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.
This isn't only the final day of July 2024 but it's also a Wednesday, and though this song would most likely be good as an entry on Urban Contemporary Friday on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I can't help but place a song with a title containing a day of the week on that day of the week. So there.😉
And indeed, this is "Suiyoubi no Sakana" (Wednesday Fish). However, I would like to first note the duo behind this groovy song, Soirée. The pair consists of lyricist and vocalist Mao and composer and guitarist Rabbit Fumitsuki（文月兎） (I hope that I have this name correct; if either or both members see this article and can confirm or correct me, that would be greatly appreciated), and they started up Soirée in 2022. Both of them are still technically teenagers for another year (and indeed, Happy Birthday to Mao today) and they sound very smooth and assured in their business. They remind me of another group, shaky, which also impressed me with their groovy ways while they were in their own adolescence.
"Suiyoubi no Sakana" was their 4th single from December 2023 and it's a nice slice of soul or Neo-City Pop in the megalopolis with the guitar and smooth yet sparkly keyboards. Wednesday would be an ideal night to head to that sophisticated nightclub in Shinjuku without having to worry about too many customers in the premises with this song playing in one's head. Speaking of other groovy groups, hearing "Suiyoubi no Sakana", I also got memories of the relatively older group BLU-SWING.
As is usually the case for me, I was doing my round of maintenance among the articles last night when I came across Noelle's 2016 article for "A rundown of the 48th Omoide no Melody (第48回 思い出のメロディー) Part 2". A few of the videos got taken down by YouTube so I had to replace them.
One such video was for Noelle's description of the performance by one of the guests on the annual NHK special who happened to be singer-songwriter Ichiro Araki（荒木一郎）. She had been expecting to hear Araki's "Itoshi no Macks ~ Macks A Go Go"(Macks, My Love) because she enjoyed actor/singer Hiroshi Tachi's（舘ひろし）cover version, but instead the original singer went with his debut single, "Sora ni Hoshi ga aru youni"(空に星があるように) .
We're going with something from seven years ago, but I'm not going to see one of my friends and fellow writers be disappointed, so allow me to bring "Itoshi no Macks" onto the KKP screen. This was his fifth single from May 1967, and true to the Group Sounds boom that was happening in the latter half of that decade, Araki made some adjustments to the melody and arrangement so that he was jangling it like any GS band. The entire song is a love paean to some lady named Macks (get that red dress for her, Ichiro!), perhaps short for Maxine or Maxie. And yep, the lyrics have the name down as "Macks" and not "Max" which I had assumed at first.
"Itoshi no Macks" may have been Araki's first big hit as it sold 1.25 million copies by some time in 1968 and got him his sole invitation to the 1967 edition of the Kohaku Utagassen. This was before the Oricon charts came out but I could imagine that the song would have hit No. 1.
To commemorate his 10th anniversary in the music business in 1976, Araki released through what was once Trio Records a revised version of "Itoshi no Macks". This one still retains the GS flavour but as the song progresses, there is more of a silky Mood Kayo element added through strings and sax.
Ahh...here is the Tachi cover which was his 1991 single. I could only find this video but it sounds like there is a bit more of a rock sheen to this one.
Y'know...I do love to cook and bake although I don't really get the opportunities that I used to when I was living alone. I can make that old-fashioned classic Pineapple Upside-Down Cake but for some reason, I've never had the gumption to try a good ol' fruitcake like the ones they serve during Christmas. Perhaps one reason is the perhaps unfair reputation regarding the store-bought ones that can be used as doorstops or lethal weapons a few weeks down the line. Sometimes, I also wonder if attempting to make a fruitcake is akin to giving nuclear fission the college try. But hey, give the above video a look. It appears scrumptious and the background music is very reminiscent of Vince Guaraldi and Bill Evans.
I gather that Nash Music Library will no longer be alone on this blog as the maker of pleasant instrumental music for TV shows such as "Weathernews". And in fact, this fusion band from the Netherlands first formed all the way back in 1982. Known as Fruitcake, they were active from the 1980s into the 1990s, and apparently a lot of their music was used as BGM for radio and TV programs.
