1. Hiromi Iwasaki Madonna-tachi no Lullaby
2. Masahiko Kondo Hi-Teen Boogie
3. Johnny Hyaku-Man Doru Baby
4. Takashi Hosokawa Kita Sakaba
5. Kumiko Yamashita Sekido Komachi Doki
6. RC Succession Summer Tour
7. Naoko Kawai Natsu no Heroine
8. Off-Course Yes-Yes-Yes
9. Ann Lewis La Saison
10. Hideki Saijo Sei Shojo
As has been the case for Friday nights on TV Japan for several months (although when I wrote the first KKP article regarding the show, it had been shown on Wednesdays), we've been tucking into our regular episodes of NHK's educational variety program "Chiko-chan ni Shikarareru!"（チコちゃんに叱られる!...Chiko-chan Will Scold You!）. Starring comedian and actor Takashi Okamura（岡村隆史）as the human side of the co-hosting equation, the other side is represented by the eternally 5-year-old CG figure of Chiko-chan who knows all and tells all, and usually chews out the celebrity guests for not knowing some form of arcane knowledge.
The thing is that there is a third corner to the hosting triangle although she usually doesn't show up until the last few minutes of the show. Kiyoe-chan（キョエちゃん）is the crow who loves to troll Okamura in her snappy yet growly voice, and I've still yet to know who she's voiced by.
Strangely enough, there are already two articles on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" with themes for "Chiko-chan", "Shikararetai!"（叱られたい！）and even Kiyoe-chan's ending theme for the show "Daisukitte Imi da yo"（大好きって意味だよ）. But beginning this year, a new second ending theme by the crow was created and it's called "Edogawa Bojou" (Longing for the Edo River). The bird might be snarky as all heck but she does have a soft spot for enka as she croons about her love for her home area around the major Tokyo river and perhaps for the megalopolis' eastern ward which has the same name.
Singer-songwriter and former leader for the rock band Unicorn, Tamio Okuda（奥田民生）, produced "Edogawa Bojou" with Mr. M behind the lyrics and Shitami（したみ）taking care of the music. If neither of those two songwriters don't ring a bell, don't worry. "Edogawa Bojou" was the final product of a contest for the musically inclined segment of viewers to come up with a song to match the title, so over the weeks, various citizens sent in videos of how the song could sound ranging in genre from folk to enka to pop, before this enka tune was finally selected. Since then, as Kiyoe-chan is singing "Edogawa Bojou", viewers' footage of doing their own version of this now official song has been appearing alongside the crow as part of the ending credits including the above performance.
Well, we've reached the final day of June, and for us here in the Great White North, that also means the eve of Canada Day. Tomorrow on July 1st, the country will be celebrating 155 years of existence, and as such, I've decided to devote a couple of Reminiscings of Youth articles today and tomorrow to Canadiana.
First off, this will be the third ROY article dedicated to the Burlington, Ontario band Spoons which had its heyday in the 1980s. However, compared to the atmospheric synthpop of "Nova Heart" and the breeziness of "Romantic Traffic", their 1984 single "Tell No Lies" was a whole other animal. Even the Wikipedia article for Spoons remarked that this particular song was a bit unusual for the band.
For one thing, it was fully dunked into some really upbeat pop with the addition of a horn section that seemed to burst out from Tito Puentes' band and merge with some of that Spoons synthiness (yes I know that the preceding isn't a real word). For another, I remember seeing the music video for "Tell No Lies" and thinking that Gordon Deppe, Sandy Horne and the rest of the guys must have hit the sauce really hard since these guys were just happily goofing around in this air vacation gone horribly wrong (and on a more serious note, Toronto's own Pearson Airport is going through some major logistical issues along with other airports around the world; do wonder about Narita and Haneda in the Tokyo area, too). But hey, they need to have fun as well.
And "Tell No Lies" is a fun song. In fact, I made it SOP for a while as a late teen to always listen to it whenever it came on the radio, and I did a search for the extended version. I did find it on one of the regular Saturday night dance remix shows, fortunately enough. Moreover, both "Tell No Lies" and "Romantic Traffic" shared the same September 1984 album "Listen to the City" which was actually the soundtrack for a cinematic drama of the same name that had bassist Horne as one of the cast. Both she and Deppe worked on the album which has been apparently discontinued according to the band's website but it does exist via that YouTube link above.
Now, what was also coming out in September 1984 from Japan?
Hiroshi Tachi -- Nakanaide (泣かないで)
Checkers -- Hoshikuzu no Stage （星屑のステージ）
Takashi Hosokawa -- Naniwa Bushi da yo, Jinsei wa （浪花節だよ人生は）(although J-Wiki says it was August)
I figure that singer and actor Yasuo Tanabe（田辺靖雄）must have been born with a silver spoon in his mouth in regards to the entertainment industry. His father was Masaharu Tanabe（田辺正晴）, an NHK announcer who was the main host of the first two editions of the national network's Kohaku Utagassen on radio in 1951 and 1952. As well, he and composer/conductor Koichi Sugiyama（すぎやまこういち）were the core of the Roppongi Yajunkai（六本木野獣会...Roppongi Wild Animal Pack） which was basically Japan's take on Hollywood's Rat Pack, and this group had celebrities including actress Reiko Ohara（大原麗子）and future Group Sounds band The Spiders'（ザ・スパイダース）member Jun Inoue（井上順）as part of the group. His nephew also happens to be one-half of Shibuya-kei pioneer Flipper's Guitar（フリッパーズ・ギター）, Keigo Oyamada（小山田圭吾）.
He was scouted in 1961 by Watanabe Productions and in 1963, he did a duet with singer Michiyo Azusa（梓みちよ）which was a cover of Paul and Paula's "Hey Paula", becoming a huge hit. Later that year, Tanabe was one of the White team on that edition's Kohaku Utagassen (hope his old man was proud); he would make one more appearance on the New Year's Eve special in the following year. In September 1968, another single that he released was "Lullaby Tokyo", not to be confused with the 1978 "Tokyo Lullaby"（東京ららばい）by Rie Nakahara（中原理恵）.
