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.
Although I will always pale next to the families in Japan when it comes to this activity, I had my own o-souji（お掃除）session earlier today, and that is the big cleaning of the home just before the Old Year heads out the door and the New Year waltzes right in. It's a Japanese tradition and though I'm never going to be a neat freak, I can handle the process since it results in a cleaner and sleeker home...for a little while. So, there was much dust kicked about and a numerous amount of paper was thrown out
I also partook in the slurpier Japanese tradition of toshikoshi soba（年越しそば）for dinner tonight. Mind you, it was instant but it's the intent that matters, and I gotta say that even the instant stuff is pretty darn tasty nowadays, especially the tonkotsu soup. Above is how to make a homemade bowl of the stuff thanks to YouTuber Yukari's Kitchen.
Well, for my final article for 2022 on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I've decided to go for an Author's Pick. Last night, as I was getting ready to turn in, I managed to listen to Yumi Arai's（荒井由実）classic "Chuo Freeway"（中央フリーウェイ）. Indeed it is a classic since considering the time of year and the time of night, the musical serendipity that entered my ears as Yuming（ユーミン）sang about how much she appreciated getting that rare and luxurious drive home late at night was truly manna from heaven. By the way, the above video is once again thanks to J Utah.
Strangely enough, even that late at night, the gears in my head were still rotating and I thought about doing another Author's Pick on driving on the highways and byways of Japan. Despite the nation being a train otaku's Valhalla, there is still a romanticism about taking the car out for a spin on the streets whether they be in the metropolis or out in the countryside heading out to a seaside resort. Over the past several years, New Year's Eve has meant keeping things at home and in the last few years, I haven't even bothered ringing in the New Year through television. It's just me and YouTube and music. That sort of relaxation on an especially quiet December 31st can't be beat, and for some reason, I've associated that experience with that lovely day or night drive in Japan.
Now, I've already done one similar Author's Pick and that was back in November, so here's the sequel. As usual, they are not in any particular order. Have a listen and a look, and enjoy the ride.
On that note, this is Article No. 1084 for 2022, so we've all happily managed to attain quite a feat by having the most number of articles for a single year thus far on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" to beat 2021's 1046. Despite all that has happened around the world over the past 12 months, I am happy (and I hope that you are, too) that KKP reached its 10th anniversary this year. This is thanks to everybody involved from the contributors (Marcos, Noelle, Larry, Joana, HRLE92) and commenters including Brian and Jim, and also the readers. I'm certainly hoping that 2023 will continue the same path of insanely putting up kayo kyoku and J-Pop here on the blog without the need for a straitjacket (not that one would fit me anyways).
Happy New Year to everyone and we'll see each other again on January 1st 2023 (perhaps with my own thoughts on the Kohaku after watching it) and later on, we'll enter our 11th year.🎊 よいお年をお迎えください。
I usually watch Kouhaku 紅白歌合戦 on January1st but this year, I’m watching it on New Year Eve at Starbucks as we speak.
First of all, I would like to take back what I said last year, that I’m indifferent about Kouhaku. I just finished the first half and yet to watch the second half. But I can already feel the New Year atmosphere, an atmosphere that’s unique to Japan, I think. In addition, Kouhaku has become my way to explore Japanese music, to listen to what’s new, and to be nostalgic when I hear songs that I’m familiar with. I sincerely hope that it will continue.
I’m interested in Kouhaku this year mainly because
1) I am holding a tiny tiny hope that Akina 中森明菜 may appear as a surprise.
2) I am interested to see Hashimoto Kanna 橋本環奈 because she’s so cute.
3) I want to watch Anzen Chitai 安全地帯.
Here’re my thoughts after watching the first half.
1) Overall, the boy and girl groups all look like those in Korea. Make ups, clothes, choreography etc etc. In contrast, I’m happy to see Hinatazaka 48 and Perfume because they are not copies of Korean boy and girl groups.
2) I didn’t realize till now that Hashimoto is really short (just checked Wiki and she’s listed as 152cm, a bit short of 5 feet), especially when she’s sandwiched between Ooizumi 大泉洋 and Sakurai 櫻井翔. Her performance is okay so far. Kawaguchi Haruna 川口春奈 was so impressive last year that it’s hard to surpass.
3) Speaking about “surpassing”, nobody inside that NHK hall can surpass Go Hiromi ごひろみ in youthfulness. He looks younger each year!
4) I don’t ever want to be in the Kouhaku audience. Yes, really! It’s a lot of pressure to be the audience. You can’t just sit back and enjoy the show because you need to put on your own performance! Waving the pen light to the rhythm of the song, singing along, “pretending” to be enjoying etc etc. It’s especially true for the judges and those special guests sitting in the first tow. You don’t want to be caught on camera looking sleepy or yawning!
5) I found Yoshiki’s The Last Rockstars the most impressive so far. It’s definitely not my genre of music but they ALL looked so cool.
There’re less than 8 hours to go before 2022 is over here in California. I’ll be watching the second half after I’m finished with this post. I’ll likely write up my thoughts on the second half tomorrow.
It's not only the final day of the year today but it's also another weekend so it's time for the regular Gosanke（御三家）article. Last week, after writing on the 1970s Shin Sannin Musume（新三人娘）consisting of aidoru Rumiko Koyanagi（小柳ルミ子）, Mari Amachi（天地真理）and Saori Minami（南沙織）, I did get at least one comment about another trio of aidoru that got its own name.
