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.
I have to admit that I've not come across the combination of apple tea and peanuts before although I've enjoyed both of them separately. Maybe they make a good remedy toward improved blood circulation. Hard to say.
But that combination is indeed the title of singer-songwriter Atsuko Nina's（二名敦子）track from her 1987 album"Teibou"（堤防）. I wrote on the title track back in 2018 and compared to the late 80s sophisticated pop of that one, "Apple Tea to Peanuts"(Apple Tea and Peanuts) is a samba-driven tune written and composed by Nina that goes at a pretty fast clip...and during a bright sunny and breezy day. The singer definitely sings the praises of apple tea and peanuts (her personal favourite, perhaps?). Motoki Funayama（船山基紀 ）took care of the arrangement which also involved guitarist Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）and percussionist Pecker（ ペッカー）.
It's indeed a Friday night as I type this so I'm sure younger and more energetic folks than I are enjoying their time dining, dancing and drinking somewhere out there. Temperatures are more reasonable and seasonable in the evenings now.
A few years ago, I posted an article regarding the band Lucky Kilimanjaro and their 2021"Ame ga Furu nara Odoreba Ii ja nai"（雨が降るなら踊ればいいじゃない）, noting that vocalist and songwriter Yukimaru Kumaki（熊木幸丸）and his guys love to bring in the Neo-City Pop and disco. Well, one of their earlier songs from their one and only mini-album as an indies act, the July 2015"FULLCOLOR", can be said to the ideal mix of those two styles. "Burning Friday Night" which was written by Kumaki and composed by the entire band has a hint of an old song by The Emotions but through the gauzy filter of Sakanaction（サカナクション）. So, maybe no disco strings per se but the beat is certainly disco-friendly.
Ahhh...the community swimming pool, an environment of chlorinated intrigue, romance and strategy. (Young) People are conglomerating in different cliques within or without the water admiring from afar or, if they are brave enough, communicating up close and personal. And once in a while, there may be some actual swimming taking place. But always beware of the "chocolate bar"!
But to get away from that horrifying scene, I can introduce you to singer-songwriter Satoko Shibata（柴田聡子）and her June 2026"Pool". With those Latin dance beats and conspiratorially whispery vocals in there, there is plenty of fun and intrigue as a saucy young lady is enjoying the facilities of the pool (especially the shower) while driving her boyfriend up the wall by ignoring him. In a way, she reminds me of another songstress, bird.
Hailing from Sapporo, Shibata is also a musician and poet who started her career in 2010 with at least a dozen digital download singles and seven albums under her belt.
A little over four years ago, I introduced singer Anna Banana（アンナ・バナナ）to the pages of KKP, a lovely lady with some golden vocals. Just from what I've heard thus far, it seems like she inhabited some of the more urbane genres such as City Pop and jazz. My first article on her "Smile" from her 1993 album"High Dive" revealed a breezy pop sense somewhat akin to some of the works of actress-singer Miki Imai（今井美樹）.
From the same album, here is "Himitsu"(Secrets) and perhaps the secret that I envisage as I listen to this one is the secret but oh-so-desirable club in a city alley where this might be playing. Written by Yukinojo Mori（森雪之丞）and composed by Tsutomu Nakayama（中山努）, it comes across as a nice slice of sophisti-pop or British blue-eyed soul especially with that muted trumpet solo. I think of Swingout Sister and Basia when I listen to that refined and funky arrangement.
Y'know...try as I might, I always confuse the heck out of myself with the singer-songwriters Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）and Shozo Ise（伊勢正三）. It sure doesn't help that they are contemporaries and that they not only worked basically within the same sphere of music from the 1970s but they have collaborated together. Plus, there's something about the pronunciation of both of those names. One commenter even caught me on that when he noticed that I'd mistaken one for the other on one article. But let's not get all scrambly about this on Urban Contemporary Fridays, shall we?
