I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
Credits
I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.
Hello there. I noticed that at this late hour, I currently have 89 entries for September 2023 and I really wanted to hit the 90 barrier. Therefore, I'm rushing this one in. I haven't done a rankings list in many a moon because I thought I pretty much exhausted the Oricon lists by year. However, I did find a listing for the Top 10 Singles for 1961 (and more) on this Hatena blog run by hitchartjapan based on a couple of pre-Oricon music journals, "Music Life" and "Music Monthly". I'm just surprised that Kyu Sakamoto's"Ue wo Muite Arukou" isn't in the Top 10 (it's down at No. 22!).
1. Yujiro Ishihara & Junko Makimura Ginza no Koi no Monogatari
I've been able to catch some of the episodes of "Yoru no Hit Studio"（夜のヒットスタジオ）, the old Fuji-TV music show, thanks to KKP contributor JTM, and the first episode I saw was the Xmas week one in 1976. Watching a first full episode in many years, I realized that compared to "The Best 10"（ザ・ベストテン）series on TBS, the repartee was looser between hosts and guests...or perhaps I can say that the pressure on the singers to speak out was greater. To be honest, there were some pretty awkward pauses so I figured that at least some of the singers back then were not as well-versed in media talk as acts today would be on shows such as "Uta Con"（うたコン）.
Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）was on the show and although the above video is actually an excerpt from a September 1976 episode, she was singing the same song. Her 14th single released in that same month, "Pearl Colour ni Yurete" (Swaying in Pearl) is actually a Momoe song that has hit my ears for the first time. Considering that I've known her big hits such as "Yokosuka Story"（横須賀ストーリー）and "Imitation Gold"（イミテイション・ゴールド）for literally decades, it's always fascinating making first contact with a new Momoe tune.
"Pearl Colour ni Yurete" has got that quintessential Momoe feeling with her lower but light vocals and the fairly urgent beat with the horns and strings backing her up. This time, though, the percussion is quite noticeable; for example, there is what I think is a marimba right from the intro which adds an interesting exotic layer to the arrangement by Motoki Funayama（ 船山基紀）. The lyricist Kazuya Senke（千家和也）weaves a story of a lady feeling bereft of her significant other while surrounded by happier people and a city nightscape bathed in pearl by the lights. I guess the message is that one can be within a thousand folks and yet feel utterly isolated.
The melody was provided by Juichi Sase（佐瀬寿一）, the same composer who earlier that year created the children's song and legendary hit "Oyoge! Taiyaki-kun" (およげ！たいやきくん）which became Japan's biggest selling single of all time at 4.5 million records, something noted by the Guinness Book of World Records. One can imagine the powers-that-be at the recording company slavering at the thought of having Sase making a song for the very popular Yamaguchi. And sure enough, it was yet another No. 1 hit for the star aidoru which finished 1976 as the 18th-ranked single.
I was listening to some of Michiya Mihashi's（三橋美智也）material a couple of days ago for some of that enka shibui-ness. But according to my fellow blog co-administrator and expert on the old Showa Era music, Noelle Tham, the term enka itself wasn't officially put into Japan's lexicon until 1970. Basically between the end of World War II and that year, enka had once been split apart into different subsets of kayo kyoku, including bokyo kayo（望郷歌謡...popular songs of homesickness）. With the nation's strenuous efforts to rise from the ashes on all levels, a lot of young people were heavily encouraged to move from the towns and villages to the big cities like Tokyo to do their part in the companies and factories to man the engines of their economy. Of course, the new generations working there could get homesick from time to time which got songwriters and singers to come up with the wistful ballads of the old hometown which would also get the workers even more homesick.
Well, the First Man of Enka (though he was probably given that title after 1970), Mihashi, came up with a huge hit in "Ringo Mura kara"（リンゴ村から）in 1956. The words and music were by Ryo Yano（矢野亮）and Isao Hayashi（林伊佐緒）respectively as the Hokkaido native sang nostalgically about the old apple orchard village up north. Then, the singer and songwriters were thinking whether lightning or apples could strike twice and so they collaborated once more on the 1957 "Ringo Hana Saku Furusato e" (To the Hometown of Apple Blossoms).
The song was on that recording of Mihashi that I have so I wanted to see if I could write about it, and with the YouTube video present, I could indeed do so. As with the earlier "Ringo Mura kara", "Ringo Hana Saku Furusato e" displays the melody as an old-fashioned wistful ditty of a wagon on an old dirt road while Mihashi sings of hearth and home among the apple trees. Perhaps listeners had a sense memory of the sweet scent of the apples.
Come to think of it, being the final day of September, I can imagine that the apple farms here in the province of Ontario are all very busy right now with the autumn harvest. I can no longer easily make it out to the orchards anymore, but it's nice remembering going there as a kid and having fresh apples, apple pie, apple cider and even apple strudel.
"Crystal City" is a City Soul masterpiece of Tokyo. Although it came out well over forty years ago, it doesn't feel ancient at all, and maybe that's because there isn't much difference between then and now when it comes to the romanticism of a metropolis. The song, the sound, the lyrics...no matter from which angle, its quality still comes through even in 2020. Junko Ohashi's（大橋純子）vocals are truly excellent thanks to their steadiness.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised" (2020).
Looks like today is featuring the rare stuff on Urban Contemporary Friday, and Article No. 4 for September 29th 2023 involves model/actress Reiko Itsuki（樹れい子）. The cover for her one-and-only single "Ai no Tsubasa" (Fly Me on the Wings of Love) from February 1979 along with the moaning which begins this disco tune reflects a lot of the sex appeal she displayed during her relatively short career. Kazuko Kobayashi（小林和子）provided the Japanese lyrics for this cover of a Celi Bee song that had originally been written and composed by Pepe Luis Soto.
