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.
Hmmm...what did I say about half an hour ago? I was going to finish off my KKP day with my fifth article involving Yukihiro Takahashi's（高橋幸宏）"Walking to the Beat" and hit the 90-article month for July 2022. Well, I guess middle-aged men can still be ambitious in a slight adjustment to Professor William S. Clark's famous quotation.
For one thing, I found a follow-up I could do. Mariko Kurata（倉田まり子）had her wistful New Music hit of "Sayonara Rainy Station"（さよならレイニー・ステーション）from September 1980. Now, I discover that Kurata's trademark tune was technically a cover for composer Chika Ueda's（上田知華）original. Yep, that's right...Ueda with her piano-and-string quintet Karyobin had come up with "Sayonara Rainy Station" in their third album, logically titled "Ueda Chika + Karyobin [3]"（上田知華+KARYOBIN[3]）earlier in July that year.
With lyrics by Kenji Kadoya（門谷憲二）, thanks to Karyobin, Ueda's original takes things into Japan's version of baroque pop, Fashion Music. Those tender strings really mellow the listening experience down and increase the dramatic aspects of "Sayonara Rainy Station" as if some European romance were being played out. However, Ueda ends things on the piano with a bit of jazziness. Still, I get these vibes of a recital in a very classy mansion (with lots of oak) in the Hamptons when I hear this one. Anyways, I have Article No. 91 though it still doesn't match January's total of 94! 😁
Yeah, I gotta say that the music video for Yukihiro Takahashi's（高橋幸宏）"Walking to the Beat" is properly oddball 1980s. It's got the intriguing semi-computer graphics animation from that decade, and a large-stage setting reminiscent of the one used for Styx's famous "Mr. Roboto". Additionally, I was getting hit with "Doctor Who" vibes thanks to Takahashi's makeup for his alien priest getting ready for an uprising. The whole feeling is that the video would have been a prime candidate for inclusion in that "City Limits" midnight series of offbeat videos that I used to watch Canada's MTV equivalent of MuchMusic.
"Walking to the Beat" was the final track of Takahashi's November 1984 6th studio album"Wild & Moody". Takahashi and Australian singer-songwriter Iva Davies wrote and composed the song as this baroque New Wave number that indeed sounds so 1980s. Davies would later create the soundtrack for the 2003 film "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" starring Russell Crowe. As for "Wild & Moody", that hit No. 13 on Oricon.
This is my fifth article for the blog today, a bit unusual since my maximum is usually four but seeing that my Kalafina article was No. 89 for July and we are on the final day of the month, I just had to make that extra push to make 90 articles for the third time this year.
It's hard to believe that it's been two years since our regular biweekly anime-and-food outings came to a close due to the pandemic, but at this point, because it appears that my buddy and I now have somewhat different tastes in what kind of anime we like, I don't think that we are in any amount of a rush to resume the old tradition. However, I did get to know a lot of anison from throughout the past few decades due to my friend's devotion of an hour at his place to sample those songs.
One trio of ladies that I heard sometimes during the anison hour was Kalafina whose work I can describe as being the chorus of angels wielding mighty large and dangerous spears. What I mean is that their beautiful voices often heralded anime that had more than its fair share of violence including the "Madoka Magica" and "Fate/stay night" franchises. My observation of Wakana, Hikaru and Keiko is that their voices meshed so well together that it sounded like one layered voice that truly fell from the heavens...if the heavens also had electric guitars on hand.
Kalafina was also behind the first opening theme of the anime "Aldnoah.Zero"（アルドノア・ゼロ）, a title that I've heard although my friend never showed me the series. From what I've read on Wikipedia and TV Tropes, it comes across as one of those epic space operas featuring a massive war between Earth and some alien empire. That would seem to be up Kalafina's alley, and sure enough "heavenly blue", the trio's August 2014 single, possesses the urgent and the calm, the heaven and the hell. The song was written, composed and arranged by Yuki Kajiura（梶浦由記）, the lady who formed Kalafina in the first place back in 2007.
"heavenly blue" peaked at No. 15 and went Gold, and it was featured on Kalafina's BEST album"THE BEST 'Blue'" which was released in July 2014. That compilation hit No. 3 on the charts. The trio released numerous singles and five studio albums; those albums all made it into the Top 10 of Oricon. I also recall seeing them a few times on NHK's "Kayo Concert"（歌謡コンサート）and its replacement program "Uta Con"（うたコン）, and I believe that they also provided themes for some NHK variety series. However, everything all ended when Kalafina officially broke up in 2019.
A few weeks ago, I wrote on Creepy Nuts' rocking opening and ending themes for the currently running anime adaptation of the manga "Yofukashi no Uta"（よふかしのうた）which was originally created by mangaka Kotoyama（コトヤマ）. Kotoyama was also the artist behind "Dagashi Kashi"（だがしかし）whose anime had a couple of seasons of which the 2016 first season was the one that I really liked.
Seiyuu Ayana Taketatsu（竹達彩奈）who played the main know-it-all character of Hotaru also performed the ending theme for that first season, the delectable "Hey! Calorie Queen" (Hey!カロリーQueen). I was listening to my hard drive filled with anison, thanks to my old anime buddy, and one of the songs was indeed that very single released in January 2016. The coupling song "Asayake to Yakusoku no Uta" (Song of Morning Glow and Promises) isn't too shabby either. Written and composed by Reiji Okii（沖井礼二）, it makes for quite a contrast with the main tune since the rollicking rhythm has that hint of Shibuya-kei, almost like a Flippers' Guitar（フリッパーズギター）tune from the early 1990s.