Although "Lullaby Tokyo" just has him behind the mike, the arrangement of Masaaki Hirao's（平尾昌晃）melody is pure Mood Kayo right down to the Latin guitar that sounds like it could be covered by any of those genre groups such as Los Indios or Los Primos. Lyricist Akari Yamaguchi（山口あかり）sets the scene of a fellow comforting an inconsolable paramour because in all likelihood, their night together will be their final night together. He even offers to croon a sweet tune to her to lighten the mood, although I don't think that it will be successful.
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| From Oricon.jp |
FUNKY MONKEY BΛBY'S is a band that I have heard from time to time although I never really got into them while I was living in Japan. But during their first time in the spotlight between 2004 and 2013, the face of FUNKY MONKEY BΛBY'S was always the fellow that you see above, DJ Chemical（DJケミカル）, in my opinion. Whenever I entered a Tower Records or an HMV in Tokyo, I sometimes saw that band member's comely visage on a CD case beaming widely at me. His real name is Tomofumi Tanokura（田野倉智文）.
I think that another trope regarding FUNKY MONKEY BΛBY'S is that the arrangement of the band during concerts has consistently been MC Funky Kato（ファンキー加藤）and MC Monkichi（モン吉）in front side-to-side while DJ Chemical is in the back in the centre behind his turntables. And yet, DJ Chemical doesn't spin anything in performance. From what I've read in his J-Wiki profile is that though he is indeed an experienced disc jockey, he feels that he gets a little too dour in his work so in the music videos and concerts, he doesn't bother with the equipment and just gets into the dancing and keeping the beat to get the audience all excited.
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| From YouTube |
As you can see and hear in the video above, the song by the Tokyo-based band is "Ato Hitotsu" (Just One More), their 14th single released in August 2010. I got to listen to it in earnest for the first time last night when NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）was broadcasting from Osaka. Although FUNKY MONKEY BΛBY'S had broken up in 2013, the two MCs without DJ Chemical started things up again last year, and they showed up on "Uta Con" to play one of their most well-remembered singles.
Yet another characteristic of the group is that as far as their album/single covers along with their music videos are concerned, FUNKY MONKEY BΛBY'S bring in celebrities to have their faces and presences on them. In the case of "Ato Hitotsu", the face on the cover is that of former New York Yankees and current Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles pitcher Masahiro Tanaka（田中将大）; he also shows up in the video, too.
Used as the theme song for the 2010 edition of the annual summer high school baseball championships (a must-see for just about everyone in Japan) at Koshien Stadium, the band and singer-songwriter Yuka Kawamura（川村結花）fashioned "Ato Hitotsu" into this inspirational song of never giving up and crawling through all the muck to success. Not surprisingly, "Uta Con" had Kato and Monkichi on the show last night to perform "Ato Hitotsu" as part of the segment dedicated to all of those Koshien-friendly tunes. Its popularity led it to being used for a number of sports shows including the TV Asahi broadcast of the 2010 championships.
"Ato Hitotsu" was a hit on the charts, peaking at No. 8. It was also included on their fourth original album, logically titled "FUNKY MONKEY BABYS 4". Released in December 2011, it hit No. 1 and ended up becoming the 20th-ranked album for 2012. The band also performed the song during their second of four consecutive appearances (2009-2012) on the Kohaku Utagassen.
One more intriguing thing about the band is their name itself. Considering that the 1970s rock band Carol had come up with their hit "Funky Monkey Baby" (ファンキー・モンキー・ベイビー), I've wondered if Kato, Monkichi and Chemical had based their name on that particular song. As for how the now former member DJ Chemical got his nom de guerre, apparently when he was in elementary school, he had won the 2nd annual Chemical (Acid) Washed Jeans concert so his mates called him Chemical (another childhood moniker for him was apparently Meat Pie).
Ahhh...special guest cameo by the Doobie Bounce!
I will have to listen to Hiromi Iwasaki's（岩崎宏美）"Love Letter" album from November 1982, especially on realizing that she came up with the lyrics for all of the tracks. That includes her "Tokimeki" (The Throbbing of My Heart). For that matter, I will have to see the album more intently as well since that is a very attractive cover of her holding the dango and cola (I've actually never tried that snack combination; on second thought, maybe I shouldn't)😕. I've always been a sucker for her whenever she appeared with that long hair.
Anyways, getting back to the music, J-Wiki has still categorized "Love Letter" as an aidoru production, but I think that Iwasaki had graduated from that line of kayo years back. And with "Tokimeki", it definitely feels more on the level of an AOR love song as a woman quietly falls in love with a fellow from afar. Composer Kingo Hamada（濱田金吾）and arranger Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）bring a dreaminess, accentuated by Iwasaki's simmering vocals and bumped up slightly by that aforementioned Doobie Brothers keyboard riff, to the proceedings as if the lass is always in a cotton-candy fog whenever she sees the target of her affections at a place like a morning market. In fact, I think that fetching cover basically describes "Tokimeki" right there and then.
Ryoko Tani（谷亮子）, nee Tamura. Now that is a name that I haven't heard in years since she retired from competitive judo over a decade ago and decided to tackle the politicians in the Diet instead as a member of the House of Councillors. But when she was competing on the mat, she was probably as popular as any Oricon-populating aidoru star due to her cheerful and forthright nature, and of course, her abilities as a judoka. She even got the nickname of Yawara based on the main character in the judo manga by Naoki Urasawa（浦沢直樹）, and that character of Yawara Inokuma（猪熊柔）was inspired from the first woman to win a world judo championship, Kaori Yamaguchi（山口香）, in 1984. Tani would follow in her footsteps.
