futari no Africa" (Africa for Two). Written and composed by Yamanashi, it's a musical version of a romantic and breezy honeymoon on the titular continent, once again bringing jazz and City Pop together. I swear that in another life Yamanashi must have been a Jazz Age crooner singing weekly on top of the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City.
As with Kayo Grace above, I was also eating sushi with a couple of friends at a place that I'd never been to before, Jyugyoya in the Bayview-Leaside neighbourhood. The weather wasn't the greatest since the clouds kept threatening to open up on pedestrians but it was still a nice walk through this quaint area in the city. The food was good, the service was fine and the company was wonderful.
I'd like to start this edition of Urban Contemporary Fridays on KKP with another entry from the "Heart Cocktail"（ハートカクテル）series. First off, the original NTV film "Cosmos Avenue" involves a couple who look to be fairly long into their relationship judging from the nature of their banter, and it looks like they seem to be exchanging stuff over a fairly long distance between their respective homes.
The somewhat banging "Cosmos Avenue" soundtrack which plays during the nearly three-minute vignette is by Naoya Matsuoka（松岡直也）and is included in the 1986"Heart Cocktail Vol. 1" album of songs. It's elegant and busy at the same time with the string synths flowing over a hammering synth rhythm punctuated by syn-drums. Still for something more organic, there is a piano beating away at its heart.
Maintenance of a blog can sometimes bring up some unfortunate truths. For one thing, the elimination of videos for the first couple of articles of a pretty obscure singer. And indeed, that has happened to singer, flutist and actress Ai Kanzaki（神崎愛）. So, at this point, I've had to put her two City Pop offerings back into mothballs until those videos come back.
Right now then, I just have the one active article depicting her 1980 single"Sentakusen"（洗濯船）which lays more on the border between Fashion Music and New Music. As I stated there, it's rather chaise lounge-friendly and has more of that classy exotic kayo feeling. The B-side though is the topic of this article for Kanzaki. "Koibito-tachi no Rondo" (Lovers' Rondo) has a bit more oomph but it's also whimsical to a nearly comical degree as Kanzaki vocally takes on a higher and squeakier tone, although some of those chord changes are pretty cool. It's almost as if she's singing this half-drunk in some French bar. Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）was the lyricist here with Ken Sato（佐藤健）and Yasuo Higuchi（樋口康雄）taking care of the melody and arrangement respectively.
That was my first reaction to Boy George when I heard Culture Club's "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me". There was so much old-time soul in those vocals and yet they were coming out of someone who looked to have been residing on the dividing line between New Wave and New Romantic. As well, the music was something that I couldn't immediately identify but that was because there was a blend of genres coming together: New Wave, soul and reggae. But again, I go back to that voice with the smokiness and vulnerability. And she was pretty, too.
Ah, and then I'd find out a few months later that Boy George really was a boy, George...George Alan O'Dowd, in fact. Still, dang fine voice.
And Culture Club became a sensation from that point for the next several years as Boy George and his band were frequent visitors on the charts. But "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" was the first one, Culture Club's fourth single from September 1982 and it was hitting No. 1 all over the Earth including Canada, the UK and France among other nations while it peaked at No. 2 in the United States.
Well, not surprisingly, such was Culture Club's popularity that corporate Japan came calling.
I also remember that Boy George's appearance was so iconic that there were Boy George lookalike contests all around the world. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any footage on YouTube but I recall the one that had been held in Japan somewhere. I don't think I'd seen so many Japanese New Romanticists in heavy makeup before.
So, what else was being released in Japan in that busy month of September 1982?
The late singer-songwriter Chu Kosaka（小坂忠）who left us a little over three years ago had been involved with a number of groups, beginning with his Group Sounds band The Floral（ザ・フローラル）in the late 1960s. The next decade over, he was associated with Tin Pan Alley（ティン・パン・アレー）. In 1972, he formed a band known as Chu Kosaka & Four Joe Half（小坂忠 と フォージョーハーフ）with drummer Tatsuo Hayashi（林立夫）, keyboardist Masataka Matsutoya（松任谷正隆）, bassist Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）and steel pedal guitarist Hiroki Komazawa（駒沢裕城）.
First though, I felt that I had to give some clarity to that name of Four Joe Half. I believe that it is a humourous translation of the term yojouhan（四畳半）which directly means four-and-a-half tatami mats, basically a small tatami room or even small tatami apartment. From what I've learned, there has been a certain romanticism or nostalgia added to this tiny room since such places were residences for the poor and hungry high school or university student in Japan trying to study but also to make ends meet. It was also a meeting place for the resident and his/her buddies to carouse, drink and play music perhaps. Speaking of which, when a music genre is associated with such humble living back in the 1960s and 1970s, it's usually folk.
The living room in my 2K apartment was probably a yojouhan and true to what I said up above, I did have my friends come over for dinner parties such as hot pot. At one time early in my residency there, I had as many as twenty folks squished in that room. I may as well have called my living room a TARDIS! Well, nowhere near as roomy...
And that's where we come back to the main line here. Chu Kosaka & Four Joe Half were able to release a live album in July 1972 called "Motto Motto"（もっともっと...More and More） and from it, we have the second-last track "Sukinan dakara" (Cause I Love You). Written and composed by Kosaka, it's a Sunday-relaxed tenderhearted ballad about declaring one's love for a live-in partner in what is probably that yojouhan apartment. Maybe things aren't financially resplendent, but as long as the couple are together, then things will work out. Kosaka's soothing vocals, that lovely piano and Komazawa's just-as-soothing pedal guitar keep things very nicely introspective and pleasant.