Japan was also one of their "clients", so to speak, and perhaps a lot of Fruitcake's tunes were also appropriated to adorn certain segments on shows. For example, the comments for the above "A Little Place in My Heart" from their first album"Fruitcake" in 1983 stated that it had been used for the weather segment on TBS' morning news show. Nothing like some soothing instrumental AOR with your hot coffee and croissant (or pickles, fish and rice) to help you on your way to work. No actual fruitcake, though, probably.
Oh, enjoy another making-of video for fruitcake. This one, though, has a bit more oomph near the end. 😆
Since ramen truly hit the ground running in Toronto a little over a decade ago, we have had quite the battle among the franchises for many years with brands such as Kinton, Santouka, Sansotei and Touhenboku throwing us the noodles, karaage, gyoza and other such goodies. Well, it seems as if Touhenboku may have thrown most of its towel earlier this year with perhaps two of its three shops closing up for good including the only branch that I used to frequent in uptown Toronto. It's too bad, but there are still a number of independent ramen shops opening up.
A week ago, I posted a 2012 ramen-based song titled "Ramen no Uta"（ラーメンの歌）by singer-songwriter Toshihide Baba（馬場俊英）which had that wistful and coming-of-age flavour and aroma. Well, since then I was able to encounter a couple of more similarly noodle-connected tunes of which both are considerably more upbeat.
The first one came out a year ago in June 2023. "Ramen'uoaini" (Ramen, I Love You) was recorded by TV personality and singer Shiori Tomita（トミタ栞）as a very bubbly synthpop tribute to that bowl of ramen. In fact, Tomita's appearance in the music video automatically had me thinking 1980s Hitomi Ishikawa（石川ひとみ）and all of the Golden Age of Aidoru. It was written by Tomita and Takuma Manmoni（マンモーニ拓磨）and composed by Sasuke Ishikawa（西川サスケ）and the arrangement is also reminiscent of the music of Ginger Root.
The Gifu Prefecture-born Tomita's claim to fame was her time as one of many hosts on the TV Kanagawa music program "saku saku" which ran from 2000 to 2017. Her time was between 2012 and 2015. A previous host had been punk pop/rock singer-songwriter Kaela Kimura（木村カエラ）.
A year after Tomita's love letter to ramen, singer-songwriter Kohmi Hirose（広瀬香美）brought pen to paper to create her own tribute to the noodles all over the nation in the form of "Ramen Chikyuu-go"(The Ramen Globe). I only saw its "Minna no Uta"（みんなのうた）cartoon on NHK only a few days ago as the super-dynamic chanteuse really lets go with her vocals and synths in one major techno-funky way. It's just too bad that the YouTube video of the song is truncated.
The last several months have had entertainer Kenji Sawada（沢田研二）only show up in ROY articles. In fact, I have to go back to July 2022 when Julie had his name on the byline via "Namida to Hohoemi"（涙と微笑み）.
Well, let's return to his 1970s heyday, shall we? This is his 18th single,"Sayonara wo Iu Ki mo nai"(Don't Feel Like Saying Goodbye), from February 1977 and it's an interesting one for me since I've been accustomed to Sawada singing really upbeat pop, New Wave or rock. Mind you, it's not the first time that I've heard a song by Julie that's a little more measured and/or melancholy but it's still not a typical thing for me.
"Sayonara wo Iu Ki mo nai" had some big names helping out in its creation with Yu Aku（阿久悠） as the lyricist, Katsuo Ono（大野克夫）behind the melody and Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）taking care of the arrangement. It really sounds like one of his most kayo kyoku tunes in his discography although that distinctive voice of his is right in there describing a lady going through some rough times, especially in the romance department. Those strings and the main rhythm really lead the ears like the Pied Piper of Hamelin. "Sayonara wo Iu Ki mo nai" hit No. 8 on Oricon and ended up as the 62nd-ranked single of 1977.
Over the past few days, I've been watching some of the Paris Olympics events including judo which truly had the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. In the last hour, I saw Yuto Horigome win his second Gold medal in Men's Street Skateboarding; I was chuckling somewhat at the CBC announcers who apparently decided to act more like standup comedians during that event. Meanwhile, one of them was mangling Horigome's name by continuing to call him "Yuto Origami". But unlike that popular paper craft, the Tokyo athlete didn't fold and won it all once again.
Anyways, to start off this July/August 2024 week of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I've decided to bring folks to the AI Gallery with an Olympics theme in mind.