I heard that Taketatsu and fellow seiyuu Yuuki Kaji（梶裕貴）got married back in 2019. Well, about a month ago, the two of them celebrated the birth of their first child, according to Oricon News. Many congratulations to the couple!
Around March last year, I mentioned about the rock band Akaiko-en（赤い公園）and their 2019 tune "Highway Cabriolet" which I thought was pretty cool. In the same article, I also wrote about the tragic death of the leader and guitarist for the band, Maisa Tsuno（津野米咲）, in late 2020 which led to the eventual breakup of Akaiko-en.
Some months ago, I discovered one of the band's earlier singles. In fact, it's their 2nd major single"Imasara" from July 2013 that peaked at No. 40. When I looked up the term on Jisho.org, I found a couple of seemingly contradictory definitions for it. One is now as in "now when it's too late"; as an example, "You want me to buy pickles NOW after the store's closed?!". The other definition is "afresh" or "anew", so perhaps there is some hope.
The late Tsuno wrote and composed the relatively brief "Imasara" which might be more associated with that first definition. I think that the implications from the lyrics is that it may already be too late in this rat race but perhaps folks can just slow down and smell the coffee, at least before they have to rev up to warp speed once more.
The music video is pretty interesting as well as the band is not only performing its alternating thrashing and melodic sounds in what could be next to a dude ranch, but Tsuno and her bandmates are also getting into some aidoru-like choreography while also going on instruments. I'm not even sure whether the camera is rolling forwards or backwards since the dance moves appear so angular and jerky.
Following the breakup of Akaiko-en and the untimely passing of Tsuno, the members have gone onto other projects. Drummer Nao Utagawa（歌川菜穂）joined the rock band THE 2 in 2018 while vocalist Chiaki Sato（佐藤千明）who had left Akaiko-en in 2017 opted to follow a solo career.
As I've mentioned many a time on the blog, one of the very few things that I've not missed about my former life in Japan is the notoriously hot and humid summer. Summer festivals are lovely and frankly are nearly an obligatory plot setting in anime, and I actually do miss the incessant sounding of the cicadas in the latter part of the season. But the heat and humidity have been meteorological elements that I've been more than happy to do without, although the countermeasures have been fascinating, to be sure.
One of those countermeasures happen to be the wealth of vending machines in Japan including Tokyo. There are so many of them around that they deserve voting rights, and the gratitude that I had whenever I plunked in my coins or slipped in my bills is beyond simple expression. The two of them just steps away from my old Ichikawa apartment were my good buddies whenever I got home as I bought Max Coffee, Pocari Sweat or Calpis along with the usual cola. I had a couple of buddies from the old country who visited and while I was teaching during the day, the two of them did their walkabout of the megalopolis in the dog days of summer. Much to their horror, one of them was burning through his budget buying drinks every 500 metres on the street in Omotesando since he was feeling so hot; they thankfully escaped into a café before heatstroke truly took hold.
Regardless of my swooning over cold drinks in the hot summer, I've got some seasonal fare via cinnamons'"Summer Radio" which was a track on their debut EP"a.m.e" from January 2017. I guess that releasing the CD at that time must have been a counterintuitive measure to bring hope to the masses during the cold winter that sun and warmth were merely some months away. A twinkly keyboard sequence is underlaid by a funk/rock rhythm for Mariko Suzuki's（鈴木まりこ）floaty and effervescent vocals to create some upbeat alternative pop.
Here's hoping that my friends in Tokyo are hanging in there. I heard that high temperatures have been hitting 35 degrees Celsius without taking into account the Humidex.
Once again, this is one of those singers whose information is sparse and thrown all over the Internet (for instance, there is nothing of him on the JASRAC database). Tomohiro Kaifuku（海福知弘）is a singer who has been compared to funkster Yasuyuki Okamura（岡村靖幸）, and seemed to have been most active in the early 1990s with at least one single and only two albums.
Well, that one single I found is the subject of this article "Kiss ga Todokanai" (Your Kisses Don't Reach Me) which was released in 1992. The song hits me as being particularly silky sophisticated synthesized pop funk of the era. As well, there is nice and sexy sighing by the backup singers and the arranger even threw in some synths masquerading as French horns. As for Kaifuku himself, he reminds me of a slightly breathier and more frenetic Bryan Ferry. "Kiss ga Todokanai" was also a track on his second and final album to date "Love Chic" also from 1992.
Scott put up his latest "Holly Jolly X'masu"podcast in the past few days and the theme for this new episode is on summer-themed Christmas J-Pop. Hope you can give it a try. It did spark some wonder from me since I've observed that Japanese singers and songwriters do have that predilection of improbably connecting the hot season with the Yuletide, one famous example being KUWATA BAND's"Merry X'mas in Summer" from 1986.
But I have heard of other similarly themed tunes, and Scott has been kind enough to provide his list. I've wondered why this whole thing came about although knowing for a long time that Japanese pop culture can be very whimsical. To be frank, I can only theorize that the common denominator is love and romance. Summer via that setting of the beach has been a popular one for flirtations and affairs; meanwhile, the Yuletide in Japan has been treated as a second Valentine's Day. Musically speaking, it could be a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup in that the naturally upbeat music of summer can be meshed with the often-but-not-always upbeat feeling of a J-Xmas without all of those jingle bells.
The first song on Scott's podcast was quite the pleasant surprise. It was Arisa Mizuki's（観月ありさ）"Kotoshi Ichiban Kaze no Tsuyoi Gogo"(The Windiest Afternoon of the Year) which served as the singer/actress' 5th single from May 1993. There is nothing Xmas-y about the title and of course the release date was more than 7 months away from December 25th. Yet, it has that happy-go-lucky melody and arrangement by Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）and Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）respectively which could befit a summer beach and a winter ski slope (love the chorus and percussion, by the way). Incidentally, Yuming（ユーミン）was going under her songwriter's pseudonym of Karuho Kureta（呉田軽穂）which is about the latest that I've observed her using it since I had been accustomed to her using it in the early 1980s for the teenybopper singers back then like Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）.
