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.
Well, it was about a year ago when I first discovered that City Pop princess Nanako Sato（佐藤奈々子）had opted to go into another direction with her music. That's right...she formed a band SPY in 1980, a group which veered more toward the new New Wave and synthpop. So, last year, I could only find one song from their lone self-titled album represented on YouTube, "Hello Mr. SPY".
Since then though, I was told by one commenter that the remainder of the songs from "SPY" have apparently gotten onto YouTube. That includes the second track on Side B, "Taiyo to Mannequin" (The Sun and the Mannequin). Sato wrote and composed the tune which begins briefly with something approximating her old City Pop and there's even some fusion being filtered through some of those synthesizers. However, there is always that haze hovering overhead signaling that indeed, SPY is a different animal before some bouncy ska makes its presence known. Meanwhile, Sato's voice gets into a rather jumpy and slightly hiccoughy rhythm, almost approaching the style of future pop star Cyndi Lauper.
Well, last day of the first month and it's a Hump Day, too. So, I figure that something whimsical was in order, and on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", we do like to go whimsical now and then. Therefore, I'd like to try a little something that we haven't done before on the blog, and in this case, I'm giving my own personal list of songs in which a certain lyric sticks out. But it's not for the depth of its meaning but just because it sounds so catchy and has basically imprinted itself into my memories forever. Maybe it's staccato, velvety smooth or explosive...it doesn't matter.
Keeping on the "Uta Con"（うたコン）theme from last article with Yu Sakai（さかいゆう）, there was a performance of an old chestnut that had been done on the currently running NHK morning serial "Boogie Woogie"（ブギウギ）starring Shuri（趣里）. Back in October, when the series just started, there was already some buzz flying about due to the barnstorming onstage performances of the actress as entertainer extraordinaire Suzuko Fukurai（福来スズ子）based on the real-life force-of-nature singer Shizuko Kasagi（笠置シヅ子）. Pretty hopping stuff to see and hear in the morning. The song that set the tone was "Sentimental Dinah".
The song about exhorting young Dinah to get out of her funk and do her singing and dancing whirlwind was written by Kobun Nogawa（野川香文）and composed by Ryoichi Hattori（服部良一）for Kasagi to record in 1940. It certainly starts out in a down-on-your-luck morose way but by the end, things seem to pick up for Dinah at last.
The above video by Super Retro TV has Kasagi performing "Sentimental Dinah" in 1947. It's interesting to compare the 1940 recording with the 1947 performance on stage in front of a camera considering that the original record had been made right in the middle of World War II with the clampdown on entertainment (except for songs thought amenable by the Imperial government at the time). The 1947 song-and-dance after the war must have felt a lot more freeing for Kasagi.
I'm pretty sure that Shuri's cover of the song was arranged by Takayuki Hattori（服部隆之）, Ryoichi's grandson, who is handling the soundtrack for "Boogie Woogie".
For all of you enka fans out there, yes, that is indeed singer Hiroshi Miyama（三山ひろし）having fun at last year's Yosakoi Festival in Kochi Prefecture on the island of Shikoku. According to Kids Web Japan, the annual tradition began in 1954 following the creation of Yosakoi Naruko Odori (Yosakoi Naruko Dance) based on the minyo "Yosakoi Bushi"（よさこい節...Yosakoi Song）. The dancing is accompanied by a couple of clappers known as naruko.
In July 1965, enka singer Harumi Miyako（都はるみ）recorded her version of "Yosakoi Naruko Odori", which was originally written and composed by Eisaku Takemasa（武政英策）and arranged by Shosuke Ichikawa（市川昭介）.
Now, the reason that I'm writing about this minyo in the first place is that I just watched the first "Uta Con"（うたコン）this year with real live guests with one of them being pop and R&B singer-songwriter Yu Sakai（さかいゆう）. He managed to perform a very stylized and stylish rearrangement of "Yosakoi Naruko Odori" with hefty dollops of soul and jazz and electric guitar and a brass section hopping onboard. In fact, the above video had comments stating that they came over from watching the "Uta Con" broadcast to catch it once more.
Sakai's version is on his double-CD BEST album "Sakai Yu no Playlist ~ Shiro to Kuro"（さかいゆうのプレイリスト［白と黒］...Yu Sakai's Playlist: Black & White） from December 2023 to commemorate his 15th anniversary in the music industry. Another reason that I'm writing about this is that not too long ago, I'd also made note of another new twist on an old minyo "Kaigara Bushi"（貝殻節）by Minyo Crusaders.
Yup, the above is the apartment building where I lived, Maison Asami in Ichikawa City. Seventeen good years were spent in that 2K. Compared to where I've been living for the past decade now, my apartment on the 3rd floor was a tiny little place with a living room, a bedroom, a kitchen and a unit bathroom, but it was home. I had a good routine and lifestyle with a lot of supermarkets, convenience stores and restaurants within 5 to 10 minutes on foot. My station was Minami-Gyotoku on the blue Tozai Line, one of the busiest lines on the Tokyo Metro.
Listening to the pop duo Tsuki no Michikake's（月の満ちかけ）June 2021 single"Sundeita Machi de" brought some of those old memories back. 「街」can be translated as "street" or "town" but I think Tsuki no Michikake's Kazuya Imai（今井カズヤ）who wrote and composed the song probably meant the former, so "The Street Where I Used to Live". His lyrics describe a person moving on after the end of a relationship and leaving the old neighbourhood for a new neighbourhood and a new life.
I first posted about Tsuki no Michikake back in late 2022 for the title track of their self-titled album from 2018 and received some pleasant light and mellow sunny-side pop. Once again, I'm getting those vibes for "Sundeita Machi de". I can easily imagine a music-variety show performance of this one with a few dancers and their shopping bags skipping rhythmically on the residential street.