Fascinatingly enough, the Hana no Chuusan Trio (The Trio of Third-Year Junior High School Students) , also from the early 1970s, consisting of Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）, Junko Sakurada（桜田淳子）and Masako Mori（森昌子）may have been the very first female gosanke that I'd ever seen in my life, thanks to some ancient VCR footage. Of course, back in the day when I was a kid, I hadn't been aware of these media-influenced trios that were put together for fan pleasure and excitement. It was just me going "Oh, OK, three big singers together on the stage".
Apparently, the name was placed onto Yamaguchi, Sakurada and Mori when Fumio Ikeda（池田文雄）, executive producer for famed NTV audition show "Star Tanjo!"（スター誕生！）, was in the midst of setting up the commemorative 100th episode of the show (August 26th 1973) when he realized that all three ladies were in the same third year (Grade 9) of junior high school. With the various gosanke and sannin musume that have come before, it was time to strike the iron while it was hot when it came to these fresh-faced aidoru. Considering the concert that took place as shown above, Ikeda's idea bore some very ripe fruit. Not only that, a "Shuukan Post"（週刊ポスト...The Weekly Post） article via J-Wiki noted that the birth of this trio helped in sparking the 1970s aidoru boom.
Of course, with the girls growing up through the education system into the different years of high school, the name had to change each year until they attained the status of Third-Year Senior High School Students later in the decade. By that point, it was decided that the trio would "retire" in 1977, although Yamaguchi, Sakurada and Mori would chug along on their individual careers. Yamaguchi herself would truly retire from showbiz a few years later in 1980 with her upcoming marriage.
Wherever you are, Happy New Year (as it already is in Japan) or Happy New Year's Eve (as it currently is here in Toronto and New York City among other places). The 73rd edition of NHK's Kohaku Utagassen already played out in the wee hours of the morning my time so I didn't bother watching it live but did PVR it, so hopefully we'll get a chance to see some of the highlights later on. As of this writing, it's breaking into morning in Japan so hopefully folks are prepping for that ozoni breakfast and/or getting ready to visit the local temples for that first New Year's prayer.
Speaking of the Kohaku Utagassen, I was scrolling down the lineup list for the participants. The band Ryokuoushoku Shakai（緑黄色社会）made its debut on the annual special, and they performed the song "Mela!" which was actually a track from their April 2020 album"Singalong". "Mela!" does fit the album since it is something that can induce a singalong among the audience, and perhaps it did with the folks at the renovated NHK Hall on New Year's Eve.
From the animated music video, I'd assumed that "Mela!" had been used as a theme song for an anime but it was used instead for a hair dye commercial. Still, the video is poignant to watch as an example of redemption. According to the writeup for the song on J-Wiki, it wasn't just meant for the listener to be the hero here but also to provide a twist on a couple of classic fairy tales: "Little Red Riding Hood" and "The Three Little Pigs". It seems as if the wolf is someone down on his luck in Tokyo with disdain following him from his former victims. However, the wolf is now trying to make amends to Red and the porcine trio. Does he make it?
Vocalist/guitarist Haruko Nagaya（長屋晴子）and guitarist Issei Kobayashi（小林壱誓）provided the lyrics while keyboardist peppe and bassist Shingo Anami（穴見真吾）took care of the peppy music with a touch of soul. I hope that Ryokuoushoku Shakai hit it out of the park with this one. We can certainly use upbeat songs like this one since Toronto will be ending its 2022 on a meteorologically dreary note.
With all that's happened in the world this year, and certainly there have been a couple of bumps in the road personally, I don't think the year 2022 will go down as a particularly happy year, although when it comes to the blog, I'm happy to say that we did celebrate our 10th anniversary. And so, maybe that's what we need to hang onto...let's think about the good times as we enter the final day of 2022.
Guitarist Tsuyoshi Kon（今剛）may be onto something then when he sings "THINK ABOUT THE GOOD TIMES", the second track on his first solo album"Studio Cat", released in July 1980. Beginning with a strutting rhythm, Kon comes out with his funky vocals although I can't quite get every word he's singing out there. However, he and his twangy guitar flying over the shimmy-worthy rhythm make it all worthwhile to forget about the worries in the world, even if it's for just four minutes and forty-four seconds.
I checked out the JASRAC database expecting that it would be Kon taking care of words and music. But then I found out that those were created by H2O! Is it really the same H2O duo that took care of folksy pop tunes such as the graduation-friendly "Omoide ga Ippai"（思い出がいっぱい）? Enquiring minds want to know.
Just a few hours after writing about a new discovery in Presents, I can also write about another recent encounter in the fusion field.
It doesn't hurt that the cover of their first album looks so gorgeous and 80s. The band that I'm talking about is 99.99, and nope it's not pronounced "Ninety-nine point nine nine"; the correct pronunciation according to the members is "Four-Nine" (save your complaints, scientists). I may also have to correct myself though since according to the Bar Chiba Music Store website, 99.99 was more of a loose project than an actual band. It consisted of eight members including keyboardist Masei Hattori（服部ませい）, who used to be part of the progressive rock band Ain Soph in the 1970s, and violinist Tadahiko Yokogawa（横川理彦）.
99.99 put out two albums during its time in the early 1980s. The first album, "99.99", was released onto the record shelves in April 1982 and according to one Goo blog, the album was split in half in terms of the music. There was a Type A (progressive rock and technopop) and a Type B (fusion). Track No. 1 is the Type B "Amazin' & Amusin'" and its melody certainly is the title. It's spacey but it also has that familiar fusion sound that brings up images of sipping an Orange Mimosa in a seashore café somewhere. Vocalist Suzi Kim（キム スージー）is guesting behind the mike (apparently, she was also involved in the band Doopees), and for those who love their electric guitar and bass solos, this song is for you.
The above video is of the entire album, uploaded by Rotating Farmhouse. Check out all of those Type A and Type B tunes.
