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.

Sunday, July 20, 2025

Kazushi Inamura and Dai Ikkan Dai Hyakusho -- GOKUU

 

As I'd like to reassure people whenever I post the above photo, neither I nor my camera were drunk when I took this shot. This crazy architectural construct is the DeBeers building in Ginza. Every time I pass by it, I just have to look up and admire it for a few seconds.

A couple of days ago, a commenter left a request under the article for "Ni-gatsu no Nioi"(二月の匂い)which was recorded by the late singer-songwriter Kazushi Inamura(稲村一志)and his band Dai Ikkan Dai Hyakusho(第一巻第百章). Apparently, the request was for the lyrics of another track from the band's 1977 2nd album, "Free Flight", which also holds "Ni-gatsu no Nioi".

Now, I can't find those lyrics for "GOKUU" but after listening to the song, at least I can spread the word out there to anyone who might actually have the "Free Flight" album if they can help the commenter. Just judging from the title, the mystical intro and the Mandarin word for "thank you" which is uttered at the end, I'm gathering that "GOKUU" is referring to the Monkey King, the great warrior of Chinese folklore. This is one laidback New Music tribute thanks to Inamura's relaxed delivery and the rhythm which feels like sailing on a calm river. Compare this one with Godiego's(ゴダイゴ) "Monkey Magic" which became a more famous hit the following year.

Anyways, I hope the commenter will get some happy results soon enough.

Keiko Funami -- Natsu, Dakishimete(夏、抱きしめて)

 

It was many a time that I walked down Ginza on a Sunday when the main street was closed to provide the hokoten. Summer was nice and sunny of course, but all that heat was reflected at full power from the concrete. Luckily, there were plenty of stores and cafés on either side to provide cold drinks in addition to the vending machines.


I had never heard of the singer-songwriter Keiko Funami(船見啓子)before but she did have a brief time in the spotlight by coming up with two singles and one mini-album in 1992 under the NEC Avenue label. Her debut single from July of that year was "Natsu, Dakishimete" (Hold Me, Summer) which was appropriately warm, happy and sunny. She came up with the lyrics while Youki Asano(浅野穣) composed the music. Most of it is in the pop vein except when the saxophone solo floods in with a City Pop feeling.

There's not much information on Funami but she does have a short J-Wiki article. She hails from Niigata Prefecture and after attending Tokyo Metropolitan University, she worked as both a nurse and a model before being selected as a campaign girl for both Mitsubishi Motors and Kanebo Cosmetics in 1992. For a while, she even performed as Strawberry Submarine under an indies label.

Saturday, July 19, 2025

Saburo Kitajima -- Nakimushi Yokocho(泣き虫横丁)

 

Over a decade ago, I posted an article on Saburo Kitajima's(北島三郎)debut single from 1962, "Bungacha Bushi" (ブンガチャ節). Kitajima has recently retired as the Grand Old Man of Enka but back in those early 1960s, he was merely a 26-year-old man getting his start in the music industry, so on hearing that his first song was getting banned due to some innuendo within the lyrics, he must have wondered whether he was heading back to the salt mines, figuratively speaking. He didn't have to worry too long, though.

In any case, I have his B-side here and it was created by the same duo behind "Bungacha Bushi", lyricist Tetsuro Hoshino(星野哲郎)and composer Toru Funamura(船村徹). "Nakimushi Yokocho" (Crybaby Alley), just from the English translation of the title, might sound like something rock n' roll but as was the case with the A-side, it's a fairly galumphing kayo kyoku that still makes me wonder whether it can also be categorized as an upbeat enka tune despite all of the Western instrumentation. Lyrically speaking, it seems to be about the life in the inner city and all that reside there including the local gangster element.

Saki Kubota -- Orange Airmail Special

 

It's still nice and summery out there but the heat and humidity have climbed down a tad so there's even a bit more pleasantness with the walking out there. 


Yesterday on Urban Contemporary Friday, I featured a recent song by Natsu Summer titled "Orange Airmail". Interestingly enough, decades earlier, singer-songwriter Saki Kubota(久保田早紀)came up with a song that was almost identically titled except that it had an extra word. The song du jour is "Orange Airmail Special".

A track on Kubota's 4th album from May 1981, "Airmail Special", it was composed by Kubota with Keisuke Yamakawa(山川啓介)as the lyricist and Mitsuo Hagita(萩田光雄)as the arranger. Usually with Kubota, who now goes by the name of Sayuri Kume(久米小百合), she was often associated with exotic kayo or City Pop. With "Orange Airmail Special" though, it strikes me as being more straight pop, although a case can be made with that electric guitar in there that it's achieved the rockier side of AOR. But hearing this one by Kubota, it did feel rather refreshing.

Friday, July 18, 2025

Lee Ritenour with Eric Tagg -- Is It You?

 

I couldn't quite believe it when I realized that I had yet to cover this particular AOR classic, especially since I did post Ambrosia's "Biggest Part of Me" all the way back in 2021. Time to give myself a Gibbs slap up the back of the head!

Both "Biggest Part of Me" and this song were included on those BRIO compact disc compilations of those nostalgic radio-friendly AOR tunes that I'd bought years ago in Japan. And this song here is "Is It You?" by jazz guitarist Lee Ritenour and his languid playing, with Eric Tagg providing the mellow vocals. Ritenour, Tagg and another AOR veteran Bill Champlin created "Is It You?" for Ritenour's 1981 album "RIT". And indeed, the song saw some fairly high rotation on the radio stations here when I was a teen. It hit No. 35 on Canada's RPM charts while in America, it reached No. 15.

Ritenour was a name that had kept floating here and there within my musical consciousness for years before I finally found out who he was...kinda like Taeko Ohnuki(大貫妙子)whose name had possessed this rather legendary presence before I bought her BEST compilation years later. He, like many other folks in the American music industry, had also helped a lot of Japanese artists such as Mariya Takeuchi(竹内まりや)and the fusion band Casiopea(カシオペア).

Natsu Summer -- Orange Airmail

 

Although we're not even into August yet, I can safely say that this summer in Toronto has been one of our hottest in recent years. We've just gone through another heat wave with the appropriate humidity, to boot. It's a bit more comfortable now but I figure that we'll be in for some more 3H weather in the weeks to come until we hit late September.

Back about a year ago, Natsu Summer released a 2024 online album titled "Orange Airmail", and the title track has some nice and mellow goodness thanks to songwriter Cunimondo Takiguchi(クニモンド瀧口). Of course, true to Natsu Summer's aesthetic, the arrangement has that relaxing mixture of City Pop and reggae. It's something pleasant to listen to while sipping some sort of orange juice cocktail (like a screwdriver, perhaps?) on a bar patio. Have a good weekend!

Yusuke Nakamura -- Lavender(ラヴェンダー)

 


Guitarist Yusuke Nakamura(中村裕介)has been mentioned in four articles on this blog but as a songwriter, including his melody for Keiko Mizukoshi's(水越恵子)"Wine Night"(ワインナイト)from 1984. So, he had never been on the byline until today, but a while back, someone told me that he had released an album called "80s Works" last September.

"80s Works" apparently includes all of his previously unreleased songs from those 1980s and they are supposedly in the realm of soul and City Pop. Certainly one track, "Lavender", has that groovy City Pop sound but provided through contemporary instruments and arrangements. And there is something quite Makoto Matsushita(松下誠)and Fujimal Yoshino(芳野藤丸)through this song and his delivery at least.