Although it wasn't due to a romantic breakup, my final departure from Maison Asami does come to mind when I handed the key over to my rental agency back in December 2011. Six weeks later, I launched "Kayo Kyoku Plus".
Well, allow Kayo Grace Kyoku and me to wish "Kayo Kyoku Plus" a Happy 12th birthday today. Yup, a dozen years ago, I launched the blog with a posting on one of the big hits of 1981, Jun Horie's（堀江淳）"Memory Glass"（メモリーグラス）and haven't looked back. As usual, I'd like to express my thanks to everyone who's helped out over the years with their own articles: JTM, nikala, jari, Marcos, Noelle, Larry, Joana, HRLE92, Oliver and T-Cat as well as commenters including Michael, YMOfan04, Jim, Brian and Fireminer for their recommendations and insights. Last but not least, I am also grateful for all those who have stopped by for a spell and taken a look at some of the 10,000+ articles we've put up since January 30th 2012.
I was kinda wondering what I would do to commemorate No. 12. At first, I had thought about posting songs with the number 12 in their titles but all I got were tunes involving the month of December which would be somewhat confusing since we are near the end of January. Then, a light bulb came over my head regarding silk which is the traditional gift for a 12th anniversary but nothing popped up on the search engines about kayo kyoku with that relationship.
Finally, I opted for any singer who was born on January 30th just like KKP. Well in that situation, I did hit pay dirt. I was able to find three singers who fit the profile. And so, Happy Birthday to them as well (I've listed their birth years below. As for the years of release for the songs, you can check the Labels below the article or go to the original articles via the links).
A couple of days ago on Saturday, I posted an article talking about "Uraomote Aquarium"（ウラオモテアクアリウム）, the opening theme for the new anime "Snack Basue"（スナックバス江）which is set in Sapporo, Hokkaido. Well, I pointed out that this season has two Hokkaido-based anime, and the second one is "Dosanko Gyaru wa Namaramenkoi"（道産子ギャルはなまらめんこい...Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable!）which is based further northeast in the city of Kitami. I found this quick guide video to the city and the YouTube channel Ohoban（オホバン）managed to whip up a rather entertaining concoction.
From what I've seen of "Dosanko Gyaru wa Namaramenkoi" so far, it fits the slots of slice-of-life, fish-out-of-water, and potential harem comedy. To be honest, I am reminded of "My Dress-Up Darling" which came out exactly two years ago with the main character of Kitami gyaru Minami Fuyuki (冬木美波) being similar to that show's Marin Kitagawa (喜多川海夢) with a little bit more of the teasing factor that Takagi-san had in her own show.
Y'know, it's almost been ten years since singer-songwriter Masayoshi Oishi（大石昌良）came up with the popping "Kimi Janakya Dame Mitai"（君じゃなきゃダメみたい）for the hilarious "Gekkan Shojo Nozaki-kun"（月刊少女野崎くん...Girls' Monthly Nozaki-kun）, an anime whose second season I'm still hoping beyond hope for. Of course, he's been providing plenty of music between 2014 and 2024 and he's back again with the opening theme for "Dosanko Gyaru wa Namaramenkoi".
"Namaramenkoi Gyaru"（Super Adorable Gal） has Oishi providing a bit more of the James Brown in its (uptown) funky disco and just as is the case with Ohoban's video, there is also some dancing in the opening credits. As with "Kimi Janakya Dame Mitai", there are loads of fun and energy in this new song which ought to warm people up nicely in the cold areas. His anime tie-up will be released as an official single on February 7th. By the way, nice shoutout to those old 1990s ski wear commercials in the video.
Happy Monday to all! I haven't subscribed to this YouTube channel but I often check up on Squirrel Nest Live which has videos including live cameras on a couple of nests of baby and adult squirrels living near Washington DC (not sure whether they're Republican, Democrat or Independent). Realizing that I am somewhat of an oddball but there is something very calming about watching a scurry of them (yes, that is the official name of a group of squirrels) sleeping it off in their hidey-hole. One thing that I've learned over the months of observation of Hana and her brood is that squirrels do sound quite different from my original impression.
Now, to be honest, I have no idea how worms sound. But perhaps Yoshifumi Niinuma（新沼好文）of the techno unit Sympathy Nervous did have some insight when he came up with the first track for his November 1980"Sympathy Nervous" album. I first mentioned the band back last fall thanks to KKP commenter YMOfan04's recommendations.
"A Worm" starts things off for the album with what sounds like some pretty intense worm talk thanks to his synthesizers. Placed against a tribal beat, the worms might be conversing on anything from how tasty that dung-enhanced soil is in the McDonalds' backyard or the craziness surrounding interest rates this financial quarter. Niinuma also likes to play with us listeners making it seems as if "A Worm" finishes up at a little after four minutes only for the beats and worms to perk up again for at least another minute.
Ah, yes. Where would Japanese television be without those agents of chaos, Takaaki Ishibashi（石橋貴明）and Noritake Kinashi（木梨憲武）, aka the comedic duo Tunnels（とんねるず）? For an industry that plans their programs down to the second and hates surprises, Taka and Nori were the enfant terrible of comedy in the 1980s with one legendary example involving an expensive television camera while they were performing their 1984 "Ikki!"（一気!）. You can read about the incident in the article for that song, but up above you can witness it with your own eyes at around 4:55.