Not quite sure what triggered that idea for a cover for Izumi Kobayashi's（小林泉美）December 1981"Coconuts High" except maybe Kobayashi did get high on coconuts. Anyways, we should get over to the final track for this album, "Mr. Cool", which does sound like a finale with its languid and relaxing melody by Kobayashi herself. Nanako Sato（佐藤奈々子）was responsible for the lyrics which are delivered by the singer in her characteristic breathy and caressing way.
With the classy AOR spiced up slightly with some Latin, I entertained the thought that this could have also been covered by fellow City Pop/J-AOR artist Junko Yagami（八神純子）.
However, Kobayashi's sultry take on "Mr. Cool" was itself a cover of the song that she provided fellow singer Tomoko Kuwae（桑江知子）the previous year for her April 1980 album"Mr. Cool". There seems to be a little more heartache in Kuwae's vocals while overall, the title track has some more City Pop vibe compared to the Resort Pop of Kobayashi's cover.
To give credit where credit is due, City Pop specialist and good friend Rocket Brown of the podcast "Come Along Radio" recommended this group to me several weekends ago when we were chatting on Discord. Fortunately, I was able to take a close gander at their website information in the days leading up to this first article since I hadn't been sure which words were the band's name and which ones were the album title.😁 Well, for the record, the band's name is Presents and their one-and-only album is "Feeling Like a Child" from 1980.
Some years ago, I wrote up on the band So Nice and their 1979 album"Love". A band that showed their admiration and love for the earlier group Sugar Babe with Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）through the various sunny tracks, I was surprised to discover that "Love" had been created by a bunch of university students who simply wanted to commemorate their amateur band days by wrapping things up in a bow with "Love" which had never been meant to be sold publicly but given out to family and friends as a present.
Well, guess what? Lightning can strike twice. The band Presents consisted of a group of childhood friends from Nerima and Nakano Wards in Tokyo who also had mutual associations with music, so they decided to make their own one-and-only album for distribution to their loved ones. What became "Feeling Like a Child" would be their 1980 creation just before they all headed out to the working world from university.
Keyboardist/percussionist Fumio Miura（三浦文夫）, guitarist Kiyoaki "Kiyo" Nakamura（中村清明）, guitarist/percussionist Shunya "Chabo" Hashimoto（橋本俊哉）, bassist Takeshi Nakajima（中島猛）, drummer/percussionist Tadashi Noguchi（野口匡）, backup singers Reiko Hibino（日比野礼子）and Yuriko "Yurippe" Yamazaki（山﨑有里子）made up Presents. All of the band members except for Yurippe had their opportunity behind the microphone, and apparently the rule was that each member had to come up with one song and a set of lyrics.
"Feeling Like a Child" was indeed given out to family and friends and then quietly left alone. Then, 42 years later, it was unearthed once more and with the resurgence in City Pop outside of Japan over the last few years, the album was given a new production shine before it was put onto the market from November 3rd 2022. I was happy to see that it was readily available on CD Japan and after hearing a couple of tracks on YouTube, I pulled the trigger and bought the album.
One more thing before I get into the first three tracks for Part 1 of this "Presents" series. It's wonderful that there is an all-English version of the band's website so everyone can find out about what made Presents tick and how "Feeling Like a Child" was produced, right down to the equipment used. I don't think that I ever been to a website that is as welcoming and homey as the one for this band is. It's almost as if I was going to be offered a cup of coffee and a massage chair when I hit the site. Heck, there is even one photo of some of the band members as kids.
"New York Nante Ikanai"（ニューヨークなんて行かない...I'm Not Going to New York） starts things off and indeed as it's written on their website, the song is mainstream Tokyo City Pop that was created and sung by Kiyo Nakamura. There is some nice groove going on here, accompanied by mellow brass that seems to be de rigueur for any City Pop song that has to do with the Big Apple. New York City isn't being especially slammed here by Nakamura; all he's saying is that there's no need to take the plane over to enjoy the big city life. As long as the significant other is present, then any nearby Japanese metropolis including Tokyo is perfectly fine for him.
Incidentally, the hospitality of the Presents site includes a page which provides a brief paragraph on each of the tracks. Therefore, you can get the band's take on what was going on when the songs were being produced.
Nakamura was also wholly behind Track 2, "One Night Darling", a relaxed but still rollicking tune about spending a night with that young lady. As mentioned in the commentary, Chabo Hashimoto leads the charge with some funky beats and Miura provides gliding keyboard support including a trip-the-light-fantastic solo on his Fender Rhodes.
The next track is "Forget and Forgive", written, composed and sung by bassist Nakajima. It's another languid slow jam which has been pictured by Nakajima himself in the commentary as an ideal driving song. I do agree with the bassist that it's something to be played in the wee hours past midnight. He also pointed out that he came up with the title when he saw the famous phrase in a dictionary, but from his lyrics, I also like to think that the setting is a man driving his car on the highway to let off some steam following a kerfuffle with his girlfriend.
The first two Fridays of 2023 will cover the remainder of "Feeling Like a Child", but I can let you know now that I think the album is a good get for any City Pop fans.
That photo above was taken in Komazawa Olympic Park（駒沢オリンピック公園）back in the summer of 2009. It's located far on the other side of Tokyo so as nice as it was, I didn't go there very often. There was a picnic there with friends back then and that was where I met a family who lived nearby the park. I ended up teaching the mother and father (well, the father was very fluent so it was more like talking about politics with him) every other Sunday in their apartment. It wasn't too long though that my commute through Komazawa Park would end since the family moved to Futako-Tamagawa although I would continue to teach them for a while longer. The neighbourhood around Komazawa was quite young and trendy with some nice restaurants.
