Well, Jme, If We Can't Have Uta Con Because of the Beatles...

 

This week, we're not watching any "Uta Con"（うたコン）on NHK which was a bit weird because I swore that I'd seen "Uta Con" concierge Shosuke Tanihara（谷原章介）give out the lineup at the end of last week's episode for this week. And then, I figured something was up. Indeed, something was up...the number of non-Japanese songs being sung on the June 9th episode. Notably, the show's theme tonight was all about The Beatles, and this was confirmed by commenter Brian Mitchell in my last article yesterday. 

I've mentioned it before but our streaming provider of Japanese programming here in North America is Jme, and they've given us the heads-up on their website, but when it comes to the performance of American, British or any non-Japanese songs by Japanese artists in Japan, due to copyrights and all that legal stuff, they simply can't allow them to be heard. Usually, if it's one or two songs, Jme will put up the warning blurb at the top of the screen in Japanese and then mask the aural performance with Muzak although viewers can still see the singers doing the cover. However, when there's a whole bunch of foreign music played on a program, then Jme basically can't allow the episode to be shown. This has happened once before with "Uta Con" when the theme for that episode was Disney music.

This time, it's the Beatles. Not that I'm a huge fan of the Fab Four although there are several songs that I do like by Paul, John, Ringo and George, but it still gets rather annoying to have something that my family looks forward weekly get cancelled due to legal and money stuff (and personally, I did want to see Hiromi Iwasaki and Junko Yagami give their covers). Therefore, just off the top of my head, I've decided to put up some covers of the Beatles discography by Japanese singers...simply for the heck of it.

B'z -- Let It Be

Masayoshi Yamazaki -- All My Loving (and he's performing this in front of Sir Paul himself!)

Yellow Magic Orchestra -- Day Tripper

Mone Kamishiraishi -- Yesterday

Akiko Kanazawa -- Yellow Submarine Ondo（イエロー・サブマリン音頭）

Yuko Hara -- Koi wa Go-Tabou Moushiagemasu（恋は、ご多忙申し上げます）

 

As I mentioned in my previous article, I had been scrolling down the Top 50 singles of 1983 when I discovered Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi's（長渕剛）"Good Bye Seishun"（GOOD-BYE青春）at No. 49. Well, it turns out that I didn't know the song at No. 50 either, so why not finish up Monday's entries with another 1983 hit?

On first listening to Yuko Hara's（原由子）"Koi wa Go-Tabou Moushiagemasu" (Too Busy for Love) which was released in August of that year, I'd assumed that much like "Good Bye Seishun", this one also fronted a television drama as the theme. However, it was actually used as another campaign song for Shiseido. According to the J-Wiki article, this was the Southern All Stars（サザンオールスターズ）keyboardist's first big solo hit (her own 4th single hitting No. 5 on the Oricon weeklies) and as written and composed by her husband, SAS vocalist Keisuke Kuwata（桑田佳祐）, there is something quite reminiscent of Phil Collins' take on "You Can't Hurry Love" from 1982. Heck "Motown" is even mentioned in Kuwata's lyrics.

Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi -- Good Bye Seishun（GOOD-BYE青春）

 

Welcome to Monday! I was looking down the Oricon Top 50 singles for 1983 on J-Wiki and perhaps not all that surprisingly, we've managed to cover pretty much all of them in the 14+ years that "Kayo Kyoku Plus" has been in existence.

However, one that I had yet to cover was singer-songwriter and actor Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi's（長渕剛）"Good Bye Seishun" (Good Bye Youth) which ended up as the 49th-ranked single of 1983 after hitting No.5 on the Oricon weeklies following its release in September 1983. Strangely enough, the intro for "Good Bye Seishun" was familiar to me so I had heard it sometime in the past as it reminded me a bit of "El Condor Pasa", and indeed, Nagabuchi had based the melody on Central and South American songs created into this folk-rock tune.

Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）was responsible for the lyrics which don't give a particular happy glow to someone's days of youth. It seems like the protagonist went through some very hard times as a teenager and is more than happy to wash his hands of all of it before taking those steps into adulthood. Still, the song is plenty jaunty.

"Good Bye Seishun" was Nagabuchi's first major hit since his 1980 "Junko"（順子）. It not only got him more appearances on television but it was also used as the theme song for the 1983 TBS drama "Kazoku Game"（家族ゲーム...The Family Game） which was also a starring vehicle for him.

Crazy Cats -- Hondara Koushinkyoku（ホンダラ行進曲）

 

The above image by Doryana02 is about the closest that I could get to a crazy cat through Wikimedia Commons. To be honest, I think the little one is quite cute and adorable actually and approaching something approaching a feline haute couture.

But it's all to introduce the comical band Crazy Cats（クレイジーキャッツ）with another one of their zany songs from the 1960s. The band, which included Hitoshi Ueki（植木等）, Hajime Hana（ハナ肇）and Kei Tani（谷啓）, was known for their wild n' crazy antics while dancing and singing about nothing in general...which was the point. They reveled in being portrayed as the most irresponsible representatives of Japanese society (while still wearing suits, mind you) through movies and novelty songs such as "Musekinin Ichidai Otoko"（無責任一代男）.