Let's start with the cool song "Koozue wo Tsuku Onna"(The Woman Resting Her Hand on Her Cheek) which was folk duo Kaze's（風）4th single from December 1976. The aforementioned Shozo Ise, who was one-half of the duo along with Kazuhisa Okubo（大久保一久）, wrote and composed this one with the urban boogie-like rhythm and the languid rock guitar...definitely not folk. Meanwhile, the aforementioned Ichizo Seo arranged the song into something that I'd like to use as a temporal touchstone to what City Pop was like back in the early days when it felt like it could accompany anyone walking among the skyscrapers of Tokyo. The single reached No. 40 on Oricon and was included as a track on Kaze's November 1976 album"Windless Blue" which hit No. 3 on the charts and ended up as the 17th-ranked album of 1977.
Arranger Seo, who has been involved with just about everyone and anyone includingAnri（杏里） and Michiru Kojima（児島未散）, came up with the second of his own solo albums "The Golden Section ~ Kaze Instrumental Album" in 1978. This particular one is an instrumental tribute with includes his take on Kaze's "Hoozue wo Tsuku Onna" right from the top. It has a much more laidback, more romantic and jazzier feeling as if the walking is over and it's now straight to drinking in one of the bars located inside one of those skyscrapers. I would say that it could even find a spot in a soundtrack of one of those Japanese cop shows.
It's been a while since I've posted anything by the bohemian jazz outfit Ego-Wrappin'. Can't quite believe that a quarter-century has passed since I first heard their stomping "Psychoanalysis"（サイコアナラシス）led by the booming voice of Yoshie Nakano（中納良恵）.
To be frank, I'm not sure what Nakano and her songwriting/musician partner Masaki Mori（森雅樹）have been up to in the past several years. Their J-Wiki article seems to be several years behind the times. However, last month Ego-Wrappin' released a 12-inch single titled "Riviera" which is quite different from the jazz that I got to know them for. But then again, I have heard Nakano and the band try other genres such as ska for their collaboration with the Determinations.
Ego-Wrappin's also provided some examples of avant-pop although I forget the name of any of those songs. However, "Riviera" may be one of those inhabiting this particular genre. Certainly, the music video adds to that feeling as we see the adventure of a sentient water faucet through a forest. Looking through Nakano's lyrics, I'm not quite sure what the message is aside from the observation that there is some travel going along the titular existential Riviera. The slow groovy rhythm underlying this river can be quite mesmerizing on a beatnik level. Snap them fingers!
There have been a few times in the past when a bunch of us have gone out to dinner. Certain couples were with us and one time, at one restaurant where some hit music was playing over the speakers, the male half of the happy duo stated that the next song to play will be their song. Well, much to everyone's hilarity, it turned out to be Depeche Mode's "Master and Servant". I'm sure that their relationship took a turn there, and once again, the safety word was indeed APPLES.
I never experienced that situation ever again and probably never will (things on that level of funny are truly one-of-a-kind events). Still, I think this week's entry on Reminiscings of Youth could be another song that no couple would want as their go-to song, but man, it's still fun.
Several years ago, I posted Devo's "Jocko Homo" which was the first song by the band to get up onto the blog but actually, the first ever song that I'd ever heard by The New Wave Boys of Akron, Ohio was "Whip It" that was their August 1980 single. And as I explained on "Jocko Homo", I first came across the catchy and absolutely weird and kinky "Whip It" through a K-Tel compilation record commercial which showed a part of that (in)famous music video including a bunch of dude ranch tourists, a motherly type whipping up some cream, a couple of other ladies in various stages of undress (well, one only lost her shoes), and the band itself festooned in red flower pots and sleeveless turtlenecks. Man, those were wild and woolly days in music video production!
Not only was it the first time I got to know a little about sadomasochism (so, whips can be fun😈) but I also got informed on what New Wave was all about. The strange lyrics which could be taken as motivational encouragement against any and all challenges or a first-round exercise in S&M paired with the herky-jerky delivery of the vocals and those synths definitely made "Whip It" one of the most famous songs of the 1980s. In a way, the Devo song seared the image of New Wave bands as stoic and robotic performers at their keyboards.
"Whip It" just missed the Top 10 by that much on either side of the world's longest unmilitarized border with it coming in at No. 11 on Canada's RPM and No. 14 on America's Billboard. Of course, a lot of folks liked to do their covers of "Whip It", including the late great Catherine O'Hara as Brooke Shields (2:10 of the video below)..
Remember...when in doubt: WHIP IT GOOD!😁
Now, what was hitting the record store shelves of Japan when "Whip It" came out in August 1980? We have a few here.