Itsuki was born as Shomei Hou（賀小美）in Aichi Prefecture as the daughter of an Italian-American father and a Chinese mother. In 1972 when she was a teenager, she was scouted in her hometown to become a model, and in her senior year of high school the following year, she entered the Miss International beauty pageant and won the title on behalf of Japan. However, because she didn't have Japanese citizenship at the time, she had to relinquish the crown. According to an article in the "Shukan Shincho"（週刊新潮）journal cited in her J-Wiki profile, her modeling career continued and she was in a number of TV and movie roles up to 1980, although it was all brought to an unfortunate end when she was associated with a guy who had swindled a ton of money from an insurance company that year. I don't know what happened to her after that.
Incidentally, she received her Japanese citizenship in 1985. Below you'll see and hear the very long Celi Bee original.
The article that I just posted several minutes ago for TOSHITARO's "Am9 ni J - Eikaku Boy de Ite kure yo"（Am9にジェイ - 鋭角ボーイでいてくれよ -）made the point that if anyone knew about this song then they would considered to be truly music maniacs in Japanese; personally, I would prefer the term lovers or hobbyists. Regardless, this song might also be in the same category.
And man, this intro is so AOR, it hurts! Commenters have been pointing out how shocked and delighted to see and hear RAIN's"Hari no Nai Tokei" (Clock with No Hands) up on YouTube. There is next to no information on this group aside from the fact that singer-songwriter Shuuji Kuniyasu（国安修二）had belonged to the band according to his J-Wiki profile. In 1978, it had been known as the folk duo TAKE ONE until they took one more member at least to become RAIN in 1981 (it would break up in 1983).
I could only find out on the YouTube description that RAIN had released this single "Hari no Nai Tokei" in 1982 with Kuniyasu as the composer, Shun Taguchi（田口俊）as the lyricist and Kimio Mizutani（水谷公生）as the arranger. At first, I had assumed that Taguchi was part of the band but he was actually busy with his own group Lorelei at the time. Anyways, getting back to "Hari no Nai Tokei", this song about time standing still due to a romantic breakup (by death or argument) is so smooth and refined that milk tea would curdle in its presence. In fact, with those lovely strings in there, I couldn't help but throw in the Fashion Music label, too.
I haven't featured a TOSHITARO song since "Romantic Noise" in the past couple of years so I thought it was time to bring back this City Pop singer from the 1980s. I've read on sites where this particular song of his has only been known to the most knowledgeable of listeners (read [in Japanese]: maniac), but it was used in a commercial for a brand of tape cassette.
But that title threw me for a loop! "Am9 ni J - Eikaku Boy de Ite kure yo" from his May 1985 album"Paradise", had me scratching my head while I was listening to this strutting City Pop boogie twice. Who was J and what was so important that it had to happen at 9 am? Well, the mystery was such that I had to look it up online and fortunately, I was able to get most of my questions answered. Musician Taro Mejiro's（めじろたろう）November 2020 blog entry helped explain that "Am9" doesn't refer to a time but to the A Minor 9th chord, and after consulting with a YouTube video on that specific chord, it sounds like the song actually wraps itself around this very chord (TOSHITARO even shouts it out in the lyrics). Perhaps City Pop YouTuber Sora Satoh has even mentioned this in one of his videos.
Thanks, mahalodotcom!
As for the "Eikaku Boy" part, I've got no idea since eikaku translates into "acute angle". I tried to see via the search engine whether eikaku boy is a form of musical jargon but I couldn't get anything. So, basically speaking, the title in English is "J at A Minor 9th - Stay an Acute Angle Boy, Will Ya?". OK, whatever you say.😵
Keiko Aso（麻生圭子）was behind the lyrics for TOSHITARO's melody and from what I could glean, the protagonist is a fellow who's in love with a female radio DJ known only by her first initial J (so, Janice, Joyce, Junko?). As the singer shouts out, that A Minor 9th is the zinger to his heart for some reason and maybe J sang or spoke something at that chord. But the chorus throws back at the lad that she's already married so don't bother although the fellow is undeterred. In any case, I like the boogie in this one and the wailing guitar solo.
Yeah, the commercial for this tape cassette fairly screams "Typically Bizarre Japanese CM!".
First off, I was happy to see 80s aidoru Iyo Matsumoto（松本伊代）on a recent episode of "Uta Con"（うたコン） after she had suffered a fairly serious back injury in a game show stunt gone wrong several months ago.
Well, just returning to her discography in the 1980s, Iyo-chan really did come a long way since her chirpy "Sentimental Journey"（センチメンタル・ジャーニー）debut in 1981 after listening to the opening track of her 10th album, the January 1989 "Private File". "Private file wa Aketa Mama de..."(Leaving My Private File Open...) is the story of a twentysomething in Japan getting her opportunity to be an independent and free-spirited sprite in one of the major cities (I think the Bubble Era was still intact at that point). The pumps are on, the makeup is on and she's in her car possibly flirting with the toll gate attendant.
Good ol' kaz-shin wrote a review on the entirety of "Private File", and it seems that he was quite smitten with the then-24-year-old singer and that folks ought to give her album a second listening. With those characteristic high and nasal vocals tackling a dancing R&B tune, I thought about another singer, Yoko Oginome（荻野目洋子）, handling "Private file wa Aketa Mama de...", although I think Matsumoto acquits herself well on this first track. kaz-shin isn't quite as complimentary about the singing quality but he does say a few sentences later that the aidoru-level attack on this one contrastingly works here. I'll just say that as a casual fan, I'm getting along fine with disco-era Iyo-chan.
