BE MY BABY!
BE MY BABY!
BE MY BABY!
That hair! Those pants! That strut! Guess what the title is? I have to say that when I hear the expression "simple is best" as applied to Japanese music videos, this would be the arch example. I'd thought for the longest time that this was a BOOWY song because of the presence of Tomoyasu Hotei（布袋寅泰）, but nope....once Hotei finished his time with Kyosuke Himuro（氷室京介）, he hooked up with Koji Kikkawa（吉川晃司）in 1988.
And may I say that Kikkawa is a great name for a J-Rocker....Kikkawa....KICK!
The unit of Kikkawa and Hotei was then dubbed COMPLEX, and as it turned out, it was more than just a name; it kinda described the relationship between them which apparently imploded a couple of years later. Ah, well.....Kikkawa's loss, Miki Imai's gain. Anyways, their debut single, "Be My Baby", written by Kikkawa and composed by Hotei, debuted right at No. 1 when it was released in April 1989. I knew I was in for something completely different when I caught the video and saw the guys chanting the title before they started making moves like Jagger. Kikkawa just went to town with that voice of his while Hotei danced his stuff like a daddylonglegs on acid. And it was just one camera and a pure white set. Very effective in a minimalist way.
"Be My Baby" eventually became the 39th-ranked song of the year. It's also a track on the unit's debut album, "COMPLEX" which also hit the top spot on Oricon. That tune takes me back as much as any aidoru tune does.
Thanks J-Canuck for this post on COMPLEX. BE MY BABY/ビー・マイ・ベイビー is a great song and the video is awesome. You would think 吉川晃司 and 布袋寅泰 would have gotten along much better as they seemed so much alike. They certainly made for a imposing duo as they towered over most of their fellow male singers with Hotei listed as being 187 cm/6.1 ft tall and Kikkawa as 182 cm/5.10 ft. 布袋寅泰 has certainly a colorful background - his father was of Korean decent and his mother was a Japanese/Russian ハーフ. Hotei originally started out learning to play the piano from his mother and it was only at age 14 when he saw a poster of Mark Bolan that he became interested in playing the guitar. I didn't know this but Hotei's first marriage was to J-Pop singer 山下久美子. That marriage only lasted 2 years after which he met and married singer 今井美樹 in 1999. It was alleged that Hotei had an affair with actress 高岡早紀 in 2004. Hotei is currently residing in London along with Imai and their daughter.
ReplyDeleteThanks, JTM, for the information on the two fellows. Perhaps it was because Kikkawa and Hotei were so alike that they couldn't stand each other, but that's about as far as pop psychology as I will go into. :)
ReplyDeleteKnew about the two marriages but was not aware about the affair with Saki Takaoka or their life in the UK. Would love to hear if Miki Imai has picked up that British accent. Apparently, Miwa Yoshida of Dreams Come True and Shizuka Kudo have it, though.
I wish I could have seen their reunion concert a few years back. I wonder if there might be a chance for some new Complex material.
ReplyDeleteThe video for this song was actually my first exposure to Jpop. I was stationed in Japan in the Navy when this song first came out. After I rented the CD, I ended up buying both it and Hotei's English "Guitarhythm" album/ Now I have all three Complex albums, "Guitarhythm," "Scorpio Rising" and "Doberman."
ReplyDeleteHi, Larry. And thanks for your comments. My first exposure to Japanese popular music of any sort was an enka song, "Muhyou" when I was but a toddler (http://kayokyokuplus.blogspot.ca/2013/01/yukio-hashi-muhyou.html). I didn't end up getting that single later in life, but for me, getting that Yellow Magic Orchestra tape opened the doors for me, so to speak.
DeleteYou mentioned that you were stationed in the Navy in Japan. By chance, were you posted on the USS Blue Ridge?