Singer-songwriter Hitomi Yaida（矢井田瞳）was someone that was quite the regular presence on the music video channels and music shows in the early 2000s, thanks to her catchy pop/rock tunes and dynamism. She was quite the barefoot princess of J-Pop armed with her guitar. But I realized that time really sped by when she showed up on NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）a few months ago to perform one of her latest tunes.
Yaida half-jokingly remarked that her "Komazawa Koen" (Komazawa Park), which is a track on her September 2022 12th original album"All Right"（オールライト）, wasn't a go-touchi song despite the title and the fact that the episode had been covering those traditional tunes before her appearance. In fact, "Komazawa Park" doesn't reference anything about the Tokyo park at all; it's all about a woman's realization that her daughter is growing up and asking all sorts of difficult questions. Yaida did mention that her creation was based on that coming-of-age situation with her own child. It's definitely a Yaiko song although it now contains some more wistfulness and less speed.
Following a few weeks of Xmas-themed Reminiscings of Youth articles, it's time to return to normal somewhat, although I know that we're still in the Holidays. And for this final ROY of 2022, I wanted to bring in something danceable and nostalgic since we're approaching the final party season of the year. Not that I will be going anywhere near a club on December 31st; I'm simply too old for that now. It's gonna be toshikoshi soba for dinner on that night.
My first ROY regarding the legendary 80s band New Order revolved around "Bizarre Love Triangle" which was a favourite on the dance floor in all of those discos that my university buddies and I had used to frequent such as The Copa and RPM in Toronto. As soon as we heard the familiar intro, we were up and at 'em. However, we also had an affinity for the band's darker but still plenty danceable song "Blue Monday".
When I saw the Wikipedia information on the song, I was surprised to see that it had been released so early...in March 1983. I certainly don't recall hearing it that early in the decade. But then, I realized that the version that we'd been used to hearing and dancing to was "Blue Monday '88" (a lot of us liked to do a march to it) remixed by Quincy Jones and released in April 1988. Indeed, I did get my copy of the record as you can see in the thumbnail photo at the top. And the video above us here is of this remixed version while the video below has the original 1983 song.
I figure that there are plenty of representatives for 1980s music. New Order's"Blue Monday" would be the ambassador for the UK dance territory. The combination of the rat-a-tat drum, the synths and the bass/bass synth and especially Bernard Sumner's vocals is iconic. If there is ever a movie set in the 1980s, this is the song for the trailer as much as "In the Mood" has usually been utilized for any flick taking place in the 1920s or 1930s.
Apparently, the movie was no great shakes but "Wonder Woman 1984" had Sebastian Böhm making his mark on its trailer with his own version of "Blue Monday". It would have been cool to use it during an action scene there.
So, what were up at Nos. 1, 3 and 5 on Oricon for April 1988?
During my one-and-only year taking Linguistics at University of Toronto, I was told by my lecturer that language has always been changing, is always changing and will always be changing. He gave the one example of the word "milk" and said that in all likelihood, within a few hundred years, it will sound more like "mik" or even "miwk". I guess that our descendants will have to prepare for the funeral of [l].
I was reminded of this example when I first read the title of "Fantasic Show". Perhaps the rock band Yogee New Waves is trying to tell us the fate of one of those middle [t]s in a few hundred years. After all, one of the other things that I learned in Linguistics is that the mouth will always try to go the way of least resistance when it comes to basic pronunciation.
But until we get further confirmation, I will simply accept it as a cute title for the band's debut single in February 2015. I wrote about Yogee New Waves for the first time back this August when I heard about their City Pop love through their cover of Sugar Babe's classic "Downtown". Yup, with "Fantasic Show", which was written and composed by vocalist Kengo Kakudate（角舘健悟）, some of that sunny Sugar Babe New Music filters through here, too. However, that languid and bluesy guitar opening along with Kakudate's vocal style had me additionally thinking whether Yogee New Waves was introducing themselves with a good dollop of Original Love from the 1990s (hmmm...association between Original Love and Sugar Babe? Discuss.).
As for the lyrics, it seems as if Kakudate is desperately trying to get a date with a young woman that he has eyes for. He's promising a truly fantastic time although his English will get some stares. I don't foresee anything ominous about the hookup, though. Most likely, the two will end up at a Royal Host and share a mikshake.🥛Sorry, I couldn't find an icon for "milkshake".
First off, according to Jisho.org, the term hikarimono has at least a couple of meanings:
1. a luminous body (e.g. shooting star)
2. sliced fish with the silver skin left on (e.g. sardine, horse mackerel, shad, etc. for sushi)
The two different definitions might explain why singer-songwriter Aimyon's（あいみょん）song "Hikarimono" has been labeled on her own YouTube channel as "Raw Like Sushi". A track from her 2nd full album"Shunkanteki Sixth Sense"（瞬間的シックスセンス...Instantaneous Sixth Sense） from February 2019, the J-Wiki writeup on "Hikarimono" describes the tenderhearted ballad as a personal song for Aimyon herself as to how she was able to get through the bad times during her career. Basically, it's to not sweat the small stuff and just plug on ahead. Written and composed by Aimyon, an interview through Ongaku Natalie via J-Wiki revealed that when those strings first introduced "Hikarimono", she was on the verge of tears.
"Shunkanteki Sixth Sense" also has the track "Marigold"（マリーゴールド）which was the first Aimyon article that I wrote up back in 2018 before her first appearance on NHK's "Kohaku Utagassen". The album hit No. 2 on the Oricon weeklies and ended up as the 19th-ranked album of the year. She'll be making her 4th appearance on the New Year's Eve special in less than a week, although it won't be to perform "Hikarimono".
