Yu Hayami -- Answer Song wa Aishuu（アンサーソングは哀愁）

 

I can actually say this for the first time since I returned to Canada from Japan for good back in late 2011. Today is feeling like torrid Tokyo summer weather. It is majorly like swimming in atmosphere outside. All I can say is that I'll be glugging down a lot of water and other refreshments today and probably tomorrow, too.

Back in the day, popular music had hit songs which inspired other singers to come up with so-called answer songs to essentially rebut the original songs' message. For example, Shogo Hamada's（浜田省吾）1980 "Tokyo"（東京）can be seen to be the bleaker response to Kenji Sawadas's（沢田研二）all-is-wonderful "TOKIO" from the same year (you can listen to both songs on "Tokyo Songs").

One of the earliest Japanese pop songs that I ever heard since I realized that I was actually loving to hear them was Hiromi Go's（郷ひろみ）July 1982 "Aishuu no Casablanca"（哀愁のカサブランカ）which was the cover of Bertie Higgins' "Casablanca". I only found out recently that aidoru Yu Hayami（早見優）had released an answer song to that Go song as her 3rd single from October that year. Titled "Answer Song wa Aishuu" (The Answer Song is Filled with Sorrow), it was created by a different set of songwriters: famed lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）, composer Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）and arranger Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）. And yet, there is a similarity with this and "Aishuu no Casablanca" in terms of the overall melody and there isn't really any rebuttal at all within Hayami's song. It's actually more like commiseration on the loss of love. The two tunes can get together at a bar and drink down their sorrows like buddies. In any case, Hayami's third single reached No. 38 on Oricon and was a track on her sophomore album "Image" from November 1982 which hit No. 15 on the album charts.

Top 10 Singles for July 1st 1968

 

Hello there. I would have been happier if I'd had the list for the Oricon Top 10 Singles for July 1st 1967, which was the 100th birthday for Canada but I believe Oricon's lists hadn't started quite yet. Well, I guess we'll go with the list when Canada turned 101.

1.  Masao Sen                                  Hoshikage no Waltz

2.  The Tempters                              Emerald no Densetsu

3.  Tokyo Romantica                       Otaru no Hito yo

4.  Jun Mayuzumi                            Tenshi no Yuuwaku

5.  The Tigers                                   Hana no Kubikazari

6.  Purple Shadows                          Chiisana Sunakku

7.  Yukari Ito                                    Hoshi wo Minaide

8.  Mina Aoe                                    Isezakicho no Blues

9.  Akira Fuse                                  Ai no Sono

10.  Los Primos                               Tasogare no Ginza

Bruce Cockburn/Barenaked Ladies -- Lovers in a Dangerous Time

World Atlas via Wikimedia Commons

On this blisteringly hot day, Canada is 159 years old. Happy Birthday to the Great White North! Personally, I'm trying to stay cool in my room with the decades-old electric fan helping me out. 

Of course, being a national holiday and all, Reminiscings of Youth will be having a special article today (along with the regular weekly one tomorrow) to commemorate Canada Day. Glad to read that Ottawa-born singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn (pronounced KOH-bərn...like James Coburn) is with us at the age of 81. Forty-two years ago in 1984, he released his "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" which became a Top 40 hit here and a long resident on the music video charts on television. There were some contrasts here: 1) the contrast of young teens finding fresh new love during a time when the spectre of the Cold War was still looming large and 2) Cockburn's button-down and soothing pop-rock arrangement meshed with a performance video of what I could describe as something quite avant-garde Cirque du Soleil. 

In Canada, "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" reached No. 24 on the RPM charts while on US Billboard, it peaked at No. 56.

Barenaked Ladies was a band born in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough. It's nicknamed Scarberia because of how desolate parts of it can look like during the winter (just look at the music video) but it also has a ton of restaurants of all nationalities that can keep people very happy and fed. Anyways, Barenaked Ladies was the same band behind the theme song for the long-running American sitcom "The Big Bang Theory", and they've been a bunch of good local boys who love to rock with a sense of humour. I first found out about them through a friend's car tape-cassette recorder when he was playing a compilation of their stuff which included their cover of "Lovers in a Dangerous Time". 

It's a friendly, folksy and peppy take on Cockburn's original and watching Ed Robertson and the gang perform from the back of a pickup truck while it drives on the streets of Scarborough in the dead of winter is probably one of the most Canadian things I've ever posted on the blog. Their cover first appeared on the 1991 Cockburn tribute album "Kick at the Darkness" and it was released as the band's debut single in 1992.

The original song peaked on August 18th 1984, so why don't we see what was hitting the top of the Oricon charts a couple of days later? Let's go with a scattering of songs here with Nos. 5, 7 and 10.

5. Mariko Takahashi -- Momo Iro Toiki （桃色吐息）

7. Southern All Stars -- Miss Brand-New Day

10. Mari Iijima -- Ai Oboeteimasuka? （愛・おぼえていますか）

UA -- Akai Anata（赤いあなた）

 

I found out maybe a year or so ago that singer-songwriter UA and her family had moved to some remote area in Canada for good quite a while back. Maybe things are a good deal cooler there than they are in Toronto which is feeling like 40 degrees Celsius on the Humidex today. Looks like I'm getting some of that ol' Tokyo feeling again.