Recently, there was a tweet by a friend relating a supposed incident (also mentioned in the relevant J-Wiki article) involving the Tunnels and their February 1987 10th single "Arashi no Macho Man"(Macho Men of the Storm). During recording of the song, at least one of the chorus singers tearfully threatened to leave the recording studio because she or they found what they had to sing so stupid or maybe they just got frustrated about having to do take after take of singing the lyrics which largely consisted of the titles and lyrics of famous disco tunes of the past such as Van McCoy's"The Hustle" and Dschinghis Khan's (ジンギスカン)title song. The chorus does pop up prominently throughout "Arashi no Macho Man". Frankly speaking, consternation surrounding the Tunnels especially Taka-chan doesn't surprise me.
"Arashi no Macho Man" is fully invested into the disco. Taka-chan even acts as the cordial host of the festivities within the song, encouraging the attendees to help themselves to the free food and drink. Sounds a bit like my old disco, The Copa, in downtown Toronto. Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）wasn't only slapping that bass but he was also responsible for the hard-driving melody while Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）took care of the lyrics. Apparently, there was an 80s disco boom at the time in Shinjuku which inspired the creation of the song which hit No. 2 on Oricon and ended up as the 67th-ranked single of 1987.
For the record, the video below with Tunnels performing "Arashi no Macho Man" onsite somewhere has them parodying Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）and actor/singer-songwriter Asei Kobayashi（小林亜星）. The woman who is making a cameo dance appearance in the first several seconds is singer-actress Naoko Ken（研ナオコ）.
The above is a picture of a couple of kids playing a Japanese New Year's game called fukuwarai. I have never played this myself but it's a bit reminiscent of Pin the Tail on the Donkey for Halloween although I think the idea of placing multiple facial features on a blank head has even more possibilities for mirth. Just to give credit where credit is due, this image comes from the website Illust Plus so if anyone there sees this and is not happy about it, please let me know and I will take it down. I just wanted to show readers what this game was all about.
I gotta hand it to Weathernews Live Japan. Although I don't really take in their weathercasting to heart since I don't live in the region anymore, I've been able to use their live YouTube broadcasts to find out about some fine music via their BGM from Nash Music Library and also songs that are presented on their Weather Music segments. The service has been quite generous in its selection which has ranged from SURFACE's disco"Going my Ue e"（ゴーイングmy上へ）from 2000 to the more recent cover of "Timing" by Klang Ruler. Of course, the choices have gone even further back to the time of Queen of New Music Yumi Arai（荒井由実）and her "Chuo Freeway"（中央フリーウェイ）.
Another song that I've discovered from Weather Music in the last week or so is "Fukuwarai" which I wrote about at the top. Written, composed and performed by singer-songwriter Yu Takahashi（高橋優）from Akita Prefecture, it's a two-thirds pop and one-third rock song about the idea that he got from his fans that English is not the global lingua franca but the act of smiling. Released as Takahashi's 3rd single in February 2011, "Fukuwarai" is the type of guitar pop (takes me back to the 90s) that I enjoy listening on a cool quiet Sunday like today.
The song managed to reach as high as No. 15 on Oricon and it was included on Takahashi's debut album as a major artist, "Real Time Singer-Songwriter"（リアルタイム・シンガーソングライター）, from April 2011. It broke into the Top 10 at No. 8. "Fukuwarai" was also used as a commercial song for Tokyo Metro.
A little over a couple of years ago, I posted up an article about a song by actress/singer and seiyuu Keiko Toda（戸田恵子）when she had first began her career as a 1970s aidoru under the name of Akemi Ayu（あゆ朱美）. "Hitori Uranai"（ひとり占い）was her 4th and final single as Ayu, released in November 1976. It was a pretty melancholy song about a relationship that was about to smash itself on the rocks.
Well, I'm heading back to Ayu's beginning and that means her first single released in February 1974 and it's another sad tune titled "Guitar wo Hiite yo"(Strum That Guitar) about a woman who's requested a guitar player to play something to help assuage her down feelings. I've yet to hear the remainder of her discography but maybe Toda back then was known as the Melancholy Aidoru? Listening to it a few times, I had assumed that the folk group Grape（グレープ）led by Masashi Sada（さだまさし）created the song especially with those strings in there. However, it was actually Michio Yamagami（山上路夫）behind the lyrics while Taiji Nakamura（中村泰士）came up with the melody. I have to say that the singer's vocals are very affecting. On Oricon though, "Guitar wo Hiite yo" did only modestly by peaking at No. 85 and selling approximately 5000 records.
Just by happenstance, I managed to come across a video of a talk show that may have been from the late 1990s according to the uploader. Toda and company view some old footage of a teenaged Ayu riding her bike while "Guitar wo Hiite yo" is playing in the background.
Somewhere in my dusty collection of old-fashioned print photos, there is an album containing my shots from my trip to Sapporo years ago. It was a mere three days in the northern city in Hokkaido but it was a nice one especially since things were so comfortably cool and dry in June over there compared to the hot and humid conditions that were already creeping into Tokyo. I would have put one of those photos up, most likely one of the shots of the neighbourhood of Susukino, Sapporo's own equivalent of Shinjuku or Kabukicho in Tokyo, but I haven't had the wherewithal to dig into the cabinets quite yet. Instead, I've posted a YouTube video from the good people at Tokyo Walker with their own traipse through Susukino.