I never thought that I would ever be able to get my hands on Chika Ueda's（上田知華）"Classiest" which had originally been released in August 1984. For one thing, Ueda, who tragically passed away earlier this year, had been known more as a fine songwriter than a singer, and although I think of her as being a fine artist behind the microphone as well, my feeling was that there would be no impetus for the originating studio to put out a 1980s album recorded by a relatively obscure singer. Luckily, I was so wrong.
So, you can imagine my shock and delight early in November when I was browsing nonchalantly through CD Japan and found "Classiest" for sale as a limited edition disc, freshly released in the last few months. From my own impressions and the new liner notes, I think that the reasons for the re-introduction of Ueda's first album without her classical pop bandKaryobin were partly her recent passing and the fact that City Pop has burrowed its way into a lot of new fans' psyches in the last few years. And as the author of the liner notes, Hideharu Nagai（永井英治）, put it, having Ueda tackle music that was outside of her comfort zone of classical pop was very fresh at the time for her. Regardless of all that, however, as soon as I saw it on sale at CD Japan, I pulled the trigger on my money and bought "Classiest" lickety-split.
It helped that I had already covered and loved three of the tracks on the album: the opening EPO-tastic"Hurricane", the quirky pop of "Starry Night" and the City Pop"Madogiwa no High Heel"（窓際のハイヒール）. I always love an album whose singer can do a number of genres well within it, and my initial feeling about "Classiest" is that for her first album away from Karyobin, Ueda wanted to channel her inner straight pop feelings through the question, "If I were singer-songwriter EPO (or Taeko Ohnuki), how would I record all of this?". Well, crazily enough, she probably only had to turn her head a few degrees to ask her friend because EPO herself was helping out on background chorus for some of the tracks.
Well, "Hurricane" and "Starry Night" make up the first two tracks of the album which was wholly arranged by Nobuyuki Shimizu/清水信之 (with all songs composed by Ueda). Therefore, let's start with Track 3, "Yomikake no Tanpenshuu"（読みかけの短編集...Half-Read Short Story） which was written by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）. It's a rather intriguingly-titled song for a pretty precise heartbreak story. Apparently, the lady here has had a Polaroid within the pages of an Irwin Shaw novel for years without opening it. The reason for that is that the photo has former friends in the form of a man and a woman who she introduced to each other but for whatever reason drifted away and she only heard through hearsay that the two ended up getting married. It's kinda too bad that she actually had feelings for the guy which she didn't bother to act on. But since getting that news, the Shaw has remained firmly shut.
The first three songs that I've covered from "Classiest" have already shown Ueda as far away from her Fashion Music/baroque pop roots as possible. But "Yomikake no Tanpenshuu" still leaves quite an impression about her very different music here. Despite the bittersweet content of the lyrics, Ueda's melody is quite the upbeat strut with the synthesizers filtering through some 60s swinging pop.
"Nagai Yume"（長い夢...The Long Dream）, Track 4, also has that feeling that EPO could have covered this thanks to Shimizu's arrangement (and he also helped EPO as well). Once again handled by Akimoto and Ueda, it has a mixture of light soul and a 50s love ballad rhythm, and once again, the lyrics of resignation talk of the one that got away. However, the setting this time isn't a woman's bedroom with a bookshelf but a high-class party. Drown your woes in champagne!🍸💔
The final track on Side A of the original LP is "Omoide no Balcony"（思い出のバルコニー...The Balcony of Memories） includes Kenji Kadoya's（門谷憲二）sole contribution to "Classiest" through his lyrics. Usually I've associated Kadoya with Mieko Nishijima's（西島三重子）works, and here he relates the tale of what I think is a woman not quite ready for love after being hurt by it not too long previously. According to Nagai's liner notes, Ueda came up with "Omoide no Balcony" as a tribute to her days with Karyobin and the coda has the singer finishing off with a classical piano riff.
Side B begins with "Juu-gatsu no Weather Forecast"（10月のウェザー・フォアキャスト...October Weather Forecast）. Usually it's been the case with fall-based kayothat romance comes to this season to die. However, perhaps because of "Omoide no Balcony" finishing up Side A, "Juu-gatsu no Weather Forecast" is one happy song which casts off all signs of depression. It may even act as the sequel to the melancholy "Omoide no Balcony" as the woman takes a cheerful bicycle ride while not even minding the couples who are still in love with each other.
Nagai feels that the City Pop Force is strong with this one, but I think that "Juu-gatsu no Weather Forecast" kinda straddles the line between City Pop and straight-ahead pop. Still, I like this one regardless and Nagai mentions that it's got some big-time musicians helping out such as Jake H. Concepcion on sax and Shin Kazuhara（数原晋）on trumpet.
"Madogiwa no High Heel" follows "Juu-gatsu no Weather Forecast", so we're going to "Nichiyoubi no Rhapsody"（日曜日の狂騒曲...Sunday Rhapsody） which has Akimoto back as lyricist. There is something comically Beatles about this one and the lyrics certainly reflect the sitcom nature of the predicament as a woman tries to oust her paramour from her place after getting a phone call from Mama that she's coming over on the double. If I haven't read Akimoto's words in error, the guy was wearing the woman's pyjamas in bed and the whiskey has been stuffed away in the bathroom. That must have been a starry night (sorry about that).
