"Kiken na Futari"(Two in the Face of Danger) was his 6th single as a solo artist, released in April 1973. The song is an uptempo pop/rock piece in which the male protagonist playfully teases his older, beautiful paramour when she wants to stop the affair. It was a possible case of art imitating life since the lyricist, Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）, was having a romantic relationship with Sawada at the time until the ultimate breakup; Yasui was 9 years older than her lover who was 25.
But no matter the connection, "Kiken na Futari"earned a Japan Record Award and was the first song by Sawada as a solo artist to hit No. 1 on the Oricon charts and eventually became the 5th-ranked single for 1973.
Shortly after the breakup between Sawada and Yasui, the young singer married the late Emi Ito（伊藤エミ）of The Peanuts in 1975.
"Julie" might be THE NO:1 japanese male singer for me. He's like if David Bowie would've been more into "schlager". Surely one of the biggest characters in the history of japanese popular music.
ReplyDeleteHi again, Nekromantis. When I first saw him, it was on the 1981 Kohaku Utagassen when he did "Stripper" in full makeup....you hit the nail on the head. I pegged him as the Japanese David Bowie....as soon as I picked up my lower jaw from off the floor. I'd never expected something like glam rock in conservative Japan at the time.
ReplyDeleteSawada was definitely a pioneer as I mentioned above. He went from Group Sounds to Glam Rock in less than a decade, and stayed absolutely credible.
Just one question from me...I'm not sure what "schlager" means.
"Schlager" is hard to explain if you haven't grew up with it like most in northern europe but here's a wikipage about it:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlager_music
I also find some similarities between idol music and schlager or "iskelmä" as we call it in Finland. Occationally very similar type of melodies etc.
Thanks, Nekromantis. I'll have to check Schlager Music out. You're from Finland, eh? Out of great curiosity, how did you become interested in kayo kyoku, and do you know of any other Japanese pop music fans there?
ReplyDeleteI have 1 or 2 friends here in Toronto who like singers like Seiko Matsuda or Akina Nakamori, but otherwise it's basically just me.
Nekromantis, I checked out the entry via Wikipedia and then took a look at YouTube. There was one song from Finland that was dated around 1940, and it sounds a lot like the non-jazz dance music that used to be played in the States around the same time.
ReplyDeleteIn Canada, we've had our own instances of schlager over the years. Currently, I think it's best represented by Justin Bieber and his protege, Carly Mae Jepsen. In past decades, we even had our own nickname for such music in both the States and Canada: bubblegum pop.
What I've admired about Julie is that he did expand his horizons, so to speak, instead of just remaining a GS singer. If that had been the case, he would've ended up fading away pretty quickly. Instead, he was able to stay popular well into the 80s.
Yeah I agree that Sawada liked experimenting with different types of music and again like Bowie he had this sort of "musical chameleon" aura to him.
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