The theme for "Uta Kon"(うたコン)back on Tuesday night was the world of the late songwriter Kuranosuke Hamaguchi(浜口庫之助). Of course, a lot of his works are famous songs in the kayo kyoku sphere of influence which include the tender and folksy "Bara ga Saita"(バラが咲いた)by Mike Maki(マイク眞木), the Group Sounds classic "Yuuhi ga Naiteiru"(夕陽が泣いている)by The Spiders and the Mood Kayo "Koukotsu no Blues"(恍惚のブルース)by husky-voiced Mina Aoe(青江三奈).
One insight that I got about Hamaguchi from the broadcast was that he often picked musical influences from all over the world. Looking at my own list in "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I realized that he could come up with songs for singers all throughout the kayo spectrum.
One of the songs that was featured in the tribute was "Boku wa Naichicchi" (I am C-C-Crying), a kayo that had been written and composed by Hamaguchi for singer Hiroshi Kamiya(守屋浩)in 1959. According to the J-Wiki article for the songwriter, "Boku wa Naichicchi" may have been the first creation of his to get recorded.
It's a light and slightly melancholy enka about a man who's lamenting the loss of his girlfriend to the bright lights and big city of Tokyo. I could imagine the big lug trying to keep a brave face on the platform as she waves goodbye from the train, only for him to start crumbling into a pool of brine. There were quite a number of these exodus enka back in the day to reflect the mass migration of young people to the metropolis to find work and a new life.
Not sure how well "Boku wa Naichicchi" did but it was popular enough that Moriya got his invitation to the 1960 Kohaku Utagassen to perform it.
I like your old post on "Ai-no Sazanami", which surely was one of the most important work in the history of J-pop.
ReplyDeletehttp://kayokyokuplus.blogspot.com/2017/05/chiyoko-shimakura-ai-no-sazanami.html
The song was recorded in LA with Bobby Summers and His Group. I don't know about Bobby Summers very much tho. When I reserached about him, I listend to a few of his 60s rocknroll records. The B-side on Shimakura's Ai-no Sazanami was "Tsuki-no Tameiki (Sigh of the Moon).
Tsutsumi Kyohei on his very rare TV apperance in 2005, was asked what influence had on him and "Ai-no Sazanami" was THE song that he mentioned. That really tells something.
On Uta-con, Yuki Saori did the song this week. Uta-con orchestra usually does pretty decent jobs especially this year after they renewed strings section in Tokyo NHK hall. But on this particular one, I wasn't very thrilled. Guitar must be played louder. Also very sad about Oka Midori quitting after only one chorus of Kokotsu no Blues :( By the way, Fukuda Kohei did Arigataya-Bushi on that night, another hit of Moriya Hiroshi songs.
Anyone who likes "Ai-no Sazanami", this is rather obscure stuff but you should try Maki Michiru's song called "Futari-no Heart (二人のハート)", recorded one year earlier than Ai-no Sazanami but it has GREAT guitar playing of another infamous Tsutsumi Hiroshi (津々見洋) who was playing the band called "Allstar Wagon" backband of Hirao Masaaki in Western Carnival days.
"Futari-no Heart" is on the 11th track on Victor official site
http://www.jvcmusic.co.jp/-/Discography/-/VICL-60957.html
- Hanibo
Hello, Hanibo.
Delete"Ai no Sazanami" definitely stood out considering the time and the type of music that was popular then. In fact, I could even say that the tune was a proto-example of New Music. So, definitely no surprise that Tsutsumi was inspired by the song considering the wide variety of tunes he has created for the various singers and bands over the decades.
The Oka performance on "Uta Kon" did strike me as somewhat unusual since the singer seemed close to tears as she ended it. I'm not sure if it were because she was so touched by the song or she didn't think she did a good enough job on it or she was told that she had to cut her performance due to time.
I've already got one Maki song up here called "Wakaitte Subarashii" (http://kayokyokuplus.blogspot.com/2015/09/michiru-maki-wakaitte-subarashii.html. If "Futari no Heart" is as genki as that one, then I'd be interested in writing about it. Thanks!
Yes, Wakaitte Subarashii is done by Maki Michiru and I read your earlier post too. I have seen Miyagawa Hiroshi live with his jazz band a few times and Mr. Miyagawa played that song at the end of the show. He even handed a copy of lyrics to all audiences and everyone (that were mostly not really "wakai (young)" were asked to join singing.
Delete"Futari no Heart" is not Miyagawa's but I just wanted wanted to say there is another "Tsutsumi", not just Kyohei but I really like Tsutsumi Hiroshi's work as I can tell he is one of musicians that were very much into early rocknroll sound.
Unfortunately, I never got to go to too many concerts during my time in Japan. Basically, I saw just Misato Watanabe, Canadian jazz singer/pianist Diana Krall, Ruiko Kurahashi and the Manhattan Transfer. The middle two artists were the ones whose performances I enjoyed the best.
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