What's with all of the nostalgic memories of Sapporo all of a sudden? Well, although the last season of anime was fairly sparse for me in terms of what I wanted to watch, it appears that there may be a few for Winter 2024 that have popped up favourably on my could-watch radar. Two of those are actually set in Japan's northernmost prefecture
"Snack Basue"（スナックバス江）is based on the 2017 manga by Forbidden Shibukawa（フォビドゥン澁川）and the trailer has had me thinking that the nutty humour and weird characters are probably something that would get me to watch. Supposedly the tiny but stylish titular bar is located five stations away from Susukino so it's even further away from the hotel where I'd stayed during my trip there. When I do finally get to see "Snack Basue", it'll be interesting comparing this anime with the ultimate in bar sitcoms in America, "Cheers". Not sure if any of the regulars there will yell "YAMADA!" whenever Yamada steps in, though.
The opening credits for "Snack Basue" pretty much gives us the cast of characters and the tone of the show, and I recognize the first several seconds as a parody of the opening animation for one of the movie-of-the-week programs on Japanese TV. However, the opening theme is something a little different; I'd expected something folksy jovial or a Mood Kayo in the spirit of a typical Japanese watering hole, but actually it's fast-paced synthpop by otonari (Ririko) called "Uraomote Aquarium"(Two-Face Aquarium) written by Ririko and composed/arranged by Ryohei Sataka（佐高陵平）. Ririko's breathlessly delivered lyrics describe what I think is the usual rant by tipsy salarymen at places like Snack Basue about bullying bosses and terrible clients, so there is the whole tatemae and honne issue within Japanese society.
From what I've seen on the J-Wiki article for the series, the ending songs will be a series of covers of the old kayo kyoku which is refreshing to see and hear. For Episode 1, it was Anri's（杏里）debut song "Olivia wo Kikinagara" from 1978 as performed by seiyuu Rie Takahashi（高橋李依）in character as the bar's proprietress Akemi（明美）. It's pretty close to the original arrangement, too. Compare that with Takahashi's other cover of a kid's song in the anime "Tomo-chan wa Onna no Ko!"（トモちゃんは女の子！...Tomo-chan is a Girl!）last year.
If this book were to select a Christmas song, this would be straight-up the one. "Juu-ni-gatsu no Yuki" is the song that you want to hear on a silent holy night overlooking powder snow that has fallen without any sound. Done with Abe's（安部恭弘）sense of style channeling The Great American Songbook, for some reason, the more luxurious the sound gets, the more I get that wistful feeling that gets me right here.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised"(2020).
Over the past several months, I've been able to encounter a number of eclectic and interesting artists with their music. And I'm happy to say that a couple of them have collaborated with each other in the past.
Singer-songwriters punipunidenki（ぷにぷに電機）and Kan Sano worked together on lyrics and melody respectively to form "Zurukunai?"(Ain't It Unfair?) which was released in May 2021 as a digital single. I was just talking about the multi-liqueur Singapore Sling cocktail in my previous article, and I think "Zurukunai?" is the musical equivalent and perhaps just as heady as well. I've had to listen to the song a few times and I've picked up on straight pop, some funk, synthpop and Neo-City Pop. Plus, there are the welcome smoky vocals of punipunidenki with Sano's vocal help in the chorus.
I also like the atmospheric music video which takes place at the Analog Record Bar in Shibuya so if any of you traveling to Tokyo are in the mood for the cool and refined drinking experience, you can give that a go. The young lady in the video by the way is model Yu Ishizuka（イシヅカユウ）.
For a guy who doesn't drink all that much, I guess that I've been throwing in those alcohol-based kayo kyoku over the years of this blog. I actually did put up a whimsical Author's Pick a couple of months back with "Alcohol Kayo" and only some days ago, there was Nash Music Library's"Cocktail From Japan". So I gather that I'm a vicarious alky.
I've had my Screwdrivers, Brown Cows and Creamsicles but a Singapore Sling has yet to be made in my presence for imbibing. According to the video from Tipsy Bartender, it's got quite a few ingredients so I'm thinking some similarities to the Long Island Iced Tea. It's probably just as sweet and deadly, too.
Speaking of the Singapore Sling, Rie Nakahara（中原理恵）released a song with that very name back in July 1984 as a B-side to her single "Sennen Seppun"（千年接吻...Thousand-Year Kiss）. Described as a slice of American pop and AOR, this was written by Masao Urino（売野雅勇）and composed by Daisuke Inoue（井上大輔）with Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）handling the arrangement. That bouncy piano does remind me of some of that Sunshine Pop from America back in the 1970s, but the pre-chorus synths reassure us that this was indeed made in the 1980s.
I know that there have been many types of aidoru out there over the decades such as baradoru（バラドル...variety show aidoru）, underground aidoru and mamadoru（ママドル...aidoru who have become mothers）. Of course, there have been sexy aidoru which I had observed to have been more of a 1990s phenomenon with voluptuous groups such as C.C. Girls.
Apparently though there was a sexy aidoru from the late 1980s by the name of Shiho Sakamoto（坂本志穂）or as she was known in the geinokai, SHIHO (I'm just using her full name to distinguish her from some of the other Shihos in Labels). Born in Miyazaki Prefecture in 1968, she made her debut in front of the mike with "Gypsy Queen" in 1988 although this is a different song from the Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）hit from about a year earlier.
Her third single"Girigiri Yuuwaku"（ぎりぎり・誘惑...Last Minute Temptation） was released in April 1989 but the song that I'm focusing here is the coupling tune "Secret Dancer". Written by Yumi Morita（森田由美）and composed by Ken Sato（佐藤健）, it's quite the punchy dance-pop song (with those 80s orchestra hits) with some nice brass, and yep, I do get those disco dance-in-Roppongi vibes. "Girigiri Yuuwaku" may have been her highest-ranking single, reaching No. 92 on Oricon while selling four thousand copies.
According to her J-Wiki profile, SHIHO probably got the sexy aidoru label from appearing in discos all over the country while wearing a prominent thong during the 1990s. Up to 1994, she released 11 singles and 6 albums.
