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.
Next to the various dance music sub-genres, the next big hole in my musical knowledge regards the rock sub-genres. Recently, I've been able to get a grasp on what shoegaze/dream pop is all about but now there is this whole thing about Emo that I don't know. From what I've read on Wikipedia, I gather that it's all about how the singer expresses those emotions, and if he/she expresses them really loudly, the new genre is Screamo. So I guess that maybe Emo is the opposite of shoegaze?
Anyways, the Japanese expression for Emo is also given as Emotional Hardcore, and that has been the label used to describe the rock band Stereo Fabrication of Youth. Formed in Nagoya in 1999, according to J-Wiki, the genesis took place at some sort of folk song association event at Nagoya University. with the band making its major debut in 2003. As of that year, the lineup consisted of vocalist/guitarist Ryo Eguchi（江口亮）, bassist Takahito Uchida（内田崇仁）, guitarist/vocalist Tsutomu Wada（和田勉）who also created the songs, and drummer Yoshihiro Kato（加藤由浩）.
SteFab has released a compact variety of singles, albums and mini-albums. Their first mini-album, "KNOW FUTURE FOR YOU", came out in August 2002, so just before that major debut in April 2003 with the single "1979". Consisting of four songs, Track 2 is "two creatures", and yep, when I saw that music video above for the first time, I thought that the guy who had come up with the concept was the same fellow who came up with the poster for "Ant-Man" (although the camera does eventually move on up).
I also gather that Emo is the right label for "two creatures" since there is some measure of anguish and frustration in Wada's lyrics. They come across as a fellow fairly writhing about what the heck this love thing is and the target of his affections (or is he the target?) isn't exactly helping out. Indeed, the music is on a level of a sonic assault at times. although at 2:30, there is a brief interlude of bossa nova! But it isn't just the bossa nova but the whole song that actually sounds pretty good to me, and as you know, I'm not all that huge on rock.
Over the next few years after that, the members started leaving the band and right now, it's just Eguchi representing SteFab as of 2007. Eguchi is now under an indies label and he has been providing songs for other singers and bands such as Ikimonogakari（いきものがかり）, Maaya Sakamoto（坂本真綾）and LiSA. In fact, for LiSA, he arranged her big hit "Gurenge"（紅蓮華）.
Hi, I am HRLE92, a new author of this blog. I run a Youtube channel called "Island Fantasia" to upload music. If you like city pop, AOR, or jazz, you might find something interesting there.
Album cover of Darts' 2nd album "God Bless You!". Scanned by me.
Darts is a group that consists of Keizo Nakamura (中村圭三), Yasushi Matsunaga (松永靖), and Jiro Tomoe (友江治朗). The band worked closely with Tetsuji Hayashi (林哲司) on the two albums they released: "Darts" in 1988 and "God Bless You!" in 1989.
The sound of the band is close to that of the Yellow Magic Orchestra, but Darts' music is more city pop-like and has fewer electronic elements. From what I heard from their first and second albums, I would say that their first self-titled album, “Darts”, has more city pop content overall. However, I like the first track, "Fall City" from their second album the most.
The three members of the band. Scanned by me.
From start to finish, the musicians used sound effects and synthesizers to create a kind of "spatial" feeling, which gives me an impression of being in the middle of a big city. To me, it sounds both futuristic and nostalgic at the same time.
The melody is where the city pop elements appear. It sounds rather sentimental and gives a lonely kind of feeling. When the instrumental part sets a place, the melody gives me the theme of the story. To me, the album cover is a perfect visual representation of this song: being lonely and standing somewhere in a future city.
If you subscribed to my channel, you would probably know that I uploaded an album named "Movin' Groovin'" by an artist named KAZZ some time ago. When I reviewed that album, I found the first track of that album "夏の扉" to be somehow similar to this song. After checking the song credits, I found that both of them have Keizo Nakamura involved. Nakamura arranged "夏の扉" with Tetsuji Hayashi and was in charge of composing "Fall City". So if you like this song, I highly recommend checking out "夏の扉" by KAZZ in the video below.
In 2013, the members of Darts got back together and revived the band. It looks like they only held a couple of live events, but did not release any new musical materials. The last Facebook post on the band's official account was in 2018, so I doubt they are still performing as a group.
If you like this band and want to hear more of their songs, the member Yasushi Matsunaga has a Youtube account and has uploaded the majority of Darts' musical works there. From his uploads, except for "Fall City", I recommend the song "Million Kiss" from Darts' first album, which is a city pop song with a strong Tetsuji Hayashi influence in its arrangement.
I'm not sure what the status of surfing is anywhere around the globe right now, but I'm hoping that enthusiasts will be able to hang ten again sometime in the near future. Never thought once about taking up that pastime because physics will be brutal toward me.
Ahem...anyways, I've got a nice slice of Margaritaville here with singer-songwriter Yuko Sugita's（杉田優子）"Surfing Musume"(Surfing Girl). This was a track from Sugita's 2nd album"American Comics" and indeed it was written and composed by the singer. With arrangements by Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）, I'd probably say that this winning song is more on the gentle AOR side when compared with its track mate "Maryoku"（魔力）that I wrote about last year.
Now that we are on the cusp of June and therefore the summer months, "Surfing Musume" is appropriately summery and breezy. The addition of what sounds like a mandolin might also bring the song into that category of exotic kayo, a Japanese pop subgenre that was fairly popular in the late 1970s and probably had folks wanting to grab their ANA or JAL tickets as soon as possible. Again, I hope that surfing is having its fun somewhere. Maybe I'll check with JTM on how things are since he's out in Hawaii.
Happy Monday, and perhaps it really is a happy Monday because for the first time in 3 months, my province of Ontario has registered daily infection rates lower than 1000. Yep, we are now at about 916 and hopefully this will be the beginning of a permanent downturn.
About a year ago, I mentioned about jazz singer/actress Kei Marimura（真梨邑ケイ）, someone that I first heard about through the "Good Times Diva" series of CDs highlighting Japanese female pop singers in the last half of the 20th century. Later on, she took a major tangent in her career by becoming a hardcore porn actress.
Over the years, I've heard of female celebrities going both ways when it comes to the worlds of porn and mainstream singing/acting. For this article's benefit, the figure here is Terumi Azuma（東てる美）. She was born as Motomi Kageyama（影山素美）from Tokyo, and she had first begun her career in the early 1970s in softcore S&M before making a gradual transition into more of an aidoru role later in the decade, according to "Weekly Asahi Geinō" via the J-Wikiarticle on Azuma. Then she got roles in television dramas and other movies from the 1980s onwards.