I have to admit that the photo of Mr. Calico and Kayo is cuter than it is hot-bloodedly passionate but the AI generator kept pushing me to adjust my request. Oh, well...enjoy Ohguro's classic which is definitely fiery.
Around Christmas last year, I noted a band known as Minyo Crusaders（民謡クルセイダーズ）that has been attempting to bring some more tabasco sauce into the traditional Japanese music dish known as min'yo for over a decade. Vocalist Freddie Tsukamoto（フレディ塚本）and his band oomphed up "Kaigara Bushi"（貝殻節）recently, for example.
Well, on a recent episode of "Uta Con"（うたコン）, Minyo Crusaders showed up to reveal what they could do with another min'yo chestnut, "Tanko Bushi"(Coal Mine Melody). Now, an article on my own personal connection with the song was posted all the way back in 2017 so you can take a look at that through the link above. But over here, I've got Minyo Crusaders adding their own salsa or some brand of Latin and jazz into the proceedings for the original 1932 min'yo.
Coincidentally, the Crusaders' take on "Tanko Bushi" was recorded onto their first album which was also released in 2017, "Echoes of Japan". The song about coal mining probably could have gotten the miners off their duffs to swivel them; kinda interesting how the keyboards sound so fuzzy, though. But the horns come in loud and clear. With festival season in Japan happening now (weather permitting, especially this year), maybe the Crusaders will also be coming in loud and clear. Also, in the full version below, you can even hear a little tribute to an old Gershwin classic.
I sometimes get a tad irritated when a singer or band gets a little cute with their name. I was looking for Tomoko Yasuno（安野ともこ）for a while but not finding her on the usual list. I swore that she had been included onto KKP years ago but couldn't find any hint of the lass when I realized from other sources that I took down her name as it was stylized back in the 1980s: Tomoco instead of Tomoko.
Well, I did eventually find the article for her 1985"Mysterieux", a French pop-sounding technopop confection helped out by lyricist Michio Akiyama（秋山道男）and composer Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）. The music side of her career was very brief and she's mostly been in the design of fashion and jewelry. From her J-Wiki profile, in fact, I did discover that she had actually designed the outfit for award-winning figure skater Mao Asada（浅田真央）when she competed at the Sochi Olympics a decade ago.
But getting back to her music, it's apparent that Yasuno and company were still in thrall to their Gallic technopop. In November 1984, she released the album "La Musique Exotique" with one track being "flower bird wind moon", designed by the same Akiyama and Hosono. The first third of this six-minute-and-change song consists of burbling sounds as if the microphone had been traveling through a silver jungle of chromic life before Yasuno finally makes her voice heard. The tempo is more measured here and the atmosphere changes into some romance-mystery in a small town in France.
I did something unusual yesterday in that I actually ended up watching all 4 1/2 hours of Opening Ceremonies coverage of the Paris Olympics. Things did diverge from the norm with the Athletes' Parade taking place on the Seine rather than on an arena track. Plus, there was the entertainment including Lady Gaga putting on her usual flamboyant show with "Mon Truc en Plumes". Later in the broadcast, there was a whole lot of techno club music pumping away which cut into our dinner time; I don't think I've ever eaten hamburgers to hard dance music...digestion was interesting to say the least. But I have to admit that the showstopper was seeing Celine Dion, despite all of her medical troubles recently, sing "Hymne A L'Amour"; I actually got a bit verklempt.
The Games are now under way. I've seen a few of the events including judo and beach volleyball and hope to catch some of the swimming competition later on today. No problems with the Canadian broadcast but unfortunately Jme informed us subscribers that due to the usual broadcasting rights and zones, we won't be getting any Olympic coverage from NHK, although my family might get lucky with some YouTube footage.
NHK has been featuring this for the past few weeks but their "sports theme song" for these Games is YOASOBI's latest single"Butai ni Tatte" (Standing on Stage) which was released yesterday. I think for the last number of years, Japan's national broadcaster has been using "sports theme song" instead of "official Olympics theme song". I'm only speculating here but perhaps NHK got in trouble with the IOC regarding Japanese pop songs being recognized as official Olympics tunes or the network didn't want to pay any hefty fees for recognition.