My previous article some minutes ago had to do with one of America's most famous bars on television. As well, my good anime buddy has just returned from his annual pilgrimage to Japan, including a few days in Hokkaido, so I figure that it was time to search for a shibui Sapporo-based enka or Mood Kayo.
Looks like I may have hit the kayo kyoku trifecta here. To be honest, I couldn't distinguish whether Mina Aoe's（青江三奈）"Sapporo Blues" is an enka or a Mood Kayo (I can hear elements of both genres) and of course, it serves as a go-touchi (local or regional) song. The late singer released "Sapporo Blues" back in March 1968 as her 9th single and also as another entry in her "Blues" series which includes the much later 1983 "Osaka Blues"（大阪ブルース）. Written by Kohan Kawauchi（川内康範）and composed by Koumei Sone（曽根幸明）, the husky tones of Aoe (including those famous moans) deliver a story of longing and trysting in the capital city of Hokkaido where the cold can easily have people search for bodily (or drinkable) warmth.
There was a place that I used to call my home away from home and that was the International Student Centre at the University of Toronto. I started there as a volunteer to help out with the welcoming of foreign students in the fall and ended up as the main receptionist there for a few years. In between those two positions, I was the usual Tuesday night guy behind the front desk where I took care of things after the main staff had gone home. There were the usual clubs (such as the Society of Creative Anachronism) that booked rooms in the ISC so I got to know them well, and even better, some of my friends from the Japanese-Canadian Students' Association dropped by to hang out by the desk. Even when I did lock up, we sometimes went out for a late dinner in Chinatown 10 minutes' walk away. Good times!
I appreciated being part of a social hub like that, but perhaps the seed for that idea came years previously with an NBC sitcom called "Cheers" that had a run of more than a decade starting from September 1982. I remember the original commercial for the series; it just had one amiable fellow who looked like he was about to hit a classy downtown bar on a dark stage simply describing this upcoming situation comedy called "Cheers" which promised to be something a little out of the ordinary.
And it turned out to be so. "Cheers" was about the humourous goings-on within a Boston bar run by former Bosox pitcher Sam "Mayday" Malone. For the first several years, everything basically took place within the comfortable old-style trappings of Cheers the bar among the regular customers who came in for a pint or ten. The above video shows the very first scene from the very first episode, and I still had to catch myself laughing.
One absolutely faithful barfly at Cheers was the lovable Norm Petersen played by George Wendt. He would always burst through the door and then everyone in the bar would yell "NORM!!" in greetings before a brief snarky exchange. It was sad to hear of Wendt's passing yesterday at 76. He's been in other projects although I believe that he preferred performing on the stage, but I will always remember him as ever-imbibing Norm.
Yup, this is an atypical Reminiscings of Youth although we'll have the regularly scheduled one tomorrow but since I enjoyed "Cheers" in the early years especially when Shelley Long and Nicholas Colasanto were part of the cast, I wanted to pay tribute to Wendt. Plus, since hearing about his death, the theme song has been playing in my head frequently.
As you know, I have lavishly included TV theme songs from my childhood and youth within the ROY series, and I think this one for "Cheers" is up there with the best. Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart-Angelo were the ones behind "Where Everybody Knows Your Name" with the former singing the song. Anchored by a piano that sounds as if it belongs to a bar like Cheers, Portnoy gives this truly sympathetic delivery and the equivalent of an arm around the shoulder as if helping a buddy in the blues and inviting him for a round on him at their beloved drinking establishment where the rest of the guys are waiting.
A full version of the song was released by Portnoy in early 1983. Of course, my condolences go to Wendt's family, friends and many fans. NORM!! So, at around the time that "Cheers" came out, what was up at the top of Oricon? I have the Top 3 from September 27th 1982.
Singer-songwriter and musician Hiroshi Narumi（鳴海寛）, one-half of the City Pop/old-timey pop duoTohoku Shinkansen（東北新幹線）, passed away almost a decade ago, but it's been wonderful that his music as part of that pairing with songwriter Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）and as a soloist has been rediscovered over the years. A couple of years ago, I mentioned that there had been a 2022 album put out in tribute to Narumi titled "Around the Thru Traffic" as a compilation of other songs from his other albums.
One of the tracks there that I didn't cover the first time around is "Ame Agari" (After the Rain). Composed by Narumi and written by Takashi Narematsu, it supposedly first emerged to fans' ears as far back as his 2017 album"Boku wa Uta Tsukuri (Early Works 1975-1978)"（僕は詩つくり...I am a Writer of Songs）, although I couldn't track down the year that it had been first recorded.
It's been a pretty rainy day here in Toronto and since it is a Hump Day, I thought it would be nice to have something like "Ame Agari" start off the Wednesday edition of KKP. "Ame Agari" isn't a City Pop or AOR tune at all; instead it's a light and pleasant bossa nova song with Narumi's vocals fitting the melody perfectly.
Intriguing thing about that "Uta Con"（うたコン）episode that I'd mentioned in my previous article. Being the 100th anniversary of NHK, the show did the weekly dip into the time vault and this time around, they dug through 1986. Of course, that also meant looking at the annual Kohaku Utagassen footage from that year, and lo and behold, dancing wunderkind dancing aidoru Yoko Oginome was on stage.
Additionally, she was singing what is arguably her most famous hit, "Dancing Hero"（ダンシング・ヒーロー）, from 1985 which was the cover version of Angie Gold's "Eat You Up". And it was maybe for that reason that Oginome's voice and the entire song got the Jme treatment of copyright-enforced Muzak-inflicted blanking out of "Dancing Hero". Geez...the powers-that-be are really getting harsh.
Inspired (and triggered) by that incident, I've decided that I'll put up my own favourite five Yoko Oginome tunes in no particular order.
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