Azuma also had her stint in the recording booth with two singles and two albums beginning in 1976. Her August 1978 second album, "Kanshoku"（感触...Sensation）, features a cover of her apparently on fire; I hope that she had enough insurance coverage. One track from the album is "Shiroi Kassouro"(White Runway) which was written by Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）and composed by Akito Yomo（四方章人）. A fairly bouncy number about heading off from Tokyo to Hokkaido, I couldn't find the lyrics online but I gather from the title that it goes over the well-worn kayo trope of a relationship's end punctuated by one of the imminently ending couple taking off from Haneda Airport.
The song strikes me as having some old-fashioned kayo elements almost on an enka level but that intro with the strings in crescendo must have been inspired by The Love Unlimited Orchestra's"Love's Theme". I've already given that song the ROY treatment.
A special Reminiscings of Youth article on a Sunday night since this morning I heard of the news of the passing of singer B.J. Thomas at the age of 78 on May 29th. What was especially surprising was that I first heard the news on an NHK 10-minute news flash. Of course, Thomas' most famous hit "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" was featured. Just listening to the song again, I marvel at how it starts sounding like a buddy around a campfire playing a little ditty on his guitar before it gradually takes on that familiar epic Bacharach/David sheen, especially with the horns.
Over here, "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" was the Burt Bacharach and Hal David song of reassurance that was played all the time on AM radio, the Best Original Song Oscar winner for its use in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and a smash hit in many countries including Canada following its release in October 1969. However, from this morning's report of Thomas' death, I was curious to know how popular it was in Japan.
Well, it was given its own release in Japan under the title of "Ame ni Nuretemo"（雨にぬれても）. Before I forget, I also mentioned in "Who Influenced Toshiki Kadomatsu? (Pre-Debut)" that this was one of the songs that influenced little Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）when he was in kindergarten.
(Sorry but the video has been taken down.)
It has been covered by a number of singers such as Akira Fuse（布施明）for his 1971 album"When Akira Fuse Meets Burt Bacharach".
Plus, it was also used as a commercial song for Keio Railways.
As I also mentioned in that Kadomatsu article, it would be many years before I realized that "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" had that direct connection with "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". My early childhood was spent watching a lot of those ol' Westerns through movies and television shows such as "Gunsmoke", so my impression of the soundtracks for this genre was all Elmer Bernstein and his proud orchestra. Never did I think that a mellow Bacharach song would have anything to do with a Western but then again, I think "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" was a most unusual Western.
So, what were a couple of releases in October 1969?
To finish, "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" has been warmly welcomed in other later movies and TV shows, and the one movie that usually comes to my mind is "Spiderman 2".
Well, it took almost ten years, but comedian/actor Sanma Akashiya（明石家さんま）has finally come on board "Kayo Kyoku Plus". I've known this fellow for decades and he's grown his reputation to the point that he's now known as one of the Owarai Big 3（お笑いBIG3...The Big 3 Comedians）, joining Tamori（タモリ）and Beat Takeshi（ビートたけし）. He's loud, brash, short-tempered and guffaws a lot. When I was living in Japan, he was popping up most everywhere but nowadays being home in Toronto, I basically only see him now through his regular weekly show "HONMADEKKA!?TV"（ホンマでっか!?TV） via TV Japan.
Watching that show, I've noticed that Sanma gets good-naturedly lobbed some beanballs from his fellow tarento regarding his predilection for the ladies, something that even he's poked himself for from time to time. I'm not sure if his supposed playboy peccadilloes are true or not but he was married at one point to actress Shinobu Otake（大竹しのぶ）in the late 1980s, and whenever either ex-spouse has had the other mentioned to him or her, there's usually been a moment of discomfort and maybe even some eye-rolling.
I actually encountered this song purely by happenstance some months ago through a YouTube video featuring one of the Hello Project aidoru doing a cover of it on a Sanma-hosted Xmas special which brought some rare embarrassment to the host. The main reason for the embarrassment is that it was one of Akashiya's singles from the 1980s, "Makka na Uso" (Barefaced Lies). In fact, I was quite surprised to find out that he actually released quite a few singles, nine to be exact, between 1979 and 1989.
"Makka na Uso" was his 5th single released in February 1987, and it kinda reflects that Lothario side to him. Words and music were provided by Toshihiko Takamizawa（高見沢俊彦）from rock band ALFEE and the song portrays a cynical fellow who surmises that it's the lies that keep all romance, whether it be pure or illicit, moving around. That fast-paced rock beat (maybe even some ska in there?) by Takamizawa reminds me of a couple of songs actually: Masahiko Kondo's（近藤真彦）"Gingiragin ni Sarigenaku"（ギンギラギンにさりげなく）and Checkers'"Gizagiza Heart no Komori Uta"（ギザギザハートの子守唄）. Incidentally, aidoru Mamiko Takai（高井麻巳子）provides the backup chorus according to J-Wiki. The single did fairly well by peaking at No. 17.
Takamizawa himself performed a cover of "Makka na Uso" during an ALFEE concert. Of course, I have to leave this with a live performance of Sanma himself.
Hi, I am HRLE92, a new author of this blog. I run a Youtube channel called "Island Fantasia" to upload music. If you like city pop, AOR, or jazz, you might find something interesting there.
"Movin' Groovin'” is the first album released by Japanese singer-songwriter Kazuyuki Kawakami (川上和之) in the name of KAZZ in 1992. It was produced by Koichi Fujita, who was in charge of producing the majority of Omega Tribe and Momoko Kikuchi albums. Tetsuji Hayashi (林哲司), Kaori Nishina (仁科かおり), Koichi Fujita (藤田浩一), KAZZ, and a mysterious songwriter named Happo were in charge of composing the music. Keizo Nakamura (中村圭三), Ken Shiguma (志熊研三), and Hiroshi Shinkawa (新川博) are in charge of the arrangement. (For detailed credits, please see the Discogs page.)
After taking a look at the album credits, the musicians on the album immediately remind me of Kiyotaka Sugiyama & Omega Tribe (KSOT). Out of the 8 names mentioned previously, 4 were involved in the creation of at least one of KSOT's albums. This is why I asked the listeners “Have you imagined what kind of music S. Kiyotaka & Omega Tribe would release if they were never disbanded?” in the descriptions of the two songs I uploaded to Youtube.
The themes of the album are similar to that of the KSOT's albums, which is basically seaside and love affair. The sound of the whole album gives me an image of a windy beach in the afternoon. I think the arrangers really tried to fuse the western trend at the time into their works when sticking to the general concept of a “seaside city pop” album. For example, the drum patterns in the song “Speed of Life” were clearly influenced by the New Jack Swing trend at the time.