Well, regardless of what "Butai ni Tatte" is labeled, we've been hearing the song alongside what news on the Olympics on NHK is provided. With its jangly high-tempo pop/rock arrangement, this could easily have been used as a theme song for any anime and maybe somewhere out there...for example, on a side of a government building...there is some anime footage with a whole bunch of characters possessing their gumption to get at sports. I've also got a feeling that YOASOBI will be making their way onto the Kohaku Utagassen at the end of the year to showcase the song.
My first two articles on singer-songwriter Yuki Nakayamate（なかやまて由希）were put up on December 2019 and February 2021. "Ange Blanc"（アンジェ・ブラン）from her 1983 album"Octopussy" and "Ijiwaru Shiokaze"（いぢわる潮風）from her debut 1981 release"Hold Me Tender" talk of two different styles by Nakayamate. The latter was more City Pop/AOR while the former went into a techno-tango style. Comparing the two, I figured that the singer's discography, as brief as it was, would be an interesting one to explore.
Unfortunately, I only found this out within the last hour or so. Nakayamate may have passed away on December 23rd 2022 from pancreatic cancer at the age of 62 according to one source, music writer Takashi Ikegami（池上尚志）on his Twitter feed. I haven't read or heard any other news confirming or denying this, so if anyone else can let me know, that would be appreciated.
I found this other track from "Octopussy" titled "Silhouette Call". I can't really conceive what a silhouette call is, but the song sounds silkily cool with that "...air of sophistication and finesse..." that uploader yaoiboi92 stated to describe the album. There are the keyboards and the bass from City Pop land that reminded me somewhat of a couple of tracks on Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）"Miss M", but the tropical Latin and the floaty arrangement accompanying Nakayamate's soft-as-cotton vocals make me think more of Resort Pop somewhere in a Jamaican resort. As was the case with "Ange Blanc", "Silhouette Call" was written by Tetsuya Chiaki（ちあき哲也）and composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）.
We're coming up to the end of another KKP day so let's go with something especially light and mellow. It seems as if over the last year, whenever I've posted an article on singer-songwriter Jin Kirigaya（桐ヶ谷仁）, it's to mention him in a Yutaka Kimura Speaks item such as No. 36 on that list.
So, let's wrap things up with an article specifically attuned to him, shall we? There is his track "Shizuka da ne" (You're Quiet) from his 1983 album"Jin". Written and composed by Kirigaya, it gives off an appropriately whispery-soft atmosphere as a man reminisces a past relationship fondly if somewhat sadly. As the song progresses, the arrangement and volume get a little higher including a feverish flute, perhaps signifying the guy getting deeper and deeper into his remembrances (maybe it's a bit of "Inception"). It definitely has that late summer/early fall vibe.
Although I don't own Kimiko Kasai's（笠井紀美子）album"Kimiko" from 1982, I've got a feeling from the couple of tracks that I've heard so far that for 80s jazz/fusion/soul fans who are just dipping their toes into the City Pop pool in Japan, this may be the perfect album. Case in point: the subject of this article, "I Wish That Love Would Last".
Created by Allee Willis and David Lasley, this song is so mellow, creamy and groovy that melted caramel would turn green with envy (and I really would avoid green caramel). "I Wish That Love Would Last" sounds perfect for radio airplay since I think it possesses those qualities which can place it within the areas of Quiet Storm and slow jams (which might be the same thing, but please correct me). Along with Kasai's caressing vocals, there are some pretty big names in the studio including Randy Waldman on the keyboards, Jimmy Johnson on bass and Paul Jackson Jr. on the guitar.
The other track on "Kimiko" that I was referring to is "The Right Place" which begins the album. That one is more uptempo and has me thinking George Benson and the Manhattan Transfer.
The first time that I heard of "Pillow Talk", it was as the title of an old movie starring Doris Day and Rock Hudson. It wasn't until later that I finally got the meaning of the phrase (chat which accompanies that cigarette for the afterglow), and I thought it was rather ironic that a 1959 flick with that title starred someone like Doris Day, although after watching the trailer, there were a few expressions that probably had audiences and PTAs go like this:
Anyways, I have a less torrid "Pillow Talk" which was recorded by singer-songwriter Kengo Kurozumi（黒住憲五）as the B-side for his June 1989 single"Hachi-gatsu no Angel"（八月のAngel...August Angel）. It was also the title track for his 5th album that came out in the same month as the single. Written by Yoshiko（与詞子）and composed by Kurozumi, it's a laidback mid-tempo tune for summer relaxation and cocktail imbibing. It also contains a pleasant gospel-like backup chorus and aside from a fusion rock instrumental bridge, "Pillow Talk" retains that nice AOR edge. Plus the keyboards have that sound that I've always enjoyed from the late 1980s going into the early 1990s for some light pop.
