Just for Fun...The J-C AI Gallery -- TOKIO, SHOW-YA & Anzen Chitai

 

TOKIO -- Ambitious Japan!

SHOW-YA -- Mizu no Naka no Toubousha（水の中の逃亡者）

Anzen Chitai -- Wine-Red no Kokoro （ワインレッドの心）

uto -- Hirune（昼寝）

 

Ahhh, yes. Kayo Grace and Mr. Calico are having an afternoon nap in the backyard hammock. My envy goes out to them both. I used to take naps frequently on weekend afternoons when I was decades younger while the rest of the family was watching some form of sports on TV. Nowadays, although I do nod off immediately after lunch in the armchair for a number of minutes, I don't really take naps anymore. For one reason, I usually do at least a few of the KKP articles during the afternoon.

The music duo uto（烏兎）also has the right idea for that round of napping. Their 4th single from July 2024 is "Hirune" (Afternoon Nap) and there isn't a more apt song for sleeping in the hours between lunch and dinner. Written by vocalist Baysatoh（ベイ佐藤）and composed by her and her piano-playing partner Hikari Kubota（窪田ひかり）, the soft melody and Baysatoh's singing are so soothing that it's almost a shame that they can put me into slumber since I do want to appreciate their magical musical moment in its entirety.

I couldn't find a lot of information on uto but according to an Otaru record shop's website, uto hails from Obihiro in Hokkaido but their base of operations is currently in Tokyo. I also found their Twitter account where their name stands for "crow and rabbit", although the term can also mean "sun and moon" (and the YouTube explanation under the video points that out) and even "time" itself. Apparently, one of them is also quite the illustrator.

Tetsuji Hayashi -- Monochrome no Natsu（モノクロームの夏）

 

Let's see...this morning, I woke up to 2 degrees Celsius with a -3-degree wind chill outside. Yeah, I'd say that summer has been erased from our environs (although perhaps Indian Summer might visit us next month).

Still, I have a few summer songs in the backlog to bring onto the blog including this one by singer-songwriter Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）. Believe it or not, the February 1989 "Monochrome no Natsu" (Monochrome Summer) was only his own 6th single from a long career that began in the early 1970s, but I gather that he was too busy providing other singers with his compositions or he was never too much into cutting singles. Anyways, with Masao Urino（売野雅勇）providing the lyrics, Hayashi composed and sang "Monochrome no Natsu" which begins sounding like either an AOR tune or something by the Matsutoyas, but it becomes a surprisingly punchy rather than groovy pop song thanks to those synths.

Reimy -- Just Only You

 

Singer-songwriter Reimy Horikawa（堀川麗美）has recorded her fair range of pop music from smooth and contemplative tunes to West Coast dance-pop songs. However, whenever I hear her name, I'll usually go first to her love ballads that seem to bring up images of Valentine's Day or Christmas Day

Case in point: her 6th single from July 1986, "Just Only You". Written by Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）and composed by Reimy, the keyboard rhythm almost had me thinking of a typical 80s love song by the band Chicago. Overall, it's indeed a 70s/80s ballad that would make Bobby Caldwell and Boz Scaggs proud, even more adorably delivered thanks to the singer's high and assured vocals.

Ach...I just noticed that I had already written about "Just Only You" during the pandemic. But that's OK since I've given some slightly different insights there. It's not the first time I've done this and probably won't be the last.

Kenji Sawada -- Nikumi Kirenai Rokudenashi（憎みきれないろくでなし）

From imdb

Admittedly, this is a bizarre reference to start things off for this song by Kenji Sawada（沢田研二）, but I remember watching the anime "Seton Academy" in which Neku the giraffe acts like the arrogant cad and suddenly drops his romantic mate like a overly heavy sack of potatoes; sorry, once is enough for him...time to move onto fresher adventures. Of course, his now erstwhile partner doesn't take it too well.

From what I've heard of Yu Aku's（阿久悠）lyrics on Julie's September 1977 21st single, "Nikumi Kirenai Rokudenashi" (A Bastard's That's Hard to Hate), that's what happening here as well. Sawada is singing about a cad who goes through his women like he probably goes through his cigarettes. But according to the title, he's got enough charm to keep them coming back. Motoki Funayama's（船山基紀）arrangement of Katsuo Ono's（大野克夫）melody, which includes a clever background chorus that sounds like train whistles off in the distance, is something that I swear that I've heard before on one of the music shows or retrospectives. Considering how proud it sounds, the rokudenashi is thoroughly enjoying his love 'em-and-leave' em lifestyle.