Out of the 9 tracks on the album, I especially recommend the 3rd, 4th, 6th, and 7th tracks. By my standards, they are the best ones on this album. However, other tracks are definitely not bad. I think if you enjoy Omega Tribe's music, you would also enjoy this album.
Overall, I think the composers, producer, and arrangers did a great job in creating “Movin' Groovin'”. Its intended theme was delivered well, the songs sound very nice to me, everything is right with this album. But when it was released, the market did not agree.
From 2015 to 2021, the physical CD of this album only showed up on Yahoo Auctions 4 times. It is obvious that the public did not like this album too well, and it ended up being one of the rarer city pop CDs. My theory for the commercial failure is that the style of the album is too old compared to other, more popular 90s city pop albums. If you listen to other city pop albums from the 90s, you would find “Movin' Groovin'” to be very different from them. It was released in the 90s, yet half of it sounds like it was from the 80s, and the market was not willing to buy something that sounds old. Besides that, some of the melodies are also too hard for the general public to appreciate. Some songs do not feel very “comfortable” to listen to for a person who does not get the point of the album.
When “Movin' Groovin'” did not capture people's hearts upon its first release, under the current resurgence of city pop music, it is probably going to get more exposure and appreciation. That is what I hoped when I uploaded the video.
Two pages from the album booklet. Scanned by me.
Associated links:
- Discogs link to album: https://www.discogs.com/KAZZ-Movin-Groovin/release/16564773
Hopefully, everyone is enjoying their weekend. It's pretty darn nice here in Toronto today after going through a repeat of winter on Friday. Still can't believe that snow fell just north of here but the important thing is that the weather is nice and seasonal today and just in time for June.
Anyways, let's start off Sunday with some late 1980s City Pop (oh, by the way, I did enjoy that City Pop Festival organized by DJ Fact 50 on Twitch yesterday) via Yukiko Haneda's（羽根田征子）"Still in the City (Rain is Falling)". The title sounds like something from a book written by a Japanese Mickey Spillane enthusiast which is why I selected the above photo for the thumbnail (it's in deep Shibuya).
Written and composed by Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）, and I think that's her on background vocals yelling "Don't give up!", the intro sounds like as if it were going to go a whole lot more major-chord upbeat than it actually is. However, "Still in the City" then goes into a more suspenseful vein with that bopping percussion, hard rhythmic synthesizers, what sounds like an organ that received its Red Bull wings, and fairly rich and resonant vocals by Haneda. The song was included as a track on the singer's debut album "Beating Mess" from March 1988 which was produced by Yoshida, too.
I actually saw the video before hearing the song and when I witnessed these fellows dancing and prancing about on a pastel-coloured football gridiron, I had initially assumed that this was a K-Pop group doing their latest. Such was not the case, of course.
Actually, it's Johnny's group Hey! Say! JUMP with their latest, "Negative Fighter", which was released only a few weeks ago on May 12th. Written and composed by a Japanese Tik Tok user and influencer named Mai Ujita（うじたまい）, "Negative Fighter" is all about kicking the blues away and, gosh darn, getting up and at 'em. It's actually quite nice and catchy and disco-esque, and I wouldn't be surprised if Hey! Say! JUMP ended up doing another round with this song at this year's Kohaku Utagassen on NHK.
The group's 29th single once again hit No. 1 on Oricon, and it's quite incredible to see that every single by Hey! Say! JUMP has reached the top spot ever since their debut back in 2007. So far, it's already sold over 200,000 copies. And hey, the song has even reached the ears, eyes and limbs of song-and-dance group Atarashii Gakko no Leaders（新しい学校のリーダーズ）!
Today would have been Hibari Misora's（美空ひばり）84th birthday today. This past week's "Uta Con"（うたコン）episode reminded me of today's special day in kayo kyoku history through a brief tribute involving a couple of songs.
In June 1958, Misora's 138th single, "Rockabilly Kenpou" was released but it was the B-side that was performed on last week's "Uta Con", "Hanagasa Douchuu" (Hanagasa Travels). From what I've read, a hanagasa is a conical straw hat that seems to be most famous now for its use in the midsummer Yamagata Hanagasa Festival. I don't know whether it had a specific purpose in ancient times so I can assume that it was basically just headwear to keep the sun off.
The words and music for "Hanagasa Douchuu" were provided by Masao Yoneyama（米山正夫）, and it's a jaunty enka tune delivered with the singer's usual brio to reflect the mix of happiness and loneliness of journeying the byways of Edo Era Japan. Perhaps from the video above, the traveler was probably some sort of ronin as portrayed by Misora herself.
The A-side, "Rockabilly Kenpou" (Rockabilly Swordsmanship), is indeed an interesting combination of Misora's pugnacious vocals for an enka tune and some happy-go-lucky rockabilly music. Once again, Yoneyama created words and music for this A-side as the singer gets into cocky form describing her finely-honed capabilities with the sword. As she mentions in the song, women can more than hold their own in a fight. Perhaps this is more Bill Haley and the Katanas rather than the Comets.
Seeing that the previous article for Agnes Chan's 1985"Tasogare Monogatari"（黄昏物語）was concocted by composer Akira Okamoto（岡本朗）, I figure that it's time to bring back one of his old ditties.
(22:15)
Back then, he went by the stage name of Issei Okamoto（岡本一生）and his first representation on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" was through his debut single"Moonlight Singing"（ムーンライト・シンギィング）which was also the title track for his debut album coming out in June 1978. I found another fascinating track on "Moonlight Singing" which is called "Machi no Seikatsu" (City Life).
I call it fascinating since this song to which he provided words and music expresses itself as a hybrid of sorts. The first few seconds show off that City Pop including that representative Fender Rhodes sparkly riff and some sophistication with the strings before "Machi no Seikatsu" then reveals itself with this odd toy-store marching drumbeat and muted horns which sound as if they came off of a Henry Mancini soundtrack. The inclusion of a honey-toned saxophone and a Latin guitar contribute not to a cacophony but a hearty variety of what Okamoto feels is the usual melding of lifestyles in the city. It's what I would find through a day-long walk through Tokyo as partially shown through the thumbnail photo of the Omotesando-Aoyama intersection at the top. Yep, plenty of different things to see and do in the big megalopolis.
When it comes to the Agnes Chan（アグネス・チャン）file on KKP, I've only written about her 1970s aidoru songs so it was a revelation coming across this particular song.