The above shot was taken on June 24th 2011 as I was walking in the Daimon neighbourhood of Tokyo. Don't quite remember how it felt although I know I walked a long while but the fact that I was even able to do two straight hours meant that it wasn't all that hot that one summer night. Right now, I believe the megalopolis is going through its usual steamy bath days and nights.😵
Long time no see, Machiko Watanabe（渡辺真知子）. Good to meet you again. For all of us, I have "Summer Night", a song written and composed by the singer with Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）handling the arranging duties. A breezy City Pop tune with a touch of that disco in the beat rather than the strings which sound more romantic, the whole thing sounds like something of intrigue. It's as if Watanabe and Funayama had been assigned to create metropolitan music as a theme song for a detective program but got rejected at the last moment.
"Summer Night" was the B-side to Watanabe's 8th single,"Hold Me Tight", which was released in May 1980. Both songs ended up on her 5th studio album from August of that year, "Libra". I would think that the nights in that month were typically torrid.
Within this greatly acclaimed album, these two tracks really stand out: "Suna no Onna"（砂の女）and "Binetsu Shonen"(Feverish Boy). On top of that, "Binetsu no Shonen", which incidentally was used as titles for a novel and a movie, has become emblematic of a boy living in a city of change, so the combination of Takashi Matsumoto's（松本隆）sense of revealing this boy wrestling with fever (...the tram is floating away/off to the galaxy...) and Suzuki's（鈴木茂）own hot and feverish sliding guitar play also invites us to head off to the galaxy.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised"(2020).
Hello, J-Canuck here. I usually end the Urban Contemporary Friday with Yutaka Kimura Speaks but today I've chosen to actually start with it today since I might be distracted by the Opening Ceremonies of the Paris Games in a few hours.
Looks like I've encountered another instance of a song on the Yutaka Kimura list that had yet to be covered by me or any of the other writers on KKP. So, allow me my comments here along with Yutaka's. Well, I gotta say that there is a goodly amount of funk and Steely Dan especially with Suzuki with that aforementioned sliding technique on his guitar. For a kid who's wrangling with a high temperature, I'm wondering whether he's actually come down with a disease or he's in thrall to the big city or someone special in his life.
Incidentally, that November 1985 novel that Kimura mentions in his review originated from an original essay penned by Matsumoto in January 1975. The movie adaptation would come out in June 1987.
Ah...one more by-the-way here, but this is Article No. 11,000 for the blog!
Earlier today, when I was writing up the article for "Minuet"（メヌエット）by Chika Ueda（上田知華） + Karyobin, I also noted that Ueda herself had performed the song on a 1978 episode of a relatively long-running TBS drama called "Sannan Sanjo Muko Ippiki"（三男三女婿一匹...Three Sons, Three Daughters and One Son-In-Law） starring thespian Hisaya Morishige（森繫久彌）. Well, seeing out of curiosity that "Minuet" hadn't been used as the theme song for the show, I decided to see what was used.
For the second season (in each of the three seasons, different songs were utilized), the opening theme was singer-songwriter Koji Kobayashi's（小林幸司）1978 single"Tokyo no Yane" (The Roof Over Tokyo). Composed by Yasuo Higuchi（樋口康雄）, the music strikes me as being a tune describing a new optimistic morning coming to greet Japan's capital city. It has elements of folk and rock so it was rather easy for me to place it into the New Music category (and there's even a part of it which had me thinking of Elton John's "Tiny Dancer"). The star of "Sannan Sanjo Muko Ippiki" himself, Morishige, provided the lyrics which also describe the wonder and good vibes of waking up in one of the largest cities on the planet.
As for Kobayashi himself, there are some videos of his music up on YouTube but there isn't much of a profile on the man. The blog where I found out about the songwriters behind "Tokyo no Yane" only noted his husky yet high-tone vocals, although I have to admit that his voice does indeed remind me of the voice of later pop star Hideaki Tokunaga（徳永英明）. The only other information that I could get on him was that he was briefly a vocalist in 1980 for the duo Buzz（バズ）which had come up with the big hit of 1973, "Ken to Mary ~ Ai to Kaze no yo ni"(ケンとメリー〜愛と風のように〜) .
