Izumi Sara -- Spacy Love（スペーシィ・ラブ）

 

Back in the spring of 2023, I posted an article on a very obscure singer, Izumi Sara（沙羅いづみ）, and her B-side "Heartbreak City"（ハート・ブレイク・シティ）which was a pretty amiable disco City Pop tune.

Well, today to start off this edition of Urban Contemporary Friday on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I have the A-side this time, "Spacy Love" which seems to amp up the disco and the brass. Along with the disco, there is the City Pop and maybe even some exotic kayo in the intro. Written by same duo behind "Heartbreak City", lyricist Fumiko Okada（岡田富美子）and composer/arranger Kunihiko Suzuki（鈴木邦彦）, the writer on Hip Tank Records gave their assessment of the song (translation by Google Translate):

"...a charmingly unpolished cult Japanese disco track—a medium-tempo, spacey disco number with a melody that evokes an oriental atmosphere...".

Perhaps there is a bit of a backhand swing in that compliment but I think that brass has some Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）or Spectrum vibes, and to be honest, I sometimes feel that the horns came in from a particular Ryohei Yamanashi（山梨良平）tune from the future or were inspired by Maynard Ferguson. Hip Tank Records also treats "Spacy Love" as one of those rare cult singles so if any of you City Pop fans can get a copy of it anywhere, consider yourselves fortunate.

Airport Kayo

 

I was once asked by one of the commenters about an Author's Picks regarding airports. After all, in terms of an old kayo kyoku, the airport serves as a setting for romantic farewells and (rarely) greetings. Plus, they can also be the launching point for adventures abroad. Now, I believe that I had yet to post such a list of airport-themed songs so I'm going with this one today to finish my trio of articles.

(1974) Teresa Teng -- Kuukou （空港）

(1975) Hi-Fi Set -- Doyoubi no Yoru wa Haneda ni Kuru no（土曜の夜は羽田に来るの）

(1984) Akina Nakamori -- Kita Wing （北ウィング）

(1987) Kye Eunsook & Keisuke Hama -- Kita Kuukou（北空港）

(2013) Keisuke Yamauchi -- Kushiro Kuukou （釧路空港）

Jerry Goldsmith -- Theme from "Barnaby Jones"

Wikimedia Commons

"A Quinn Martin production!"

For anyone who grew up in the 60s and 70s and was at least able to catch a little bit of the prime-time police procedurals or detective shows on television (usually it was just the opening credits since my brother and I were told in no uncertain terms to head to bed at the time they began), the name Quinn Martin was a familiar one.

At first, I'd thought that there was a Mr. Quinn and a Mr. Martin producing these cop shows but no, it was really one person named Quinn Martin. And although he didn't apply it to every one of his programs, there was a certain formula to the opening credits. A cool dramatic theme and graphic design intro sequence would start up with the gravitas-laden narrator stating the title of the show and the aforementioned quote at the top. Then, he would continue by introducing the main cast, the guest actors and finally the name of the episode title emblazoned on the screen. This was nicely parodied for the brief comedy series "Police Squad!".

The late great Jerry Goldsmith already has a lengthening file on KKP which includes his majestic theme for "Star Trek: The Motion Picture". And for all of the exciting intros for Quinn Martin shows, my favourite theme song was his contribution to the series "Barnaby Jones". For a detective series regarding an elderly but wise ol' gumshoe played by Buddy Ebsen, this was a pretty kickass theme with the stomping brass and a calm and calculating flute sequence. Ever since I decided to write about this one for Reminiscings of Youth, the theme has been stuck in my head.

The audience must have gone crazy when they were watching the 1993 cinematic redux of "The Beverly Hillbillies" when Barnaby Jones showed up in a cameo. Ebsen was the star of the original TV sitcom which lasted even longer than "Barnaby Jones".

In any case, the detective series premiered on January 28th 1973. Now, what was hitting the top of the Oricon charts the next day afterwards?

1. Shiro Miya & The Pinkara Trio -- Onna no Michi (女のみち）

2. Naomi Chiaki -- Kassai （喝采）

3. Mari Amachi -- Futari no Nichiyoubi (ふたりの日曜日)

Kyoko Koizumi -- Hitori Machikado（ひとり街角）

 

Well, first off, I should recognize the fact that 80s aidoru and actress Kyoko Koizumi（小泉今日子）celebrated her 60th birthday earlier this year. Hopefully, her kanreki has gone well. 

Less than a month ago, I featured Kyon-Kyon in techno dance mode through her 1989 song "Micro Wave"（マイクロWAVE）. Today, I'm heading back to her early days as an aidoru with her third single "Hitori Machikado" (Alone on the Corner) which was released in September 1982. I'd been accustomed to hearing Koizumi as this rather sassy-sounding teenybopper so hearing "Hitori Machikado", a song of being alone once again with only a seashell brooch as the final symbol of a former relationship, was interesting because the lass sounds less sass and more conventional high-falutin' aidoru.