The album is "Ai ga Mitsukarisou ~ CITY ROMANCE"（愛が見つかりそう CITY ROMANCE...On the Verge of Love） which is a 1985 release by Chan, and it's safe to say that this is no longer the aidoru Agnes behind the mike here. Just from viewing the cover, the Hong Kong-born singer was going for a more mature approach. I had always envisioned her in a frilly white dress but she went for very stylish black, and the lettering for the title gave off a big sign of urban contemporary.
"CITY ROMANCE" has as its first track "Tasogare Monogatari"(Sunset Story), a love ballad that brings together an arrangement reminiscent of some of that West Coast pop feeling. I've heard similar things with 80s aidorusuch as Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）and Naoko Kawai（河合奈保子）when they were pushing the envelope, so to speak, at around the same time. Written by Machiko Ryu（竜真知子） and composed by Akira Okamoto（岡本朗）, who had once gone by the moniker Issei Okamoto（岡本一生）, I actually wrestled in my first few listenings to "Tasogare Monogatari" whether this actually fell into the City Pop realm instead of it being purely pop. There may be some disagreement with my final decision, but I think what finally got me to go for both genres (plus AOR) in Labels is the last half when the romantic saxophone joined those keyboards; there was simply something about the ballad that struck me as being rather "City Hunter" via a drive in a taxi in Shinjuku.
When I went a bit deeper into "CITY ROMANCE" and listened to some of the subsequent tracks, I could still hear that voice of Chan that I heard back from her early days as an aidoru. However with "Tasogare Monogatari", if I hadn't seen that cover and not been told who it was, I wouldn't have recognized the singer as Agnes Chan. For the lack of a better word, her vocals seemed to have taken on some more gravitas.
Indeed, as one commenter noted for the above video of "Ryori no Tetsujin"（料理の鉄人...The Iron Chefs）, without the gloriously hammy Takeshi Kaga（鹿賀丈史）as the Chairman in the Kitchen Stadium, the show wouldn't have lasted as long as it did. His catchphrase of "If memory serves me correctly...", his handling of food as if they were all called Yorick, and the flair and flamboyance that he showed every week compensated for the seriousness and rush among the chefs trying to get a masterful dinner ready within one hour.
(Sigh...😔) Yes, I know. I start off every Takeshi Kaga article on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" with a reference to his 1990s stint on "Ryori no Tetsujin" but I just can't help it. For better or worse, his status in pop culture on both sides of the Pacific Ocean has been sealed permanently as the Chairman...kinda like William Shatner and Captain James T. Kirk.
In any case, his musical status on YouTube seems to be sealed with that 1981 City Pop album "After Dark". I've already mentioned a couple of tracks from this Akira Inoue（井上鑑）-arranged release including "Act 1", and another one from it is "Morning Moon", which isn't to be mistaken for the Chage & Aska hit that wouldn't come out until the middle of the 1980s. Kaga's "Morning Moon" isn't even given the katakana treatment; it's just the romaji as the title.
As Inoue did for Akira Terao's（寺尾聰）"Reflections", he has also provided some buttery City Pop/AOR layers for the tracks on this album including "Morning Moon" which also possesses some of that tropical punch rhythm. Despite the title, the song seems to reflect various periods through the day and night especially in the middle when it seems as if Chairman Kaga is embracing his inner Tatsuhiko Yamamoto（山本達彦）crooning some sophisticated dinner music. Lyricist Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）even throws out some Campari soda which was part of the title for one of Terao's tracks on "Reflections". Kiyoshi Hattori（服部清）is behind the music here.
Oh, those wonderfully sunny warm days of summer with folks basking out in the park and the air conditioners were on full blast. It just seems like a few days ago...
WAIT A MINUTE! 😖 It was just a few days ago. 31 degrees Celsius with a Humidex in the low 30s and I was sweltering in my room writing articles for the blog.🌞 Today? It's 3 degrees Celsius with a wind chill factor and I was just told that there were sprinkles of snow falling down from the sky!⛄ Just another day in May in Southern Ontario! Yes, I do remember that I did make some mention of the weather in the first article for yesterday's blog entries but little did I figure that it would come to this.
For all of those sun worshippers in my province out there, this must all sound like a bad dream.
And we make this obvious segue into "Bad Dream", a track from Shigeru Suzuki's（鈴木茂）September 1979 album"Cosmos' 51". Suzuki was responsible for the music here while his old Happy End bandmate, Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）, took care of the lyrics, and if indeed this is the first track that I've covered from this particular Suzuki album, then it's an intriguing one to start with. For one thing, Suzuki's melody has got me thinking of a couple of Billy Joel's songs from around the same time period: "The Stranger" and "Movin' Out".
Tower Records has described "Cosmos' 51" as an album containing some refined songwriting accompanied by the sophisticated light n' mellow vocals of Suzuki. Although he has been seen as one of the City Pop pioneers, there isn't any direct reference to the album being a purely City Pop release but I think something like "Bad Dream" can kinda straddle the line between that umbrella genre and straight-on pop.
As for right now, I'll just whip up some hot chocolate.☕
"So sensual and evocative that it was probably one of the most replayed records of the era and may be responsible for the most pregnancies from a record during the mid-'70s."
The above quote was by AllMusic reviewer Matthew Greenwald via the Wikipedia article for "Midnight at the Oasis", a song that had first seen the light of day through singer Maria Muldaur's self-titled debut album from August 1973. As a kid of course, I used to hear it all the time on AM radio at home and in the car, and I just thought it was a really nice song to listen to instead of it being considered to be the aural equivalent of oysters, ginseng and other vaunted aphrodisiacs. Of course, as a wee kid, I shouldn't have been privy to that sort of information back then in any case. Then again, I didn't know the truth behind guitarist David Nicthern's words until just a few years ago since I've never been a huge lyrics person.
So here I had thought that "Midnight at the Oasis" was referring to a lovely romp at a nightclub called The Oasis instead of a lovely romp on the oasis. Well, we all learn something every day, don't we? It was released as a single the following year in February, and it did very well on the US Billboard chart by placing in at No. 6 but it did even better in Canada where it hit No. 1 on RPM. On the yearly charts, there was a switch in results in that it placed in at No. 13 on Billboard while finishing at No. 45 on RPM.
All in all, though, I think "Midnight at the Oasis" is just the tonic while heading home late at night or very early in the morning in the car. Good times on the radio!
In terms of what was being released in Japan at the time that people first heard "Midnight at the Oasis" on Muldaur's album back in August 1973, I found these three songs that may actually have been re-releases rather than original releases, according to Showa Pops.