Another thing that takes away the usual image of pine trees, sleighs and mistletoe is the music video itself. "Kotoshi Ichiban Kaze no Tsuyoi Gogo" begins with two minutes of young Arisa traipsing around what looks like subtropical Okinawa before the music finally chimes in. Knowing her all these years in her roles as either a long-running goofball nurse or a tough-as-nails detective, it's nicely refreshing once more seeing her back then as that lanky teenager. Despite the southern travelogue, Yuming's lyrics profess of a young lady pining for a fellow during the beach summer and dreaming ahead to a potentially romantic Christmas.
I also have to note that Mizuki sounds really great behind the mike which is saying something since I had been so unimpressed with her performance of her previous single "Too Shy Shy Boy!" on television all those years ago. It's about as fresh-faced a delivery that I've heard from any aidoru of the 1990s. The song is so positive and bubbly that I figured that it probably had to have been used for some TV ad. Sure enough, it was...Kirin's Chasse soda (which had "Too Shy Shy Boy!" as a campaign song as well). The song hit No. 8 on Oricon.
The photo above is of one of the Roppongi Hills apartment buildings. There was one notorious dot-com millionaire living there, although I'm not sure whether he was residing in the penthouse or not. He was very publicly living the life of Riley and the media was lapping it all up like a thirsty cat at a plate of milk, only to be taken down by some illegal doings. After that, he lived in far more humble surroundings in prison for a few years and he lost quite a lot of weight which in his case was a good thing.
I've seen grand tours of penthouses via YouTube channels, especially those in New York City like the one right here by Enes Yilmazer. Yup, they're certainly opulent and beautiful but along with the nosebleed-inducing prices, I worry about things such as power failures and other utility problems when it comes to the otherwise luxurious top floors of condo buildings. I can only hope that the six-zero price tag includes independent generators and water pumps, but then again, if people can afford penthouse suites then they probably can afford second or third homes on the ground floor elsewhere during an emergency. Owners most likely wouldn't jog up and down the fifty floors unless they had legs like the Hulk's or armoured suits that Tony Stark used to wear.
Anyways, to get away from all of the negativity of penthouse living, we can all focus on a track from Tomoko Soryo's（惣領智子）1981 album "It's About Time". Although the J-Wiki article lists it as having been released in 1980, other sites have stated 1981 so I'll go with the majority opinion. "Penthouse Cocktail" is a melodic version of what the high life in buildings must be like, thanks to Soryo's then-husband Yasunori Soryo's（惣領泰則）composition. The singer's soft and soulful delivery of Ikuko Okado's（おかどいくこ）lyrics really does bring images of someone making Friday night martinis or pina coladas after a hard work week in that penthouse. Just hop into the Japanese massage chair, sip on the cocktail, enjoy the sunset through the 50th-floor floor-to-ceiling windows, and listen to this song.
Well, what do you know? There is a cocktail known as the Penthouse!
Can't quite help it here, but when I listen to musician/songwriter Shigeru Suzuki's（鈴木茂）disco instrumental "Hot Blooded", the first track on his 1979 "White Heat" album, I feel that this should have been the theme song or at least a soundtrack piece to the Japanese equivalent of an old American Quinn Martin cop/detective show. I mean that there is that certain urgent feeling of "Let's go get the bad guys!" in "Hot Blooded", and of course, the title itself could describe any intrepid lone-wolf officer.
Along with Suzuki's guitar, there are some fine horns in there including the Shin Kazuhara（数原晋）Group and the bass by Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）.
Tokyo is so large that it has several discrete major urban hubs whether it be the Teen Mecca of Shibuya, glitzy Ginza and Akasaka, bayside Odaiba and the salaryman's old-style haven Shimbashi among other sites. Depending on what and how much you want to see, it could take a few days to get even the major neighbourhoods under your belt.
Singer/actress Miyuki Kosaka（香坂みゆき）has sung on the wonders of one of the world's largest cities a number of times whether it be through "Tokyo ga Suki"（東京が好き）that I've already written about, and a couple of others that I have yet to tackle: "Get Back Tokyo" and "Tokyo Shadow". However, I do have one song, "Tokyo Magic Town" that I can reveal here and now.
A track on her March 1982 6th album"Backstage", this was written by Kaoru Ito（伊藤薫）and Kosaka and composed by Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）. "Tokyo Magic Town" kinda straddles between City Pop and regular pop, although on repeated listenings, that busy bass can have me rescinding that latter genre and just go full bore into the urban contemporary. It's quite the paint-the-town-red excitement powering the tune as it feels like a drive on the Kan-Etsu interweaving the many skyscrapers of the capital itself.
Remembering the article that I did last night for Misako Honjo's（本城未沙子）"Emergency" and prefacing it with my observations of "Thor: Love and Thunder", one of the Marvel movie's themes was meeting the old ex, re-experiencing what made the relationship special and then having a proper farewell.
Well, strangely enough, while I was doing my maintenance on the year of 1980 (something that will take a week when all's said and done), I checked Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）"Lonely Wind" from her "Love Songs" album of that year, and then discovered that composer Kingo Hamada（濱田金吾）had actually performed the original version of the ballad. Yes, that's right...Hamada had recorded his "Lonely Wind" as a part of his January 1980 album"Manhattan in the Rain" (love that cover, by the way), a few months before Takeuchi released "Love Songs" in March.