Another one is "Hondara Koushinkyoku" (The "Well, Then..." March) which was released as Crazy Cats' 5th single in April 1963. Created by the same duo behind "Musekinin Ichidai Otoko", lyricist (and future governor of Tokyo) Yukio Oshima（青島幸男）and composer Hiroaki Hagiwara（萩原哲晶）, it's another goofball tune set to some raucous orchestral marching music as the gang sings literal nonsense for the most part with the overall message being that any particular action will ultimately be meaningless so why even bother taking it? Aoshima did admit to a bit of nihilism in his approach. I'm not sure how popular the song got but I can imagine a bunch of drunken salarymen shaking off the tension at the local watering hole by singing this one.

Perfume -- Cold Sleep（コールドスリープ）

By Gene Wang via Wikimedia Commons

I'm starting to get those Arashi（嵐）retired/not retired vibes when it comes to the group Perfume. Up to now, I'd gotten the distinct impression that Nocchi, Kashiyuka, and A-chan were on an indefinite hiatus after spending a quarter century with each other, mostly creating technopop treats for the masses. Well, I know now that Arashi has officially retired, but I should have reminded myself that "indefinite hiatus" doesn't mean "permanent retirement". 

In fact, when I finally read the fine print of their current status, Perfume stated that they were entering a phase of "cold sleep", and when the time is right, they will return as a different form of Perfume. And interestingly enough, to emphasize the point, Perfume and songwriter/producer Yasutaka Nakata（中田ヤスタカ）put out the group's latest digital single "Cold Sleep" on May 15th. 

Quite the bubbly and percolating Perfume song with some nostalgic synths (and some nicely syncopated vocals, to boot) for a group that is supposed to be in cold sleep, the ladies seem to be trying very hard to make sure their fans don't forget their old selves and style. "Cold Sleep" is also supposed to be the theme song for an upcoming documentary commemorating their 25 years in show business.

Jitterin' Jinn -- Yakeppachi no Doncharami（やけっぱちのドンチャラミー）

 

The last time I wrote about the rock band Jitterin' Jinn（ジッタリン・ジン）, it was back in 2022 when I posted about one of their earlier songs "SINKY-YORK" from 1989.

Well, here is a song that is from their 10th anniversary album "TENTASTIC!" which was released in October 1999. "Yakeppachi no Doncharami" sounds as if ten years hadn't gone by at all. It's that Jitterin' Jinn sound with the guitars and the rat-a-tat drums and of course Reiko Harukawa's（春川玲子） vocals. As for the title, that last word seems to be a squished melding of the phrase "Don't You Love Me?" so I gather that the title can be defined as "I'm Yelling Don't You Love Me?". Jitterin' Jinn guitarist Jinta Hashi（破矢ジンタ）took care of words and music.

Senri Oe -- Wallabee Nugi Sutete（ワラビーぬぎすてて）/Glory Days

 

You're getting the 2-for-1 deal today with singer-songwriter Senri Oe（大江千里）. Yup, two songs in one article...neither of which I have heard from him before.

First off, I was curious about how Oe when he was a pop star in the 1980s got his start since I've known him from the latter half of that decade and I've known him for his distinctive upbeat sound. Well, he made his debut in May 1983 with the single "Wallabee Nugi Sutete" (Kick Off Those Wallabees). 

From Amazon

I think right from the start Oe has had that happy "Aw, gosh!" pop/rock style with "Wallabee Nugi Sutete" which struck me as being quite fast, and then I discovered that it's barely over three minutes. Couldn't ask for a poppier song. Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）arranged everything by the way.

Personally, I've never worn a pair of Wallabees before but they certainly look comfortable. However, Oe's encouraging the guys to take them off, ostensibly to have that beachside barefoot walk with the girls they like. "Wallabee Nugi Sutete" didn't seem to make it onto the Oricon charts but for those Oe fans, this should be part of their collection. The song was also included on the singer's debut album which came out the same month as the single "WAKU WAKU" and according to the J-Wiki article, "Wallabee" had some big guns in the recording studio such as bassist-songwriter Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）and drummer Jun Aoyama（青山純）.

Seeing the music video for the song, I'm convinced that I had seen it before decades ago when the Canadian music show "The New Music" did a special on the music of Japan. They showed a part of this video, specifically the part where Oe was walking on the audiotape in the middle of it.

I'd already had Oe's debut single in the backlog for a few weeks when I discovered that one of his later singles has become part of the "Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!!"（ガンバレ! 中村くん!!）ending theme family. His 14th single "Glory Days" gloriously finished off a nerve-racking Episode 10 of ever-tense Nakamura-kun waiting to get an autograph from his favourite manga author. 

Oh, isn't that an adorable pair look for Nakamura and Hirose! Anyways, "Glory Days" was released in August 1988 and once again, Omura was there to arrange Oe's words and music. It was also a part of his 10th album "1234" which not only hit No. 6 on Oricon but was voted Best Album of the Year at the 3rd Annual Japan Gold Disk Awards.