There is a Marvel character specifically within the "X-Men" community named Domino, a good buddy of Cable who just happens to be the son of Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor and yadda yadda yadda. If I went on any longer, I would get rather soap opera-ish about the whole thing which is something that sometimes annoys me about the intertwining nature of the comic superheroes. But in any case, Domino's mutant power is her ability to warp probabilities. In other words, she can generate oodles of good luck for her and her allies.
Now, Zazie Beetz did portray Domino in "Deadpool 2". But I figure that if Domino were to make a second appearance on the big screen, I wouldn't mind having this song by Mai Yamane（山根麻衣）as her theme tune. Yeah, I realize that it's a little too obvious having a song titled "Lady Luck" for her, but heck, Yamane has done some great things for anime such as "Cowboy Be-Bop" so why not have this adorning any iteration of the character?
Besides, I've always seen Domino (when I used to collect the various X comics even in expensive Tokyo) as the kickass rock-n'-roll type and that's how I see "Lady Luck" which is a track on Yamane's August 1988 album"Woman Tone". Neither the song nor the character suffers fools gladly and they seem to love a great time in the city. Yamane and Eiko Yamane（山根えい子）provided the lyrics while Masayuki Iwata（岩田雅之）of PAZZ fame came up with the rollicking melody. Of course, Mai gives her velvety and growly best behind the mike.
Weather in my region of Southern Ontario should be seen as a treasure trove or a Valhalla for meteorologists around the world. As I've often said to my students asking about what weather is like in my area of Toronto and beyond, it's predictably unpredictable. It was broiling hot a couple of days ago with a Humidex into the low 30s Celsius and yet tomorrow afternoon, we will be lucky if we even reach 7 degrees! My brow wouldn't even twitch at any reported prediction of snow. It would be quite the magical carpet ride for weather forecasters here.
Well, speaking about magical carpet rides, I found this one album, "Anzen Band no Fushigi na Tabi"(Anzen Band's Strange Trip) by Anzen Band（あんぜんバンド...Safety Band）, and no, I'm not referring to the 1980s hit band Anzen Chitai（安全地帯）. For one thing, the considerably more obscure Anzen Band had its time merely within the 1970s (1971-1976) and their sound has been described as something in the progressive rock vein.
I couldn't find very much on this group at all except through a blurb at Recochoku. In 1971, guitarist Tamio Aizawa（相沢民夫）, bassist/vocalist Hiroyuki Nakazawa（長沢博行）, and drummer Junichiro Ito（伊藤純一郎）formed Anzen Band, later to be joined by guitarist Tomokuni Aizawa（相沢友邦）. Not sure if the Aizawas were related. Their debut album,"Album A"（アルバムA）, was released in 1975 and gained some popularity for its emulation of its American rock sound akin to that of the Doobie Brothers at that time.
"Anzen Band no Fushigi na Tabi" was their 2nd and final album (love that cover, by the way) released in 1976 after which Anzen Band broke up despite good critical reviews. I haven't really written about albums that I don't already own for a while now, but listening to some of this LP, I've gotten intrigued enough to at least give it a go for the first three tracks.
The brief Recochoku description for the album states that "Fushigi na Tabi" highlights some more of the band members' personal tastes in the music. For instance, the first track (right at the top), "Hatenonai Tabi"（果てのない旅...The Endless Trip）, is an instrumental appetizer that is dreamy, jazzy and breezy...perhaps something to be heard at an outdoor concert in a park on a Sunday afternoon. Meanwhile, the second track, "Jikan no Uzu"（時間の渦...Time Vortex） below , has more of that prog rock flavour with some blues and the usual frills of the genre (including some spooky vocal bits...maybe they were watching "The Exorcist" back then) thrown in. It's a fascinating track that goes on for nearly 6 minutes (so perhaps it's a more conservative progressive rock piece?), and it makes me wonder if I should explore more of that 70s prog rock with bands such as Genesis and Supertramp.
Track 3 is "Yuuhi no Naka e"（夕陽の中へ...Into the Setting Sun）. With some glorious riffing by the electric organ and some triumphant electric guitar, it aurally takes listeners like me into suborbital space with the sun glowing in the darkness. There's even some jazzy smoothness thanks to a saxophone solo so maybe following that launch, everyone got invited to some club to mellow out.
Anyways, give "Anzen Band no Fushigi na Tabi" a try. I will delve a little deeper myself.
Yeah, har-de-har-har! I'm going to be profiling a band called VIZION so of course I'm going to add a video featuring The Vision from Marvel. Well, I figure that it's a bit more exciting than putting up the usual 1983 thumbnail photo.
Still, this is a fascinating band not just because of "Dancing Generation", one of the tracks from the band's one-and-only album"Psychotic Cube" which was released in that year of 1983. The intriguing part is that VIZION consisted of at least a few members whose solo work has already been shown on the blog from long ago. For one thing, there is the vocalist, singer-songwriter Kenjiro Sakiya（崎谷健次郎）, bassist Nobuo Ariga (有賀啓雄) who KKP writer nikala first introduced all the way back in 2014 through his "Rain Dolphin", and keyboardist Akihiko Matsumoto（松本晃彦）who would come up with the snazzy soundtracks for the cop show franchise "Odoru Dai Sosasen" (踊る大捜査線）from the late 1990s onwards. The other members were drummer Hisanori Ikuno（生乃久法）, guitarist Jin Ishiyama（石山仁）, and keyboardist Tetsuo Otake（大竹徹夫）.
VIZION, which lasted only between 1981 and 1983, styled itself as a pop unit with some R&B funkiness. And I think with the catchy if mysterious "Dancing Generation", there is plenty of that in there although that intro had me thinking initially of synthpop. Sakiya, who composed the song alongside Rinko Yuuki's（有己林子）lyrics, plays a bit with those vocal effects, too, and come to think of it, the vocalist also reminds me a little of Noriyuki Makihara（槇原敬之）who was still a few years away from his own debut.
Last month, I introduced Yoshiko Miyazaki（宮崎美子）onto the pages of KKP through a track that was on one of her three albums"Mellow" (1981). Up to then, I'd known Miyazaki as the cheerful veteran actress/tarento who first got her fame from her bikini-clad figure in a Minolta commercial.
Well, that track that I first talked about, "Ima wa Heiki yo"（今は平気よ）, is quite the technopop treat provided by Akiko Yano and Ryuichi Sakamoto（矢野顕子・坂本龍一）, and I mentioned there that although Miyazaki's vocals weren't supremely strong, the bubbly synthesizers rather compensated for that. However, Track 3 on "Mellow", "Orgel no Koiuta" (Music Box Love Song), is a straight-ahead mellow pop song written and composed by singer-songwriter Machiko Watanabe（渡辺真知子）who has had her own hits of the past.