The first track was written by Kouiki Kokubu（国分広域）and composed by Tatsuya Nishiwaki（西脇辰弥） who was a member of the AOR/R&B groupPazz. As for the lyricist's name, I couldn't get a confirmed reading of it so once again, if anyone can confirm or correct the proper pronunciation, I would be very happy.
Part of the reason that I'm posting this particular song is that my friend Scott from "Holly Jolly X'masu" made his first podcast in a while last week focusing on the soundtrack of "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence". The 1983 movie starred David Bowie and Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）with the latter even providing the soundtrack (in fact, Scott points out that a reluctant Sakamoto only joined the cast once director Nagisa Oshima allowed him to score the movie...his very first time to do so). Anyways, if you like, have a listen to the episode through the above link.
Another reason is that I'm still missing The Professor after his passing earlier this year, and it's still a bit of a shock to realize that both he and Bowie have now left this mortal coil. Still grateful though that they also both left a large legacy of music.
I encountered this track from Sakamoto's second original album"B-2 Unit"（B-2ユニット）which was released in September 1980. "Thatness and Thereness" is his first try singing on an album, and as his good friend and YMO bandmate Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）pointed out in a 2011 issue of "Switch" via J-Wiki: "It's not that he's a good singer, and the Professor knows that when he sings, but it's a really good song". (translated by yours truly)
Well, if Takahashi is willing to say that, I can also agree that Sakamoto would never have won any prizes for his vocals, but "Thatness and Thereness" is a contemplative and sumptuous (despite its short time) technopop tune based on one experience with the student movement when he was back in school. Written and composed by The Professor with a co-writing credit given to Yoshitaka Goto（後藤美孝）and translation into English by Peter Barakan, the languid pace of the song makes me wonder whether that scene he had witnessed was so affecting that he saw it in slow motion. The title, which is based on a couple of examples of psychological jargon, adds to my feeling on that possibly very intense memory. Sakamoto also indicated that the song was influenced to a degree by Bertolt Brecht's"The Threepenny Opera" from 1928.
Takahashi himself covered the song (as did many other artists) for the November 2008 2nd album compilation by musician and producer Bajune Tobeta（トベタ・バジュン）, "Aoi Chou"（青い蝶...Blue Butterfly）.
In retrospect, I believe that going into the late 1980s, I was really getting into the classier aspects of popular music through genres such as sophisticated pop and Quiet Storm through folks like Swingout Sister and Anita Baker. Singer-songwriter Sade had already gained fame globally a few years earlier with hits including "Smooth Operator" that I've already put in as a ROY article. But then in January 1986, Sade released a single that became another heavy-rotation song on radio and had me always going up and down the dial to hear the extended version.
So for today's ROY, I have selected "Is It a Crime?". A torch song involving two former lovers reminiscing over old times which had devolved into something horrid, those first notes by the sax player grabbed my ears and never quite let go. It was like listening to an entire film noir from the 1940s although I can also hear the contemporariness in the arrangement at that time as well. The song created by Sade, Andrew Hale and Stuart Matthewman (who was that sax player) has been classified as smooth jazz but I think that feeling of old-style jazz nightclub further elevates "Is It a Crime?". I guess in a way, the song helped pave the way for me to finally watch some of those film noir flicks such as "The Maltese Falcon" years later.
So, what was hitting the top tiers of Oricon in January 1986? I have Nos. 1, 3 and 4 today.
It was back in 2016 when I posted up the opening and ending themes for the oh-so-relaxing anime "Flying Witch"（ふらいんぐうぃっち）: "Shanranran"(シャンランラン) and "Nichijo no Mahou"（日常の魔法）respectively. For the opener, I think I noted that I would like to head up to Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture where the show was set; alas, I have yet to head up there but my anime buddy has done the pilgrimage to Hirosaki a couple of times now because of the charms of "Flying Witch" though he hasn't braved the cultivation of any mandrakes.
After watching the apparently one-and-done series at my buddy's house back in 2016, I decided to visit Hirosaki vicariously one more by watching the season again and once again, a fine time was had by me. However, what I hadn't known was that at the same time that the main series was running on TV, there was also a two-minute per episode online series for several weeks called "Flying Witch Petit"（ふらいんぐうぃっち ぷち）. Done up in chibi style, some of the characters such as Makoto the teenage witch and her cat Chito to perform some cute vignettes. I opted to go through the entire package of ten episodes in one go.
I couldn't find a full clean version of the ending theme but it is still adorably worthy enough to cover. Seiyuu Minami Shinoda（篠田みなみ）who portrays Makoto sings "Ashita mo Ashita"(Tomorrow is Tomorrow, Too) which definitely fits the atmosphere of the Petit version of "Flying Witch" more than the original series. Sho Watanabe（渡辺翔）and Teppei Shimizu（清水哲平）were behind the creation of the song. Below is a mashup of "Ashita mo Ashita" and another song "Ah! Eto"（あっ！えとっ...Ah, Well!）by Happy Machine.
As a P.S., the above video by Inside Local Japan has the apple pie tour within Hirosaki and of course, my anime buddy partook in that. At 1:25, Fujita Memorial Park is featured and in the park, there is a Taisho Era café which did get its fifteen minutes (I think, literally) of fame in one episode of "Flying Witch".