Written by Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）and composed by Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）, I'm never going to turn down a disco beat in an aidoru tune and it's got those fleet-footed strings that occupied many of such a tune. "Hitori Machikado" peaked at No. 13 on Oricon. Another piece of trivia is that this single was Koizumi's first truly original song since the first two singles including her debut "Watashi no 16-sai" (私の16才）were actually cover songs of previously recorded tunes by other singers.

According to the J-Wiki article on the song, it picked up a number of awards including a Gold Prize at the Shinjuku Music Festival for that year. During the finale of that festival though, Koizumi was pelted with a raw egg which hit her on the head by some disgruntled person in the audience. Apparently, Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）, who had been the runner-up for the Gold, immediately came to her assistance.

Hibari Misora -- Tsugaru no Furusato（津軽のふるさと）

 

Almost two hours before this typing, we were watching NHK News when the announcers went to Red Alert to announce a major tremor hitting the Tohoku region, especially Aomori Prefecture which registered a Shindo 6+. Not sure how people and infrastructure are faring right now but daily commenter Brian Mitchell and his family live in Aomori, so I'm hoping that everyone there is doing OK.

Under the circumstances affecting Aomori Prefecture and to acknowledge the fact that the most recent episode of "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）celebrated the 80th anniversary of the late Hibari Misora's（美空ひばり）debut in the music industry, I'm bringing in a go-touchi (regional/local) song from the area as sung by the Queen of Kayo Kyoku, "Tsugaru no Furusato" (My Home, Tsugaru) which was originally released as a double-A-side single "Umakko Sensei"/Tsugaru no Furusato"（馬っこ先生/津軽のふるさと）back in January 1953.

Written and composed by Masao Yoneyama（米山正夫）, the video above seems to have Misora singing it in her later years but "Tsugaru no Furusato" sounds like a very melancholy paean to the old hometown area of mountains and apples. I remember reading that in the postwar period, there was a massive movement of young people as young as junior high school graduates from the rural regions to the cities to help out in driving the Japanese economy back to prosperity. I'm sure that songs like "Tsugaru no Furusato" must have tugged on the heartstrings and tear ducts of all those from the Tohoku or even other regions who were toiling away in Tokyo.

Hitomi Kaga -- Tokyo Flamenco（東京フラメンコ）

 

Feeling a bit dozy right now since I'm still digesting a hearty ramen lunch along with a gelato dessert. My gastrointestinal fortitude has been faltering of late, I'm afraid.

Anyways, commenter YMOfan04 has been giving me some names of rather obscure kayo kyoku singers from long ago, so I've been perusing them. One such person is Hitomi Kaga（加賀ひとみ）. There is a J-Wiki article on a Hitomi Kaga (same kanji) but it turns out that the name belongs to a mezzo-soprano opera singer whose high school years were in the 1980s, and looking at the thumbnail featuring the single cover above, this is definitely not the same Hitomi Kaga.

Nope, this Hitomi Kaga, whose real name is Masako Nishikawa（西川雅子）from Ishikawa Prefecture, released seven singles in the latter half of the 1960s before taking a long sabbatical until 1984. She then put out another three singles up to 1989 also throwing in her first album. Koga's third single was "Tokyo Flamenco" and not surprisingly it's got quite the Latin beat within the Mood Kayo setting although its intro sounds like a rather dramatic beginning to an ancient European war movie. "Tokyo Flamenco", which came out in November 1966, was written by Sakae Kouda（幸田栄）and composed by the legendary Minoru Endo（遠藤実）.

Kiyoshi Hikawa-- Tabi de Gozansu Ojarumaru（旅でござんす おじゃる丸）

 

A few years ago, I noted that the anime "Ojarumaru"（おじゃる丸）has a long-running list of theme songs to match its own longevity on television. It would seem that anyone who's anyone in the music industry has given their contribution to the purin-loving title character. Eclectic rock diva Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）is one of those people.

Well, a few weeks ago, I saw enka singer Kiyoshi Hikawa（氷川きよし）provide his own song to this current season of "Ojarumaru", and though Hikawa has been dabbling into other genres over the years, he has come back to his genre roots for this one. His "Tabi de Gozansu Ojarumaru" (It's a Journey, Ojarumaru) is a spritely old-school enka tune with a nice amount of brass. Written by Yukinojo Mori（森雪之丞）and composed by Hideo Mizumori（水森英夫）, the song takes me back when Hikawa began his career as the Boy Prince of Enka.