Junko Yagami -- Sotto Ato kara（そっと後から）

 

Well, more than a dozen years following my article on Junko Yagami's（八神純子）seminal sophomore April 1979 album, "Sugao no Watashi"（素顔の私）, I'm giving myself a Gibbs slap upside the back of my head once more. At this rate, I may have to be mindful of concussion protocols.

Now, the reason for once more going into self-flagellation mode is that even though I had provided quite a few tracks in the article for "Sugao no Watashi", I had also neglected one particular track, "Sotto Ato kara" (Quietly, Afterwards) which is quite the City Pop tune as well. Written and composed by the singer and arranged by bassist Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）. Escorted by a phalanx of disco strings and boppy bass, the dreamy and sultry vocals of Yagami lead the way through streets and highways of late 1970s Tokyo in all their splendor...and pollution probably as well. But let's not dwell on the photochemical and instead focus on the romantic aspects of what life could have been like in Shinjuku, Roppongi or Akasaka around half a century ago.

Masami Yoshida -- Smoke Rings

 

I guess it's approaching about a year since I last posted an article regarding singer-songwriter Masami Yoshida（吉田政美）. The former half of the folk duo Grape（グレープ）apparently had quite a time exploring the urbane and Latin sides of music since the professional breakup with Masashi Sada（さだまさし）in the mid-1970s.

My last article on Yoshida's music was for his "Orange City no Asa"（オレンジ・シティの朝）, a track from his 1980 album "My tune My turn masami". That was quite the laidback samba for hammock-loving listeners. Well, I have something even more relaxing here from the same album and that would be "Smoke Rings". I was having quite the ping-pong battle online on whether the title was "Smoke Rings" or "Smoke Ring". Then I saw the image of the actual record with the printing of the titles. It's indeed "Smoke Rings". Composed by Yoshida and written by Mami Kikuchi（菊池まみ）, Brazil is still the name of the nation for the melodic inspiration and not surprisingly, for something more relaxing, bossa nova is the genre of choice. Enjoy your caipirinha!

Daisuke Mori -- Itsuka Moshi mo（いつかもしも）

 

I figured that I would still be able to find something new somewhere among my collection of "Light Mellow", and it was within the "Breeze" CD that I encountered this one that I hadn't yet covered.

Even though singer-songwriter Daisuke Mori（森大輔）has an entry on J-Wiki, he doesn't have a particularly long or detailed account of himself there. Hailing from Metropolitan Osaka, Mori is also a producer and arranger who graduated from Kobe University with a degree from the Faculty of Global Human Sciences. Having learned classical piano from the age of three and then music theory, he was signed to Atlantic Records with the title of First Brand New Artist of the 21st Century with his first single, "Trust Me", coming out in November 2004.

The track that I have of him on "Breeze" is his 8th single "Itsuka Moshi mo" (If, Someday...) from October 2008. The song fits hand-in-glove on a CD titled "Breeze". It's indeed a breezy pop song with some elegant piano and lovely harmonization. Plus, the chorus sounds like something sung from the 1970s. Not quite hammock-worthy but it makes for a nice accompaniment while on a drive down the coast.

Platinum 900 -- Mabushii Photograph（眩しいフォトグラフ）

 

It's a lovely afternoon out there. The sun's reflecting off the houses on the other side of the street and the temperature is not too hot although I still have the old-fashioned fan going in my room. 

This song seems to fit the atmosphere quite nicely. I'm writing about "Mabushii Photograph" (Dazzling Photograph), the second track from Platinum 900's third and final album "Free (At Last)" from 1999. KKP contributor HRLE92 provided the first article on this 90s City Pop collective by giving a nice summary on the albums the band recorded and that includes "Free (At Last)".

HRLE92 gave a quick comment on "Mabushii Photograph" as follows: Track 2 is a slower song. This song is highly rated by many Japanese music blogs. I feel that the best part of the song is the string section, which feels like that it is breathing and alive. 

Yep, I have to say that I'm a sucker for tenderhearted strings. I wouldn't say that they were disco strings here but they do provide some glowing warmth in "Mabushii Photograph" with the sun positioned at that particular attractive angle. It seems to be the ideal song straddling the present and the past while your plane is landing at your desired destination on a good-weather day sometime in the afternoon. And you can count on this blog to be one of those that also rates "Mabushii Photograph" highly.

