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.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Vocal Shop -- Mahha Go Go Go （マッハ・ゴーゴー・ゴー）
I have to say that although I was never a huge fan of the cult anime "Mahha Go Go Go"（マッハGoGoGo.....Mach Go Go Go), it was always the theme song that grabbed me. As it was sung in the original Japanese by Vocal Shop, a group that specialized in singing anime songs and commercial jingles, "Mahha Go Go Go" was just one of those happy heroic songs with the studio orchestra backing them up like in the old days. It was written by Tatsuo Yoshida（吉田竜夫） and composed by Nobuyoshi Koshibe（越部信義）; Koshibe was also behind the themes for two other legendary anime: "Doraemon" and "Sazae-san". The above video is the full version of the theme as the driver Tsuyoshi Mifune takes his Mach 5 across various terrain...and through herds of wild animals (this was probably before PETA was formed).
It seems as if, according to the English and Japanese Wikipedia writeups on the anime, the show was virtually shown on both sides of the Pacific at about the same time....during the year of 1967. In America, the show was dubbed "Speed Racer", and the theme was "Go Speed Racer Go". Not sure who was behind the singing of the English version, but the delivery had a bit more of a hepcat style to it.
One night in Tokyo, I had the chance to watch the Wachowski Siblings' take on "Speed Racer" on DVD at my Aussie buddy's apartment. It rather says something when the ending credits were the best thing in the whole movie. Not that the movie was unwatchable; the racing scenes were eye-candy crack cocaine but the movie overall just seemed to drift and fly all over the place. The Mach 5 had more control over its terrain than the actual flick. Still, Ali Dee and The Deekompressors did a fun job doing their cover of the theme song.
Thanks J-Canuck for this great post on マッハGoGoGo. I can't say I was a big fan either but it was one of the first of タツノコプロ's TV anime series. They would later go on to produce some of the best anime series of the 70s including 新造人間キャシャーン, 科学忍者隊ガッチャマン, 宇宙の騎士テッカマン, 破裏拳ポリマー among others. ボーカル・ショップ and their various chorus members did some other great theme songs such as 鉄人28号 AKA Gigantor, 黄金バット, デビルマン, スペクトルマン, 仮面の忍者赤影, 悪魔くん and my favorite ジャイアントロボ AKA Johnny Sakko and His Flying Robot (under the name マイスタージンガー). I was really disappointed by the Wachowski Siblings' handling of the "Speed Racer" film. What a missed opportunity. Ali Dee and The Deekompressors' remix of the theme song is okay. I liked how they sampled elements from both the Japanese and American versions of the anime as well as incorporated a lot of Japanese rap in the song. Thank goodness Hollywood didn't get their hands on "Gatchaman" and that the Japanese are doing there own version. If "Speedracer" was any indication, I shudder to imagine what an "Americanized" movie version of "Gatchaman" would have looked like.
Yes, I had been hoping that the Wachowskis would get out of their slump and make a decent adaptation of an anime, but such was not to be. Just interesting that Susan Sarandon and Christina Ricci were in it. I think Hollywood finally learned its lesson after the "Dragonball" debacle, so I'm fairly confident that there will be no "Gatchaman" versions on this side of the Pacific.
Thanks J-Canuck for this great post on マッハGoGoGo. I can't say I was a big fan either but it was one of the first of タツノコプロ's TV anime series. They would later go on to produce some of the best anime series of the 70s including 新造人間キャシャーン, 科学忍者隊ガッチャマン, 宇宙の騎士テッカマン, 破裏拳ポリマー among others. ボーカル・ショップ and their various chorus members did some other great theme songs such as 鉄人28号 AKA Gigantor, 黄金バット, デビルマン, スペクトルマン, 仮面の忍者赤影, 悪魔くん and my favorite ジャイアントロボ AKA Johnny Sakko and His Flying Robot (under the name マイスタージンガー). I was really disappointed by the Wachowski Siblings' handling of the "Speed Racer" film. What a missed opportunity. Ali Dee and The Deekompressors' remix of the theme song is okay. I liked how they sampled elements from both the Japanese and American versions of the anime as well as incorporated a lot of Japanese rap in the song. Thank goodness Hollywood didn't get their hands on "Gatchaman" and that the Japanese are doing there own version. If "Speedracer" was any indication, I shudder to imagine what an "Americanized" movie version of "Gatchaman" would have looked like.
ReplyDeleteYes, I had been hoping that the Wachowskis would get out of their slump and make a decent adaptation of an anime, but such was not to be. Just interesting that Susan Sarandon and Christina Ricci were in it. I think Hollywood finally learned its lesson after the "Dragonball" debacle, so I'm fairly confident that there will be no "Gatchaman" versions on this side of the Pacific.
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