Yup, Kayo Grace is in the big city which means that we are at Friday, the day of the urban contemporary on KKP. And today launches with a rather distinct article because not only am I talking about an album, but it's an album that won't be released officially until March 6th this year.
But allow me to give some background information. For one thing, I can't quite believe that it's been almost ten years since I posted the first article on singer-songwriter Junk Fujiyama（ジャンクフジヤマ）because of his "Hoshikuzu Pipeline"（星屑のパイプライン）, that homage to the sound stylings of late 70s/early 80s Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）that first got known as the amazing musical accompaniment to the ending scene of Episode 6 of the bonkers anime "Space Dandy". Some years before the whole "Plastic Love" thing, "Hoshikuzu Pipeline" had some of us City Pop fans back then swooning that maybe the good ol' days of music grooviness can come back with new tunes. Well, it's kinda crazy what's happened over the last decade.
Fujiyama has continued to do his groove thing although his profile has struck me as being somewhat low-level over the years. Well, I found out a few days ago that he's coming out with an album of City Pop covers, "Shoukei Toshi"(City of Aspirations), which I said above will be released on March 6th. I guess that a lot of fantasies of City Pop fans have now come true with Junk Fujiyama handling other tunes of the uber-genre. For instance, an advance digital single came out on January 23rd, a mellower cover of the late Junko Ohashi's（大橋純子）"Telephone Number", a special favourite for many of the fans.
Even earlier...on December 13th 2023, to be exact...Fujiyama released another digital single which is a cover of Anri's（杏里）"Windy Summer" and it'll also be included on the album. It's of course arranged in his style but it's no less summery than the original. I'm hoping that the other tracks which include covers of Junko Yagami（八神純子）and Miki Matsubara（松原みき）will also be fun. I've also noticed that Junk had covered a few Tats tunes in 2021 and 2022 but they're not on "Shoukei Toshi". Nice cover art, by the way.
The above photo was taken at Ichigaya Station in Tokyo, and the lens is overlooking a popular fishing pond. I was watching NHK news this morning where I found out that the temperature during the morning there was -1 degree Celsius or 30 degrees Fahrenheit. That temp would actually be a bit balmy here in Toronto but in the Japanese capital, that's darn frigid. And in a city where many of the houses and apartments still don't have central heating or insulation, that's darn frigid as well.
Still miss the old megalopolis, though. Plus, this song, "Tokyo city" by the three-piece band hasirikomis（ハシリコミーズ）makes my heart grow even fonder. Released in perhaps late 2023 as a single, I like the pop-rock groove with the half-sung/half-rapped vocals of loving life and romance in Japan's largest city. I can even pick up on some 70s funk in there, too.
"Tokyo city" was written and composed by vocalist/guitarist Ataru（アタル）and he's joined by his two bandmates, bassist/vocalist Aoi（あおい）and drummer/vocalist Sawa（さわ）. Their website is pretty sparse in information so I had to find out from Ongaku Natalie that hasirikomis formed in 2019 with their first album, "Muri Shiyou!"（無理しよう！...Let's Do the Impossible!）, coming out in August 2020. As for the name, I think it comes from the word hashirikomi（走り込み）which refers to "long training runs" according to Jisho.org.
Welcome to another weekly edition of Reminiscings of Youth. When it comes to the rocking New Wave band Talking Heads, the subject of this article wasn't actually the first time that I had heard them. That prize goes to "Once in a Lifetime" from 1981 with that weird video of David Byrne looking like the most unpopular professor on campus while he's repeatedly proclaiming "You may find yourself...".
I will eventually come to that one for a ROY article later this year but I wanted to begin the Talking Heads file on KKP with their July 1983 single"Burning Down the House". The song wasn't only popular but its music video was in heavy rotation on the local Toronto video show "The CHUM 30 Countdown" and other similar programs. With this one and the one for "Once in a Lifetime", I had assumed that Talking Heads was a British band because my impression was that the really oddball videos came from the UK. Actually, they were from another island altogether: Rhode Island in the United States.
There's something like a "OK...let's get down to business!" beat with "Burning Down the House" which is why I've liked this one for so long. Maybe there was a movie or TV drama that used it during some sort of caper montage but if that were the case, I have yet to see it. The drumming and then the slashing guitar (or is that a keyboard?) in the bridge are my favourite parts of the song along with Byrne's unique vocals. "Burning Down the House" peaked at No. 9 on US Billboard and it was the Heads' highest-charting single there while in Canada, it went a tad higher by placing in at No. 8.
So, what was hitting the Oricon Top 10 for July 1983? Well, we've got Nos. 4, 5 and 7.
We're bringing back Kayo Grace Kyoku in the environs of a Japanese inn during winter. I've been hearing about the snow and ice that has been blanketing much of Japan. Temps over here in Toronto have been hovering around the freezing point this week with a mix of rain and snow.
It's been a while since I posted anything by the boomer-voiced Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）so I was doing a search and I came across this coupling song to her February 1993 25th single"Itsuka Kitto" (いつかきっと). "Winter Melody" is somewhat more of the bittersweet tune compared to the A-side with Watanabe taking care of the lyrics while frequent collaborator Hiromasa Ijichi（伊秩弘将）, who has also worked with the 90s girl group SPEED, took care of this winter melody.
About a woman coming to grips with her new life following a romantic breakup, the intro sounds like something from the Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）handbook at that time. Watanabe's vocals once again take on the form of a reassuring shoulder to cry upon while the arrangement goes into a contemporary pop mode although I wouldn't place it as a City Pop song. Surprisingly, the music gets increasingly epic...perhaps to signify the woman's rise out of despair but I think the synth brass and strings get a little overwrought by the end. Images of the lady suddenly getting into the cockpit of an F-14 Tomcat and flying off to challenge Tom Cruise have come to mind. And I'm kinda left wondering what happened to the winter.
