Unfortunately, I have to begin today's crop of KKP articles with an announcement of another death of a significant figure in Japanese music this year. Earlier on Twitter, I discovered that prolific lyricist Yoshiko Miura had passed away on November 6th from pneumonia at the age of 75 as reported from sources such as "Sponichi Annex" today.
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| Yoshiko Miura www.asahi.com |
Miura was born in 1949 in Aomori Prefecture. After graduating from Meiji Gakuin University in Tokyo, she became a copywriter but in 1977, she got her first credits as a lyricist by writing the words for aidoru Mizue Takada's（高田みづえ）"DOMO DOMO", the B-side to her first single "Garasuzaka"（硝子坂）. She would then go onto a career writing the words to songs recorded by male and female aidoru such as Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）, Toshihiko Tahara（田原俊彦）and Yukiko Okada（岡田有希子）while at the same time providing songs to singers even in the City Pop realm such as Junko Yagami（八神純子）and Miki Matsubara（松原みき）.
It's not easy to find out a lyricist's approach to their craft but for Miura's J-Wiki article, there is a small section on her musicality. Apparently, she felt that she had to come up with the words that the original melody "wanted" in the song and that those words were something that came at her suddenly so she had to grab them and protect them from others who may want to deny or change them; otherwise, they would lose their appeal. At the same time, if the main chorus didn't sound right, she would keep on rewriting over and over again until satisfaction was achieved. In one interview, she noted that for one of her bigger clients, Seiko Matsuda, her task was to establish a colour for Seiko-chan's image in that song and then come up with the lyrics which would enhance that colour.
For the following few examples of Miura's vast work, I'll leave some translated excerpts from the songs. My condolences go out to Miura's family, friends and fans, and of course, all those singers that she had provided songs for.
(1977) Mizue Takada "DOMO DOMO"
(1978) Junko Yagami -- Mizuiro no Ame (みずいろの雨...Azure Rain）
(1980) Seiko Matsuda -- Aoi Sangoshou（青い珊瑚礁...Blue Coral Reef）
(1981) Hiromi Go -- Oyome Samba （お嫁サンバ...The Bride Samba）
(1981) Kenji Sawada -- Stripper （ス・ト・リ・ッ・パ・ー）
Take off the heels, take off the rouge,
When you've taken everything off, come here,
We can't start until you're naked,
Start of the show, baby,
Take off the past, take off the yesterday,
When you've taken everything off, come here,
It won't do to hide your eyes to escape,
Morning, night, noon...passion is a stripper
Naked contact,
Summer, Fall, Winter....love is a stripper
I'll show you but I win, baby,
I'll show you everything I got,
I wanna see everything you got!
I have missed a lot of great post of yours! I am been away from the internet too long! Okay, Miki Matsubara -- Mayonaka no Door （真夜中のドアー...Midnight Door is a favorite of mine.
ReplyDeleteBrian...good heavens...it's been a while. Hope you have been doing OK. "Mayonaka no Door" seems to have been a favourite of a lot of people over the past couple of years.
DeleteEven for myself non Japanese speaker, the phonetics and rhythm of the lyrics flow so well that I can sing a couple of the verses as it plays.
DeleteIt reflects that hard work which Miura put into the lyrics that they can flow so well. "Mayonaka no Door" does come to mind very easily.
DeleteYears? Has, it been that long already? I thought it was a few months, but then again to be honest I do not remember the the last time I was on this blog. Well, to make a long story short I got a new computer recently and a new internet provider, too. I am also fond of Miki's 'Aitsu no Brown shoes', too. Anyway it is a such a shame Miki did not live to see her music become famous worldwide.
DeleteIt's definitely a pity that Miki didn't live long enough to realize how popular "Mayonaka no Door" has become worldwide, especially since she had gotten somewhat down on her career some time before she got sick. Not sure if she was able to cheer up near the end. Still, I wonder what her reaction would have been to this sudden international fame. Would she have been flattered or mystified as other singers have been?
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