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.
According to a book on Group Sounds band The Tigers（ザ・タイガース）published in 2013, this single by the band led by Kenji Sawada（沢田研二）wasn't a huge hit. Of course, the best was yet to come for these guys, as they say.
And yet, I remember this song's melody very well since I probably heard it on a number of TV retrospectives on GS bands over the years. This happens to be The Tigers' debut single"Boku no Mary"(My Mary) which was released in February 1967, and it's notable for its mournful lyrics about a fateful encounter with the titular Mary and the breeziness of the strings. Perhaps it was the melancholy nature of the song that dampened sales but I don't think it did too badly by scoring a No. 12 on the rankings by the journal "Young Music"; the Oricon chart was still a year or several months away from coming into being. Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）and Koichi Sugiyama（すぎやまこういち）were in charge of lyrics and music respectively.
Man, that is some precious footage of The Tigers performing "Boku no Mary". Well, anyways, I figure since I've got their 2nd and 3rd singles up on KKP, it was time to post their very first single as well.
I have to say that when I'm looking at the single cover picture of Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）in the thumbnail above for the November 1984"Kazarijanainoyo Namida wa" (飾りじゃないのよ涙は）, maybe it's because of the size of the white hat and/or the positioning of the shot, but her shoulders look so wide in that green outfit that she could be a linebacker for the Rams. We Akina fans should be so lucky to see her in an NFL game!😁
Anyways, "Kazarijanainoyo Namida wa" is one of Nakamori's greatest hits and it's a song of fury and defiance set to a rock and funk beat. I recall yesterday when I posted Takao Kisugi's（来生たかお）article on "Machibito Kitarazu"（待ち人来たらず）that there was this yin/yang thing regarding putting songs of differing moods as the A and B sides. Well, I guess this also applies to this Akina single.
I'm happy to say that after so many decades being a fan of Akina-chan, I'm still hearing songs by her for the first time. And the B-side here is one of those songs. "Moonlight Letter" is a pretty gooshy and woozy love ballad about a woman who has just seen off her paramour for the night and is waxing most emotionally about him. Definitely neither fury nor defiance here. Written by Yosui Inoue（井上陽水）, composed by Goto Matsui（松井五郎）and arranged in a gauzy way by Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）, the song reminds me a bit of "Endless Love" by Lionel Richie and Diana Ross. I also have to remark that vocally speaking, Akina doesn't go into her high tones as she did with those earlier aidoru ballads and her voice seems to be transitioning into those famous lower registers.
As they say out there, there are a million stories in the big city. Two of them may currently be entwined in a crisis spiral.
"Uso to Uwasa"(Lies & Rumours) is the final track on the band Off-Course's（オフコース）13th album "as close as possible" from March 1987. As the title hints at, it is a rather enigmatic song about a couple, perhaps a fairly famous one, who are going through tough times because of mistakes committed by at least one partner and what has been said about them. They are currently walking toward the harbour on a misty evening and it could be their final stroll together although there is no hint that anyone is going to take a permanent dive.
Written and composed by Kazumasa Oda（小田和正）and arranged by Off-Course, "Uso to Uwasa" had initially been meant to be sung by Oda alone but then decided that a female singer just had to tackle half of the lyrics. In the J-Wiki writeup on "as close as possible", Oda professed that he had wanted to find someone that he didn't usually work with, and so he approached singer-songwriter Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）. And to be honest, I wouldn't have guessed that he and Ohnuki would ever work together during the 1980s since their styles seemed rather divergent. I think it would have been more likely in the 1970s when both artists were in the New Music mix.
But it all works marvelously here. Right from the synth bass (Ryuichi Sakamoto [坂本龍一] was handling the keyboards) launching things off which had my shoulders shimmying, both Oda and Ohnuki have those clear yet haunting vocals gracing an urban and urbane nocturnal melody which describes more of Oda's solo career style of music in the late 80s going into the early 90s rather than his band's style.
"Uso to Uwasa" was also incorporated into Ohnuki's BEST compilation "palette" from April 2009. As for "as close as possible", the album reached No. 2 on Oricon and ended up as the 42nd-ranked album of 1987.
