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.
It's been a while since I posted the first Curtis Creek Band article. Yup, it was back in spring of 2023 when I wrote about this jazzy band with the name that has a "Star Trek: The Next Generation" connection, and to add further to the article for "Foggy", I realized that band saxophonist Toshiro Sakka（さっか利郎）and his group released two versions of an album under the same title in 1983. "Windy People" has the two different covers: the one with the pretty woman looking longingly at the word "White" has the subtitle of "Winning History ni Dakarete"（ウイニング・ヒストリーに抱かれて...Embraced by a Winning History） while the other one has a dashing fellow on a motorcycle while its subtitle is "Shinkyo Monogatari"（心響物語...Heartbeat Story）.
"City Morning" is a track that belongs on the "Winning History ni Dakarete" version. Composed and arranged by Sakka, it's ironically led by a lonely trumpeter who isn't even mentioned in the Discogs file on the album. It's a comfortable and woozy contemporary fusion instrumental but having that trumpet in there makes me fantasize that the song could be the soundtrack from a made-for-TV movie about a cynical gumshoe coming back from a long night of drinking and detecting to his humble apartment in a rundown area of town. Please feel to supply your own narration by the private eye himself.
Well, here I was about to post my first Omega Tribe (under their 1986 Omega Tribe incarnation) song in a while and it was to have been on "I'll Never Forget You" from their 1987 album"Crystal Night". Glad I checked though since I actually had already talked about it within the article on the album itself. Unlike the song title, I did forget.😥
However, I am not going to leave Carlos Toshiki and his band in a lurch. I've opted to go with another song and that one comes from their June 1987 album"DJ Special". "Blue Reef", and no, it doesn't really have anything to do with one of Seiko Matsuda's（松田聖子）trademark songs, was written by Asako Yano（矢野朝子）, composed by Shinji Takashima（高島信二）and arranged by the late Hiroshi Shinkawa（新川博）. Speaking of that arrangement, it is pretty interesting since it sounds like a languid example of the then-novel New Jack Swing. Think Bobby Brown on vacation in Hawaii.
A few weeks ago, commenter Francois steered me toward a song that he had heard. It was by jazz and fusion guitarist Hiroshi Yasukawa（安川ひろし）who used to be one-half of the duo DEW back in 1980. I've written about a few of their songs including "Atsui Sasayaki"（熱いささやき）.
Well, Yasukawa certainly kept himself busy after DEW had evaporated. He came up with three albums including the 1984 "Fission". That front cover doesn't have anything to do with fission, though; if anything, it looks like it should be described with another two-syllable word with a double-consonant combination in the middle.
Anyways, Francois was right to recommend the track "Talk To Me" since it's plum perfect for Urban Contemporary Friday. It's some groovy laidback City Pop composed by Yasukawa and Michael McClellan and written all in English by David Skinner. Yasukawa's vocals remind me of some of the other relaxed voices out there such as Fujimal Yoshino（芳野藤丸）and Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）.
Couldn't tell sapphires from rubies aside from the colour, I'm afraid. All I know is that trying to acquire any of them would be way above my pay grade.
Mind you, acquiring Dirty Androids'"Classic" from 2024 with the track "Sapphire City" would be much more reasonable and perhaps more satisfying depending on how much of a music lover you are. I first mentioned the music producer, aka Daisuke Akitsu (秋津大祐), when I posted his collaboration with punipunidenki（ぷにぷに電機）, the 2021 "Private Sunset"（プライベート・サンセット）. Since then, I haven't gotten much more information about the secretive artist although I finally did find an entry on RemyWiki.
"Sapphire City" is a pretty cool and clubby City Pop tune of the 2020s...it's something to enjoy while savoring a cocktail during sunset in one of the tallest bars in Tokyo, perhaps. Yup, it's a very chill tune.
Now that Japan is in Golden Week mode, I remember when I was living in the nation, students and TV programs often spoke of Cebu in hushed tones as if it were a hallowed destination. And it was...for recreational purposes. It's a group of islands in the Philippines and apparently it was and is still rather popular. Taking a look at the above video from Island Hopper TV, I can see why.