"Orgel no Koiuta" is a pleasant song to be sure with arrangement by Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）and it's got a pretty interesting bend in the melody when it goes into the instrumental bridge. In fact, I would say that this was something ideal for someone like Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）who has tackled the more romantic and baroque pop (aka Fashion Music) of the time. Again though, Miyazaki's vocals aren't the strongest and the wobbliness especially shows up in the higher notes, but at the same time, there is something about that which reminds me a little of Hiroko Yakushimaru（薬師丸ひろ子）who was just starting her own career in music at the same time.
This is the first time that I've featured the short-lived rock band Aido（愛奴）on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", but I have mentioned this group before. It was actually back for a March 2015 article featuring singer-songwriter Shogo Hamada's（浜田省吾）"Ai no Kakehiki"（愛のかけひき）since it was one of his very early singles as a solo performer after being the drummer and co-vocalist for Aido.
According to J-Wiki, Aido had its initial origins with percussionist/keyboardist Takao Yamazaki（山崎貴生）, guitarist/vocalist Kanji Choushi（町支寛二）and bassist Nobuhiko Takahashi（高橋信彦）starting up an earlier group as high school buddies in 1968 within the loose amateur grouping known as the Hiroshima Folk Village. However with the rigors of university, this group had to break up, but later on in 1972 when the guys were all attending higher education in Tokyo, they got together again along with a couple of additions in the form of future star Hamada and guitarist/vocalist Tohru Aoyama（青山徹）.
On handing over a demo tape to what was known as CBS/Sony Records, Aido was invited over to do an audition and apparently folk star Takuro Yoshida（吉田拓郎）took a listen, was suitably impressed and then offered the guys to join him on a national tour as the backup band. Incidentally, it was Hamada himself who came up with the name Aido to identify the group which had apparently been the stage name for French literature scholar Isamu Kurita（栗田勇）but it was more about how the kanji sounded and the image (the literal meaning is "love guys") that sealed the deal.
In any case, I found this track from their 2nd and final album (Aido broke up in 1976), "Love In City", released in September 1976. "Natsu no Futari" (The Summer Couple), which was written and composed by Aoyama, is not to be confused by their debut single which was titled "Futari no Natsu"（二人の夏...Two of Us in Summer） and was created by Hamada. In fact, by the time that "Love in City" was released, Hamada had already left the band. To be honest, I was initially confused by the two titles but I'm all cool now and will cover the debut single in a future article.
For the most part, "Natsu no Futari" indeed has that calming effect although Aoyama's lyrics seem to be describing a bit of late-summer bittersweet feeling since it looks like the couple here is having one last dance on the beach before breaking up forever as the season flows into cooler autumn. The other observation is how most of the song is mellow weather interspersed with some sudden vocal squalls. Maybe we're still a few weeks away from the official beginning of summer but considering how hot it's been over the last few days in Toronto, I think "Natsu no Futari" is OK at this time.
Just one more piece of trivia before I wrap up here as I mention that Hamada also invited drummer Atsuo Okamoto（岡本郭男）to join Aido. Okamoto is not to be mistaken for the singer Atsuo Okamoto（岡本敦郎）who sang the kayo classic "Kogen Ressha wa Iku"（高原列車は行く）, and as you can see the kanji for the two people's first names are different. Plus, drummer Okamoto would also join a few more bands, including Spectrum and AB'S.
Usually when it comes to singer-songwriter Ken Takahashi（高橋研）on this blog, I've usually included him as the songwriter behind the scenes but up to this point, I'd only had one article about one of his songs, "Natsukashi no Yon-go Sen"（懐かしの4号線）, in which the Iwate Prefecture-born Takahashi was behind the mike. Well, here is his second KKP article with him actually singing as well as creating the song.
In "Natsukashi no Yon-go Sen", I likened Takahashi to singers such as Motoharu Sano（佐野元春）and Shogo Hamada（浜田省吾）in his good ol' rock-n'-roll approach. Well, I did find a blog posting by someone named Takashi Ikegami in which the singer is compared to Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band. And perhaps there is a particular connection with Dylan here when it comes to this track "Bucket Ippai no Ame" (Buckets of Rain) because the legendary singer-songwriter behind classics including "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" actually created a song titled "Buckets of Rain" for his January 1975 album"Blood on the Tracks".
Although Takahashi's "Bucket Ippai no Ame" is straight ahead rock-n'-roll (and basically a different animal) compared to Dylan's folk-rock"Buckets of Rain", I can't help but hear a bit of that rhythm from the Dylan song grafted into Takahashi's song as perhaps a tribute (maybe someone can confirm this). In any case, I also hear the Sano and Hamada feelings in Takahashi's creation which was a track on his third album from December 1986, "Freedom". It's definitely a feel-good song as Takahashi sings that every life has its buckets of rain falling down but there is also sun breaking through the clouds, too.
Up to this point, I had two entries on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" for Naomi Nomoto（野本直美）including her "Kanashimi Doori"（かなしみ通り）, and my impression was that she was into the folk/New Music genres. Well, with her 1987 "The Fire" album, Nomoto decided to check out her own inner rock-n'-roll as well. In fact, the above-mentioned Ikegami has likened her to an Osakan version of pop-rock singer Ayumi Nakamura（中村あゆみ）, and strangely enough, Nakamura's big hit from 1985, "Tsubasa no Oreta Angel"（翼の折れたエンジェル）was created by Takahashi.
Nomoto did a cover of Takahashi's "Bucket Ippai no Ame" for "The Fire" and it actually leads off the album. It's got that same motorcycle-on-the-road-friendly arrangement although it doesn't have that brassy E Street Band sensation from the original. However, Nomoto makes it quite clear that she can also provide the good ol' rock-n'-roll chops.
Listening to Kanako Wada's（和田加奈子）December 1989 album "dear" once more on stereo again had me thinking about which tracks that I had yet to cover since for my article on her 6th album, I only took care of three of them. There were also "See You" and "If" which I covered individually since then and I'd been hoping that the rest of her songs were available on YouTube so that I could do a follow-up on "dear".
Alas, such wouldn't be the case since I could only find one more track that has an existence on the video platform. That would be the second-last track, "Le Vent Doux" (The Gentle Wind). Written by Wada, composed by Tsukasa and arranged by Yuji Toriyama（鳥山雄司）, it's reminiscent of that wave of gentle pop songs by female singer-songwriters that were coming out at the end of the late 1980s and the beginning of the early 1990s. But not only that, "Le Vent Doux" is also representative of why I've cherished "dear" as my reacquaintance with Wada when I was living in Gunma Prefecture.