Ahh, yes...the mid-1990s. I had been in the Tokyo area for a few years already. Odaiba (Rainbow Town) in Tokyo Bay as this new un-Tokyo-like district of work, residence and play was still brand spanking new and Fuji-TV saw fit to use the megalopolis' newest area as the base for a police series. But this series would be something very different: there would be no crazy stunts by the officers, no bullets fired and although the good cops would be fighting crime, they would also be fighting the obstreperous and ass-saving bureaucracy among the higher-ups within their own industry.
Yes, I am talking about "Odoru Dai Sosasen" (Bayside Shakedown) which turned a lot of heads when it came out in 1997. Plus, I have to also add that Akihiko Matsumoto（松本晃彦）was in charge of the original soundtrack that has become an entity all unto its own with a mixture of orchestral grandioseness and techno fun. In the years on KKP since I've posted about his stuff from "Odoru Dai Sosasen", I've learned about some of his pre-1997 material including his work on what has become one of the City Pop classics, "Dress Down", sung by Kaoru Akimoto（秋元薫）.
Last night, as I was winding down, I noticed that a lot of "Odoru Dai Sosasen" videos were popping up on YouTube. Then I realized that a new movie of the franchise "N.E.W. Metropolis wo Kakenukero!"(NEW Race Through the Metropolis!) had just debuted the day before. I had assumed that the 2012 movie was the final entry (it was labeled "The Final" after all) but I guess the producers just had to throw another one in the mix after fourteen years. Hey, if Tom Cruise can finally add the coda to his "Mission: Impossible" franchise after 29 years, Yuji Oda（織田裕二）can do the same for "Odoru Dai Sosasen".
I didn't bother watching "The Final" since by that point, I'd felt that things were getting a little stale for "Odoru Dai Sosasen" and seeing the trailer for the new movie which seems to copy a major plot point from another far more serious Japanese thriller, I'm not sure if I'll see this one either. Plus, aside from an aging Yuji Oda, I think the other members of the original cast who are still alive seem to be showing up as cameos only.
Anyways, I still wanted to give the new soundtrack, which was released yesterday, a try. It starts off with "Rhythm And Police N.E.W. (Metropolis Ver.)" which is a short-and-sweet version of the original opening theme with more dance beats and lower brass and strings.
"Tokyo Metropolis" is a thunderous tribute to one of the world's biggest cities which includes bits of "Rhythm and Police" and "CX". The track finishes with an ominous conclusion.
"Azumin Dance" is another new theme added to this soundtrack by Matsumoto. It adds to my opinion that the composer wanted to bring a little more dance club to the movie for some reason. There is a character named Azumi in the movie although the actor portraying him is apparently in his seventies; he must be one funky dude.
"R.A.P N.E.W. C.X. Jams" is a slightly weird PBJ sandwich of a track which has the orchestral and techno remix versions of the original "C.X". bracketing a very brief reprise of "Rhythm And Police N.E.W. (Metropolis Ver.)". I've seen "C.X." as the secondary theme for "Odoru Dai Sosasen" and as a popular piece of background music for a lot of other news shows if they're covering a relatively more lighthearted segment on the cops.
There is another new addition called "Sashikata the Super Doctor" which is named after a new character in the movie who might be part of the forensics team helping the stalwart Inspector Aoshima. It might even describe the character to a T: funky and cocky techno acid jazz.
Along with "Rhythm & Police" and "C.X.", another old favourite coming back into the soundtrack fold is the ending theme "Love Somebody" via an instrumental version "Love Somebody (Piano N.E.W. Ver.)". It's safe to say that this one won't be used for an action scene. Maybe it's for a death scene or an Aoshima soliloquy.
The stoic and cynical original character of Inspector Shinji Muroi had "G-Groove" as his theme song. Cool as heck, I've always seen it as the show's equivalent of "The Imperial March" from "Star Wars". However, this new track "M36 Muroi Shinji"（M36 室井慎次）is a whole new animal. Perhaps it hints that the former stick-in-the-mud Muroi has finally let go of his stress and has learned to smile a bit more in retirement. It still has a march percussion hiding in there to reflect his old past but overlaying it is a sweeping melody of hope and redemption. Interestingly enough, "M36" wasn't composed by Matsumoto but by veteran Satoshi Takebe（武部聡志）.