In recent weeks, I've picked up a rather odd interest in that I've been checking out the websites for some of the more luxurious accommodations in Tokyo such as the Imperial Hotel and the ol' Keio Plaza Hotel. Maybe it's out of some envy for what other people can afford whenever they go on vacation. Mind you, I have stayed in some very nice places such as the Keio, the Tokyo Prince and the Portopia Hotel in Kobe, but those were very long ago.
Well, I know that a few Mood Kayo have had hotels as their lyrical basis because a number of those songs deal with those illicit trysts, so extrapolating from my hotel searches, I began to look for any hotel-themed songs. Surprisingly enough, I couldn't find very many with even the word "hotel" in the title. However, there was one new song that came out within the last few weeks.
And my search ended on a fascinating song. Through shows like "Uta Con"（うたコン）, I've often heard of songs created by songwriters that have long left this mortal coil such as Yu Aku（阿久悠）but never saw the light of day until very recently. Well, now to add to the legendary Aku, I discovered that the golden songwriting tandem of late composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, who died almost three years ago, and lyricist Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）, who is still with us thankfully, left a song that has also been unearthed to the listening masses.
"Hotel Sabaku" (Hotel Desert) was recorded by Natsumi Shimai（夏海姉妹...The Natsumi Sisters） consisting of long-haired stripper Jun Natsumi（夏海ジュン）and short-haired enkai entertainer Ai Natsumi（夏海愛）as their debut single. I noticed though that the Yahoo Japan interview with the two put the two professions in quotations so I'm uncertain whether the ladies really did work at those jobs or whether their names really are Jun and Ai, but I'll leave that for eventual confirmation.
In that same interview, "Hotel Sabaku" was described as a "beat enka". I'm not sure about that, but I am able to pick up on some old Mood Kayo, light funk disco and even some swinging 60s, so maybe the two could get together to create another example of New Adult Music. Gotta vouch for that adult part considering the music video above as we get a good eyeful of the night life in the big city as Jun sexily sings a pretty stark invitation for some boot-knocking in the titular hotel.
Interestingly enough, next week on "Uta Con", there will be a tribute to Tsutsumi but alas, Natsumi Shimai is not on the slate. Maybe they are a tad too hot for prime time on NHK.
Last Wednesday, I posted a 1962 song with the title of "Furusato wa Souya no Hate ni"（ふるさとは宗谷の果てに）, by Masao Kikuchi（菊地正夫）who would later take on the stage name of Takuya Jou（城卓矢）to even bigger success. Written and composed by Kikuchi's older brother, Jun Kitahara（北原じゅん）, the kayo kyoku was their paean to their birthplace, Karafuto Island, which had been taken over by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II and turned into Sakhalin.
Well, it looks like Kitahara's ardor for Sakhalin and perhaps Russia/the USSR in general continued forward for quite some time. Later in the decade, the songwriter took five young lads under his wing and whipped them into Group Sounds band The Genova（ザ・ジェノバ）. Led by bassist Shoji Sasaki（佐々木章二）, despite the band being named after an Italian city, their debut single in February 1968 was "Sakhalin no Hi wa Kiezu" (The Light of Sakhalin Will Never Die), once again which dealt with the love afar (well, not that far, geographically speaking) for the island or someone on the island. In fact, according to an Ameba blog, Kitahara would create a few more singles with that Russian theme in mind in what was called the Sakhalin Series.
Kitahara came up with the jangly melody while Kaoru Wakaki（若木香）wrote the pining lyrics. I noted some of that blog mentioning about Kitahara's rationale that Russian folk songs had been popular in Japan for a long time and so that particular sound would sell, but I never got any hint of underlying Russian music in "Sakhalin no Hi wa Kiezu". It struck me as being the usual GS song and it was a pretty successful one at that, selling approximately 100,000 records. But I don't know how long they lasted although the GS boom would fade out early in the 1970s.
Over the years that we've been doing "Kayo Kyoku Plus", we've appreciated almost all of the comments from fellow Japanese music fans that we've gotten (except the spam, of course) and hey, a few of the commenters have even become KKP contributors and friends in the nearly dozen years we've been up. It's not everyday though that we actually get comments from the singers that we've been covering. However, earlier this afternoon, I was happy and humbled to receive one such comment.
A few years ago in the summer of 2020, I posted an article on the short-lived band Kaja（カヤ）which was around during the turn of the decade from the 1970s to the 1980s at the recommendation of commenter Mike, and I enjoyed Kaja's 1981 single, the all-is-good summery "Marine Blue Sky"（マリン⠂Blue ⠂スカイ）. Well, I was surprised to get a reply from the vocalist and lyricist for Kaja, Kayoko Tachibana（立花賀曜子）née Ono, and I gather that she was also surprised to see an English-language article on her old band and single. You can head over to the article for "Marine Blue Sky" to see her comment and how she's been doing over the past few years.
In the meantime, Ms. Tachibana was kind enough to lead me to her YouTube channel and an album that she recorded back in 2017 titled "S-M-I-L-ing Face". It's a tribute to her husband, Norihiko（立花紀彦）, who was also her Kaja bandmate, and I've been enjoying the title track very much, especially since I am also a bossa nova and jazz fan. And for those who know me very well, you know how much of a sucker I am for harmonica solos. We may have just left summer but it's songs like these that can keep the hot season going. Additionally, I'm also hoping that commenter Mike will somehow see Kayoko's comment and this article.
Well, now that we are in the first full week of autumn, I guess that it might be time for those roasted chestnuts and pumpkin spice lattes. Toronto might be jumping the gun, though, since so far, it's been feeling a bit more summery than usual although it's not stifling out here.