I gotta say that if there were such a thing as a 60th anniversary special for a cadre of Japanese Doctor Who, then the cover for Kome Kome Club's（米米ＣＬＵＢ）2nd digital single would be perfect.
Carl Smoky Ishii（カールスモーキー石井）and the gang are no longer active on the concert scene anymore as far as I know (their website states their latest event as having happened in 2021) which is a pity because they gave some epic performances. But this digital single "WHO?" which came out in December 2021 can help make up for this to a certain degree. It's got the old K2C brassy and funky pizzazz (thanks to Big Horns Bee) and Ishii's over-the-top delivery. I'm not sure if we'll ever seen a live performance of this song which could front a J-Drama about a local superhero, but just listening to this on the stereo is happy enough for the fans.
Another kind gift from JTM over the Holidays was Yoko Oginome's（荻野目洋子）first BEST compilation, "Yōko Oginome: The Best" which hit the shelves on Christmas Day 1985, so definitely a Merry Christmas to all of those Yoko fans. It's an interesting one to be sure because the final track on this CD is "Dancing Hero"（ダンシング・ヒーロー）, the song that I've felt to be the ground zero for my image of Oginome, the angular dancing heroine aidoru of the mid-1980s. So, all of the singles and songs before were still quite new to me although since then, I've become aware of her being one-third of the kiddie aidoru trio Milk in 1980 and then her star turn as the main character in the anime "Miyuki"（みゆき）in 1983. As well, somewhere in my dusty collection of VHS tapes, Oginome was a teenaged assistant in some sort of variety special on television where she was probably known just for "Miyuki" and as the kid sister to actress Keiko Oginome（荻野目慶子）.
In any case, I've already covered a quarter of the sixteen tracks on "The Best", and by the way, JTM gave his thoughts on another BEST compilation almost eleven years ago called "Golden Best" from 2009. I don't think I'll be able to cover everything here but let's how many we can take a look at. The ones that I've already posted will have links to their respective articles.
"Ryūsei Shōjo"(Meteor Girl) is the B-side to Oginome's debut single"Mirai Kōkai (Sailing)" from April 1984. It's the usual mellow aidoru tune on the flip side of the more active A-side. Written by Yoko Aki（阿木燿子）and composed by Yuuichiro Oda（小田裕一郎）, it's got some hints of City Pop or AOR with the instruments involved but Aki's lyrics either talk about that titular meteor girl surreptitiously looking at the boy of her dreams after having a fight with his own girlfriend in the perhaps vain hopes of welcoming him into her arms instead or she really is a girl from outer space observing the surprisingly fragile male ego. Oginome's voice is also just as mellow here, perhaps some months away from gaining that famous nasal tone.
Oginome's 2nd single is "Sayonara kara Hajimaru Monogatari" (A Story That Begins with a Goodbye) from July 1984. Indeed, a story of getting over summertime heartbreak, the lyricist was Chinfa Kan（康珍化）and the composer was Tetsuya Furumoto（古本鉄也）with Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）handling the arrangement. There's some playful drama in the music including that popular electric guitar wailing solo from those days (methinks it's a Hagita thing). I'm getting the impression that the people supporting Oginome at the time really liked to get those music videos with her. I'm not quite sure what child labour laws were like in Japan in 1984 but I certainly wasn't aware that gamine 14 or 15-year-olds were able to work at gas stations. For that matter, I wonder if that fellow at the end was a young Agent Gibbs...or Stringfellow Hawke. Incidentally, "Sayonara kara Hajimaru Monogatari" peaked at No. 29 on Oricon and won the singer a whole slew of awards including those for Best New Artist and Silver prizes.
Ah, nice winter cottage setting there. Then again, we return to the gas station and also a dance studio and even a Japanese music show stage, so I'm guessing that this may have been the wrap-up video for a collection. It's for Oginome's 4th single"Mukokuseki Romance" (A Romance Without Nationality) from February 1985. The lyrics by Fumiko Okada（岡田冨美子）describe a Japanese woman lured into a love affair with a foreigner overseas with the melody being woven by none other than the late Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）. When I read that, I chuckled a bit since I was reminded of "Medaka no Kyoudai"（めだかの兄妹）from 1982 by the cute-as-all-get-out aidoru trio Warabe（わらべ）. Sakamoto was responsible for its arrangement and it did become a hit although at the time, The Professor was perhaps somewhat aghast at the assignment. The J-Wiki article for "Mukokuseki Romance" did note that it was very unusual for him to actually come up with a melody for an aidoru ("What, again?!"), but hey, work is work. The song has that certain je ne sais quoi of exotic mysticism which is right up Sakamoto's alley. It hit No. 35 on the charts.
"Freesia no Ame"(Freesia Rain) is actually the title track from Oginome's 2nd album released in March 1985. At the risk of sounding like the narrator from Canada's "Hinterland Who's Who", the freesia is a flowering plant native to Africa, so I'm gathering that man and woman in Takashi Matsumoto's（松本隆）words are traveling on a train coursing through that continent with the latter figure quietly expressing her love for the big lug. Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）is usually someone that I equate with arrangement but this time, he also came up with the basic happy-go-lucky melody. As for the album, "Freesia no Ame" managed to get as high as No. 26.
