One of the earliest Mood Kayo-based articles that I ever put up on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" was Yujiro Ishihara's（石原裕次郎）1977 "Brandy Glass"（ブランデーグラス）which was about as dramatic as one could get with that cigarette-and-whiskey-soaked voice along with the background chorus and trumpet. It didn't open the door wide for my jump into the bar-and-tryst-filled Japanese music genre at the time that I first heard it in the early 1980s, but it did stick to me for many years until I finally admitted my liking for Mood Kayo.
Of course, with "Brandy Glass" being the typical 45" single, there was a B-side to be heard as well. So, I finally listened to "Ashiato" (Footsteps) which was the flip side to the original single when it was released in April 1977. Somewhat more lighthearted than the A-side, it was also a different genre: more old-style club jazz standard that would attract someone like Nat King Cole to do an English version of it. It was the same songwriters behind "Brandy Glass" who tackled "Ashiato": lyricist Yoko Yamaguchi（山口洋子）and composer Mitsuru Kotani（小谷充）with the song being about Ishihara musing about a wistfully lost opportunity: seeing the lady she loved getting married to someone else without him being able to express his opinions to her. All he can do now is to wish her well. The song would be perfect for a 50s or 60s nightclub aside from a weirdly inserted twee synthesizer or something like that.
"Ashiato" was the original B-side to "Brandy Glass". However, in a later reissue of the single in 1979, the B-side ended up being "Koi no Machi Sapporo"（恋の街札幌）which was a 1972 single by the Tough Guy.
I’m curious about the reason behind the delay in acknowledging your preference for Mood Kayo. Was it due to indecisiveness? Or did it take time for you to develop a liking for it? Perhaps it’s similar to my relationship with R&B. As a child, I detested R&B, possibly because of the melancholic minor tones that made it sound sad. Additionally, I felt pressured socially to like R&B, hip-hop, or rap since I’m of a certain complexion. Consequently, quickly I developed a very strong aversion to it. These days I guess I do not mind listening to R&B, but I still prefer happier sounding music over R&B.
ReplyDeleteHello, Brian. It took time for me to develop a liking for it since at the time, I had treated enka and Mood Kayo as "old fogey" music; stuff that my parents liked. I basically had to become an old fogey myself to start appreciating these more traditional genres.
DeleteI was a little struck by your comment regarding R&B being sad music. There are melancholy ballads, to be sure, such as "After the Love Has Gone" by Earth Wind & Fire, but I've also found some very upbeat tunes by the same band such as "September" and "Boogie Wonderland". I'm definitely a fan of the old-school R&B by folks like EW&F, Anita Baker and DeBarge.
My appreciation for Mood Kayo grew in tandem with my rising enjoyment in jazz since the former genre also uses a lot of jazz in the arrangements.