"Nikumi Kirenai Rokudenashi" made it to No. 3 on Oricon and not only became the 24th-ranked single for 1977, but it also hung around for another year to become the 63rd-ranked single for 1978 as well. It can also be found on Sawada's November 1977 10th album "Omoikiri Kiza na Jinsei"（思いきり気障な人生...A Completely Disturbing Life） which hit No. 1 and ended up as the No. 5 album of the year.

One reason that I put up the song is that this had been the No. 3 single on the September 19th 1977 Oricon chart which was referenced in the previous ROY article, but didn't include because I hadn't written about it yet. Just didn't want the opportunity to pass. As well, the song was released several months after Sawada's big hit "Katte ni Shiyagare" （勝手にしやがれ）which had been created by the same trio of songwriters.

Linda Ronstadt -- It's So Easy

 

Happy Thanksgiving, Canada! We've already had our turkey but I hope that many of you will enjoy yours tonight. Since it is a national holiday, as KKP custom would dictate, we will have a special Holiday edition of Reminiscings of Youth to start our broadcast day.

Ronstadt on the cover of "Cash Box" (1976)
from Asylum via Wikimedia Commons

Linda Ronstadt has actually been on the pages of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" for about nine years, but strangely enough, it wasn't through a ROY article (it was several years before that series would start up). I had been writing an article on "Kokoro no Honoo"（こころの炎）, Akiko Kobayashi's（小林明子）cover of Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram's "Somewhere Out There", the theme song for "An American Tail" in 1986. Of course, I had to include the original.

Therefore, technically speaking, this is Ronstadt's first (but definitely not last) foray into a ROY article. "It's So Easy", coincidentally enough, was also covered by Kobayashi on one of her live albums, and I'd heard this cheerful and happy-go-lucky rock (with a bit of country) song a number of times during my childhood and adolescence...not just through Ronstadt but also through its use in commercials.

"It's So Easy" was released in September 1977 as a single and as a track on her album "Simple Dreams".  The single hit No. 5 on America's Billboard chart and No. 9 on Canada's RPM. Once again, as a running theme on ROY, "It's So Easy" has surprised me in that Ronstadt wasn't the original recording artist behind it. 

That honour goes to the one-and-only Buddy Holly when he was with The Crickets. Coming with an exclamation mark, "It's So Easy!" was released back in September 1958 with Holly and Norman Petty as songwriters. Unfortunately, it didn't chart.

So, what were hitting the Oricon charts on September 19th 1977, just a day before one of Ronstadt's most famous songs hit the shelves? Here are No. 1, No. 2 and No. 4.

1. Pink Lady -- Wanted

2. Hiromi Go & Kirin Kiki -- Obake no Rock （お化けのロック）

4. Shigeru Matsuzaki -- Ai no Memory （愛のメモリー）

Natsudaidai -- Dusky Dolphin

Via Kirin 7739 at
Wikimedia Commons

Now that we are on the cusp of Thanksgiving here in Canada and Sports Day in Japan, it might be difficult to think of the summer and the beach, but I'm sure that there are still some folks who want to head out to places like Shonan (as pictured above) to frolic one more before the weather gets really chilly.

Maybe the young fun ladies from the music duo Natsudaidai can help out in this matter. The video for their "Dusky Dolphin" has singer Yo and trackmaker Nanae spending a fine summer day out by the surf. That titular dolphin must be the best dancer on the water considering how Yo trips the light fantastic with her vocals while Nanae's music is having the funkiest time out there, even throwing in some of those Delphinidae squeaks.

Yo and Nanae started up Natsudaidai in 2023 and their music has been described on J-Wave as some girls' chill pop. "Dusky Dolphin" is included as one track on the duo's first EP "Seikaten"（青果店...Greengrocer） which was released in August this year. I read that it was produced by Tomita Lab（富田ラボ）although I think "Dusky Dolphin" also feels like Mondo Grosso music from twenty years ago.