My final song here today is "Kokoro no Mama ni (I'm Just a Lady)"(As You Please) which is Oginome's 6th single from August 1985. Hagita was once again on hand to arrange Mai Arai's（あらい舞） melody and words, and this one seems to be reminder of some of the sweeping aidoru ballads from a few years previously as done by folks like singer-songwriter Takao Kisugi（来生たかお）. The strings used in the song especially remind me of those earlier days. There seems to be a "poor little rich girl" vibe with "Kokoro no Mama ni" as Oginome sings about being a proper lady and not being able to openly express those emotions such as falling in love. The song reached No. 16 on Oricon and it is the single before Oginome transformed into the dancing Eurobeat aidoru with "Dancing Hero" from November that year.
You know it's gonna be a banger when the first piece of information you get from the song was that it was banned.
Imagine: Japan has been at war for three years (officially, at least). Resources are stretched thinner than before; whatever that could be scraped together was sent overseas for the soldiers stationed abroad. This is stacked on top of the worsening economic situation and poor harvests.
Poverty’s stranglehold has never been tighter, morale has never been lower, and the patience is wearing thin over the war that's been dragging out for way longer than it should. Yet, the government calls for greater austerity and condemning any smidgen of decadence, from painting your nails to "overly" sentimental songs.
Nante iu yatsu genki ga tarinai (Get a load of this guy! You just ain't got enough pluck!)
And then, you have "Tarinai Song" (The Not Enough Song) recorded by the Columbia Rhythm Boys and set for release. It was September 1940. Jazz and blues aficionado Ryoichi Hattori (服部良一) had come up with a catchy, rumba-inspired number to accompany the bold words by lead tenor Hideo Akiyama (秋山日出夫) and the rest of the quartet. As with all songs at the time, it was sent in to the record censors for vetting.
In R. Hatter's biography, the purpose of this silly ditty was to encourage the masses to keep their heads up and continue to give their all to the nation during this strict State of Emergency and trying time of severe lack. So, technically, in line with what the government and censors want. I appreciate the thought, bois, and I see where you're coming from, but y'all flew too close to the sun with this one, as hilarious as the song is. Basically, "Tarinai Song" had the Rhythm Boys complaining about the lack of something, be it rice, money, the concern for the state of emergency, or the affection of the young lady working the cigarette stand. And for every concern, there'll be a retort like, "You ain't working enough! (That's why you got no money!)" The humour is on-brand, but plainly read, "Tarinai Song" is so on the nose in highlighting the lack the war is causing and kicking down the Imperial government's façade that all's fine on the resource front. With it being too accurate and honest a picture of pre-Pacific War Japan, I'm surprised they thought it'd survive inspection.
As you may have noticed, the word “tarinai” (meaning a lack of/not enough) in the title is presented in katakana like so タリナイ, and was mostly written as such in the lyrics rather than in kanji where it may have looked like this 足りない. Since the advent of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War in late 1937 brought about a tighter grip on media censorship, I reckon that the Rhythm Boys and dear Hattori sensei were trying to skirt the system by making the word less obvious. Kinda like how YouTubers skirt the platform's auto-censorship by replacing letters with funky characters or numbers. But with the lyrics' meaning clear as day and with how our four jazzy bois were pretty much howling out their dissatisfaction at the state of things, “Tarinai Song” may as well had a “Ban me!” (禁止頂戴) sticker pasted over it in big, bold, red words. And so the censors gladly obliged.
(Noelle from 25/1/24: I relooked at the original lyric card during a trip to the NDL today; record event organizer Tadaaki Kitakawa (北河忠昭) had also kindly shared the image on Twitter. Unlike the "Ketteiban..." album's liner notes that mostly used タリナイ, the original lyrics actually predominantly used 足りない,while タリナイ was used in reference to the song's name. So much for skirting the system. It's as if our bois just dumped a thimble of water on their heads and straight-up walked into the fire. I know record censorship was known to be comparatively sloppy, but I'm impressed "Tarinai Song" got as far as having its lyric card published in the official Columbia Records monthly entertainment magazines. Way to go, fellas. Then again, I suppose Hattori's rationale was strong enough to convince the record company to green light it.)
Despite the fate of "Tarinai Song,"Hiroyuki Kondo (近藤博之), who'd written a full-on thesis on Tadaharu Nakano (中野忠晴) and contributed information and commentary to the liner notes of his centenary album "Ketteiban Nakano Tadaharu to Columbia Nakano Rhythm Boys" (決定版中野忠晴とコロムビア・ナカノ・リズム・ボーイズ), wrote in the latter that by a stroke of luck, the original recording was found after the war. This was how "Tarinai Song" managed to make a comeback, the former appearing in Mr. Nakano compilations in recent years like this centenary one. I'm so glad it did because it's fantastic. Likely within my Top 10 Hattori Melody - maybe I should make that list.
Speaking of Mr. Nakano, "Tarinai Song" was just recorded by the Rhythm Boys themselves without him, which may explain the lack of a "Nakano" in the quartet's name for this tune. The quartet did their own activities without the lead vocalist from time to time. Still, the group with or without Mr. Nakano didn’t seem like particular strangers to potentially controversial yet humourous songs chock full of social critique. Just a few years prior, they did a cover of “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf” titled “Fukeiki Nanka?” (不景気なんか？... Is there, like, a recession?), but the titular wolf was economic recession and the three little pigs were three wretched university graduates who couldn’t seem to find employment despite their qualifications… Good thing times have changed and songs like "Fukeiki Nanka?" and "Tarinai Song" aren't that relevant, right, guys? *Puts on clown wig and make-up* Right, guys?
*Information on the state of Japanese society before the Pacific War mainly came from my understanding of "Grassroots Fascism" (Yoshiaki Yoshimi), and the prewar-wartime record censorship came from "Tokyo Boogie-Woogie" (Hiromu Nagahara).