Having watched a lot of the anime adaptation of "YAWARA!" during my days in Gunma Prefecture, I've been able to remember a number of the theme songs used and profile them on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" over the past decade. However, the last time that I wrote about a "YAWARA!" theme tune was way back in 2017 with Mariko Nagai's（永井真理子）"YOU AND I", and to be frank, I hadn't known that this particular song was used as the ending theme for a one-hour motion picture entry of the franchise, "YAWARA! Sore Yuke Koshinuke Kids!!"（それゆけ腰抜けキッズ...Go For It, You Cowardly Kids!!）that was released in theatres in August 1992.
From what I've read in J-Wiki, "Daisuki na Shatsu 1990 Ryoko Sakusen" (My Favourite Shirt ~ The 1990 Travel Operation) had been even used during the original TV series, and it was released as Marina Watanabe's（渡辺満里奈）13th single on July 1st 1990, almost 32 years ago. When I first heard the song, I thought that it was awfully Shibuya-kei for an anime based on judo but heck, as I remember, there was plenty of whimsy in the show and I think Shibuya-kei is absolutely soaking in whimsy, too.
Well, it was no coincidence. Music and lyrics were provided by the Double KO Corporation which is actually the songwriting name for the duo Flipper's Guitar（フリッパーズ・ギター）, one of the pioneers of Shibuya-kei itself. During those opening credit montages, the main character of Yawara was seen tripping the light fantastic throughout the streets of Tokyo and basically trying on every stylish outfit in sight. I would assume then that "Daisuki na Shatsu" would be the perfect accompaniment to a day on the town. Lyrically, it is all about that wonderful date outside with a guy, his favourite shirt and his favourite girl.
The coupling song to "Daisuki na Shatsu" is "Be With You", a light and mellow pop song that almost takes things into AOR territory. In fact, I'd probably say that it was quite close to a lot of the music that Miki Imai（今井美樹）had been performing at the time. I'm a sucker for the keyboard work and the chorus that sounds as if Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）had some involvement (but probably didn't). Watanabe was in charge of the lyrics while Mayumi Horikawa（堀川まゆみ）and Hiroshi Shinkawa（新川博）took care of the composition and arrangement respectively. The entire single peaked at No. 31 on Oricon. From listening to both songs and Marina's vocals for them, I can say that the aidoru tag wouldn't be needed here.
When I first wrote about radio DJ and singer-songwriter Emiko Nakayama（中山恵美子）back in late 2015, it was for her 1977 single "Black Coffee"（ブラックコーヒー）, something a bit more on the bossa nova and New Music side of things.
My second article for her today involves her third single from April 1974, "Nagai Tsukiai" (A Long Time Together). Much more with the downtown kayo feeling, this was written by Naoki Saijo（西條直樹）and composed by Tetsu Kijima（貴島哲）. It was created specifically as the theme song for Nakayama's radio program "Emiko no Nagai Tsukiai"（エミ子の長いつきあい...Emiko's Long Time Together）, a 10-15 minute after-midnight show on TBS Radio and HBC Hokkaido Radio which was sponsored by Yamano Music whose Ginza branch was long patronized by me. Nakayama's singing delivery rather reminds me of Ayumi Ishida's（いしだあゆみ）golden tones although I think her speaking voice is very floaty which would make her perfect for the midnight hour.
The Tokyo-born singer has been associated with the radio industry since she was about 10. She thus had plenty of experience when she started "Emiko no Nagai Tsukiai" around the age of 20, so although she did put out a lot of music up to 1982, I think that she could have thrived on radio alone if she'd wanted to. The video below has a broadcast from the show via HBC, and it appears that any songs have been excised from this video at least to prevent any copyright strikes, but apparently, she did enjoy her share of poetry. "Emiko no Nagai Tsukiai" had a long run, lasting between 1973 and 1982
Happy Monday! The shot above is one from the balcony of my old Ichikawa apartment in Chiba Prefecture over a decade ago since I did catch sight of a rainbow...as faint as it is. Those were quite rare but there was something that I always heard every day without fail.
Play this at 5 pm if you can. This is what I heard every day at that time if I were at home on a regular day off or if it was on a holiday. And it emanated from Ichikawa City Hall. Super homey and natsukashii!😯 Usually that was the signal for me to get the fixins ready for dinner.
Last week, when I was watching the popular NHK information variety program "Chiko-chan ni Shikarareru!"（チコちゃんに叱られる!...Don't Sleep Through Life）, one of the segments involved the local government disaster prevention radio alarm system. Basically every village, town and city in the nation have tested the system daily by playing a particular song on their loudspeakers promptly at 5 pm. The songs differed from municipality to municipality although groups of them shared the same song. Well, that got me to thinking...what was the song being played for Ichikawa?
And thus begins one of the more unusual KKP articles in its history since the music here doesn't have any origins or connection with Japan or Japanese songwriters. Yet, the recording of that organ sweetly playing it has had me getting all homesick for my old home-away-from-home of Fukuei 3-chome in Ichikawa some ten minutes away on foot from Minami-Gyotoku Station on the Tozai Line.
I found out pretty quickly thanks to the explanation underneath that YouTube video of the Ichikawa system that it was called "Ieji"（家路）in Japanese (not to be confused at all with Hiromi Iwasaki's early 80s pop hit). Then, one search on J-Wiki informed me that the title was the translation of the 1922 "Goin' Home" by American composer and music historian William Arms Fisher. But then, the story takes me back even further on discovering that Fisher had been a protégé of the one-and-only Czech composer Antonín Dvořák, and "Goin' Home" had been adapted from the latter's "Symphony No. 9", 2nd movement "Largo" as you can hear above and first presented in 1893, joining another entry on KKP from that year. "Goin' Home" can be heard below as performed movingly by the BYU Choir.
I would think that "Goin' Home" is the perfect title for that Ichikawa system considering that it's played at 5 pm, but no one actually goes home from work at 5 pm in Japan. Plus, I think even the kids have to head off to juku so they don't hit home until later. But if you know of any exceptions, please let me know.
"Symphony No. 9" is also known as the New World Symphony, and the fourth movement "Allegro con fuoco" is arguably even more famous for those dramatic horns. Recently, I got to see and hear its hilarious use in one scene of the anime "Gekkan Shojo Nozaki-kun"（月刊少女野崎くん）.
