Yoshimi Tendo -- Tabiji（旅路）

 

Watching "Uta Con"（うたコン）earlier today, I saw that the husband-and-wife folk duo Humbert Humbert（ハンバート ハンバート）were back to perform what has probably become their most famous work, "Warattari Korondari"（笑ったり転んだり）which is also the reassuring theme song for the current NHK morning serial drama "Bakebake"（ばけばけ...The Ghost Writer's Wife）. That will wrap up by the end of this month, and to me, it's been the asadora that has really zipped by as in "I can't believe it's already finishing!" although it did start up all the way back at the end of September.

Maybe it's because the show has basically stayed within one time period instead of going through decades of time and the fact that any turbulent crises were pretty minor and quickly resolved, but it's also been one of the more comfortable and comedic serials that I've seen. Apparently, tourism to the city of Matsue where the story has mostly been based enjoyed a nice bump in tourism. Plus, I think the main character Heavin-sensei's pronunciation of "subarashii" has been copied in jest a number of times.

Just wanted to get my thoughts on "Bakebake" out of the way. In any case, enka singer Yoshimi Tendo（天童よしみ）was back on the show as well to perform her latest single which came out at the end of January, "Tabiji" (The Journey). According to the Teichiku Records Tendo YouTube channel (where the above video originates), "Tabiji" completes the trilogy of Showa Era-inspired songs which includes "Showa Katagi"（昭和かたぎ）and "Showa Gokoro"（昭和ごころ）.

Written by Reiji Mizuki（水木れいじ ）and composed by Hideo Mizumori（水森かおり）, "Tabiji" really does sound like an enka tune out of the last few decades of Showa. Maybe the only thing that's missing is a mournful background chorus. From what I've understood of the lyrics thus far is that a couple married for many years is looking back on their own journey together and haven't regretted the path they've taken. I'm hoping that will also be the case with Heavin-sensei and Toki by the end of "Bakebake".

Kenichi Mikawa -- Ikiru（生きる）

 

On last week's extended "Uta Con"（うたコン）episode, enka singer and TV personality Kenichi Mikawa（美川憲一）appeared for the first time in a while. I'd wondered where he was all these months and I only found out right on the show that he'd been diagnosed with Parkinson's and made an announcement back last November. Up to this point, he'd been going through some grueling rehabilitation.

Aside from what he said on the program and that he accepted his friend Sachiko Kobayashi's（小林幸子） assistance in being led to the stage and off, Mikawa didn't show his affliction too much at all which may be a good sign. He sang his classic "Sasori-za no Onna"（さそり座の女）and his vocals were just as fine as before. Then, he sang a song that I hadn't heard before called "Ikiru" which was his 101st single from May 2013. 

And I ended up not hearing it. Jme and NHK made one of their not-so-smooth quick cuts which excised his performance of "Ikiru" (To Live). Why? Well, I quickly figured out that "Ikiru" was probably not a Japanese original. And as it turns out, it wasn't. But more on that later. Listening to it finally through the YouTube video above, it sounds like a chanson that has been given a pop arrangement thanks to Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）with new lyrics by Michikazu Yatabe（矢田部道一）.

"Ikiru" actually came from French singer-songwriter Alice Dona's 1981 song "Ma dernière volonté" (My Last Wish) which was written by Sylvain Lebel and composed by Dona. 

Maybe Mikawa's appearances on TV or on stage will no longer be as frequent. But I hope that he will be able to get a good handle on his illness and that he will continue to have more years of peace and relative good health.

Shinobu Horie -- Bikini Vacation（ビキニ・バケーション）

 

Aichi Prefecture-born Shinobu Horie（堀江しのぶ）had a brief career as an aidoru in the 1980s and unfortunately, a short life which went only as far as her early twenties.

She was also a TV personality and actress but focusing on her singing career, Horie released four singles between 1983 and 1987 with one album in 1985. Her debut single from April 1983 was "Bikini Vacation" which had that upbeat rock-n'-roll rhythm of yesteryear, perhaps along the lines of another bikini-themed song, "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini". This was written by Masao Urino（売野雅勇）, composed by Ryo Matsuda（松田良）and arranged by Kimio Mizutani（水谷公生）.

Horie had been pretty obsessed about losing weight and as she did so, she developed anorexia which led to other complications. Tragically, in September 1988, she would succumb to a form of stomach cancer at the age of 23.

One personal observation I have is that another TV personality born in the same year as Horie who I'd known about when I was living in Japan, Natsuki Okamoto（岡本夏生）, has a startling resemblance to her.

Kyu Sakamoto -- Benkyo no Cha Cha Cha（勉強のチャチャチャ）

 

As I've mentioned before, "Ue wo Muite Arukou" (上を向いて歩こう) will always be Kyu Sakamoto's（坂本九）most famous kayo kyoku but close by in second place is his "Miagetegoran Yoru no Hoshi wo"（見上げてごらん夜の星を）which can rival the Sukiyaki song in terms of how many tears it can wring out from listeners.