I was reminded right from the start that "Le Vent Doux", despite its French title, is more of a peaceful bossa nova number. I do like all of the instruments in play here especially the guitar and the piano, and of course, it was a wonderful discovery of Wada's velvety voice. To remind folks, "dear" was the first album that I'd bought of Wada since I purchased her debut album"Tenderness" back in my university days, and I hadn't been all that impressed with her vocals back then.
Well, considering that earlier today I wrote about GREAT3, it's time to bring in the family connections once again. As I mentioned for the first article featuring singer Heaco, she happens to be the sister-in-law of Akito Katayose（片寄明人）from that trio of tall singer-songwriters.
Heaco only released two albums with the second one being "Perfect Circle" from November 2000, and from it is a cover of Yumi Arai's（荒井由実）"Ame no Station" (Rainy Station) which was originally from her "Cobalt Hour" album of 1975. Aside from some contemporary accoutrements, Heaco's take on one of Yuming's（ユーミン）classics pretty much follows the tempo and atmosphere of the original song, and the singer adds that nice breathy huskiness in her vocals.
It's a nice mellow tune to hear on another Monday evening, holiday or otherwise. Speaking of rain, we may be getting smacked with a thunderstorm in the next couple of days, and we could use the moisture since it's been a fairly dry May.
Man, do I like the above video for GREAT3's"Ai no Kankei" (The Connection of Love). It's all so stylish especially with the three members Akito Katayose（片寄明人）, Kenichi Shirane（白根賢一）and jan dressed in black all huddled around the microphone (kinda too bad that the video seems to cut off some forty seconds before the end, though).
I also like the songwriting by lyricist Katayose and composer Shirane for the title track of their 9th studio album from March 2014. Of course, there is the habit-forming funk but I also enjoy the way that the guys skip through those lyrics. Never thought I would ever hear any act trip the light fantastic in such a sexy way delivering the first two lines of the hiragana syllabary. Even the lyrics as they are set up on "Uta-Net" reflect the skippy delivery. As for the album "Ai no Kankei", that reached No. 66 on Oricon.
OK, first off, for my fellow Canadians, Happy Victoria Day today! Because of the current COVID restrictions, there won't be any officially-sanctioned fireworks displays this year as well but I did hear some of those rascals being fired off near my home last night.
I've heard and read the word Fujiyama a number of times. There is the Kome Kome Club (米米クラブ) song "Funk Fujiyama" and of course, there is the late singer Ichiro Fujiyama（藤山一郎）who sang a number of the old kayo chestnuts including "Aoi Sanmyaku"（青い山脈）. Then, there is the roller coaster called Fujiyama at the famous amusement park, Fuji-Q Highland in Yamanashi Prefecture; I do remember all of those commercials for the place.
Now, I can add a new entry and that would be "Fujiyama Paradise", a song by singer-songwriter Yuko Kawai（河合夕子）. A 1982 single that was also the title track on her album of the same year, it does hit all those nostalgia nerve clusters because of that rumbling guitar and keyboard work which reminds me slightly of Blondie's "Call Me" (I wonder what Richard Gere has been up to recently). This song written by both Kawai and Masao Urino（売野政男）and composed by the singer won't enter my list of Top 10 favourite songs per se but it still does have some of that old sparkle.
Strangely enough, before I looked up the songwriters for "Fujiyama Paradise", I did wonder whether Urino had something to do with the song, and it turned out that he did. Usually when there is a good ol' rock n' roll-sounding tune from the 1980s, his name often shows up.
As an update on an upcoming event that I mentioned back on May 3rd, I found out from DJ FACT.50 via Discord that the DJ schedule has been established for the International City Pop Festival and Fundraiser on May 29th beginning at 12 pm Pacific Daylight Time/3 pm Eastern Daylight Time. It will be going for 12 straight hours.
12PM PDT -1PM Your host, DJ FACT.50 - City Pop Revival set (all new 2020/2021 releases)
1-2 Rocket Brown (US - Come Along Radio w/ a set of 70's & 80's City Pop)
2-3 Nostalgia (S. Korea - w/ a set of Japanese, Korean, & Taiwanese City Pop!)
3-4 Space Jams Radio (UK - W/ a set of fresh Future Funk)
4-5 Masa (Japan - Original songs & Q&A with your host)
5-6 Greg Hignight (US - Tune In Tokyo)
6-7 Chiyoco (Japan - w/ A set of original music!)
7-8 Epoch (UK - Paradise Killer OST - w/ a video walkthrough by your host)
8-9 Van Paugam (US - Sake Lounge - w/ a surprise poolside set!)
9-10 Opus Science Collective (UK - Debuting brand new City Pop album)
10-11 Johnny Quan (US - W/ a set of Indonesian, Thai, Chinese, etc. Pop)
11-12 Chat Noir (US - Seance - W/ a set of Asian Goth & Post-Punk)
One of my earliest articles for "Kayo Kyoku Plus" (March 2012) was dedicated to the classic City Pop album, "Reflections", by singer/musician/actor Akira Terao（寺尾聰）. Of course, being the lazy bum that I was (and still am), I only provided a couple of tracks in that article, Oricon's No. 1 single for 1981"Ruby no Yubiwa"（ルビーの指輪）and another hit single "Shadow City". Since then though, I've written up articles on some of the individual tracks: "Shukkou Sasurai" (舟航～SASURAI), "Kita Wing"（北ウィング）, "Yokisenu Dekigoto"（予期せぬ出来事）and "Nagisa no Campari Soda"（渚のカンパリ・ソーダ）.
However, it says something that despite handling all these other tracks on "Reflections", there are still a few more tracks that have yet to be covered. Therefore, over 9 years later, I'm taking another crack at Oricon's No. 1 album for 1981 as a follow-up and finish off at least the remaining tracks recorded on the original LP.
A piece of trivia that I learned from reading the J-Wiki article regarding "Reflections" that I hadn't caught onto when I wrote the first article is that the famous cover for the album was photographed on the fly. Oddly enough, Terao had been so busy filming his scenes on his cop show "Seibu Keisatsu"（西部警察...Western Police） at the time that he and the photographer only had time to take that iconic shot of him smoking and tracing out the LOVE letters between scenes so that shot was actually taken in a corridor at the television studio.
