I've seen my fair share of cop shows over the decades although I can't really say that I have a favourite among them. However, if I have to make a choice, I would have to go with the straight-arrow police procedural programs such as the original "The Untouchables" with the late Robert Stack and Jack Webb's "Dragnet" TV series. Just the facts, indeed.
"The Untouchables" and "Dragnet" had their own famous theme songs done as grim and justice-seeking marches, but I gather as American television entered the 1980s, there was the trend of having some slick rock singer or band come up with a kickass theme tune. I think that the same thing was probably happening on Japanese TV.
Never became a die-hard fan of "Abunai Deka"（あぶない刑事...Dangerous Detectives） with the slick-if-slightly-goofy detectives played by Hiroshi Tachi and Kyohei Shibata（舘ひろし・柴田恭兵）, but the show had their own tough-talking theme songs with wailing guitars. I'm not sure if pop/rock singer Kahoru Kohiruimaki（小比類巻かほる）ever contributed one to "Abunai Deka" in her early years but she did provide a Japanese version of "You're Gonna Lose Me", an insert song for the series as her 3rd single in December 1986. That Japanese version was given the title of "Nagaku Atsui Yoru"（長く熱い夜...The Long Hot Night）.
The B-side for that single is "Cops and Robbers" which probably wasn't included in any cops-and-robbers program but had that sensation of any action superstar like Sly, Arnie or Steven going into battle against a million bad guys...and winning, of course. It has the beat and growling guitars to bravely accompany any lone wolf police officer and his beloved handgun into a non-descript den of iniquity. It also ends rather abruptly with the music suddenly falling off a cliff leaving Kohhy to quickly spurt out the last few words of English as if the recording studio were being shut down for non-payment of rent. Go figure.
Written by Linda Hennrick, composed by Takashi Shoji（小路隆）and arranged by Hiroshi Shinkawa（新川博）, "Cops and Robbers" was an ideal tune for Kohiruimaki since I'd always seen her back then as the tousled-hair hellion in leather with the lower velvety voice. However, it was with her next single, the poppier "Hold On Me", that she got her breakthrough hit and then right after that, she came up with the City Pop-friendly theme song for the anime "City Hunter".
Hi J-Canuck, was going to email you about a particular song from Abunai Deka these past few days but looks like you beat me to it already :D
ReplyDeleteThe song I was meaning to send you is one that really gets the adrenaline pumping in my opinion. It's called "Speed of Night" and from what I've gathered is sung by a woman named Tamara Champlin, who as far as I can tell is a well-known session singer who seems to have had a bit of a presence in Japan as well back in the day. This particular song is probably more in the realm of AOR/city pop than "Cops and Robbers" was, with those kickass big 80s drums punctuating the beat and a wailing guitar solo underscored by a layer of plucky synthesizers.
Let me know what you think of it, it's great stuff ^^
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRKHHLECWHo
Hi, Matt.
DeleteJust listened to "Speed of Night" now, and yep, it's definitely more into City Pop than "Cops and Robbers". I'm kinda wondering if she was the one who sang "You're Gonna Lose Me" since I couldn't find out who the singer was online. Love the guitar, by the way.