"Miagetegoran Yoru no Hoshi wo" was quite the emotional ballad for Sakamoto, so I gather that the producers for the May 1963 single figured that the B-side had to be somewhat lighter in tone to compensate. Well, the same creators of the A-side, lyricist Rokusuke Ei（永六輔）and composer Taku Izumi（いずみたく）, came up with this cheery slice of Latin-infused kayo called "Benkyo no Cha Cha Cha" (The Study Cha Cha Cha). Short and sweet with an arrangement that Perez Prado would be proud of, it's good enough for those cramming students to get off their duffs for a couple of minutes to do a cha cha throughout the major high school subjects. Hopefully, it was enough for them to pass those dreaded entrance exams. Incidentally, Danny Iida and the Paradise Kings（ダニー飯田とパラダイス・キング） provided background chorus.

Of course, many years later, a beautiful long-legged singer would give her own thoughts on studying.

Uchikubi Gokumon Doukoukai -- I wish I could speak English

 

I met my student online last night for the first time in a month. Over the past few weeks, he'd been very busy as not only a university professor in Tokyo but also as the head of a group of students visiting the state of Washington in the United States for a two-week exchange between their university and their American equivalent. By all accounts, the trip was a successful one.

However, my student and longtime friend also admitted that he had been a little worried about the students' English proficiency although they had been taking some lessons before going over. That makes a great segue for me to proudly introduce the rock band Uchikubi Gokumon Doukoukai（打首獄門同好会）or GOKUMON for short. Their name translates directly to Friendship Society for Beheading and Sticking the Head Onto a Pike In Front of the Prison. Charming. So I gather that the three band members don't lose their heads over losing their heads.😃

Anyways, the three current members are vocalist/guitarist Atsushi Osawa（大澤敦史）, bassist/vocalist Junko and drummer/vocalist Asuka Kawamoto（河本あす香）. They've been together since 2004 and they're proud of pioneering a certain genre of rock known as Life-Immersed Loud Rock according to their website. They've also got a sense of humour as well after I watched the colourful music video for their latest single which was released at the end of February, "I wish I could speak English". In their Loud Rock, Osawa reflects what every Japanese company man fears when told to go on that international business trip, and that had been the case with my student years ago. But hopefully, Osawa has gained or will gain the confidence and fluency needed to communicate with GOKUMON's fans overseas.

Original Love -- Wild Humanity（ワイルド・ヒューマニティー）

 

Although I know that cool-as-all-heck singer-songwriter Takao Tajima（田島貴男）, aka Original Love, has continued to kick around up to the present day, I've usually covered his stuff from the good ol' days...namely the 1990s, for his discography including "Asahi no Ataru Michi"（朝日のあたる道）. I did feature his "Zeroset"（ゼロセット）which was a much more recent single although that was still back in 2019.

Well, Tajima is still kicking butt thankfully, and he's got something to say about the whole AI thing. Last month, he released his latest digital single "Wild Humanity" which gets him to exhort to the fans to step aside from the artificial intelligence and the hyper-fast pace of life, and once again embrace that titular wild humanity. 

In fact, the video has him looking all fashionably iconoclastic and ecstatic about handling all those musical instruments and old-style tech (in areas including tree-filled areas called parks) and those old-style genres such as boogie and jazz. It's ironic that one of the more noticeable instruments happens to be a synthesizer (an analog one?), so maybe his message is not to totally abandon the AI/hi-tech but share the benefits of them and wild humanity together.

trf -- Do What You Want

 

Considering how much I (and much of the Japanese music lovers) got caught up in the wave of trf as part of the Komuro Steamroller in the 1990s, I think I've covered pretty much all of the big hits that the dance-pop group had to offer such as "Boy Meets Girl" and "EZ DO DANCE". I may have missed that first year of trf bloom by landing in Japan at the end of 1994, but there were still a few more years of the group hitting the big time.

So, it's the case where I'm looking for some of the songs by the group that I never got to hear. And speaking of "EZ DO DANCE", I did come across their coupling song here called "Do What You Want". It is quite different for a number of reasons: 1) YU-KI is not the main vocalist, leaving the vocals to the other two female members, Etsu and Chiharu (although they don't seem all that prominent behind the mike, 2) who I think the main vocalist is happens to be Suzi Kim who used to sing for the eclectic band 99.99, and 3) all those dance synths have mostly been left at home.

In fact, I think "Do What You Want', which was written and composed by Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）with Kim also working on the lyrics, sounds more like a New Age music think piece with the title being emanated like a mantra for free love. Most likely, listeners would be sitting in a yoga position rather than dancing it up at the clubs. As I said, it's quite the different song by trf.