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.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Hiromi Go -- Oyome Samba (お嫁サンバ)

The boy becomes a man. Well, at least from the first Go entry to this one. In any case, "Oyome Samba"(The Bride Samba) was the very first time I'd ever heard or seen Hiromi Go(郷ひろみ). Of course, as with many of my first songs and singers in kayo kyoku, I saw Hiromi on the 1981 Kohaku. He was all dressed up like a dandy just making out like a Rio hipster (pun intended). Although I couldn't find anything on YouTube from that particular performance, I can say that he was one of the highlights of the show judging from the audience reaction. It's a rousing tune.

"Oyome Samba" was Go's 38th single, and a track on his 17th album, "Plastic Generation". Both were released on May 1, 1981. The song itself managed to peak at No. 6 on the Oricon weeklies and sold about 250,000 copies. It was written by Yoshiko Miura(三浦徳子), who had also written Seiko Matsuda's(松田聖子) "Aoi Sangosho"青い珊瑚礁)a year earlier, and would later write Anri's (杏里)"Cat's Eye".


As I said, I couldn't get his performance on the Kohaku of that year, but I got something just as good. His performance was truncated, but it was on an episode of "The Best 10", the popular music rankings show that ran from 1978-1989 on the Tokyo Broadcasting System. It gained its popularity just as much from its 2 hosts, the hyperactive Tetsuko Kuroyanagi(黒柳徹子) and Hiroshi Kume(久米宏), as it did from its weekly guests.

Along with Go, The Chanels and Kenji Sawada(沢田研二) also appeared. All that consternation before Go's performance was about celebrating Sawada's 33rd birthday.

(March 5 2013....well, whaddaya know....found the Kohaku version)

6 comments:

  1. The Plastic Generation LP is really great. The beat is very close to the soul funk music at that time. Wish CBS/ Sony would re-release this on CD or on iTunes!

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    1. Hi, there, and thanks for the tip on "Plastic Generation" I'd be interested in getting it just for the cover itself (I have an affinity for Japanese pop album cover design from that time period for some reason). Yeah, I was looking around after your comment, and it only seems to be available via LP only, although I came across one page (http://takechas.com/?pid=56611360) that can allow you to hear some samples if your computer can read .ram files.

      I'm not sure if you have Go's 1979 album of "Super Drive". It was in "Japanese City Pop". Any insights on that one?

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  2. hi there, in fact I am listening to this LP right now! Like you I listen to a lot of Japanese Pop from the 80s (and some 70s). It seems most of Hiromi Go's albums have not been digitized into CDs, let alone iTunes! I know of that site you mentioned but the RAM files are of low quality.

    My interest only spread into Hiromi Go because of his Hiromic World LP which was composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi. That album is also very good and has an excellent cover.

    The only Hiromi Go LPs I have are Hiromic World, Plastic Generation and Aporon no koibito. I found these LPs in second hand record shops in Tokyo and Nagoya during my last two visits. I was lucky to come across them because they are not easy to find. I really enjoyed shopping in their second hand CD and record shops as they really respect them and keep them in good conditions. I have not come across the Super Drive but will do some research soon.

    I have been trying to record these LPs into MP3 but the quality is not brilliant. I will try again and if you are interested in having these let me know.

    A CD I am trying to get my hands on is the Toshihiko Tahara 1989 CD "Yesterday My Love".

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    1. Hello again.

      Yeah, I remember seeing "Hiromic World" in "Japanese City Pop" as well. It seems like Go has had a lot of interesting songs that I've yet to explore. One of my fellow contributors, nikala, mentioned another song of his from her "Techno-Kayo Playlist" several months ago titled "Dakara Spectacle" which was also quite fascinating to listen to (http://kayokyokuplus.blogspot.ca/2014/04/nikalas-techno-kayo-playlist-idol.html).

      As for rare LPs, tell me about it. I've seen a number of these in "Japanese City Pop" and some of the other guides, and when I checked for them on the usual sites, I get the sad "Out of Print" or they're priced way out of my range.

      For me, I'm looking for the early albums of Mai Yamane. She might be most famous for her contributions to "Cowboy Be-Bop" soundtracks, but I really like her initial City Pop releases back in the late 70s. I actually had a couple of her songs profiled here but the videos were taken down and since there were no other sources for the song, I had to revert the articles back to "Pending".

      Since I've started the blog, I've been much more attuned to the composers of the various kayo kyoku. Tsutsumi is definitely one of the greats...he seems to have been able to fit a number of genres over the decades. I found another quirky song by him for the singer MANNA that I wrote about earlier this year called "Tokio Tsushin" (http://kayokyokuplus.blogspot.ca/2014/03/mannajuicy-fruits-tokio-tsushin.html).

      Thanks for the offer. I'll definitely consider it! :)

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  3. managed to record the 3 Hiromi Go LPs to MP3 and am satisfied with the quality. if you're interested let me know how to transfer.

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    1. okay im a little late to reply to this but if somehow ur seeing this, please upload them!!

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