I was looking for a nice autumn-themed J-Pop song or kayo kyoku today when I encountered a ranking list of such songs at the "Ranking Book" website. At No. 30 is "Kotoshi no Aki wa"(This Autumn is) by a singer and songwriter that I first introduced back in 2017 for her mellow "sunrichorange" from 1998.
"Kotoshi no Aki wa" was actually the coupling song to Mari Ueda's（上田まり）debut single"Tsutaetai"（伝えたい...I Want to Tell You） from September 1998. From listening a few times to both "sunrichorange" and "Kotoshi no Aki wa", I gather that the bluesy guitar could have been a regular accompaniment. Just like "sunrichorange", "Kotoshi no Aki wa" is plenty relaxing but with a few more interesting chord changes.
In the last six years between Ueda articles, I've found out that her official website has gone the way of the dodo.
The duo Cherish（チェリッシュ）consisting of Yoshitaka Matsuzaki（松崎好孝）and Etsuko Matsui（松井悦子）have been their known for their adorable folk hit, "Tento Mushi no Samba"（てんとう虫のサンバ）from July 1973. However, they've been around since 1968 and according to J-Wiki, they're still around.
Up to now, Cherish has released 48 singles and 32 albums, but by the mid-1980s, the frequency of their releases was starting to lessen, and Album No. 29 was "Daydream", their first LP in five years which came out in 1986. One track that I found was "Yume - Shinkirou" (Dream - Mirage) and their sound for at least this song was dramatically different from the bouncy and upbeat "Tento Mushi no Samba", and naturally, the longer a group or singer keeps on going in their career, the more their sound evolves.
Written by Fumiko Okada（岡田富美子）and composed by Tsunehiro Izumi（和泉常寛）, "Yume - Shinkirou" fits the title of not only the track but also of the album. It really does have a hazy and dreamy arrangement with Matsui's soft and floaty vocals, and with that sudden engagement of that electric guitar going into the chorus, I was reminded of many a Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）ballad in the early to mid-1980s when they were contributed as ending themes to that television mystery series. I'd be interested in listening to the rest of "Daydream".
Just in the last few minutes, I found out that actor David McCallum who had played the eccentric but super-sharp Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard on the original "NCIS" passed away at the age of 90 earlier today. I haven't watched the show in many years but when I was living in Japan, I did catch a lot of its episodes on cable TV. Although Ducky had his own moments of anger, he was usually the most level-headed and reassuring of the investigative team.
However, being a baby from the 1960s, I first knew McCallum as stoic but baby-faced super-agent Illya Kuryakin in "The Man from UNCLE" assisting his senior partner, suave Napoleon Solo, as played by the late Robert Vaughan. "NCIS" had some fun with the Mallard/Kuryakin thing a couple of times. In the 1970s, I also remember McCallum playing the title character in the updated television version of "The Invisible Man" which only lasted a few months, I believe.
Ironically, earlier in the morning, NHK reported that the last surviving member of the vocal quartet Dark Ducks（ダークダックス）, Hajime Tohyama（遠山一）, had passed away a few days ago at the age of 93. Members Tohru Sasaki（佐々木行）and Tetsu Kisou（喜早哲）died in 2016 while Hiromu Takamizawa（高見澤宏）left this mortal coil in 2011.
In tribute then, I wanted to post a Dark Ducks song tonight and what I have here is "Giniro no Michi"(The Silver Road), an October 1966kayo kyoku of optimism and going forward. Written by Shigeru Tsukada（塚田茂）and composed by Hiroshi Miyagawa（宮川泰）, it was used as the theme song for the NHK musical-variety show "Yume wo Anata ni"（夢をあなたに...Dreams For You）. Speaking of the national broadcaster, Dark Ducks were able to get onto the Kohaku Utagassen to perform the song.
According to the article for the song on J-Wiki, the legendary composer noted that "Giniro no Michi" had been inspired by a memory from his childhood when his father, who had been a civil engineer, was involved in the construction of a special track for the Konomai Gold Mine in Hokkaido. Young Miyagawa noticed that puddles by the track glistened in the moonlight which convinced him of the existence of a silver road.
As was often the case back then, songs often had multiple singers and/or bands competing to be the first to record them. "Giniro no Michi" was no different, and though Dark Ducks had been the first act to show the song on television, female duo The Peanuts（ザ・ピーナッツ）beat them (though not by much) in terms of the release date of the single record which was also early October 1966, although their version was actually the B-side to "Roma no Ame"（ローマの雨...The Rain in Rome）. Compared to the folksy country twang of the Ducks' version, The Peanuts' take on "Giniro no Michi" starts out sounding like hippie-ish Sunshine Pop before gradually turning into a bold jazzy number.
Some 30 years following the final closure of the Konomai Mine, a stone memorial plaque with the lyrics of "Giniro no Michi" was established in 2003 in the area of the mine near Monbetsu Station. In any case, my condolences go to both the families, friends and fans of David McCallum and Hajime Tohyama.
J-Canuck here and once again, we have special guest contributor Fireminer with his thoughts on a song from the "Meitantei Conan"（名探偵コナン...Case Closed）anime franchise.
There are anison singers, and there are singers whose songs just happen to end up in a lot of anime. Where will you put Mai Kuraki（倉木麻衣）then? A glance through her discography and you will be forgiven to think that she belongs to the first category -- to date she has 29 (as many as I can count) anime theme songs, of which 27 have appeared in the famous Case Closed aka Meitantei Conan (名探偵コナン) and its various spin-offs. She held the Guinness World Records for the artist with the most songs featured in a single animated franchise from July 25th, 2017 to May 19th, 2023 when she was dethroned by the duo angela, who have 34 songs in Soukyuu no Fafner (a personal favorite of mine that I will recommend to anyone who likes mecha anime). But given that Fafner has reached its ending and Case Closed is still going strong, expect Mai Kuraki to break the record once more.