Now, this song's connection with the "Thor" movie and I guess the earlier "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" as well can come through Kazuko Kobayashi's（小林和子）lyrics. In "Lonely Wind", they speak on a former couple meeting up once more at some swanky soiree with perhaps the guy inquiring at a potential second chance before the lady sadly turns him down stating basically that what's done is done. No do-overs. Bittersweet lyrically though it is, Gerald Alters' arrangement of Hamada's melody is lovely; compared to Takeuchi's just-as-lovely doo-wop version with a touch of jazz, the original by the singer-songwriter has that laconic and breezy jazz feeling that would fit the atmosphere of that genteel soiree.
I was going to compare "Lonely Wind" to a "Great Gatsby" party but then remembering how that went in Baz Luhrmann's 2013 movie with Leonardo DiCaprio, I think that it's better to do so with the impression of what life could be like in the wealthy areas of Long Island, New York State. The strange thing with me is that due to a misinterpretation of a lyric from a Manhattan Transfer song, I had assumed that there was a Long Island sound of jazz to describe this sort of breezy music, but as it turns out, I believe the lyric is actually referring to the body of water known as the Long Island Sound. Still, considering this particular form of jazz/beautiful music and the prosperous area, wouldn't it be nice for such a subgenre to exist?
Crashing at friends' places over the years, I've had my sleep sessions on sofa beds. Heck, my family has had a sofa bed so that whenever relatives came to visit Toronto, I got to sleep on it in the living room back when I was a teenager. I have to say that it was rather firm...an intriguing experience.😑
What has been another intriguing experience is listening to this track "Sofa Bed Blues" from Haruo Chikada & Vibratones'（近田春夫&ビブラトーンズ）1981 album"Midnight Pianist". What starts out as this supremely funky strut in the opening verses jumps into this proud refrain of City Pop and disco which even segues briefly into samba. Chikada may not have the strongest voice but he and his band more than make up for it here with the potpourri of styles within this less-than-four-minute song. And even when he sings that refrain, I also suddenly get some feelings of Omega Tribe（オメガトライブ）when Carlos Toshiki was behind the mike.
I also have another track covered from "Midnight Pianist", "Kinyoubi no Tenshi"（金曜日の天使）, which is more of a New Wave tune. For "Sofa Bed Blues", Chikada came up with the lyrics while his fellow Vibratone Yutaka Fukuoka（福岡ユタカ）composed the melody.
Yup, earlier this afternoon, I finally caught the latest Marvel movie, "Thor: Love and Thunder". Again, as was the case with "Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness", it wasn't the greatest of the superhero movies but it was fun enough and it was far different from the latter movie despite the fact that both had their mystical elements. The music was interesting in that compared to the techno aspects in the previous "Thor" movie, "Thor: Ragnarok", the fourth entry here was having fun with hard rock and heavy metal, spearheaded by Guns N' Roses' classic "Sweet Child O' Mine".
Well, I kinda figured that I would probably do something in the rock and heavy metal field when I got home tonight. Happily, I could find this one from the backlog, and it's the first time that she's appearing on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", so please give a warm welcome to Tokyo-born Misako Honjo（本城未沙子）. Incidentally, her uncle on her mother's side happens to be producer Daiko Nagato（長戸大幸）, the founder of Being Inc., and so there might have been some of that influence on her musical choices.
Even as a student attending Seijo Gakuen High School in 1982, she had already released her debut album"Majo Densetsu ~ Messiah's Blessing"（魔女伝説...Legend of the Witch）, but her debut single didn't come out until 1984. "Emergency" was written by Kayoko Fuyumori（冬杜花代子） and composed/arranged by George Agatsuma（ジョージ吾妻）. My knowledge in differentiating the various rock subgenres is about as good as my knowledge on doing the same with techno...i.e. not very, so just to cover all of the bases, I'll throw in both the J-Rock and Heavy Metal genres in Labels.
Her J-Wiki article doesn't reveal who any of her influences were. Maybe they were Yuki Katsuragi（葛城ユキ）and 1980s Ann Lewis（アン・ルイス）, but the arrangement of "Emergency" and her vocals make me wonder whether Honjo herself may have influenced later turn-of-the-decade girl rock bands such as Princess Princess and Pink Sapphire. It's fascinating how similar she sounds to Princess Princess' vocalist Kaori Okui（奥居香）. In any case, she released just one more single in 1989 but has put out many more original albums up to 1990. However, that final album to date "Shall We Dance?" is more in the pop vein.
For this week's Reminiscings of Youth, perhaps I should have done this one a few days ago since it was indeed a rainy Monday, but what's done is done. In any case, the Carpenters' "Rainy Days and Mondays" can still hit me pretty hard depending on my mood after all these years, although when I first heard it as a kid on the radio, it was the melody and Karen's incredible voice that got into my head without knowing the lyrics.
Created by Paul Williams and Roger Nichols as Karen and Richard's April 1971 single, "Rainy Days and Mondays" zoomed up the Billboard singles charts to reach No. 2, just behind Carole King's"It's Too Late/I Feel the Earth Move", itself no slouch in the legendary pop song category. In Canada, it peaked at No. 3, although on the Adult Contemporary charts for both the US and my country, the song did reach No. 1. Of course, along with Karen's vocals, it was the harmonica, the sax solo and those famous Carpenters harmonies that have stayed with me despite the theme of sadness and loneliness.
Who were some of the winners at the Japan Record Awards in that year of 1971?