The penultimate track is "Pink no Ribbon ga Musubenai"（ピンクのリボンが結べない...I Can't Tie the Pink Ribbon）, Akimoto and Ueda's final collaboration on the album and though there is this synthesized version of a 1950s romance film overture coming in at the beginning and in the middle, the song is a candy cane concoction regarding a woman spending over a couple of hours trying to figure out what to get her boyfriend for his birthday. However, it doesn't appear as if she's particularly tying herself in knots about the situation and I believe that she's enjoying the tender pain of making that selection. Shimizu's arrangement makes the song even feel like a Xmas tune.
Ueda was responsible for both words and music for the last song "Last Dance", a classy (maybe the classiest) track with some synthesized jazziness. A woman is looking at her former beau dancing with his new girlfriend on the floor round midnight. Nagai adds something interesting in the liner notes when he says that the woman has decided to prioritize her own life and career over any further relationship with the ex, something that was a rather new concept in a song in the 1980s.
Although "Classiest" isn't a whole City Pop experience, there is good variety in the album and fine singing by Ueda. I'd say for those who like that mixture of the old-fashioned standards and the contemporary stuff (circa 1980s), say along the lines of what the Manhattan Transfer was doing at around the same time, then this album should be up your alley. "Classiest" is still on sale at CD Japan.
I think that one of the more interesting acts that premiered on NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）this past year has been the duo T Jiros（T字路s）consisting of vocalist/guitarist Taeko Ito（伊東妙子）and bassist Tomohito Shinoda（篠田智仁）. Formed in 2010, unfortunately I don't remember exactly what they performed on the show, but because of that appearance, I looked them up on J-Wiki and then their website. However, their style is memorable since T Jiros shows off some old-style American blues (maybe Delta blues?) and folk (plus, their style of dress also reflects a time many decades past). In particular, Ito's voice has been compared to that of the late Howlin' Wolf, although when I myself first heard her, Tom Waits came to my mind.
From their June 2013 3rd mini-album"Kore Sae Areba" (If I Only Had This), I give you the title track. It's been a while since I heard them, so hearing Ito tackle this amiable and jaunty tune, I was still struck by that really gravelly voice of hers. I mentioned above that T Jiros has that old-fashioned style, and yet, I remember when there were certain acts in the early 1970s on radio which had that similar approach to their music.
Along with their three mini-albums, T Jiros has released four full albums and a couple of albums filled with cover tunes that have come out this year. Three analog singles and three digital singles have also been released.
Chieko and Mitsuko Baisho（倍賞千恵子・倍賞美津子）are sisters who have been veterans in the acting and music industries for decades. The former is someone that I've known better primarily because she was acting as Sakura, the kind and dutiful sister to the legendary comical traveling salesman Torajiro Kuruma（車寅次郎）in the very long-running movie series "Otoko wa Tsurai yo"(It's Tough Being a Man) that my family used to watch for years. However, the younger Mitsuko Baisho is someone that I've also gotten to know through television dramas and commercials, and she has quite a different air about her. She has had more of the sexier and more voluptuous side.
But what I hadn't known about her until recently is that like her elder sister Chieko, Mitsuko Baisho has also had her time behind the recording microphone. In fact, she has released 23 singles and 2 albums up to 1985. Her 10th single was "Tokei wo Tomete"(Stop the Clock) which came out in 1967. The title might sound like the name of an American game show but Rei Nakanishi's（なかにし礼）lyrics put that rumour to rest by describing a lady's ardent request for time to be stopped so that she can spend as much remaining time as possible with the love of her life. Mitsuko seems to have her sister's singing ability with an operatic voice.
Now, actually "Tokei wo Tomete" is a cover of a bolero song titled "El reloj" which was created by Mexican singer-songwriter Roberto Cantoral when he was a member of the music trio Los Tres Caballeros and released as a single in 1957. According to Wikipedia, Cantoral had a tryst with one of the women participating in a tour by the trio through America and was inspired to write the song based on the brevity of time Cantoral had with the lass before they had to part in their different directions.
Along with Baisho's version, there were other covers of "El reloj"(The Clock) including an even earlier one by Teruhiko Aoi（青井輝彦）as a solo when he was still a member of the very first Johnny's Entertainment aidoru group, Johnnys（ジャニーズ）. Released in 1966, the Japanese lyrics were handled by another person, Masaru Kamo（かもまさる）. His rendition has a less strident feeling and more of a lullaby approach to the song, partly thanks to Aoi's creamy vocals. I can imagine the lad's fans simply fainting in the aisles now.
I gotta admit that this article is gonna make my Boxing Day. I could never imagine that there would be a connection between a George C. Scott movie and a song by a Japanese avant-garde technopop band. Now, I know the legendary late actor for "Dr. Strangelove" and "Patton" but I barely remember his 1980 "The Changeling" which, according to Wikipedia, was a Canadian supernatural horror film. The only reason that I could still remember it more than four decades later is that Scott was in it.
As for that Japanese connection, I was reading Hikashu's（ヒカシュー）J-Wiki article when I found out that their 3rd single from December 1980, "Pike", was used as an image song when "The Changeling" came over to Japan. It was an interesting decision to be sure, since vocalist Koichi Makigami's (巻上公一) lyrics seem to be about the actual fish known as a pike, indigenous to North America and a fine catch for any fisherman.
Hikashu member Yasushi Yamashita's（山下康）music has got quite a bit going on with technopop, New Wave and rock hitting my ears and memories. The seeming surf rock passages with the rolling drum thunder strike me as being somewhat B-52s while the rest of the music has that spooky yet tongue-in-cheek Halloween feeling which may have been one reason that it was selected for "The Changeling". Meanwhile, the vocals sound like something delivered in a tokusatsu series: loud and proud for the title character. It's no wonder that I've been coming across this particular title whenever Hikashu's name is mentioned.