Anyway, back to the original topic, do you consider Mai Kuraki an anison singer? I personally do not, given how extensive Kuraki’s catalog is and how many non-anime hits she has. It is the same case as with B’z, another regular presence on Case Closed. I imagine these artists have a very strong relationship with the producers of the series, if not being fans of it themselves, thus why their songs are featured so regularly. Hell, Kuraki is a character in Case Closed, her counterpart also a popular singer who sometimes makes cameos in the bizarre cases of Conan Edogawa.
That is not to say some of Kuraki’s most successful hits are not tied to Case Closed like the subject of this topic, 2017’s Togetsukyō ~Kimi Omou~ (渡月橋 〜君 想ふ〜 Togetsu Bridge ~Thinking About You~). The song was used as the 55th ending theme of Case Closed as well as the closing song for its 21st movie The Crimson Love Letter. Given how the movie takes place in Kyoto, it is only given that Togetsukyō centered around the titular Togetsu bridge. I have never been to Kyoto, but from the images alone it certainly looks stunning in fall, with white bridge on a backdrop of red from the maple trees. The song ties that scenery to the classic story of a woman far away from her lover letting her emotion pour over the Katsura river, in hope that the water will carry it to him.
Togetsukyō has been Mai Kuraki’s best-selling single since 2004, peaking at 2nd on the Japan Hot 100 Chart and 5th on the Oricon Chart. And it is not hard to see why. There is bound to be someone who heard of this song and immediately thought “I should make time for Kyoto.” It is a classic song in theme and styling, much like a classic landscape painting harmonizes the tones of different subjects. It draws up a beautiful vision of the Togetsu Bridge and imbues it with a fantasy that anyone would have had put themselves in at least once.
The last time I wrote on singer-songwriter Chiharu Matsuyama（松山千春）was back in mid-July when I posted my thoughts on his 7th single from August 1979, "Yoake"（夜明け）. I noted that perhaps it inhabited that gray area between enka and kayo kyoku or pop known unofficially as New Adult Music back in the day. The genre was never fully accepted by the media or other institutions but I'm starting to think just for KKP purposes, I really ought to adopt it and so I'm plugging the label for the first two times on "Yoake" and this Matsuyama ballad.
"Machi"(The City) was a track on Matsuyama's May 1979 5th album with the very long title of "Sora wo Tobu Tori no You ni, No wo Kakeru Kaze no You ni"（空を飛ぶ鳥のように 野を駈ける風のように...Just Like the Bird Flying in the Sky, Just Like the Wind Running Through the Fields）. As I just stated, I think "Machi" fulfills that feeling that it belongs in the amorphous New Adult Music area because it not only has that lyrical theme of an opportunity lost regarding love in the cold cold city which is very much enka, but the music by Matsuyama additionally has that enka languidness though filtered through Western instruments and arrangements.
I even came across an Ameba blog whose author pointed out that "Machi" gives off that enka aroma in the lyrics and that enka singers in their fifties right now would probably be tackling this one, despite the fact that the singer first recorded "Machi" in his early twenties. Knowing how opinionated Matsuyama can be on most things, I'm uncertain whether he would be thrilled about at least some of his creations being labeled anything close to enka, but still from my own personal view, I'm perfectly fine with these bittersweet sigh worthy New Adult Music ballads. Anyways, I'll be heading into some back labeling for the next little while on behalf of this new Label.
Amazing how fast a month can speed by. We're already in the final week of September 2023, but today is slightly warmer than usual for an autumn day. Not that I see a whole lot of people complaining, mind you.
Over six years ago, I added actor Tomokazu Miura（三浦友和）to the "Kayo Kyoku Plus" family because of his 1978 debut single"Hohoemi no Tobira"（ほほえみの扉）, and it didn't hurt that he would eventually marry aidoru Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）and have two sons, one of whom is also up here, Yutaro Miura（三浦祐太朗）.
The second song that I'm providing for Pere Miura's KKP file is "Illusion" which is a track from his April 1979 album "Sobyou"（素描...Sketches） which managed to reach No. 28 on the Oricon chart. As with "Hohoemi no Tobira", this was also created by Etsuko and Takao Kisugi（来生えつこ・来生たかお）with Masataka Matsutoya（松任谷正隆）behind the arrangement. "Illusion" is somewhat bizarre since it seems to have lifted some of the rhythm part from Billy Joel's"Movin' Out" and along with it comes a grafting of a melody that was inspired by an old-style jazz café. At the same time, Miura himself sounds as if he were vocally on the verge of going outside of his comfort zone as opposed to the relaxed way he delivers in "Hohoemi no Tobira". Perhaps it was just as well that it was a non-single track on "Sobyou".
All firemen are heroes...that's without question. In Japan though back in the early 1970s, there was a Fireman who was a tokusatsu hero. "Fireman", or as he was known in certain overseas markets: "Magma Man", was a live-action series that premiered in January 1973 and was launched with two other similar series, "Ultraman Taro"（ウルトラマンタロウ）and "Jumborg Ace"（ジャンボーグA）in commemoration of Tsuburaya Productions 10th anniversary.
Ironically though, I never saw an episode of "Fireman". Actually, I remember the character in his manga form when my parents bought me those thick kids' books that were selling at the old Furuya food market in downtown Toronto back in those 1970s. Even back then, I thought that it was rather odd to name a superhero after a well-known essential service for any community, but I was informed that in Japan, firemen were and are known as shouboushi（消防士）, so the character's name was still an exotic one.