Now, I did mention up above that "Reflections" was this classic City Pop album. Well, that's not exactly true since listening to the album a number of times over the years, I've found that the album seems to be split down the middle in terms of genres covered. Side B comes across as the more down-home City Pop side while Side A is more of an international travelogue with some City Pop elements and more rock and New Music hints in there (although the exception is the final track of the side which just happens to be "Ruby no Yubiwa").
Case in point is the first track on Side A is "Habana Express". It launches the album at a pretty frenetic pace as our hero is loving, leaving and sprinting across Cuba in what seems to be multiple whirlwind romances. I hear the City Pop but also the tropical and spritzes of rock thrown in like a many-ingredient cocktail. As is the case for most of the tracks on "Reflections", Masako Arikawa（有川正沙子）is behind the lyrics while Akira Inoue（井上鑑）handles the arrangement for Terao's melody for all of the tracks.
Track 3 on Side A continues the international travel as Terao heads for South Africa in "Kibouhou"（喜望峰...Cape of Good Hope）. Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）, this time, has the lyricist duties for a song that actually sounds more reggae. There's nothing really City Pop with the track but those familiar sounds and chords that I've associated with Terao's material are still there.
The track just before "Ruby no Yubiwa" is "Niki Monogatari"（二季物語...A Tale of Two Seasons）. With Arikawa on lyrics, it's by far the longest track at over eight minutes, and I gather that this is Terao's version of Billy Joel's"Scenes from an Italian Restaurant". It's an epic reporting of a once-happy romance that has since withered on the vine with the first half being the languid and melancholy aftermath as Shigeharu Mukai（向井滋春）provides a trombone solo. But then, a little over halfway into the song, the story shifts back in time to a snazzier and brighter past when the love was still there. Terao himself fairly tap dances vocally during this latter half.
Now, the final track for the original album that I've covering is the Side B"Dial M". It's the same trio of Arikawa, Terao and Inoue, and I'm not sure if any of them were big fans of Alfred Hitchcock when they came up with the title. It's that down-home City Pop that "Ruby no Yubiwa" belongs to with the crooning singer and the Latin rhythm bubbling underneath.
As for the "down-home" part that I've mentioned twice now, I have to admit that my good friend Rocket Brown of "Come Along Radio" was a little confused by my term when I first said it to him since images of country hoedowns entered our heads. To explain a bit more clearly, a number of Japanese City Pop songs have been clearly influenced by Steely Dan, the Doobie Brothers or Airplay so when I say "down-home", I merely mean that the City Pop sounds very Japanese or kayo without those American AOR influences. And you know, when I first heard "Ruby no Yubiwa" all the way back in 1981, my extremely limited musical vocabulary forced me to initially categorize it as really funky enka!
In 2007, there was a re-release of "Reflections" with four bonus tracks which consist of the totality of Terao's 2nd and 3rd singles released in October 1974 and August 1977. The A-side for that 2nd single is "Honto ni Hisashiburi dane"（ほんとに久しぶりだね...It Really Has Been a Long Time） which was actually written and composed by singer-songwriter Ken Murata（ケン村田）with Mickey Yoshino（ミッキー吉野）of Godiego（ゴダイゴ）fame handling the arrangements. A happy-go-lucky summery tune, it's about as far from City Pop as Terao can get as the lyrics relate the story of a re-encounter of what I assume are two former flames. "Honto ni Hisashiburi dane" was actually used as the theme for an NHK program "Osaka, San-gatsu, Sannen"（大阪、三月、三年...Osaka, March, Three Years）.
Cheap perfume? I would probably snark a couple of drops of One Cup Ozeki behind each ear but there is some of the stuff that I bought in the neighbourhood convenience stores when I was living in Ichikawa. At least, the fragrance for the konbini cologne was magnitudes more subtle than the average douse of Aqua Velva, although I know that Aqua Velva was really aftershave.
(16:41)
Anyways, I mention cheap perfume here because that is also the title for this song from Baker's Shop with Haruko's 1980 album"Hot Line"（ホット・ライン）. I also have one other track, "Furimukuna"（ふ・り・む・く・な）, from Haruko Kuwana's（桑名晴子）lone album under this particular band name, and unlike that one, "Cheap Perfume" isn't a cool City Pop number at all. Instead it's some fun and rambunctious piano pop that brings to my mind some of the music that Elton John and Billy Joel were making those days. If I were thinking of someone Japanese for comparison's sake, I would also go with Yumi Arai（荒井由実）.
Toshiro Masuda（トシロウ・マスダ）, who came up with the lyrics for "Furimukuna" alongside Kuwana, also provided the words for "Cheap Perfume" while keyboardist Teruyuki Kokubu（国府輝幸）was responsible for the music. Kokubu has worked with other musicians such as Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）, Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）and Makoto Kubota（久保田麻琴）.
Now and again, I've mentioned that one of my favourite Japanese singers, Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）, greatly admired Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell. Recently, I've discovered a singer-songwriter who was once called the Japanese Joni Mitchell.
Sachiko Kanenobu（金延幸子）is a folk singer from Osaka who started her career around 1968 when she participated in an annual folk camp at Houshaku Temple in Kyoto and from that experience, she became part of a band called Folk Campus. Another member of that unit was Kyozo Nishioka（西岡恭蔵）. The following year, Kanenobu then joined another folk group called Gu（愚 ...Folly） which also included Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）.
From 1972, she went solo and her first album, "Misora"（み空...Beautiful Sky）, was released in September. Some of the tracks on "Misora" were produced by Happy End'sHaruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）, and members of that band also helped out in the production of the album such as the late singer-songwriter Eiichi Ohtaki（大滝詠一）who contributed one song and guitarist Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）who played on one of the tracks.
Indeed that one track is "Aoi Sakana" (Blue Fish) which also had Hosono arranging and playing bass while Tatsuo Hayashi（林立夫）was on drums, and Kanenobu was on guitar and (beautiful and slightly haunting) vocals. The splendid melody by the singer is as comfortable as a pair of beloved slippers right from Note One although her lyrics describe a melancholy reality of nature including the titular fish and their environment being lost forever, presumably due to industrialization. There is no mention of a keyboardist in the "liner notes" provided on the J-Wiki article for "Misora", but the playing there adds that extra feeling of poignancy. "Aoi Sakana" feels like that "smell-the-roses" type of song.
On the English Wikipedia article for "Misora", there has been a lot of acclaim given to the album even outside of Japan, and that includes famed sci-fi author Philip K. Dick who was a friend of music journalist Paul Williams. Williams married Kanenobu in the year that "Misora" was released although they would later divorce.
It was just one single and "Misora" released by Kanenobu during the 1970s after which it wouldn't be until the 1990s that she released albums and one more single again.