In a nutshell, Yellow Magic Orchestra began by filtering its wonderful technopop through genres such as surf rock, exotica and even 1940s adventure soundtracks during its early years in the late 1970s before they decided to take a turn into something harder on the techno part. But then with their May 1983 7th album"Uwaki na Bokura"（浮気なぼくら...Naughty Boys）, for Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）, Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）and Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）, perhaps the pendulum swung again into something that emphasized the pop side. Maybe the biggest example of that was the track and single "Kimi ni Mune Kyun"（君に、胸キュン）.
One interesting thing is that "Uwaki na Bokura" had a sequel of sorts in the form of an instrumental remix album "Uwaki na Bokura (Instrumental)" that was released later in the year in July. There is one track that has caught my ear, "Chaos Panic". Composed by Hosono, it's a song that is so sweet that I think it could have been made for a kids' variety show, despite the title. Those cascades of synthesizers and emulators could be imitating the children jumping for joy all about in the water park.
However, the first time that I heard this was through the vocalized version which made up the B-side to the single "Kimi ni Mune Kyun". Peter Barakan and Hosono provided the mix of English and Japanese lyrics for singer Takahashi, and it sounds like half of those musical machines were excised to make room for the vocals. Listening to this version, I couldn't help but get some of those Howard Jones vibes for the entire song whereas the late musician and singer Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博） himself sounded like Jones. Apparently, according to the title for the above video, Takahashi's vocal version has yet to be placed on any original album.
Onyanko Club（おニャン子クラブ）, as Marcos V. and I have been explaining all throughout the past decade, was the first massive aidoru conglomeration that songwriter and producer Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）created, years before the alphabet aidoru groups such as AKB 48. As such, there were going to be offshoots from the mother group in the form of individual teenyboppers and small units coming up with their own tunes. Marcos wrote on one trio, Ushirogami Hikaretai（うしろ髪ひかれ隊）which had Shizuka Kudo (工藤静香) , Akiko Ikuina (生稲晃子) and Makiko Saito (斉藤満喜子) and their contribution, "Anata wo Shiritai" (あなたを知りたい). That unit had their time between May 1987 and July 1988 with five singles and two original albums under their belt.
Well, there was another unit in the form of a duo, Yukiko Iwai and Mamiko Takai（岩井由紀子・高井麻巳子）, called Ushiroyubi Sasaregumi（うしろゆびさされ組）, which began even earlier in the era of the Onyanko Club and had a longer time at it from October 1985 to February 1987. They released a total of six singles and two original albums, all of which broke into the Top 10.
Their second single, "Banana no Namida" (Banana Tears), was released in January 1986 and it served as the second ending theme for the Fuji-TVanime adaptation of the manga "High School! Kimengumi"（ハイスクール!奇面組...High School! Funny Face Club） which had a long run paralleling Ushiroyubi Sasaregumi's career. In fact, some of their singles and non-single tracks were tied at the hip with the show.
From the synopsis of "High School! Kimengumi", it seems as if the series may have been the grand ancestor of all those secondary school-based anime crazy comedies with misfit students in a club. "Banana no Namida" is itself a fun and light-hearted tune with a tropical beat thrown into the mix. With Akimoto behind the lyrics and Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）composing and arranging everything, the song hit No. 1 on Oricon and later became the 17th-ranked single for 1986. "Banana no Namida" was also a track on Ushiroyubi Sasaregumi's first studio album"Fu-Wa-Fu-Ra"（ふ・わ・ふ・ら）which came out in June that year and peaked at No. 2.
If this scene is typical of an episode, then I think the high school club was well-named.
I didn't have the greatest day so I've been licking my wounds to a certain extent but knowing myself, I probably won't start to get over things until I wake up tomorrow morning. Such is life. However, what's been an aural and musical balm over the past several minutes has been an album that was released late last year by a supergroup of sorts.
At first, I was just going to do the one track from Uniolla's first album from November 2021,"UNIOLLA", "Hate ni wa"（果てには...In The End） but listening to another couple of songs from the album at the Love Psychedelicowebsite, and yup that will give listeners a clue as to who is in Uniolla, I decided to at least devote the article to "UNIOLLA". The band consists of Love Psychedelico's vocalist and guitarist Kumi, her vocalist/guitarist husband Motoaki Fukanuma（深沼元昭）from the rock band Plagues, bassist Koji Hayashi（林幸治）from Triceratops, and drummer Hideaki Iwanaka（岩中英明）from Barbars.
My impression of the album is merely from the three songs that are going to be featured here (all created by Fukanuma), but "UNIOLLA" sounds like some very relaxed shoegazer or dream pop. It's like the type of music that one would love to hear on a spring day in an old refurbished house, and the videos are all based in such an abode with the band performing away in various rooms. Going to "Hate ni wa" above, it's an introspective and gentle ballad about what could be at the end of all things. There is no answer but hopefully the significant other is there by one's side. Seeing Kumi playing the keyboard on the carpet while the scene is all done in dramatically fuzzy black-and-white adds to the wistfulness of it all. As well, the higher pitch in her delivery compared to her slightly drawly one in Love Psychedelico is quite remarkable.
"A Perfect Day" is a folksy depiction of what a perfect day would be...something that definitely wasn't the case for me today, but at least I'm glad that other people could have them. Not sure if that is indeed a mandolin being played, but its inclusion makes the song very friendly and approachable. The image of the band just jamming away in the living room feels as if a party of good friends got together and everyone's invited.
The final track that I'm showing here is "Zettai" (絶対...Absolutely), and it's also an upbeat love song in which someone is asking that their lover provide that stability that the word zettai hints at, even at the risk of it coming across as hollow. The protagonist is one who has confessed to a lot of mistakes and hopefully their significant other can be the one to provide the absolute in happiness and love.