Considering the overall feel of "Pike", I'm always going to imagine the large and slender fish of volatility, and not a certain Starfleet captain of coolness and good.
Yes, I gather that I am being a little cute with the above thumbnail considering the title of this article's song. Anyways, first off, I hope that folks are slowly digesting the Christmas turkey, stuffing and all of the other foodstuffs from last night. It was surprisingly busy at the nearby shopping mall today but I was able to pick up the paper and a box of Laura Secord chocolate-covered cherries for end-of-year noshing. Glad to have you drop by today on Boxing Day.
I just wanted to start off the final week of 2022 with a City Pop number by actress/singer Kei Ishiguro（石黒ケイ）, although she's going by Kay Ishiguro for her 1982 album"Yokohama Ragtime". It's a concept LP all focused on the famous international sea port and according to Discogs, it has its share of jazz and pop music.
However, I have to say that "Find Me" kinda fulfills that City Pop categorization, too. This is rather notable considering that my past articles on the singer have categorized her songs as either jazz or straight pop. Written and composed by Ishiguro, the feeling is that the protagonist has holed herself up in some dark and deep watering hole in Yokohama, not particularly wanting to be found, although some of the arrangement lifts the song into some form of hope. But definitely no complaints are to be found on my part; "Find Me" does have that coolness factor thanks to the piano and the chord changes. Plus, I really like the cover art.
The male trios had an original Gosanke（御三家...The Big Three） and then a new Gosanke for the next generation, so the same thing happened with the female trios. In the 1950s, there was the Ganso Sannin Musume（元祖三人娘...The Original Three Girls） starring Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）, Chiemi Eri（江利チエミ）and Izumi Yukimura（雪村いづみ）. But then in the early 1970s came the birth of the Shin Sannin Musume (The New Three Girls) featuring aidoru Rumiko Koyanagi（小柳ルミ子）, Mari Amachi（天地真理）and Saori Minami（南沙織）.
Unlike the original Sannin Musume, Koyanagi, Amachi and Minami never appeared in any rom-com movie, but they did have their opportunities to show up in magazines and TV music shows, including the 1972 Kohaku Utagassen. In the article for the Shin Sannin Musume on J-Wiki, I was even able to find the catchphrases for each of them:
Rumiko Koyanagi: Minna no Koibito（みんなの恋人...Everyone's Lover）
Mari Amachi: Anata no Kokoro no Tonari ni Iru Sony no Shirayuki Hime（あなたの心の隣にいるソニーの白雪姫...The Snow White of SONY, Close to Your Heart）
Saori Minami: Minami no Shima kara Kita Cynthia（南の島からきたシンシア...Cynthia from the Southern Islands）
All of them had their singing debut in 1971 with Amachi having the latest one in October.
And a Merry Christmas to you! If you're just dropping by for a little look at "Kayo Kyoku Plus" among the family hijinks at your place for the Yuletide, then I thank you very much. I'm hoping that you are enjoying your day wherever you are.
Since it is a holiday today, I thought that it would be nice to start off with what I think will be the final Christmas song for the KKP season as a Reminiscings of Youth session. I'm not sure when I first heard "Jingle Bell Rock" which was originally recorded by Bobby Helms back in 1957, but as a kid, I was a bit confused on hearing it, thinking "Wait! This doesn't sound like 'Jingle Bells' at all.". Well, duh. It's a totally different song by Joseph Carleton Beal and James Ross Boothe with its laidback country-style rockabilly.
The thing is that it's not Helms' original that I remember the most. I've always associated "Jingle Bell Rock" with the happy cover by Hall & Oates and its accompanying videos. The song and videos just seem to have been around forever although the guys' version came out in 1983 as a single with the video appearing around November of that year. Having grown up during the early age of MTV, whenever I think of the song, I will always remember the video with Hall & Oates and their band including guitarist G.E. Smith enjoying their Hallmark-friendly Christmas at home.
Until recently, though, I'd had no idea that there were two video versions of "Jingle Bell Rock", one with Daryl Hall singing (above) and another with John Oates taking lead (below). May I finally say that Oates has a great voice (and a great cardigan)? I've always loved Daryl but I'm going to have to pay more attention to John. My other realization is that although I'd once assumed that the brief "goofy" videos starring Hall & Oates (with all of the band mugging for the camera) began with "Out of Touch" in 1984, I now believe that it all started with "Jingle Bell Rock". Not that I'm complaining, mind you; it's nice to see a big band showing off a self-deprecating sense of humour.
Well, what was hitting the top of the Oricon charts in November 1983? For Seiko-chan fans, I've got a twofer.
For my final article on Christmas Eve 2022, I've decided to do an Author's Pick to not only commemorate KKP's Xmas season but also to note once again that we've been around for 10 years. Mind you, it was actually around 9 years ago that I put up my "Top 5 J-Xmas Songs" with familiar names such as Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）and Junichi Inagaki（稲垣潤一）. Since the end of 2013, though, we've gained knowledge of many other J-Xmas tunes and as of this writing, there are over 200 entries for "Xmas" in Labels.
As such, I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to give out my personal alternative list of favourite J-Xmas songs as a sequel to the original 2013 list. Again, I'm going with five songs but they aren't in any particular order.
Yeah, this would be the one to decompress with...preferably with a cup of chamomile tea after that arduous round of Christmas shopping. The lyrics by the Sensei (Karashima's nickname) are on the melancholy and lonely side of Christmas songwriting in Japan but that beautiful string-and-piano arrangement can't be beat.
Again, the lyrics by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）aren't particularly happy ones, but "Stardust Memories" is quite an upbeat tune for the mellow-voiced Kobayashi. Instead of focusing on those words, focusing on the melody by the singer can bring images of having fun in the snow and/or finishing up the Xmas shopping and stopping in for a cup of coffee.
