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.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Masayuki Suzuki -- Mou Namida wa Iranai （もう涙はいらない）


Another urban soulful from Martin-san. Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之） released his 14th single in May 1992, and the video above of some fine nighttime scenes of Yokohama and Tokyo make for a nice complement. I first thought that "Mou Namida wa Iranai" (Don't Need Your Tears) was another collaboration between the singer and Kazumasa Oda（小田和正）, but actually the creators of the song were Saeko Nishio（西尾佐栄子）and Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）who was behind a number of Miki Imai's（今井美樹）early songs.

The song became Suzuki's highest-selling single as a solo singer with 560,000 copies sold and managed to peak at No. 8 on Oricon. It was also a track on his 5th album, "FAIR AFFAIR" released in September of that year; the album hit the top spot. And "Mou Namida Iranai" was able to get Suzuki his 2nd consecutive appearance on the Kohaku Utagassen. Finally, it was one of the ending themes for the detective TV series, "Deka Kizoku"（刑事貴族...The Detective Aristocrats), starring a whole array of stars such as the debonair Hiroshi Tachi and former aidoru Hiromi Go, a couple of guys who fit well into the nightlife of Tokyo.

There were a whole lot of changes going on in Japanese popular music as there was this divergence into areas such as glam rock, ska and Shibuya-kei. But I was also glad to see some good ol' R&B represented in Japan via singers like Martin.


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4 comments:

  1. JTMApril 21, 2013 at 4:40 AM

    Thanks for this great post on 鈴木雅之's 「もう涙はいらない」. This is one of my favorites. The man was definitely 渋い/cool (somewhat old school phrase but I wonder what the modern equivalent would be). Even in his ラッツ&スター days he was definitely a unique presence (although I still wince when I see him and his band mates in "black face" makeup although I'm glad they eventually ditched that gimmick).

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    1. J-CanuckApril 22, 2013 at 4:35 PM

      Hi, JTM.

      Yeah, the song is one of my favourites in the Martin oeuvre. I think "shibui" is the perfect way to describe it and him. Perhaps, "urbane" might be another way to translate the Japanese term?

      Speaking about that Chanels gimmick, I remember reading one time when Ray Parker Jr. went to Japan to promote his song, "Ghostbusters", he did the performance on one of the music shows not knowing that a bunch of kids were gonna run out as ghosts in white sheets, the problem being that the hoods were peaked!

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  2. AnonymousJuly 25, 2022 at 12:24 AM

    I found Suzuki-san through his anime OPs in Kaguya sama, and explored his works and this is my all time fav.

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    1. J-CanuckJuly 25, 2022 at 9:20 AM

      Hi there. "Mou Namida wa Iranai" is one of my favourite as well, and I had been hoping beyond hope that it could have been used as an insert song in "Kaguya-sama", but unfortunately such wasn't the case.

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