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.
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, December 9, 2017
Hiromi Iwasaki -- Hashi（橋）
The end of the year is night which means that the end-of-year party season is also upon me. First up was the annual gathering involving friends at Kingyo downtown as usual. Food and service were great as usual but I didn't like the table too much since I think it stretched the folks a little too far apart. There will be a couple of more visits to the place this month but there's absolutely no complaint from me since the food is so good there.
Well, it's been a while since I put up a Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）article. So I'll be providing one from her short list of melodic contributions for the venerable "Kayo Suspense Gekijo"（火曜サスペンス劇場...The Tuesday Night Suspense Drama）series in the early 1980s. Her 35th single"Hashi" (The Bridge) can be put alongside "Madonna Tachi no Lullaby"（聖母たちのララバイ）and "Ieji"（家路）as those hauntingly beautiful and melancholy love ballads which typically ended an episode from the mystery anthology show. Not surprisingly, it was the same duo of Keisuke Yamakawa and Toshiyuki Kimori（山川啓介・木森敏之）who provided words and music for "Hashi", a musical metaphor for the end of a romance through a countryside scene. Yeah, it's a beautiful song but I probably wouldn't have it played to celebrate an anniversary.
I didn't know that there was an actual music video for the song and the imagery in there would probably make for a good opening sequence for an episode of "Kayo Suspense Gekijo" itself if sped up a bit.
To be honest, I'm fonder of the earlier Iwasaki/Yamakawa/Kimori collaborations than I am of "Hashi" but still hearing it again after a number of years was a nice experience. It peaked at No. 31 on Oricon after its release in August 1984.
And you can see how the song was used at the end of a "Kayo Suspense Gekijo" episode right here. Nothing better to contemplate life after a crime than a Hiromi Iwasaki ballad. :)
I feel guilty not commenting on a Hiromi song for so long, but I don't have much to add on the song itself except to gush over her beauty in the videos above. So I'll comment on some peripheral details instead.
In the Yoru performance of Hashi, Hiromi, wearing a pink dress, appears next to Yoshimi, in a blue dress. When Hiromi gets up to perform her song, there's a lady sitting next to Yoshimi. That's Yoko Mori, whom I gather taught both Hiromi and Yoshimi at primary school, and probably their older sister too. In a video sadly no longer available on the internet, Hiromi's eyes positively goggle out when Jun Inoue brings Mori on. In her episode of Songs, she returns to her primary school, where she finds a recording of a school concert, the first recording where she's credited.
I've found the Yoru performance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To7kEjKpwGE
BTW, I'd like some help. In this recording, what is the name mentioned around 40 seconds in? It sounds like Utsumi Minori/Midori. Is it the name of the presenter? I'm wondering if it's うつみ 宮土理. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NpDoDGU2z4
Hiromi recently appeared on a radio show with Yutaro Miura, Momoe's elder son. When taking requests, someone apparently amused Hiromi by suggesting Love is the Ocean, a duet Hiromi did with his father Tomakazu. In those kayo radio shows in the 80s, Hiromi should have performed Omoida Sanaide, a song that Utsumi had released as a single in 1977.
Y'know...I would be interested in even seeing the original by Hiromi and Tomokazu. But hey, if she and his son can perform it, that would be good, too. Maybe someday, Yutaro can make it onto the Kohaku.
I feel guilty not commenting on a Hiromi song for so long, but I don't have much to add on the song itself except to gush over her beauty in the videos above. So I'll comment on some peripheral details instead.
ReplyDeleteIn the Yoru performance of Hashi, Hiromi, wearing a pink dress, appears next to Yoshimi, in a blue dress. When Hiromi gets up to perform her song, there's a lady sitting next to Yoshimi. That's Yoko Mori, whom I gather taught both Hiromi and Yoshimi at primary school, and probably their older sister too. In a video sadly no longer available on the internet, Hiromi's eyes positively goggle out when Jun Inoue brings Mori on. In her episode of Songs, she returns to her primary school, where she finds a recording of a school concert, the first recording where she's credited.
I've found the Yoru performance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To7kEjKpwGE
BTW, I'd like some help. In this recording, what is the name mentioned around 40 seconds in? It sounds like Utsumi Minori/Midori. Is it the name of the presenter? I'm wondering if it's うつみ 宮土理.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NpDoDGU2z4
Hello there.
DeleteIndeed, the presenter is the vivacious Midori Utsumi. When you mentioned her name, I could recognize the voice.:)
Hiromi recently appeared on a radio show with Yutaro Miura, Momoe's elder son. When taking requests, someone apparently amused Hiromi by suggesting Love is the Ocean, a duet Hiromi did with his father Tomakazu. In those kayo radio shows in the 80s, Hiromi should have performed Omoida Sanaide, a song that Utsumi had released as a single in 1977.
ReplyDeleteGood morning.
DeleteY'know...I would be interested in even seeing the original by Hiromi and Tomokazu. But hey, if she and his son can perform it, that would be good, too. Maybe someday, Yutaro can make it onto the Kohaku.