Seiko-chan（松田聖子）has come up with Xmas songs in the past but it seems with her 1987 album"Snow Garden", she came up with some of her most refined tunes for the happy season. "Pearl-White Eve" is the favourite one for me because it combines some old-fashioned arrangements and contemporary pop. The singer sounds absolutely innocent although as my university buddy pointed out that at the end of the song, Matsuda sings that she will wrap herself up in her pink pyjamas and she'll be the present for her lover. Hey, I will not judge.😇
As I mentioned in the original article for Reimy's（麗美）kittenish and adorable "Pocket no Coin", I don't think that it was ever meant to be a Christmas song. However, after those images of Christmas markets and couples quickly insinuated themselves into my mind after first hearing it, I just had to treat it as Xmas-friendly. Now, I've also realized that the cordial and languid arrangement can make it into Fashion Music territory.
Well, let's finish this list with a "party hearty" one since that is yet another lyrical theme for J-Xmas. Plus, we do have Tatsuro Yamashita on the first list, so we gotta have his wife here for the follow-up. As much as it might be strange to go nuts on Christmas Eve with the heavy drinking, camaraderie and Kentucky Fried Chicken, that's the thing about December 24th in Japan. A lot of folks simply Wang Chung that night.
Anyways, if you're not showing up on the blog on the 25th because of all those Yuletide obligations, let me speak on behalf of everyone here on KKP and give my hearty wishes for a Merry Christmas. Don't drink and drive!
Well, I managed to get my family's gifts all wrapped up so I'm good to get a bit more blogging before I make the transition from Christmas Eve to Christmas Day.
Along with Original Love's"X'mas NO HI", another track that I found appealing on "Mint Sound's X'mas Album" from 1987 via Scott's "Holly Jolly X'masu" podcast was "Christmas Song" by the rock band The Collectors（ザ・コレクターズ）. In addition to hearing it above, you can also listen to it from 10:32 of Scott's podcast and you will also get a description of who The Collectors are. From their J-Wiki article, vocalist and leader Hisashi Kato（加藤ひさし）was influenced by British rock and the Mod subculture and incorporated those elements into his band which was formed in 1986.
"Christmas Song" has some of those jingle bells but there is no supreme flourish of Christmas music production in it which is refreshing. It's just straight ahead jangly rock delivered clearly and forcefully by Kato, and although I and Scott did mention about those influences of British rock and Mod, I couldn't help but also hear a bit of Kiyoshiro Imawano（忌野清志郎）and RC Succession（RCサクセション）in the song.
The Collectors have continued to release singles and albums right up to 2022. In fact, their latest album came out last month, "Juicy Marmalade"（ジューシーマーマレード）.
Taking into consideration that Off-Course's（オフコース）Kazumasa Oda（小田和正）and Tulip's（チューリップ）Kazuo Zaitsu（財津和夫）have been wonderful fellow musicians from around the same era and good buddies for years, I have wondered if the two lead singers have often gotten together to trade ideas about how sad to make their Christmas tunes for their solo careers. Perhaps it's an odd thing to say but a common lyrical theme for the J-Xmas song is the one for heartbreak and loneliness on December 24th or 25th.
Oda came up with the melancholy but beautiful ballad "Kimi ni Merry Xmas"（君にMerry Xmas) from 1989 which follows one fellow's romantic misery after a spat. It looks like the same happened within Zaitsu's "Fuyu no Main Street" (Winter Main Street) which was his 7th single as a solo artist, released even earlier in December 1988.
I actually found out about "Fuyu no Main Street" from one of Scott's "Holly Jolly X'masu" podcasts this year. Written and composed by Zaitsu, it begins with that familiar 80s gloppy synth beat prefacing a supposedly happy major-chord melody before there's a sudden shift in chords near the minute mark showing the reality of someone's romantic situation. I have to admit that those sudden chord shifts can have an ASMR effect on me; quite the coolness factor. "Fuyu no Main Street" is definitely more in the upbeat category when compared to "Kimi mi Merry Xmas".
"Fuyu no Main Street" can also be found on the J-Xmas compilation album "The Night Before Christmas" (also from 1988) which was the subject of Scott's podcast. Also, have a go at the cover below by The Emilys, a copy band for Tulip.
Happy weekend! And for me, personally, it's a weekend to feel relieved. That storm finally managed to grind its way out of our region, and despite the threatening winds out there yesterday and overnight, there were no blackouts in the GTA. Mind you, for a lot of travelers heading out for the Holidays, 2022 may go down as one of the worst years.
My plans for Saturday night (namely, tonight)? Just wrapping presents for tomorrow. I'd figure that folks in Japan may have already gotten their parties in for Christmas Eve, and because the 25th is a Sunday, both we and they can actually enjoy a day off on Christmas Day (since the big day is merely an observed holiday there).
Speaking of Saturday night, singer-songwriter Satoko Shimonari（下成佐登子）created a tune titled "Doyoubi no Yoru ni wa" (On Saturday Night) for her April 1983 album"Weekend"（ウィークエンド）, and though I don't think that it was ever meant as a Xmas tune, the visuals from YouTube and the softly swinging rhythm make it feel like a Yuletide number about a couple out on good old-fashioned date. Shimonari and arranger Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）collaborated on "Doyoubi no Yoru ni wa" which has that certain 1950s pop lilt to bring images of poodle skirts and bobby socks and hair gel.
With all that winter maelstrom behind us, all I can say is that we will be guaranteed a White Christmas this year! 🎄 As well, many thanks to Joana for her splendid article earlier this morning.