Going into the final days of June 2022, it is certainly feeling like summer out there. I have the fan on behind me and the sun is shining at full power outside. At the same time, I've been observing that Japan seems to have already entered the blisteringly hot and humid period with the authorities asking citizens to conserve on energy lest the grid blows. I don't think that I've seen that sort of announcement so early, and I'm hoping that water isn't the next thing that needs to be conserved.
Though the Japanese summer is one of the very few things that I don't miss about my time there (I barely swim in water, let alone atmosphere), it is admittedly nostalgic when I remember hearing the cicadas buzzing away and seeing the seasonal festivals happening in various neighbourhoods with folks in yukata and cute little firecrackers flashing away. I kinda wish that I had the chance to attend more of those, actually. But perhaps, that's because I've seen enough of those romanticized on anime.
Anyways, that's the vibe I get when I watch the video and hear this song by the band indigo la End, "Natsu Yoru no Magic" (Summer Night Magic). This was one of the coupling tracks on the band's 3rd major single, "Kanashiku Mae ni"（悲しくなる前に...Before It Gets Sad） from June 2015 (peaked at No. 12 on Oricon). Although indigo la End is known as an indies rock group, this particular song about finding that romantic magic one night in the hot season is more in the pop vein of things with that bluesy guitar and Enon Kawakami's（川谷絵音）plaintive vocals. I also enjoy the "fu, fu, fu, fuuu..." chorus; sounds and feels like a summer breeze.
Kawakami was also the lyricist and composer for "Natsu Yoru no Magic", and if his name sounds familiar to you, he was also doing double duty as the vocalist and songwriter for his other band Gesu no Kiwami Otome（ゲスの極み乙女。）. For indigo la End, which has been around since 2010, he is currently supported by guitarist Curtis Osada（長田カーティス）, bassist Ryosuke Gocho（後鳥亮介）and drummer Eitaro Sato（佐藤栄太郎）.
The same cool and mellow vibe exists in Asako Toki's（土岐麻子）cover of "Natsu Yoru no Magic" which is a track on her February 2021 album of covers "HOMETOWN ~ Cover Songs", with some more enhanced guitar and Toki's reassuring vocals.
Hope you are enjoying your Sunday today. To be honest, it's looking a little threatening out there in the GTA; the weather forecasters have been predicting some showers followed by sun. But wherever you are, may good fortune shine on you, meteorologically or otherwise.
Perhaps some orange pekoe (the brand of tea and/or the Japanese duo) might help some of you going through the post-Sunday breakfast stupor get back up and running. I don't have the tea but the duo is helping out just fine with "Love Life", a track from their May 2002 debut album "Organic Plastic Music". Written by vocalist Tomoko Nakajima（ナガシマトモコ）and composed by guitarist Kazuma Fujimoto（藤本一馬）, there's some infusion of samba and happy bass-led jazz which seems to have come out from some French bar circa 1960s.
From the same album, I've also covered "Taiyo no Kakera" （太陽のかけら）, orange pekoe's debut single, and "Yawaraka na Yoru" (やわらかな夜). Enjoy!
Just finished off a conversation with Rocket Brown so we were catching up on things, including of course, Tatsuro Yamashita's（山下達郎）"Love's On Fire".
It's always nice when I come across a pleasant song by someone that I have never heard of before, and so it goes with Mayuko Miyahara's（宮原巻由子）"Hana Akari". There's very little information about her online and nothing at all on J-Wiki. I did find out from "Idol.ne.jp" that she came from Osaka and that she was also a winner on the talent audition program "Star Tanjo!"（スター誕生！...A Star is Born!）. She had her initial time in showbiz as a singer and actress, although she only released two singles in 1983.
That first single from February 1983 was "Hana Akari" which translates, according to Jisho.org: the brilliance of cherry blossoms which illuminate the evening. So it's most likely an ohanami phenomenon in the spring. Written by Takemi Shima（島武実）, composed by Yasuo Kosugi（小杉保夫）and arranged by Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）, "Hana Akari" seems to be a jaunty example of the usually laconic Fashion Music, hepped on some extra synthesizers. Despite the revelation of sakura, "Hana Akari" does feel like something with a bit more of a European setting.
Miyahara retired from show business in 1984 once she got married, but then made a comeback as an actress and model under the pen names of Mayuko Kyomoto（京本真由子）and Mayuko Okada（岡田真由子）. She has also taken on the occupation of a video translator. Under that original name of Miyahara, she has an Ameba blog where I discovered that she has posed as a grey hair model. On top of that, she opened her own Instagram account.
Happy weekend to all of you and of course, Happy Pride weekend. Almost a decade ago, one of our first contributors, JTM, was kind enough to write up an epic article on the whole "Sukeban Deka"（スケバン刑事） franchise. He not only wrote about the series starring aidoru including Yuki Saito（斉藤由貴）and Yoko Minamino（南野陽子）, but he also provided some of the songs associated with "Sukeban Deka".
One of those songs that he mentioned was Nanno's "Kaze no Madrigal" (Madrigal of the Wind), her 4th single from July 1986 which became the theme song for "Sukeban Deka II" that starred the young aidoru. And to also quote my friend on the definition of a madrigal: "a medieval short lyrical poem". To be honest, I don't know very much at all on music of the Renaissance and early Baroque eras, but as for "Kaze no Madrigal", the song by lyricist Reiko Yukawa（湯川れい子）, composer Daisuke Inoue（井上大輔）and arranger Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）goes against my assumption of a "Sukeban Deka" theme being a kickass rock n' roll tune. Instead, the song is a fleet-footed number with hints of cowboy justice and Hiromi Ohta's（太田裕美）"Saraba Siberia Tetsudo" (さらばシベリア鉄道）originally created by the late Eiichi Ohtaki（大滝詠一）who had his own love for some cowboy Western twang.
