I was kinda feeling that it was a while since I put up a Mood Kayo tune, and I realized that it has been about 6 weeks. Being a Monday night, I kinda figure that there are probably workers out there who want to get their first nighttime drink of the week, so perhaps it was off to the favourite watering hole after work. That would make for a Mood Kayo atmosphere.
While rummaging through YouTube for an appropriate song, I found this one titled "Ashide Matoi" (A Burden) by a group that I had never heard before, Yuji Mori and Southern Cross（森雄二とサザンクロス）. The group debuted in 1975 and performed for a decade before breaking up in 1985.
"Ashide Matoi", the tearful story of a man who decides to break up with his mistress because he feels that he is just dragging her down, has got all of the enjoyable Mood Kayo tropes: a bit of that Latin guitar, the chorus work, the sorrowful lead vocal, and those strings and alto sax which sound plenty clean and crisp, like a sip of good sake. On the odd occasion that I do drink sake, I usually like it dry. Listening to this, I can only envision the high-flying areas of Ginza and Akasaka.
The lyrics were provided by Junko Takabatake（高畠諄子）and the music was by Hiroyuki Nakagawa（中川博之）. "Ashide Matoi" was released in 1977.
In July 1983, the Mood Kayo group Toshi Ito & Happy and Blue（敏いとうとハッピー&ブルー）performed a cover of "Ashide Matoi" as their 23rd single. I couldn't find the original recorded version but the above performed version on TV doesn't sound too different from the Southern Cross take although there seems to be some more musical flourishes added.
Interestingly enough, former members from both Southern Cross and Happy and Blue along with one other Mood Kayo singer got together in 2002 to form Happy Southern Arrow（ハッピー・サザンアロー）. But earlier in 1995, Southern Cross had decided to re-form and entertain again until earlier this year in April when Mori passed away at the age of 75.
Hi Canuck,
ReplyDeleteYour assessment of the lyrics is pretty much correct, only the genders need to be switched. I don't know why this came to be but 99.9% of Mood Kayo songs are sung from the POV of a woman, hence the effeminate inflections heard in the deliveries by the singers. Actually, I've always wondered, DO these singers sound effeminate to non-native Japanese ears? The only exception to this rule as far as I know is 前川清(Kiyoshi Maekawa),the lead singer for 内山田洋とクール・ファイブ(Uchiyamada Hiroshi＆Cool Five). He sounds masculine even when he is singing songs written from the female POV.
Hi, Kaz.
DeleteYeah, I think you're probably right on the genders. Come to think of it, a lot of enka and Mood Kayo songs are sung from the woman's POV, no matter what the gender of the singer is.
To be honest, to this day, as a Canadian who can understand Japanese to a good extent, I can't really detect any effeminacy (I checked...the noun does exist) from a male singer when he sings an enka or Mood Kayo tune from the point of view of a woman. I can pick up if he's using feminine language (atashi, ...wa, etc.) but don't really get that feeling. How about yourself?
I'm a native Japanese speaker, so this is very obvious to my ears.
DeleteAs far as the mood kayo/kayo-kyoku male singers are concerned, I suppose the main thing that makes them sound feminine is the "cracking" or "flipping" of the voice. It's hard to explain but at a certain turn of a phrase, the voice flips (or jumps) and goes falsetto just for a moment. We call it 声が裏返る. It's often associated with the speech pattern of effeminate gay TV talents (e.g. おすぎとピーコ（Osugi & Piiko）from the Showa era or IKKO who's a staple on TV variety shows nowadays.
Ever heard of the term おねぇ？ That's exactly what this is. They sound Onee. https://www.quora.com/What-does-onee-mean-in-Japanese
This style of singing is a tradition in the world of Mood Kayo, I guess. These male singers do NOT sound effeminate outside of their singing at all. It's sort of like me singing a country & western song with a twang? I don't know. lol
Hi, Kaz.
DeleteThanks for letting me know about "koe ga uragaeru" as a Mood Kayo/enka technique. Up until now, I only knew about the vibrato that is used with enka. I will have to pay more attention to the delivery then.
Yes, I've heard about おねぇ via folks like Ikko (Don dake~?) and Kenichi Mikawa. I remember catching this Sunday afternoon (?) show on TV in which all of the tarento were such people.