Strangely enough, that Asakusa building isn't a neon-lit cabaret or karaoke box but a sushi restaurant. Hey, if it brings in the customers, that's fine.
The phrase that I learned in Gunma, "Neon ga yonderu"（ネオンが呼んでいる...The neon is calling）, is something that comes to mind when I hear "Showa Paradise" by the Mood Kayo group that came up with the 1977 hit "Hoshi Furu Machikado" (星降る街角）. Toshi Ito and Happy & Blue （敏いとうとハッピー&ブルー）have had a slight name change over the past few years as they are now known as Shinsei Toshi Ito and Happy & Blue（新☆敏いとうとハッピー＆ブルー...New Star Toshi Ito and Happy & Blue）. Ito actually retired about a decade ago and the vocals are now being handled by new leader and main vocalist Masaru Shishido（宍戸マサル）.
But getting back to "Showa Paradise", which was released as their most recent single in November 2021, about six years following their last one, it has that classic Mood Kayo sound that I grew up with although I was a little worried about the Casio synthesizer intro, but then when the guitar and the chorus flowed in, everything was all good. Music and lyrics were provided by Shishido and with all of the whimsy of the titular era, the words basically consist of the famous Mood Kayo and other kayo song titles (including "Hoshi Furu Machikado"), so there's some tongue-in-cheek in "Showa Paradise". The style reminds me of Masaaki Hirano's（平野雅昭）"Enka Chanchakachan"（演歌チャンチャカチャン）from 1977 when the singer incorporated the most notable lyrics from famous kayo into his own cocktail kayo.
I actually heard the song for the first time on a "Uta Con"（うたコン）episode not too long ago. Let's hope that the Showa neon keeps on calling for the foreseeable future.
Frankly speaking, I'm not sure what the state of summer festivals this year is considering that COVID-19 seems to be raging through Japan once more. I'm on the fence here since although I know that people have to stay safe, I also feel for those residents who love their matsuri and have been rarin' to go with them once more after a couple of years of no celebrations. I remember that the Sumida River Fireworks Festival was cancelled this year as well after a tentative date of July 30th, but I'm not sure about some of the smaller and local festivals.
My thoughts above were sparked after watching the video for Pizzicato Five's September 2000 23rd single"Tokyo no Gasshou" (Tokyo Singalong). It has the divine Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）along with good buddies, singer Shigeru Matsuzaki（松崎しげる）and hip-hop musician YOU THE ROCK☆ painting the town red through Old Tokyo, including my old work area of Asakusa during the summer.
It's quite the thing to see representatives of Shibuya-kei, 70s balladry and turn-of-the-century hip-hop altogether as they ply their vocal trade (Nomiya and Matsuzaki crooning away while YOU weaves rap here and there) while the music reflects the influences, too. Although I don't think "Tokyo no Gasshou" will go down as one of my favourite P5 tunes, I'm thankful for letting the trio show me some of those natsukashii scenes including walking along Nakamise Douri and the rickshaw rides around Asakusa. A couple of friends and I did one such ride around the neighbourhood; I think the operator took one look at me and reckoned that he was really going to earn his pay that night.
The one thing that I never got to do which is featured in the latter part of the video was enjoying a trip on the yakatabune on the Sumida River. I'm not sure how much one would pay for the ride and dinner but I figure that it must be a special occasion. In any case, YOU THE ROCK☆ and P5's Yasuharu Konishi（小西康晴）created "Tokyo no Gasshou".
Going into the final full week of July 2022, perhaps we can start "Kayo Kyoku Plus" with a spicy Latin number.
Yesterday, I wrote about Anna Banana（アンナ・バナナ）for the first time and one of her songs from the early 1990s. Lo and behold, I discovered another ANNA but with no last name and in full caps, and I was pleasantly surprised that she does have her own J-Wiki providing a few social media links. She hails from Chiba Prefecture and is currently a radio personality and a narrator.
However in the mid-1990s and for some years after that, she was also a singer with eight singles and two albums. From her second album, the March 1998"Stories", here is her track "Anna ni Koi Shita" which could be a cute intentional pun in that it means either "I Fell So Much In Love" or "I Fell In Love With Anna". As you can hear, it's dance club form of exciting samba about ANNA herself possibly finding love and intrigue in Brazil. There's even some faint hint of Barry Manilow's"Copacabana".
From that J-Wiki article, I found out that ANNA had been part of Toshiki Kadomatsu's（角松敏生）VOCALAND project between 1996 and 1997 to introduce new female singers. Kadomatsu was also behind the production of "Stories" with Akio Inoue（井上秋緒）providing lyrics and Akira Okamoto（岡本朗）composing the samba. When Okamoto was himself a singer under the name Issei Okamoto（岡本一生）, he was quite happy with the City Pop in the late 1970s onwards with gems like "Midnight Station".
ANNA has an active blog and has been jockeying the Chiba Prefecture-based bayfm program "miracle!!" ever since it started in 2008. Below is a September 2016 broadcast.
This song with its own YouTube video popped up on the right side of the screen a couple of nights ago. When I first saw the name Anna Banana（アンナ・バナナ）, I immediately thought it was some kind of quirky line of tropical summer wear. And then I discovered that there was an octogenarian Canadian performance artist under that same name but this was a different Anna Banana altogether.
Actually this Anna Banana does have a J-Wiki article. What I found out is that Anna Demeo had been born in California to an Italian-American father and a Japanese-American mother, and she came to Japan to pursue a modeling career and do some singing between the late 1980s going into the 1990s. She released 9 singles and 6 albums.