The B-side is "Heroine no Densetsu" (Legend of a Heroine), something with some funk and urban contemporary in there that it could almost be a City Pop tune. It is indeed spirited and determined, befitting a song for a heroine. The same songwriters for "Kaze no Madrigal" were responsible for "Heroine no Densetsu" which peaked at No. 5 on Oricon.
I've done my four articles for today and usually four are my max on a Friday. However, when I was doing the fourth article on Tatsuro Yamashita's（山下達郎）"Love's On Fire", I saw a comment underneath the video which marveled at the fact that not only was Tats' latest coming out on that day, but also Ginger Root's most recent single on the same day. It was certainly a good day for that fellow.
Well, I am putting up a fifth article today because I also remember Ginger Root since I first found out about the man behind the project, Cameron Lew, almost a year ago when he gave his loving affection for City Pop and the glossy 1980s via his single "Loretta". He's come out with a new single, "Loneliness", which came out on the 22nd and will also be part of his September EP, "Nisemono"（偽物...Fake）.
He even came up with the concept video for "Loneliness" as a Seiko Matsuda-like（松田聖子）aidoru named Kimiko Takeguchi in 1983 suddenly quits the business in a huff. Her now-former manager has to find a replacement singer in a panic and she forces the songwriter, namely Lew, to fill in. A new star is born and Lew relishes the fame and fortune although it's obvious that the manager and production staff are treating him more like a cash cow commodity than a human being which probably forced Takeguchi to leave in the first place. Such is show business.
Ah, feel free to catch the promotion...
Well, last week was all about that series of articles on Tatsuro Yamashita's（山下達郎）interview with Yahoo News Japan on the cusp of his first album in eleven years, "Softly", coming out on June 22nd. It has come out and unsurprisingly, that one corner of YouTube is blossoming with videos of various aspects of his 14th original album. There are a couple of tracks that I'm familiar with: "Recipe"（レシピ）and "Mirai no Tehma"（ミライのテーマ）.
But here is the video for one of the new songs on "Softly", "Love's On Fire". Written, composed, and arranged by Tats with him playing pretty much all of the instruments, I would have been tempted to call it a slice of Neo City Pop but that would be inaccurate. If anything, I'd say that it was more synth dance-pop than anything else. It doesn't matter, though, since it's still one catchy song that is great for a Friday night like tonight, especially watching the young happy people dancing away in a metropolitan club.
From the J-Wiki description of the music video, the director Yuuichi Kodama（児玉裕一）had wanted to go for a "boy meets girl" theme and indeed that is what we get with the camera focusing on the Boy, choreographer and model ENDo, and the Girl, actress Yuumi Kawai（河合優実）. The two of them do their stuff separately until they finally meet and love is on fire. Not sure if things happen that sweetly and innocently at the Gas Panic.
Looking forward to hearing some of the other tracks over the coming days.
The above is a trailer for the June 17th 2022 theatrical OVA version of one of the "Kaito Queen"（怪盗クイーン...Mirage Queen） novel series which began in 2002. Specifically, according to Wikipedia, the adaptation is of the first novel, "Kaito Queen wa Circus ga O-suki"（怪盗クイーンはサーカスがお好き..."Mirage Queen Aime Cirque"）. Additionally, from the website "My Anime List", I found out that the whole ball of wax involves a charismatic phantom thief queen who travels on an airship looking for treasure to pillage and adventures to experience. For this particular episode, the Queen has to match wits and guile with a bunch of talented and shrewd circus performers.
Now, I'd never heard of either the novel series or this particular OVA. The information came by when I was doing the research for its theme song "Gyakuten no Regina" (The Queen Turns the Tables) performed by Little Black Dress who also showed up on "Uta Con"（うたコン）a few nights ago right after Goro Noguchi（野口五郎）.
Back in the fall last year, I wrote my first article on Little Black Dress when she had appeared on "Uta Con" for the first time as a young musician who also enjoyed the old kayo. Her 2nd indies digital download single "Nora Ningen"（野良ニンゲン）from June 2019 had me thinking of Misia when it came to her vocalization, while the song had some Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）vibes. However, as for "Gyakuten no Regina" which is her 3rd major single that came out on June 8th this year, the NHK host introduced the song as an example of Reiwa Era City Pop.
Hmmm...perhaps I'll have to hear some more examples of this Reiwa City Pop but I'll still throw in the label of City Pop since the composer is none other than Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）, a master of the genre's melodies (and he has already made an appearance on KKP earlier today). Neko Oikawa（及川眠子）took care of the lyrics with Akimitsu Honma（本間昭光）handling arrangement. But no complaints at all about the dynamic "Gyakuten no Regina" with the horns; there's something quite Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra here (with no ska, though), and I do like the suspense infused into it.
NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）returned to the NHK Shibuya studio for the first time in over a year, and last Tuesday's episode devoted some of its time to the guitar-wielding singing stars such as veteran Goro Noguchi（野口五郎）. In fact, along with one other singer-musician, we even got a bit of a City Pop segment for about 5 minutes or so.
Noguchi performed a number that I hadn't heard before. "Onna ni Natte Denaose yo" (Become a Woman and Start Fresh) was his 31st single which got released in July 1979. Despite it being labeled an aidoru tune on J-Wiki, it's still quite the disco bop showing off the good times in Tokyo, pre-Bubble Era. Created by the dream tandem of lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, the song's narrative is told from the perspective of a young man who has witnessed a childhood friend (for whom he may still harbour feelings) grow up into a fine beautiful woman ready to take on the world. Maybe they will never become an item, but he's happy enough seeing her do well in life. So gracious!😂
I almost forgot to mention that Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）took care of the arrangement. "Onna ni Natte Denaose yo" reached No. 17 on Oricon. By the way, that's quite the intriguing cover on the single showing young Goro being chauffeured to a new house in California (at least, I'm thinking it's somewhere in the Golden State). City Pop was also about the exciting lifestyle overseas.
Although I didn't intend to do this, it looks like that I'm continuing the lyrical theme of rain today after writing about Hachiro Kasuga's（春日八郎）"An Tokya Doshaburi"（あん時ゃどしゃ降り）yesterday which was all about making that fateful encounter during a downpour.
