Shoko Sawada/Iruka -- Seishun no Hikari to Kage（青春の光と影）

 

My previous article was a Reminiscings of Youth posting and yep, musically, those were some good times back in the 1970s and 1980s. However, along with the good came the bad and blue periods, and it was a matter of being able to avoid them or toughing them out to various degrees.

That's the impression I got from Shoko Sawada's（沢田聖子）wistful and folksy "Seishun no Hikari to Kage" (Light and Shadow of Youth) which was the title track from her April 1981 sophomore album. Also, the first song on the album, it was written and composed by folk and City Pop chanteuse Iruka（イルカ）while she was a university student and I guess that she and Sawada were good buddies (they were about the same age) as Iruka was kind enough to provide "Seishun no Hikari to Kage" as a gift to Sawada. 

The only thing at the time was that the song didn't have an official title. Iruka then opted to name it "Seishun no Hikari to Kage" after a song that she had a fondness for at the time, "Both Sides, Now" by Joni Mitchell whose Japanese title was "Seishun no Hikari to Kage". The song and the album also marked a drastic departure for Sawada in that up to 1981 during her first two years in show business, she'd been seen as a particularly talented aidoru. I will have to check those early years out.

Iruka would cover her own creation as a track on her September 1983 album "Loop Child". The wistfulness remains but the arrangement sounds as if the protagonist from the original version has grown up by a few years and become more seasoned in life.

Quarterflash -- Harden My Heart

 

Once again, it's time this week for another Reminiscings of Youth where I talk about some of the Western pop songs that I got to know in my callow childhood and teenage years. When I first truly got into music at the turn of the decade into the 1980s, I discovered all the wonders of synthesizers, the cool of groove and the boppiness of aidoru music in Japan.

And years before I knew about Kaori Kuno（久野かおり）and Mariko Takahashi（高橋真梨子）, I'd realized that women could sing main vocals and play the saxophone. That is thanks to Rindy Ross from the Portland Oregon band Quarterflash. I don't know too much of Quarterflash's discography but I did get to know their September 1981 debut single "Harden My Heart" as one of my touchstones for 80s pop music. The memory of this smoky pop-rock tune with Ross' sultry vocals and tenor sax exhortations has managed to remind me of my favourite decade in a musical sense for decades now. 

I think I first saw the music video on either "America's Top 10" or one of the local music video shows in Toronto. The video was the usual adventurous dreamscape and I was amused as Rindy was running around in what might have been a prototype for the Backrooms. Just taking in all that visual atmosphere gave me that dark urban impression of West Coast pop from those years. "Harden My Heart" peaked at No. 10 in Canada while it did even better Stateside when it hit No. 3.

So, what else was being released in Japan in September 1981? We have three songs here.

Tsukasa Ito -- Shojo Ningyo（少女人形）

Naoko Kawai -- Moonlight Kiss (ムーンライト・キッス）

Toshihiko Tahara -- Kanashimi 2 (TOO) Young （悲しみ２「ＴＯＯ」ヤング）

Ayaka -- Yasashisa ni Tsutsumareta nara （やさしさに包まれたなら）

 

Ahhh..."Yasashisa ni Tsutsumaretara nara" (If It Could be Wrapped in Kindness), a classic Yumi Arai（荒井由実）New Music song from the 1970s. It also served as the ending theme for the classic Studio Ghibli anime film, "Kiki's Delivery Service", from 1989. If Yuming（ユーミン）songs could be analogized into animals, it would be a farm puppy or kitten, something to be relentlessly hugged.

It's not surprising then that the song has probably been covered over and over again throughout the decades. And I remember singer-songwriter Ayaka（絢香）performing it on an "Uta Con"（うたコン）episode a few months ago. As such, I thought her vocals were quite close to the young Yuming when singing this one in particular. 

Tracking her version down, I found it on her September 2013 album of covers "Yuuon Club - 1st Grade"（遊音倶楽部 〜1st grade〜...The Playful Sound Club）. In fact, it starts the album with an arrangement that is quite close to that of the original: an amiable country jazz tune to accompany a drive through the farmland. Maybe it's even got a bit more pep thanks to what sounds like some whisk drumming in there.

Junko Sakurada -- Misty（ミスティー）

 

As I mentioned in my first posting of a Junko Sakurada（桜田淳子）song, the September 1981 single "This Is A 'Boogie'", that song was my introduction to her with all of its jazzy pizzazz. 

Well, the previous 35th single from June that year is "Misty", and certainly from the single's cover, she was looking rather coyly kittenish and leggy in the pink outfit. This song which was written by Kazuko Kobayashi（小林和子）, composed by Yuuichiro Oda（小田裕一郎）and arranged by Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）is quite different in that it sounds like a New Wave aidoru number with the synths and the wailing nostalgic electric guitar. Plus, Sakurada takes on a breathy and just-as-kittenish vocal approach.