I'm guessing that Cebu has been in the minds of vacationers for decades because I've encountered this track, "Cebu Islands", which belongs to composer/arranger Yasunori Soryo's（惣領泰則）first album"Wings of Love" from 1977. According to Discogs, the angelic chorus in the song are the Jim Rock Singers which seem to be Soryo's own group. "Cebu Islands" sure makes the actual place sound like an enticing Valhalla with the folksy AOR and Sunshine Pop arrangement.
It's nice to have Soryo back up on the byline again. I think the last time he was up there was back in 2021 when he collaborated with the chorus group EVE for "I'm In New York".
I believe I mentioned that I finally caught Zack Snyder's very long take on "Justice League" recently, and I was a lot more satisfied with that than with the version that I had caught some years previously at the theatre. Most notably, I was really happy with the scene involving Wonder Woman as played by Gal Gadot taking on those psychos in London early in the movie. Once I heard that warrior theme by Rupert Gregson-Williams, I knew I was going to witness some massive ass-kicking by Diana of Themyscira.
One day, the Snyderverse take showed up on the local sci-fi channel and that same scene popped up when I turned on the channel. My mother who has never understood or liked any form of superhero media surprised me when she verbally identified Wonder Woman. But then again, she had seen Diana many moons ago.
That's right. There was a time in the mid-1970s when my brother and I saw the weekly TV series "Wonder Woman" with Lynda Carter. So, we got to see the indestructible bracelets, the Lasso of Truth and the spinning around each episode.
Yes, I still remember when a pre-"An Officer and a Gentleman"Debra Winger guested as Diana's little sister, aka Wonder Girl. In fact, I think I prefer the first season when the show had been set during World War II instead of the more contemporary setting for the last couple of seasons.
At the time, I was also confused when I was watching the opening credits which paid homage to the original comic book from decades ago, and yet, the theme song was decidedly cheesy disco boogie. I mean, nowadays it all comes to me as very nostalgic but at the time, I thought it was pretty progressive to hear a superhero theme song that sounded like something one would dance to in the clubs.
I never knew who was behind the theme song for "Wonder Woman" the 1975 series. As it turns out, it was John Bahler of the Ron Hicklin Singers on the main vocals, Marti McCall, Carolyn Willisof the R&B group Honey Cone, and Julia Waters of the R&B group The Waters according to Wikipedia. Charles Fox and Normal Gimbel made up the songwriting team.
November 7th 1975 was the date when "Wonder Woman" premiered. Well, what was hitting the Oricon charts a few days earlier on the 3rd? We have Nos. 3 and 6.
But as the informercial announcer says...Wait! There's more!
"Wonder Woman" did make its way to Japan sometime down the line and though the Bahler theme song was played for that first season, the subsequent seasons had actress/singer Kaoru Yumi（由美かおる）provide a Japanese theme tune in the form of "Ai no Boukensha"(Adventurer of Love) which was specifically for the series; Machiko Ryu's（竜真知子）lyrics give a blatant shoutout to Wonder Woman. Meanwhile, the melody by Ken Sato（佐藤健）and arrangement by Akira Inoue（井上鑑）also follow a disco line but more on the AOR side of things.
This is Yumi's first time on the blog. From what I remember of her, she had a recurring role in the legendary jidaigeki series "Mito Komon"（水戸黄門）as quite a warrior herself. She was also famous in that show for her bathing scenes which you can see being parodied in the commercial below.
Haven't posted anything by the 80s female trio Sugar（シュガー）recently but I did come across this April 1982 follow-up to their razor-tongued debut single"Wedding Bell" from the previous year.
As was the case with "Wedding Bell", a lovingly-delivered curse of death to a former beau getting married, "Aventure wa Looks Shidai" (The Adventure Depends on the Looks) was also written and composed by Yoshiaki Furuta（古田喜昭）as this light and frothy Brazilian-tinged song. Furuta's lyrics also have some sting in them although the potency isn't as great as in "Wedding Bell". There are just some irritating internal barbs from a lady who's seeing the man in her sightlines going out with another woman. Considering how breezy it is, one wonders whether this could have been an ideal tune for some commercial or insert song in a rom-com of those days.
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