But this being Friday which usually means the more urban contemporary of music on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I've got something City Pop to offer here. "Driving in the Rain", sung by Chiyono Yoshino（吉野千代乃）, is the first of her songs on the blog that I've put up to come from the 1990s after my first entries about her ranged within the latter half of the 1980s.
The song hails from her March 1992 6th album "Journey to Love", and it's another Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）concoction with a hint of New Jack Swing, 60s soul and AOR mixed in with the rest of the decade's version of City Pop. Lyrics are by Chisa Tanabe（田辺智沙）who has been a lyricist and a composer although her current occupation is being a lawyer according to her J-Wiki profile. From what I've read in those lyrics, it looks like the healing power of rain is helping out a couple in a car who may have had a tiff in the hours and minutes before getting on that drive. I just hope that they are driving to conditions.
Yesterday, I was reading Rocket Brown's fine and detailed review of Ginji Ito's（伊藤銀次）"Deadly Drive", released on May 25th 1977. I usually don't put out the exact date of release but on that particular one, a little movie called "Star Wars" came out, and I just saw the highlights of the final episode of "Obi-Wan Kenobi" yesterday. The franchise as a whole is definitely flawed and disappointing to me (prequels and sequels), but that final episode was likely the most emotionally powerful of any of its entries.
Anyways, getting back to "Deadly Drive", I've covered a couple of tracks already: the light and mellow and dreamy "Konuka Ame" （こぬか雨）and the soulful and soaring "Kaze ni Narerunara"（風になれるなら）. Well, on reading Rocket's review, I decided to take a look at another track from the album, so here is "Ano Toki wa Doshaburi" (There Was a Downpour Back Then), written and composed by Ito. Contrasting with the other two tracks, this particular song has the singer-songwriter going into light salsa mode, and that's interesting since it seems that lot of the Japanese pop stars including Junko Yagami（八神純子）and Keiko Maruyama（丸山圭子）were also exploring a lot of the Latin side of New Music at around the same time.
I also found out another tidbit of trivia for "Ano Toki wa Doshaburi" from the August 1983 issue of the music journal "Music Steady"（ミュージック・ステディ）in which an article focused on Ito (via J-Wiki). Apparently, the song saw its genesis when Ito wondered about taking the Hachiro Kasuga（春日八郎）1957 enka "An Tokya Doshaburi"（あん時ゃどしゃ降り）which is a dialectal variant for "Ano Toki wa Doshaburi" and making it into a New Music tune. Admittedly, it is part of the reason that I wrote up an article for Kasuga's tune earlier this afternoon. However, I think, aside from the title, both songs are wholly different animals and Ito even points out that doshaburi, which means "downpour" or "heavy rain", has a much more figurative definition here since he meant it to signify "social upheaval".
On May 24th 2017, a 40th anniversary deluxe edition of "Deadly Drive" was released with two discs included with extended remixes of the original tracks. "Ano Toki wa Doshaburi" was no exception, so dance away!
We had our share of heavy rain last week, and the only thing that I fretted about was whether one of our rooms would be getting flooded once more. That is of course a huge pain.
But according to singer Hachiro Kasuga（春日八郎）, his memories of downpours are far more romantic ones...and apparently very local. The title of his 1957 enka, "An Tokya Doshaburi" (There Was a Downpour Back Then), and the lyrics by Ryo Yano（矢野亮）seem to be done up in a dialect but I can't really pinpoint which one. Is it Edokko (Tokyo) or something from his home prefecture of Fukushima?
Whichever is the case, "An Tokya Doshaburi" is a mellow and slightly woozy enka tune with Kasuga's protagonist remembering back to some love, perhaps first sighted during a very rainy day or night. Maybe the lens of that memory is the bottom of a glass of beer or some other strong libation but along with composer Toshio Saeki's（佐伯としを）addition of the rain, comes a trombone to add a slightly tipsy element to the old kayo arrangement.
Not sure how the song did back then, but Kasuga did appear on the 1976 Kohaku Utagassen on New Year's Eve, his 18th out of 21 appearances on the special, to perform it.
SCIENCE!
When I was in elementary school, I had actually thought about becoming a biologist since I loved and still love animals. For that matter, I also coddled an interest in astronomy (I collected newspaper articles on the planets and the International Space Station's ancestor, Skylab) and meteorology. Sometime in the 1970s, I ended up watching a science-based variety show, "Don't Ask Me", originally from the UK's ITV network on our local educational channel, OECA (later known as TV Ontario).
There was one elderly fellow on "Don't Ask Me" named Magnus Pyke (incredible name, by the way) who was this nutritional scientist, government scientific advisor and television presenter that pretty much stole every scene although there were other hosts and presenters. The very British Pyke may have already been close to around 70 years of age when I first saw him, but he was this ball of energy that flapped his arms about and very excitedly talked about various scientific matters as if he had just discovered them himself. He almost cemented my resolve into becoming a scientist but a certain country got in the way permanently some years later. The above video has Pyke in the sequel to "Don't Ask Me", "Don't Just Sit There" in the late 1970s.
It did make me wonder whether Matt Smith had partially based his own interpretation of The Doctor ("Doctor Who") on Pyke with his manic energy and flappy arms. And the good Doctor was also a governmental scientific advisor as well back in one of his earlier selves.
Several years after Pyke and "Don't Ask Me" had left my brain, the former suddenly appeared again and throughout pop culture once more when he showed up in Thomas Dolby's "She Blinded Me With Science", a single released in October 1982 in the UK. And though, according to the Wikipedia article for the song, it didn't do all that well in the home nation, it certainly made its mark in the United States and Canada by scoring No. 5 and No. 1 respectively.