For her live performances of "Misty", she was able to sport a tight shocking pink leotard which probably had fans lollygagging; it was an outfit that Sakurada had requested herself, inspired by Olivia Newton-John's concert costume. A few weeks following its release in early June 1981, Sakurada even pulled off a June 26th campaign called "Junko’s Airwave Takeover: Misty Day" during which she blitzed the television airwaves from morning to night with appearances, presumably in that shocking pink. Her peak No. 53 ranking on Oricon would mark the final time that Sakurada would chart in terms of her singles.

Mayumi Kojima -- Tango（タンゴ）

Wikimedia Commons

If I were to ever take up social dancing, I would probably start with the waltz. I mean, the steps seem easy enough but it's the improvisation that scares me. 

But for some strange reason, the next dance that I would tackle is the tango. That seems like a huge jump from the waltz but I guess maybe it's because of the class and grace involved. I don't particularly possess either in any great degree but perhaps I can gain some.

Now, before I end up going into some ambling rambling, let's take you to singer-songwriter Mayumi Kojima（小島麻由美）. I hadn't written about her for a few years and she has always struck me as one of the more eclectic Japanese pop singers. She's been described on Wikipedia as a Shibuya-kei singer but aside from my first article on her, I haven't really seen her do a lot of that genre. In fact, I've treated her as a chanteuse in the jazzier areas of town. 

In September 2026, she released her latest single "Tango" and yep, she's given her own fun and sultry take on Latin jazz, presumably in tribute to the titular dance. I love those familiar illustrations of herself along with her simian buddy on the cover. It makes me wonder whether there is a music video for "Tango". Alas, I have yet to find one. Anyways, I also have to give some belated congratulations to her for celebrating her 30th anniversary in the music business last year.

Haruo Minami -- Tanaka Ondo（田中音頭）

 

During my decades being interested and then living in Japan, I knew my fair share of Japanese Prime Ministers ranging from Yasuhiro Nakasone (good buddy to US President Ronald Reagan) to the current PM, Sanae Takaichi. But before all that, as a little kid, I had really only known of one Japanese Chief Executive and that was Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka（田中角栄）...basically because he had been involved in the Lockheed bribery scandals back in the 1970s. As time passed though, I came to realize that he had been a very powerful politician and that certain comedians loved to do impressions of him...usually by speaking in a very high-pitched crackly voice and pretending to flutter a hand fan in front of his own face.

I have the impression that he had been quite the popular Parliamentarian before he took the reins as PM in 1972 and I take it that he's one of the prime examples of a rags-to-riches story after being born poverty-stricken in Niigata Prefecture to eventually reach the highest position in the land. In fact, I guess he was so popular that the legendary enka and minyo singer Haruo Minami（三波春夫）wrote the glory-filled lyrics and recorded a minyo in tribute to him titled "Tanaka Ondo" (The Tanaka Song). Composed by Futoshi Satogawa（佐藤川太）, the song was released sometime in 1972 (maybe it was meant to commemorate his achievement of the prime ministership) and it sounds like any sort of traditional summer festival song. I think the back of the single cover page even had dance instructions. Couldn't quite find out whether Tanaka himself appreciated the musical gesture.

GAL -- Magnet Joe ni Ki wo Tsukero（マグネット・ジョーに気をつけろ）

 

It was a dozen years ago that I first posted on the short-lived aidoru trio GAL（ギャル）. Lasting between 1977 and 1979, just to refresh folks' memories, GAL consisted of Mayumi Kuroki（黒木真由美）, Hitomi Meguro （目黒ひとみ）and Michiyo Ishie（石江理世）initially. Ishie left the group in 1978 with Akiyo Nakaseko（中世古明代）taking her place for the remaining time into 1979.

That article that I posted back in 2014 was for their debut single "Bara to Pistol"（薔薇とピストル）in October 1977. Well, for this long-awaited grand reunion on KKP, I have their second single "Magnet Joe ni Ki wo Tsukero"（マグネット・ジョーに気をつけろ...Watch Out for Magnet Joe） from February 1978. I had no idea who Magnet Joe was and I'd assumed that he was some sort of anime or manga character but actually I think he's just an especially charismatic cad who pulls the women in and repels them once they've served their purpose. Created by the same songwriting team behind "Bara to Pistol", lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）, composer Makoto Kawaguchi（川口真）and arranger Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）, the music is nice and disco kayo, and in a way, I think the ladies dressed the part as well. In fact, I could even say that they kinda hit a refined middle ground between the more girl-next-door types of Candies（キャンディーズ）and the hyperactive dancing duo Pink Lady（ピンクレディー）.