Seeing Fireman in action through one of the YouTube videos, I didn't think that there was anything special in his battling of monsters that couldn't have been replaced by one of the Ultramen or I assume Jumborg Ace (since he showed up in that same thick manga book), but variety is the spice of life. The theme song, "Fireman", is the usual heroic ballad of dramatic horns and strings created by composer Asei Kobayashi（小林亜星）and lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）with perennial kids' hero singer Masato Shimon（子門真人）behind the mike.
Come to think of it, I'll have to take a look at "Jumborg Ace" as well.
I wasn't sure whether I would be putting up another Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）post this year as an addition to "Shiroi Labyrinth"（白い迷い）and "Kagami no Naka no J"（鏡の中のJ）, but then I found this oldie but goodie a few days ago.
"Non-fiction Ecstasy" is Akina's November 1986 single and true to my faltering memory, I had been wondering this was a track on her "CD '87" album that I forgot to mention in that July 2013 post. Well, that certainly wasn't the case and the reason that I am rather emphatic about that is that "Non-fiction Ecstasy" was only initially available as a cassette single with the main song and its karaoke version on Side A while Side B had karaoke versions of a couple of songs which would eventually get onto "CD '87". In fact, the first album that it finally got onto was the singer's "BEST II" compilation from December 1988...which I have as a cassette tape as well, although I won't play it on my tape recorder that I've dubbed Jaws.
The single's cover has a mighty good hint as to what the song sounds like. Looking like a very inviting and a slightly adorably goofy cabaret singer, Akina is basically offering herself as a very congenial host for the evening surrounded by a techno jazz arrangement. Considering the general sound of her singles in the late 1980s, I have mused whether Akina felt that she should have been born up to half a century earlier.
Arranged by Kazuo Shiina（椎名和夫）, the No. 1-reaching"Non-fiction Ecstasy" was written and composed by singer-songwriter Kazuko Sakata（坂田和子）. I'd never heard of her before but according to her J-Wiki profile and her own website, she had been creating songs since her student days before providing her songs to a wide variety of other singers though not particularly focusing on any one artist. Sakata did release one CD of her own titled "Lullaby" in 1991.
Impulse love? Love on impulse? Sounds a tad dangerous with the potential consequences being 1) parents of one of the partners discovering they are proud card-carrying members of the NRA, 2) the sudden need to file some paperwork at the nearest government facility, and 3) discovering how expensive baby cribs can be.
Well, "Impulse Love" here is a lot safer but it also has quite a bit of funk. This is the penultimate track on fusion band Chickenshack's"Chickenshack IV" from 1988 with jazz and blues guitarist Junshi Yamagishi（山岸潤史）helping out. The late saxophonist Hidefumi Toki（土岐英史）and keyboardist Toru Tsuzuki（続木徹）were behind this strut-happy tune down the street. As the chorus sings out, it's time for a nice little walk with that significant other.
I guess that I can add the good folks at Japan's "Weathernews" as a source for new music to be discovered. Yesterday, I was just casually leaving the YouTube channel for the station open while I performed my usual blog maintenance when the caster introduced the relatively new segment known as "Weather Music". It's the brief part where J-Pop songs from a variety of decades are played while the weather maps and temperatures are shown and perhaps the caster gets a bit of a break or an update.
Well, the song on that particular "Weather Music" segment was a new one for me. It was "NIGHT DANCER" by singer-songwriter imase from Gifu Prefecture. The song came out as his 5th digital single last year in August and though it's not a Neo-City Pop tune per se, it does have that amiable urban feeling to it as a couple having to deal with yet another humdrum night but at least they are together to enjoy that humdrum night. "NIGHT DANCER" managed to get up to No. 38 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100, and since then, a couple of remixes of the song have been getting out this year.
From what I've read of his profile on J-Wiki and Wikipedia so far, it seems like imase is the latest Luke Skywalker for J-Pop. After only getting into songwriting for a year, this young man in his early twenties had already been getting his debut single out there in 2021, and less than half a year after that, he got the gig to sing the Pocari Sweat jingle, something that only established artists usually get. Business has apparently also been booming on his social network accounts. The Force has truly been with him, so I wouldn't be surprised if he were invited to the Kohaku Utagassen in a couple of months.
"Candy" is some nice urban groove with a direct lineage to Curtis Mayfield's"Tripping Out" and Tatsuro Yamashita's（山下達郎）"Amaku Kiken na Kaori" (あまく危険な香り）. What I think of whenever I listen to any of Naoko Gushima's（具島直子）creations such as this one and "Love Song" is the sweetness, and at the same time, some touch of nostalgia. Perhaps this is the reason for the mysterious charm that keeps the listener's attention.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised" (2020).
I was pretty impressed by the band One Step Communicate which was introduced by KKP's HRLE92 back in February so that I also covered them through a later contribution by the group to the anime franchise "Shinpi no Sekai El-Hazard"（神秘の世界エルハザード...The Magnificent World of El-Hazard）. As the author mentioned, every track on "One Step Communicate" is a banger.
Now I want to return to that original self-titled 1994 album where I had my socks knocked off by the first track. "True Paradise" has got panache, soul and class as a 1990s form of City Pop with the high-falutin' vocals of Kenichi Nakagawa（中川顕一）, the snazzy horn-spiced melody by guitarist Hiroyuki Yano（矢野弘佳）and some nice background chorus. It's indeed the type of song that I would like to hear while walking down one of the main streets of Tokyo on a gorgeous clear night. Ren Takayanagi（高柳恋）was responsible for the lyrics.