P.S. Sometime last week, I was at the National Diet Library doing my usual resource dredging, and while looking through the archives of prewar Columbia Records' monthly music almanacs, I came across the promotional pamphlet for "Tarinai Song." It had the cheeky faces of the Rhythm Boys next to the song lyrics. The guys speed-ran record bans and I'm impressed it managed to get that far before getting the axe... Why was I looking through Columbia Records' prewar archives when Hachi was from postwar King Records? Well, I'd been studying Hachi's and King's resources beforehand. And - I mean - Columbia was one of the modern Japanese music industry's old guard. *Sweats nervously* It's good to know more about kayo history, y'know. I certainly wasn't looking for snaps of a certain singer from that company from that period of time whose initials are N.T. ( ºωº; )
P.S.S. Speaking of Hattori, I've recently gone to another record appreciation event featuring the Father of J-Pop organized by the same fellas who brought Ichiro Fujiyama and Roppa Furukawa to life last year. It's split into 2 parts with the 2nd half in early February. I'll be sure to do a reflection piece after that. Apparently, Part II is gonna feature Hattori's hit ryukoka. I love me some Hattori Melody, so I'm looking forward to it.
Well, this one caught me by surprise. I was just watching the first "Uta Con"（うたコン）episode of the year which was the usual clip show as a review of the past year. I had wondered whether last year's Kohaku Utagassen would be doing a tribute to all of those singers and musicians that had been lost in 2023 but instead, "Uta Con" opted to do their own special segment to end the episode for people such as Shinji Tanimura（谷村新司）and Junko Ohashi（大橋純子）.
However, one whose departure from this mortal coil that I hadn't been aware about until tonight was enka singer Shoji Koganezawa（小金沢昇司）. I hadn't come across any notice on the news regarding his death online or on TV but I did find the above TV Asahi announcement just now that had been posted a week ago. The native of Kanagawa Prefecture died on January 11th 2024 at the age of 65 from respiratory failure.
Probably his most famous hit was his "Arigato...Kansha"（ありがとう…感謝）from 2003 but I already posted about that one back in 2017. So I've decided to go to his beginnings and write on his debut single"Omae Sagashite"(Looking For You) which was released in August 1988. Sung tenderly by Koganezawa, the lyrics by Ou Yoshida（吉田旺）are actually a mix of anger and relief and reassurance from a lover who had been searching for his significant other for two years. Finally tracking her down, he gives her a solid chew out for running away from him but at the same time, promises his continued love for her. Seiichi Sakurada（桜田誠一）was responsible for the boisterous music. I wonder if a lot of Koganezawa's friends and fellow singers are feeling the same way about their colleague leaving them so early.
My condolences go to Koganezawa's family, friends and fans.
It's been nearly four years since I've posted anything on 80s aidoru Noriko Matsumoto（松本典子）. Ironically enough, the day that I did post my last article on the Tokyo-born singer was on KKP's 8th birthday on January 30th and we're fast approaching No. 12.
For the record, I think the original "Kanashii Kotori"(Sad Little Bird) by fellow 80s aidoru Yuki Saito（斉藤由貴）with its particular arrangement will always be the best one for me. However, having said that, Matsumoto's cover of that 1985 song isn't too bad either. A track on her 3rd album"Jasmin" from October 1990, this version of "Kanashii Kotori", which was written and composed by the poet and photographer Natsuo Giniro（銀色夏生）, sounds somewhat more mature under the selection of synthesizers including one that sounds like an accordion from Paris and the slightly more measured singing by Matsumoto.
When I first heard this song, the first words of "Gomen ne..."（ごめんね...I'm sorry） suddenly sparked an engram of recognition within me. I hadn't quite remembered the title of Saito's signature song but as it went along, I finally could get my memories in order.
I'd heard about this song in the months before I saw this unit Hamaiku（ハマいく）perform it on the 74th edition of the Kohaku Utagassen almost a month ago. But just to give some background, it appears that "Uta Con"（うたコン）isn't the only NHK music program that has undergone a few regenerations like "Doctor Who". There has been a late-night Saturday music show called "Venue 101" which has been kicking around since the spring of 2022 which took over from the 2016 "Shibuya Note"（シブヤノオト）which itself had inherited the reins from the 2007 "Music Japan" and the 1993 "Pop Jam".
From what I've seen of the episode synopses on the show's J-Wiki article, "Venue 101" looks at and invites over the currently hip singers and bands. The hosts are droll comedian/TV personality Ryuichi Hamaie（濱家隆一）of the Yoshimoto Kogyo comedy duo Kamaitachi（かまいたち）and Erika Ikuta（生田絵梨花）who used to be part of aidoru group Nogizaka 46（乃木坂46）.
Well, it was decided that a few months into "Venue 101", Hamaie and Ikuta just had to come up with a song of their own for the show. Smashing their family names together to form the duo Hamaiku, a cute little ditty titled "Beat de Tohi" was released as a digital single in October 2022. Created by musician meiyo, it's got a few genres mixing it up in there but for the most part, it's the disco that I hear. Basically, it's kawaii and cornball at the same which makes for an ironic contrast with the hipper stuff from the show's guests.
The tohi in "Beat de Tohi" is something that I have no idea about (scalp, escape?) but meiyo's lyrics pretty much define what the official concept for "Venue 101" has been and that is to make listening to music more fun. But in the past several months, what's amped up the song's profile considerably is the choreography attached to "Beat de Tohi", beginning with Hamaiku themselves and then spreading onto other groups, celeb or non-celeb.
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