For a guy like me who was not only a geek but a guy who was also getting into the synthpop side of things, "She Blinded Me With Science" was musical manna from heaven. It certainly didn't hurt having Pyke's cachet as the mad scientist and director of the Rest Home for Deranged Scientists yelling "SCIENCE!" and the title all throughout the music video. Dolby's magnum opus is so catchy with the two melodic sides of funky/cheerful and ominous that I think of it as one of the representative songs of the 1980s. It was indeed poetry in motion.
I think Dolby's "She Blinded Me With Science" will be one of the juicier ROY articles that I've written up for the blog because not only does it have the Magnus Pyke angle, but there is also another angle involving Japanese popular music. More than ten years ago in the early days of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", when I wrote up about Akiko Yano's（矢野顕子）super-happy "Harusaki Kobeni"（春咲小紅）, I mentioned that there was a rumour regarding the singer-songwriter's connection with Dolby in that she had been in the recording studio when "She Blinded Me With Science" was being made, and so the following famous lyric came about:
Good heavens, Miss Sakamoto! You're beautiful!
(for years, I'd assumed that Pyke cried "Good heavens, Miss South America!")
At the time, Yano had provided backing vocals to Dolby's song "Radio Silence", a track on his May 1982 debut album "The Golden Age of Wireless", and at the time, she had been married to Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）of Yellow Magic Orchestra fame. The site "TV Tropes" has mentioned the rumour in its file on Dolby (scroll down to "Shout-Out") and in "Harusaki Kobeni", I also wrote that this came out in Yano's own J-Wiki profile although it could have also actually been referring to the Sakamotos' daughter Miyu who was only one year old at the time. What the J-Wiki profile additionally stated was that Yano had also helped with the backing vocals, and I think that I did hear that distinctive voice of hers in the song, although according to Discogs, Miriam Stockley and Mutt Lange were the only people on backup chorus.
Having said all that, I did find a 2011 interview at the "Songfacts" website where Dolby said at the end that he'd written the Sakamoto line simply because he wanted to get a Japanese woman in the video. He also cheekily said that he had been ahead of the times in fetishizing Asian women. Not sure how tongue-in-cheek he was about that, though. Speaking about that femme fatale in the video, I did come across a Reddit conversation which mistakenly identified the lady as Yano. As someone who has a number of her albums, I can categorically say that the lady in the video and Yano are two different people.
Whew! That was quite a reminiscing of youth there. Anyways, what were the Top 3 singles on Oricon for October 1982?
1. Aming -- Matsu wa (待つわ）
2. Ippu-Do -- Sumire September Love (すみれ September Love)
3. Masahiko Kondo -- Horeta ze! Kanpai（ホレたぜ!乾杯）
It's been over five years since I've put up a Tavito Nanao（七尾旅人）song onto the blog. As I remember, he's a singer and songwriter of a number of genres, and perhaps many of his songs don't fit into one particular genre but more into a blend of them whether it be soul, indies or electronica among others.
Maybe his 11th and penultimate single to date, "Circus Night", falls on the borderline between R&B and shoegazer. Released in November 2012, Nanao wrote and composed this tune of a heart-stopping romance that is described through analogies of circus life such as walking that tightrope, magic and clowns. There's plenty of groove in this very laidback tune that would call for an intimate evening out in a bohemian drinking joint somewhere in the quieter areas of Shibuya or Harajuku.
I've been listening to Scott's latest podcast on his "Holly Jolly X'masu" show, and yes, considering that it's absolutely steaming outside (my "swimming-in-atmosphere" catchphrase is coming into play today) like an August day in Tokyo, it's been nice and perhaps cooling to hear some of the Yuletide music. The subject of his most recent episode whirls around the late composer and conductor Naozumi Yamamoto（山本直純）and his 1973 album "Xmas Home Party". Yes, indeed, Yamamoto loved his jolly orchestral marches and paired with the Holiday spirit, there's a lot in the album that reminds me of Leroy Anderson and Arthur Fiedler & The Boston Pops.
But it still surprised me to discover through his J-Wiki profile that Yamamoto was the first Japanese person to become a guest conductor for the Boston Pops twice in 1979 and 1980. The music that he concocted does fit the bill, though.
Going down the article for Yamamoto, I found out that he provided a lot of music for everything from commercials to comedy-variety shows. Plus, he did help out the comical jazz band Hana Hajime and Crazy Cats（ハナ肇とクレージーキャッツ）, and so it isn't surprising in this paragraph to find out that he also composed a song for Modern Choki Chokies（モダンチョキチョキズ）, which I've realized is the 1990s version of those funny musicians such as Crazy Cats.
Released in February 1994 as the band's 4th single, "THE Zetsubou Koushinkyoku" (The March of Hopelessness) and sung by Modern Choki Chokies high-pitched vocalist and actress Mari Hamada（濱田マリ）, band member Kenichi Yasuda（安田謙一）wrote the lyrics of humourous despair of life that even a Dreams Come True song cannot solve (directly mentioned in the words). Yamamoto came up with a brash and jazzy arrangement that could have been performed by Crazy Cats themselves for some variety show of the 1950s or 1960s, and there's even a segment in there that could have been quite commercial jingle-worthy.
"THE Zetsubou Koushinkyoku" was used as the ending theme for a couple of shows including "Kuniko to Tohru no Anta ga Shuyaku"（邦子と徹のあんたが主役...Kuniko & Tohru's "You're The Star"）, a TV Asahi program in the early 1990s which seems to have been the Japanese equivalent of ABC's "America's Funniest Videos". The other program was NTV's "Super Jockey"（スーパージョッキー）, the Sunday afternoon show hosted by Beat Takeshi（ビートたけし）.
Summer officially arrived here in Toronto at 5:14 am this morning and although it was still pretty fresh this morning, the season really roared in from the afternoon, so the temperatures were up to 28 degrees Celsius with a Humidex close to 40 degrees. I was out with a few friends for lunch today and I did my fair share of walking so I'm aching all over as I type this. I could really use that Peach Banana smoothie that you see above.