The final one I'll do here happens to be the final track for the album. Of course, it is the remastered version of the original "Rhythm And Police". And if anyone reading this from Japan has had a chance to see the new movie, let me know how it is. It might just show up on Jme by 2030.
There's nothing like an old-fashioned Japanese cop program to show how things are probably not done in real-life law enforcement in Tokyo. But dang, it's crazy and cool at the same time. The above program was basically a one-and-done series titled "Keishichō Satsujin-ka"（警視庁殺人課...Metropolitan Police Department Homicide Division） that was broadcast between April and October 1981 on TV Asahi. The big thing about this one is that it starred the late actor Bunta Sugawara（菅原文太）, who had usually been getting cinematic roles as antiheroes and mobsters, before getting this good-guy role as Inspector Taro "Mister" Godai, a blood-and-guts police commander who had spent ten years with the NYPD before returning to Tokyo. Apparently, this was also Sugawara's first foray into television.
Last week, I posted a City Pop/jazzy number for the suspense "Inubue no Tehma"（犬笛のテーマ）by Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）, so I guess it might be becoming a thing for me to put up such tunes from law enforcement-based TV shows on Urban Contemporary Fridays. Chikara Ueda & The Power Station（上田力＆パワーステーション）were partially responsible for the soundtrack for "Keishichō Satsujin-ka" and in 1981, they released the soundtrack for the show simply titled "Mr." after the lead character.
One track is "Breeze in Memories" by the band which fits perfectly with the usual Japanese TV cop show. There is that feeling of the million stories in the big city along with some fervent jazz noodling via saxophone. I assume that "Breeze in Memories" was used as background music whenever Mister and one of his officers hit a nightclub for pleasure or a bust. Of course, I can also imagine the guys with tumblers of scotch in their hands during the same song, too.
With a title like "Machibito Kitarazu" (The Person I'd Been Waiting For Didn't Come [or in today's vernacular perhaps: Ghosted]), and especially with singer-songwriter Takao Kisugi's（来生たかお）penchant for melancholy melodies, I'd been expecting a rather sad ballad.
However, then I realized there was that Japanese music policy of having happy and sad songs on opposite sides of a record single, and "Machibito Kitarazu" just happens to be the B-side of Kisugi's debut single from October 1976, "Asai Yume"（浅い夢）. The A-side is a very tenderhearted ballad and one of his most cherished tunes. So, instead, "Machibito Kitarazu" is actually quite a snazzy and snappy ditty created by him and his elder sister, lyricist Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）. With arrangement by Katsu Hoshi（星勝）, it comes across as a slightly Gallic and jazzy traipse down the Champs-Elysees, and yep, I can even imagine jeune frere Kisugi dandily dancing down the boulevard in a porkpie hat and cane to this one.
One little aside here is that I really like the cover for "Asai Yume" with Kisugi just lounging about in a well-lived room with that hint of sepia in the atmosphere. Yeah, I guess it was New Music.
I covered a number of tracks on the article for Junko Yagami's（八神純子）"Full Moon" way back in 2017, but not all of them. Perhaps it's time to take care of some of the remaining ones at least.
Yes to "No!". This was one track that was written and composed by Yagami for the 1983 album and it was arranged by Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）. It's pretty fun listening (especially with the repeated insistence of the title) so I was surprised that I hadn't included it in the writeup for "Full Moon" but still I'm happy to cover it now. I've categorized it as City Pop but it also has some of that synthesizer-and-guitar feel of New Wave. I think it could have also been included in my Author's Picks article for "Driving to City Pop" as Yagami sings about a woman who's enjoying a drive in her potential new steady's car...so much so that she won't entertain any questions about her romantic situation and premonitions from the guy right now. It's all about enjoying the present as much as possible before the inevitable heavy stuff has to be dealt with. I gather that the light and bouncy nature of "No!" is the proof in the pudding.
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