Shiori Tanimura -- Kimi no Tonari de（きみのとなりで）

 

Looks like I have my second insert song for a Japanese TV show today following "Aventure wa Gorgeous ni"（アバンチュールはゴージャスに）...just by coincidence, I assure you.

I was doing my usual maintenance rounds yesterday when I came across the tribute article for Shinji Tanimura（谷村新司）after his passing on October 8th 2023. At the bottom of the article, I mentioned about the great balladeer's eldest daughter, Shiori Tanimura（谷村詩織）, who has also become a singer-songwriter like her father.

Not having posted anything about her thus far, I decided to search for some of her discography and happily, it didn't take me long to find a pleasant creation of hers. Back in 2011, there was a Fuji-TV comedy-drama called "Marumo no Okite"（マルモのおきて...Marumo's Rule） whose kiddie-friendly main theme song "Maru Maru Mori Mori!"（マル・マル・モリ・モリ!）became one of the catchiest tunes released that year. Well, an insert song for the program had been written and composed by Shiori called "Kimi no Tonari de" (By Your Side) . It's a laidback and more mature love song that has a hint of an old-fashioned pop arrangement, maybe even with a touch of country in there, to boot. I'm not sure if it had been ever released as an official single but perhaps it was included on any official soundtrack of the show.

ZZ Top -- Legs

 

Starting off this week's Reminiscings of  Youth on a sad note, I saw the news scroll yesterday state that Frank Beard, the drummer and founding member of the rock group ZZ Top, had passed away at the age of 77 on August 17th. My condolences to his family, friends and fans.

I wasn't a huge ZZ Top fan but there were a few songs that I remember during my youth in the 1980s. One especially was "Legs" which came out in 1984 and had one memorable video. Beard and his two main mates, Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill in their iconic hats, sunglasses, long coats...and beards as they carried their furry guitars, acted as the scruffiest guardian archangels while their leggy and beautiful angels helped out a mousy young lady (and her admirer by association) somewhere in an American suburb to succeed over a lot of resistance. It was basically a contemporary rehashing of Cinderella and the classic tale of the bullied getting some revenge on the bullies. I saw the music video for the first time last night and remarked "Yep, that was some fashion back then!"

"Legs" was a song and video that held onto the charts and television screens for a very long time as I recall. I thought it was just a propulsive rock song but according to its Wikipedia article, it's got a lot of genre labels: blues rock, electronic rock, synth-pop, boogie rock, pop rock and new wave. But I'll stick with the rock label. The video itself won the 1984 MTV Video Music Award for Best Group Video and the song managed to hit No. 9 on the Canadian charts while in America, it peaked at No. 8.

Since Wikipedia only gives the release year for "Legs", let's find out which two acts won Best New Artist honours in that year's Japan Record Awards.

Issei Fuubi Sepia -- Zenryaku, Michi no Ue Yori （前略、道の上より）

Koji Kikkawa -- Monica（モニカ）

Ritsuko Kazami -- Aventure wa Gorgeous ni（アバンチュールはゴージャスに）

 

The above is a video put up by YouTuber atsu M which introduces a shot from the 1985 hardboiled series "Hokori no Houshuu"（誇りの報酬...The Reward of Pride） with Masatoshi Nakamura（中村雅俊） and Jinpachi Nezu（根津甚八）as two veteran detective sergeants. The music is what I assume to be the opening theme composed Yukihide Takekawa（タケカワユキヒデ）of the band Godiego（ゴダイゴ）.

A song that was neither used as an opening or closing theme but was played within one of the episodes of "Hokori no Houshuu" was Ritsuko Kazami's（風見りつ子）2nd single "Aventure wa Gorgeous ni" (A Gorgeous Adventure) which was released in December 1985. Considering Kazami's presence on this blog as a singer, it might be easy to forget that she was also an actress, but as it turns out, she never appeared on this particular series.

One thing about "Aventure wa Gorgeous ni" was that it has nothing to do with Kazami's 3rd single "Aventurier" (アヴァンチュリエ) which came out in the summer of the following year. And "Aventure wa Gorgeous ni" also stands out in that compared to at least some of the discography that has been noted on KKP thus far, it has more of a conventional pop feeling although it still retains Kazami's high and floaty vocals and that vibe of sophistication. Takekawa was also responsible for the melody while Ako Kunikida（国木田あこ）was the lyricist. I guess in a way, this particular song was typical of breezy yet introspective songs that became ending themes for Japanese cop shows in the 1980s.