Well, since it is the first day of summer and therefore the longest day of the year, let's have something seasonally apt. Last year, I wrote about Shogo Hamada's（浜田省吾）old group from the 1970s, Aido（愛奴）, and their "Natsu no Futari"（夏の二人）. Strangely enough, though, that 1976 song was created by band guitarist Tohru Aoyama（青山徹）following Hamada's departure from Aido.
Today, though, I have Aido's debut single "Futari no Natsu" (Two of Us in Summer) ...yeah, just flip a couple of words around. Released in May 1975, unlike the later mellower and perhaps closer to AOR "Natsu no Futari", "Futari no Natsu" has more of that gentle 1950s Richie-and-Mary Beth romantic melodiousness, thanks to Hamada who wrote and composed it. Indeed, it's all about a couple in love just lying on the beach at night and enjoying the moment. I can hear a lot of Beach Boys and "Theme from A Summer Place".
Hamada would cover his creation as his June 1987 21st single, getting up to No. 25. It was also included in his 2nd mini-album from the same month "CLUB SURFBOUND" that hit No. 1. The above imaginative video has that very song as part of a video collection that Hamada provided titled "SHOGO HAMADA Visual Collection "FLASH&SHADOW"" from August 2005. Man, it's so "American Graffiti"!
Actually, I decided to kill two birds with one stone with ZARD's own "Futari no Natsu", but the only similarity is the title. Otherwise, it's a wholly different animal created by lyricist Izumi Sakai（坂井泉水）and composer Seiichiro Kuribayashi（栗林誠一郎）, and it didn't even come out as a single but as the final track on the singer's July 1993 4th original album "Yureru Omoi"（揺れる想い...Shifting Feelings）.
The lyrical content also differs from Aido's "Futari no Natsu" in that ZARD's "Futari no Natsu" is a wistful re-encounter between two former lovers at a bus stop one hot day, with all of the feelings remaining in the lady's side. "Yureru Omoi" hit No. 1 on the Oricon weeklies and became the No. 1 album for the entire year, and it still hung around to become the No. 54 album for 1994.
The above photo here is of the main hall inside the Tokyo International Forum, just north of Ginza. I used to walk around here fairly frequently although I never got to see a concert or a movie in the facility. Still, the visit was worth it just to marvel at the architecture inside. Unfortunately, I didn't get to do so until today, but last Tuesday's episode of NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）was the final one to be held at TIF which had served as the program's Tokyo home for the past one year and change while renovations were being made to NHK's main hall in Shibuya. So, it was a pretty poignant episode with the hosts giving a fond farewell to TIF.
Well, then I thought that it would be appropriate to put up a song that was just as poignant that also had its due on that episode last week. The singer Kumiko（クミコ）has made many appearances on "Uta Con" but this is the chanson singer's first time on "Kayo Kyoku Plus". Making her debut in 1982 under her real name of Kumiko Takahashi（高橋久美子）, she went with the shortened Kumiko starting from around 2000. In her early years, she had also appeared at one of the temples of chanson in Japan, Ginza's own Gin Pari（銀巴里）, a venerable chanson café that lasted almost 40 years between 1951 and 1990.
The song that she sang on the Tokyo International Forum stage last week was "Ai shika nai Toki" which is the Japanese title for the original "Quand on n'a que l'amour" (When Love is All You Have) by Belgian singer Jacques Brel in 1957. Kumiko's version came out as a single just a couple of weeks ago, although it was also the title track in a 2003 album. I figure that since the video above was put up last September that it is the 2003 take with the one below being of the recent version.
I don't know very much about the genre of chanson but I think Kumiko's cover of the song has a more "softly, softly" approach when compared to the usual proud and strident tones that I usually associate chanson with.
Some weeks ago, I was watching one of the episodes of that 80s music ranking show "The Best 10"（ザ・ベストテン）when one act that came in sparked a memory. It was of a short young lady with a mop of dark hair and what looked to be dark wraparound sunglasses (kinda like a female Roy Orbison) thrashing away on a Yamaha DX-7. And I remarked internally that I have seen this group before.
The song is "Furare Kibun de Rock 'n' Roll" (Rock n Roll for a Broken Heart) and the group is TOM★CAT, a band that had its start in 1978 at Tokyo Zokei University when a bunch of friends got together to form the band Funky Noise (1978-1981) and then transform into Noise Maker (1982-1983) before finally settling upon TOM★CAT from 1984.
Although guitarist Keiji* Sasaki（佐々木敬治）was the leader of TOM★CAT, front and centre behind the Yamaha was vocalist and songwriter TOM, who was really Atsumi Matsuzaki（松崎淳美）. For one of the 1984 Yamaha Popular Song Contests, the keyboardist came up with what would become their official debut song "Furare Kibun de Rock 'n' Roll" that won the band a Grand Prize, and even another Grand Prize at the World Popular Song Festival which was also sponsored by Yamaha. The single itself was released in November 1984.
TOM's appearance in those huge sunglasses made for quite an impact and "Furare Kibun de Rock 'n' Roll" with the vocalist, melody and lyrics acting in concert as a well-oiled Yamaha motorcycle zooming on the road was just the thing to get rid of the post-breakup blues. As the singer exhorts "Don't stop the music!" since it's the music that is helping to get up and over the depression. With the synthesizer going through a rock music vein, I wonder if TOM★CAT and the song were somewhat like an ancestor for techno rock bands such as Polysics.
The song peaked at No. 4 and it ended up as the No. 18 single for 1985. TOM★CAT would release another six singles along with three original albums with the first one "TOM★CAT" containing "Furare Kibun de Rock 'n' Roll". That album was released in June 1985, peaking at No. 17. The band would break up in 1988 with the members going into their own companies and starting up families. TOM herself would provide singers such as Fumina Hisamatsu（久松史奈）and Miho Morikawa（森川美穂） with songs but she basically decided to become a permanent employee of Marutetsu Kobo which looks to be a steelworks company, although she has continued to write songs and still be involved in the music industry.
*「敬冶」has a few readings but I went with the first one that I saw at Jisho.org. If anyone knows the correct reading for the band leader's name, let me know.