Anyways, it was early in KKP's time that I posted UA's "Rhythm"（リズム）, her 5th single from September 1996 that was the very first purchase I ever made of her. I have no regrets at all since it has all sorts of old-school cool infused into the melody and arrangement. Well, thirteen years following that posting, I have the coupling song from "Rhythm", "Akai Anata" (Red You).

Written by the singer and composed/arranged by KING 3K and LITTLE MASTER FLASH, I'm not sure whether UA was referring to a blushing fellow or someone who's been literally painted red. However, her lyrics are filled with plenty of colour to make Benetton happy. Could be quite existential with purple eyelids, rainbow bridges and stars filled with tears. In any event, UA really wants to meet this guy no matter what. 

The interesting thing is that UA's normally low and throaty voice has been pitched pretty high...almost to aidoru levels. That and the relaxed sing-songy hip-hop nature of "Akai Anata" make the song feel like an urban kids' tune. It hadn't been placed as a track on any of her albums...only making room on her September 2003 BEST album "Illuminate 〜the very best songs〜" which hit No. 4 on Oricon and ended up as the 66th-ranked album of the year.

Keiko Goto/Junko Sakurada -- Mado（窓）

 

I don't watch French movies...although I did catch a few scenes of "Les Parapluies de Cherbourg" on television (warning: make sure you have the Kleenex next to you, especially in the last scene). As a rule of my imagination (and my apologies to all those fans of the Nouvelle Vague), I always envision old French movies with scenes like these: a man or woman sitting forlornly next to a window on a cold rainy day, letting their breath hit the pane with condensation. This lasts for two hours. FIN

Strangely enough, I've encountered this song titled "Mado" (Window) sung by Keiko Goto（後藤啓子）. In fact, this was her debut single from 1981 although it apparently was also a track on her 1980 album "Aimez-vous Sagan". I've posted about Goto once before for her 1981 song "Me wo Tojite"（目を閉じて）which was quite the bouncy City Pop tune.

"Mado" is probably more in tune with her days as a singer at Gin-Pari（銀巴里）in the 1970s, the famous chanson cafe in Ginza that I mentioned only a few days ago when I paid tribute to the recently departed Akihiro Miwa（美輪明宏）. I'm not sure if "Mado" would fall under the chanson category but it's still quite the spirited French waltz of a kayo kyoku as written and composed by Shigeru Inumaru（犬丸秀）*. Maybe I can give it the Fashion Music label. It certainly doesn't have Goto breathing sadly on a window pane for a couple of hours.

One interesting thing happened while I was searching how to read the lyricist/composer's name. I found out that "Mado" had gotten a cover version via aidoru Junko Sakurada's（桜田淳子）37th single from August 1982. If anything, it's even breezier and an accordion has been thrown into the arrangement, to boot, for that enhanced Gallic flavour.

*Not totally sure on the reading of the above name. If anyone can confirm or deny it, let me know.

Special Favorite Music -- Royal Memories

 

Well, we're basically at the halfway point of 2026, and things here at least are looking very summery. In fact, Toronto is going into a heat wave for the next few days. It certainly was quite the sweaty trek from the store and back this morning. Before folks start complaining though, let's remember that it wasn't too long ago when we were all griping when winter would end.

Then, let's start today's edition of KKP with something nice and rosy and happy. The band Special Favorite Music had a track from their August 2017 2nd full album "Royal Blue" called "Royal Memories". No special genre inflection was attached to this one; it's just a happy-happy-joy-joy pop tune with some Motown horns (though "Royal Memories" doesn't sound particularly Motown) accompanying it. Have a listen to it with the air conditioner on full.

STUTS & Taeko Ohnuki -- Ohayou（おはよう）

 

Recently, the NHK morning information show "Asaichi"（あさイチ）has been getting cancelled or truncated. That's not a real surprise since there are a couple of phases during the year when this happens but this year, it's a bit more prevalent right now because of a national track-and-field meet, the World Cup and televised government deliberations. We were a bit luckier yesterday though since we did get the full one-hour-and-forty minutes.

Well, I figure that we'll have only a couple of more weeks of this before things get back to normal. The good news is that the theme song for "Asaichi" finally has a full version out on YouTube. A few months ago, when the new theme "Ohayou" (Good Morning) started each show, I couldn't find it on the platform although in my exertions, I was able to find a past collaboration by trackmaker/producer STUTS and legendary singer-songwriter Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）from 2024.

Still, it's nice to find "Ohayou" at last which apparently hit YouTube a little over a month ago. It's a nice breakfast plate of musical nostalgia via fluegelhorn and electric piano. Those two instruments give the song a sunny 70s feeling...in a way, it feels rather Carpenteresque, and it's a friendly way to start off "Asaichi". Maybe it can even get folks up-and-at-'em all on its own.