I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
Credits
I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Miyuki Nakajima -- Jidai (時代）
Miyuki Nakajima（中島みゆき）was also one of the earliest singers I heard when I started listening to Japanese pop music in the early 80s. On "The Sounds of Japan"broadcast on Saturday nights, I first heard this acoustic version of "Jidai"(Time Goes Around) which has become one of her signature songs. Her second single won the grand prize at the World Popular Music Festival in November 1975, and was released as a single the next month. It peaked at No. 14 on the Oricon weeklies and became the 88th-ranked song of 1976.
There have been various versions of "Jidai" but the version at the link below is, by far, my favourite rendition by her. I can pretty much guarantee some listeners may get that lump in their throats just from the melody and Nakajima's delivery.
The single also became part of her first album, "Watashi no Koe ga Kikoemasuka"(私の声が聞こえますか....Can You Hear My Voice?) in April 1976. It peaked at No. 10 but remained a long seller on the charts, becoming the 34th-ranking album of 1978.
The official site of Wagaya no rekishi (FujiTV 2010) lists this lady's Jidai as the ending theme song. If so, which version is it, and on which album is it on? Many thanks.
I've listened to both the original and the acoustic version shown above. And I went to YouTube to check out the ending theme for "Wagaya no Rekishi". Listening to the Fuji-TV special's version, it would either have to be the 1993 version she did for the album, "Jidai -- Time Goes Around" or the single cut of that. There was quite a bit of an orchestral flourish for the version I heard on "Wagaya", so I'm wondering if this may have even been a special version arranged by the scorer for the show, Takayuki Hattori, in which case, it could be on the original soundtrack.
In any case, I hope you can find the version you want.
The official site of Wagaya no rekishi (FujiTV 2010) lists this lady's Jidai as the ending theme song. If so, which version is it, and on which album is it on? Many thanks.
ReplyDeleteHello, there.
ReplyDeleteI've listened to both the original and the acoustic version shown above. And I went to YouTube to check out the ending theme for "Wagaya no Rekishi". Listening to the Fuji-TV special's version, it would either have to be the 1993 version she did for the album, "Jidai -- Time Goes Around" or the single cut of that. There was quite a bit of an orchestral flourish for the version I heard on "Wagaya", so I'm wondering if this may have even been a special version arranged by the scorer for the show, Takayuki Hattori, in which case, it could be on the original soundtrack.
In any case, I hope you can find the version you want.