From her penultimate album"High Dive" from June 1993, I give you "Smile".😀 It's a nice and groovy pop tune written by one of the Queens of J-R&B Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）and composed by Original Love himself, Takao Tajima（田島貴男）. I have to say that I do like Anna's vocals, and though they are different from those of this particular singer, I think that Miki Imai（今井美樹）would be someone who could easily cover "Smile".
There is something urban and urbane about "Smile", although I don't think it fits in with any of the City Pop, Shibuya-kei or AOR genres. It's just good listening in the pop vein, and I've read that it was used in NHK's "Minna no Uta"（みんなのうた）series of songs for kids.
Despite being an old-fashioned Marvel Comics fan centering upon the "X-Men" books, I've been keeping my interests for the Marvel Cinematic Universe at large, although as you might expect, I had also seen the original "X-Men" movies with Sir Patrick Stewart and even earlier, the Fox animated series in the early 1990s. However, continuing collecting those comics was impossible (though I tried) while living in Japan because the prices were simply way too expensive for my non-mutant blood. So, I was happy to see that Hollywood had finally decided to explore the world of Marvel via full motion pictures by the end of the last century.
As the thumbnail at the top says, it was truly a Marvel onslaught yesterday at a San Diego's Comicon presentation when Kevin Feige made his prognostications regarding the future of the MCU through Phases 5 and 6. Now that we're not only twenty years into this huge era of superhero movies and TV series but in the immediate post-"Endgame" era, I don't particularly have any major excitement for any one movie or Disney+ series, though "She-Hulk" looks entertaining enough. I guess that I may be suffering from Marvel fatigue of a sort. The one thing that I did notice though was that Feige didn't mention any timeline for the emergence of MCU's "X-Men" although hints have begun popping up at the end of "Ms. Marvel", and of course, that Professor X cameo in "Dr. Strange In the Multiverse of Madness". Perhaps that might be Phase 7.
Getting back to the 90s animated series of "X-Men", that mysterious and dramatic and shall we say downright uncanny theme by Ron Wasserman has been so beloved that it even made cameos itself in those two MCU projects that I just mentioned. I certainly wouldn't mind it coming back in full someday down the decade.
Now I know that the animated series did get its debut in Japan a few years later. Before I started prepping for this article, I had also assumed that the series would have its own opening and closing themes done by Japanese musicians, and that in all likelihood, the songs would be hard rock. Well, I should have bought a lottery ticket today since I was right on both counts.
NOTE: I wrote the following down not realizing that I had actually done an article on "Rising", though not on "Back to You", all the way back in May 2016 but there is some new information here about the band so I'm retaining things as is.
The rock band AMBIENCE had a short life between 1990 and 1994 before starting up again from 2012. Near the end of their initial run in 1994, they released their second and third singles which were involved with "X-Men". That second single from May seems to be a double A-side since there are the two titles of "Rising" and "Dreamin'". "Rising", being the first of the two opening themes for the Japanese broadcast of the show in 1994, was written by vocalist Hiroshi Kitagawa（北川浩）and composed by guitarist Shuhei Endo（遠藤修平）and drummer Akihiko Shinone（篠根晃彦）. I have to admit that I got walloped with a lot of "Ai wo Torimodose!!"（愛をとりもどせ!!）vibes especially with that first word of "SHOCK!" in the lyrics. I also got a kick out of the new opening credits with the mutant team going up against the Brood.
The third single, "Back to You", came out later in November 1994 and it served as the show's ending theme. And from the sound of it, it's a little less intense. Written and composed by Endo, I guess that it's almost like the Japanese X-Men version of "It's Miller Time!". Let's head back to the X-Mansion for some brewskis and dinner. As one commenter put it, I think it's really nice that the producers put up covers of actual "X-Men" issues during the closing credits. I actually have some of those issues although where they are now and what condition they're in, I have no idea.
In any case, I've got a sneaking feeling that by the time the MCU finally draws down its curtains, I may end up having a couple of zeroes in my age.
Before I returned to the computer, I'd been watching NHK's coverage of the annual Gion Festival in Kyoto throughout July via TV Japan. I believe that it's the first time that the flamboyant event has been held in about three years due to the ravages of the pandemic on festivals and tourism. Looking at the crowds packing the streets, I gather that everyone had been looking forward to this for a long time, although I have to worry a bit about the infection rates.
I had my own upfront experience with the Gion Festival. Back in 1981, when we were on the graduation trip from the Toronto Japanese Language School, one of our stops was indeed the ancient capital of Kyoto. We got to see some of the pageantry on parade on the main streets. Mind you, the sidewalks were crammed three people deep, so I was grateful that I had already been in the middle of my growth spurts by that point. However, puberty didn't prevent the torrid heat and humidity from hitting us hard. I must have sweated off a kilogram by the time we got back to our hotel and I remember literally collapsing on my bed for a good long while.
Remembering those old times from over 40 years ago, and noticing that I still had over an hour before my Skype student, I opted to check whether there was something in the kayo discography that had something to do with the Gion Festival. Fortunately, I didn't have to search long. There was a song with that very title by smooth songsmith and singer Shinji Tanimura（谷村新司）.
His 17th solo single released in January 1986, "Gion Matsuri" (Gion Festival) is more melodically aligned with Tanimura's style than the impression that would be associated with a venerable event like the Gion. There are no traditional instruments and min'yo melodies involved here. Instead, the music by Tanimura is an elegant, folksy and introspective ballad with strings, guitar and oboe involving the singer's words of romance and nostalgia about the titular festival.
The B-side for "Gion Matsuri" happens to be Tanimura's own cover of "Ii Hi Tabidachi"（いい日旅立ち）, a song for Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）that has become one of her enduring trademark tunes.