I could've easily put the 1975 cover as the usual thumbnail at the top there considering how this particular song sounds. But actually the album where this tune originated was released in January 1985.
What Yours Truly is writing about is Masayo Yoshida's（吉田麻沙世）perhaps one-and-only album "After That" and the song of note is "Time's on Your Side". Yoshida was the writer and composer for this pretty relaxing tune which actually comes across as more 1970s City Pop due to that languid keyboard and that certain rhythm arrangement belying its mid-1980s release. Even the guitar solo in the middle sounds like something from the disco era. I've yet to listen to the rest of "After That" but I would be interested in finding out some more about this little known singer-songwriter.
Because this blog is usually on the nostalgic, allow me to throw another old commercial from my younger days into the mix. Caramilk is a veteran chocolate bar by Cadbury that had fans wondering how they were able to get the caramel into the chocolate bar. Well, the powers-that-be at Cadbury came up with a masterpiece of an ad that I still remember for that last-second reveal and that last line when a desperate wooer for the secret of how they were to get that dang caramel in there begged for it: "ANYTHING?"😈
Not sure what "Caramel no Nioi"(The Smell of Caramel) is all about but it's a track from Kei (or Kay) Ishiguro's（石黒ケイ）1984 album "You Remember Me". Written by Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）and composed by Yoichi Takizawa（滝沢洋一）, it starts out sounding like a West Coast AOR/pop tune with that rhythm piano before the chorus takes things into a more mysterious mood. At one point, I was wondering whether "Caramel no Nioi" also went into New Wave but ultimately I refrained from putting that Label on.
Good to hear that the temperatures in Japan seem to have come down to more bearable levels. I was pleasantly surprised to see on the NHK weather board that the highs are around 26 degrees Celsius while the lows are around 22 degrees in the Kanto region at least. In comparison, Toronto will have a high of 22 today. I've got a couple of friends who have travel plans in Japan next month and they will be quite relieved at the downward shift in the heat.
Just to start off the usual Urban Contemporary Friday today, we've got a pretty laidback 90s City Pop tune by singer-songwriter Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）. From his "Pop x Art" album from September 1992, I give you his "Loving in the Rain" which was written and composed by Hayashi with further lyrical work by Kanata Asamizu（朝水彼方）. However, I can't say that it's totally down-home Japanese City Pop since especially when it comes to the main chorus and the instrumental bridge, there's something very sweepingly 60s Bacharach thanks to the strings. It even takes things into Swingout Sister sophisticated pop territory.
I was out most of the day today which explains why Wednesday was stuffed with a few more articles than usual including Marcos V.'s posting on "Ninna Nanna" last night so many thanks to him. Actually, I met up with my old anime buddy for brunch this morning and it was a bit of old times as we returned to his place for a truncated version of the old routine of anime and food that we'd once had before the arrival of the pandemic. I don't think we're resuming it but it was nice to visit again.
We even had a short respite of anison playing over the speakers and my friend had been steadily collecting his soundtracks and the like over the years. I was surprised then when he played a variation of a song that I've always enjoyed.
It turns out back in November 2021, in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the original manga "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?"（ご注文はうさぎですか？...Is The Order A Rabbit?）, a CD was released titled "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka? 10th Anniversary Shudaika Rearrange & Hi Reso Best"（ご注文はうさぎですか? 10th Anniversary主題歌リアレンジ&ハイレゾベスト...Main Theme Rearrangements and High Resolution Best） which provides some of those "Gochiusa" songs with a new twist. My friend was able to play the new version of "Daydream Café", hands down my favourite theme song out of all of them in the anime franchise. Shoichiro Hirata（平田祥一郎） rearranged the original Aki Hata（畑亜貴）and Kaoru Okubo（大久保薫）version of the song that best reflected the atmosphere of one of the most moe anime ever made in the 2010s. I'm not saying that we'll be hearing the new "Daydream Café" being played by some DJ in a Harajuku dance club but it's got some nifty beats.
Korean DJ and producer Night Tempo’s new album, “Neo
Standard”, is out now, in September 2023, featuring a golden roster of female
singers and aidoru from the 80s and 90s, including Kyon Kyon (小泉今日子), Kaoru Akimoto (秋元薫), Marina Watanabe (渡辺満里奈), Yu Hayami (早見優),
Anju Suzuki (鈴木杏樹), Bonnie Pink, Maki Nomiya (野宮真貴), Asako Toki (土岐麻子), Hitomi Tohyama (当山ひとみ) and, of
course, Miporin (中山美穂).
The album is very good, but the song that quickly
caught my attention was “Ninna Nanna” (“lullaby” in Italian) by Miho Nakayama,
as per usual these days (I’m constantly obsessed with this woman). Backed by a
relentless deep house arrangement, Miporin almost makes the song sound laidback
with her vocals, which, by now, as we should know, are very different from her
younger days.
Listening to “Ninna Nanna”, it's not like the young
Miporin we all know from the 80s. She now sings in a shaky, vulnerable and, dare
I say, almost tired lower range that can still sound mesmerizing, at least to
me. However, I must confess that sometimes I have mixed feelings about Nakayama’s
current vocal state, especially when she sings her old songs on TV and concerts,
but in newer tunes, probably composed with this specific voice in mind, it
works fine.
“Ninna Nanna” is subtly catchy in its own ways, never
being explosive or anything like that. Night Tempo tends to prioritize a classy, nocturnal approach in his compositions, which connected very well with Nakayama’s
mature rendition of the song.
Lyrics were written by Nakayama herself, while composition
and arrangement were done by Night Tempo.
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