It's been over three years since a new Mi-Ke article has been sighted around these parts, so I'm glad to have contributed to find one at last. To remind folks, Mi-Ke was a 1990s trio of female singers specializing in contemporized versions of the rock n' roll and Group Sounds, and they were first known as the chorus section of the group B.B. Queens. The three members were Keiko Utoku（宇徳敬子）, Haruka Murakami（村上遙）and Mami Watanabe（渡辺真美）. One of their big hits was the 1991 "Omoide no Kujukuri Hama"（思い出の九十九里浜）.
In July 1992, Mi-Ke released their 8th single"Asa made Odorou" (Dance All Night), and as the title signifies, it's all about putting on those party clothes and just spinning all about the dance floor until the sun rises. Yup, it sounds like getting the 1960s back into the 1990s combining the rock with the synth hits. Hiroshi Tachi（たちひろし）was responsible for the lyrics while Daiko Nagato（長戸大幸）provided the rock n' roll music. "Asa made Odorou" hit No. 15 on Oricon.
Now, if that lyricist's name rings a bell, especially for kayo and Japanese TV fans, then indeed you'll know that it is indeed singer and one-half of the the "Abunai Deka"（あぶない刑事）, Hiroshi Tachi（舘ひろし）, who wrote the words. In fact, Mi-Ke's single was a cover for the original version of "Asa made Odorou" recorded as a 2nd single from September 1977 by Tachi and his Sexy Dynamites（舘ひろしとセクシー・ダイナマイツ）.
Indeed, that is 1977 and not 1967, but the rock n' roll of yesteryear is still imbued in it, and I guess that might explain why the single was released again, this time as a solo effort by Tachi, in 1980. It was around that time when all those 50s rock n' roller types were amassing in Harajuku every weekend to do their twisting and dancing.
I found out some minutes ago that former 80s aidoruNaoko Kawai（河合奈保子）will be celebrating her 59th birthday tomorrow on July 24th, so of course, many good wishes to her. Realizing that it's been over 40 years since the 1980s, it's still a surprise to know that Ms. Kawai will just be a year away from celebrating her kanreki. To me, she'll always be the eternally snaggle-toothed smiling teenybopper in the fluffy white dress.
As such, let's go with a Naoko song to start this Saturday edition of "Kayo Kyoku Plus". On May 31st 2015, I did the article for her June 1st 1980 debut single"Ohkina Mori no Chiisana O-uchi"（大きな森の小さなお家）. I did mention back then that it was a scorching-hot day and it's turning out the same here today in Toronto.
Well, I've got the B-side to Naoko's Single No. 1 today, and it's "Hurricane Kid". Created by the same team behind "Ohkina Mori no Chiisana O-uchi": lyricist Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）and composer/arranger Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）, it's got the same jaunty and friendly beat as its A-side, albeit with a some added electric guitar. This time, though, the story has a young high school girl looking probably like a 1950s poodle-skirted Lori Beth Allen as she dates the titular Kid, judging from the mention of a lightning bolt on the back of his jacket. The wonderful thing is that although I've only heard this particular song just a few times, it's still got that happily familiar Naoko-ness in the delivery.
Having done my usual self-imposed quota of four urban contemporary tunes today, I was quite ready to call it a day on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", but having just completed a Skype lesson with my friend that got me all buoyed up, I did feel like putting this particular article up as a fifth contribution for Friday. Plus, I've been itching to do this Kenny Loggins song as a ROY piece for some weeks now. Another reason is that in the past few weeks, I've observed that Loggins has been getting that love again from Hollywood via "Danger Zone" returning to the "Top Gun" sequel and "Footloose" making a surprising, hilarious and super cool appearance in the third season of "The Umbrella Academy".
However, those two Loggins hits were his rock n' roll tunes later in the 1980s, and my favourite song by this well-coiffed singer-songwriter from Washington State is purely in the AOR genre. Yep, I'm talking about "Heart to Heart", his November 1982 single that came from his September album "High Adventure".
All these years, I'd assumed that "Heart to Heart", one of my favourite songs in any genre and language, was something from the late 1970s by Loggins so it was some surprise that it actually came out in the early 1980s. It was such a regular presence on my radio and it currently still is one of those soft rock classics that manage to send a thrill up and down my spine from intro to outro. It's amazing about the combination of fellows who came up with "Heart to Heart": Loggins, Canadian music royalty David Foster and Doobie Brothers' Michael McDonald, and together they created this love song of second chances and keeping the faith. All three, by the way, already have their representations on the blog, including Loggins' cover of Pages'"Who's Right, Who's Wrong".
"Heart to Heart" may be a love song but whenever I hear this one, I always think of a Cessna flying over the Grand Canyon at sunset. Pure freedom and joy! It's got a lot of wonderfully mixed influences in there: the elegance and romanticism from Loggins' alternately sultry/soaring vocals and the shimmering strings, David Sanborn's downtown saxophone solo, and McDonald's and Foster's funky/groovy keyboard work. I make it a point to listen to it now and then just to remind myself that amazingly moving music still exists here.
The song hit No. 1 and No. 3 on the Canadian and US Adult Contemporary charts respectively. I've actually talked about "Heart to Heart" before on my "Radio Influences (City Pop/AOR)" article back in 2018 before I started up Reminiscings of Youth, and there are a few songs in that list which have become ROY articles since then along with at least one more song that will be getting its own ROY treatment in the near future. I felt that like those, "Heart to Heart" needed its own article since it is such a beloved reminiscing song from my youth.
One final reason that I've put up "Heart to Heart" is that the three Japanese songs that are following this paragraph are all from the similar City Pop/J-AOR genres. I think that's the first time that's ever happened in a ROY article. To be precise, these are all singles that made their premiere in November 1982.
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