Not sure if Kayo Grace and Mr. Calico have quite mastered the minuet but they're certainly giving it the college try.
I was listening to some of the discography of the late singer-songwriter Chika Ueda（上田知華）the other night, and realized that the last time I wrote about her and her group of string musicians KARYOBIN was over a year ago when I posted "Avenue"（アヴェニュー）from their December 1981 album"Miss Heart". Ueda and KARYOBIN were one of the prime examples of Fashion Music in my honest opinion, and so I opted to go even further back to their very beginnings.
And indeed, their first single from August 1978 was the aptly-named "Minuet" after the French social dance of a few hundred years ago. Right from the beginning, Ueda really stood out for her vocal abilities while her piano and KARYOBIN bring out this lush sound that could have had listeners swaying in their chairs. Maybe some of them could have even tried the actual dance.
Once again, I have to admit to some uncertainty but this time, it has something to do with where "Minuet" was featured. The song wasn't used as the theme for the 1978 TBS drama"Sannan Sanjo Muko Ippiki"（三男三女婿一匹...Three Sons, Three Daughters and One Son-In-Law） that had a three-season run between 1976 and 1980 but it was performed by Ueda (and presumably KARYOBIN) in one episode in the second season. However, I'm not sure whether it was the appearance that sparked Ueda and KARYOBIN to launch their music career or the show had given them further opportunity to reveal themselves to the masses after already beginning their time together. The above video has a brief scene of "Sannan Sanjo Muko Ippiki" starring the veteran actor Hisaya Morishige（森繫久彌）but isn't the one that has Ueda singing "Minuet". Looking at the setting though, I think the song was a good match for the show.
Tomorrow is the official opening day of the Paris Olympics although there has already been some action today, and I figure that it's time to put up some Olympic fare for Reminiscings of Youth this week.
A reviewer from "Rolling Stone" once described Canadian record producer and composer David Foster as a "master of . . . bombastic pop kitsch". Like ouch! And nope, it wasn't even a tongue-in-cheek backhanded compliment. However, with all of his contributions to Canadian, American and Japanese pop music, I'd like to state that he is MY master of bombastic pop kitsch. There are songs that he helped craft for other singers that I still like to hear after so many decades.
One of them has even been mentioned before when I did an Author's Pick on the man himself back in early 2019, and that was "Winter Games" for the Calgary Olympics in February 1988. I'd already been aware of his works as an 80s pop song enthusiast but this one landed a 10 on the mat when it premiered because it sounded so epic, friendly, wintry and downright Canadian for some reason. That main piano melody has always reminded me of shushing down the ski slopes without a care in the world, and I believe that it probably hit the Japanese in a nice way, too, because over the years, my impression has been that they have always appreciated nimble-fingered piano pop from musicians like Foster and Richard Clayderman outside of Japan and their own Midori Karashima（辛島美登里）and Hiroko Kokubu（国府弘子）.
So, let's see what else was being released in Japan during the Calgary Games, according to the CD/record sales calendar for 1988.
Enka singer Toshimi Tagawa（田川寿美）has been a regular presence on the kayo kyoku-based programs such as "Uta Con"（うたコン）and "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新・BS日本のうた）, and yet I'm a little embarrassed to state that she's only appeared on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" in just a couple of songs, neither of which has her on the byline. Well, it's time for me to eradicate that glaring omission.
Interestingly enough, I saw her sing her latest single "Kanashii Meguriai" (Sad Encounter) from May 2024 on the latter NHK show, and I wouldn't say that it was purely an enka tune. I would place it in that hybridized genre that I've called New Adult Music since there's quite a bit of soul in there to the extent that I had also considered City Pop in its roots. The urbane melody by Kohei Miyuki（幸耕平）under the arrangement of Masayuki Sakamoto（坂本昌之）even had me thinking that it could almost be something that the God of Love Songs, Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）, would possibly tackle. Daizo Saito（さいとう大三）handled the lyrics.
"Kanashii Meguriai" is the 38th of her singles in a career that began in 1992 for the Wakayama Prefecture-born singer. Tagawa has also put out eight studio albums along with other releases.
I only found out about this group through a tweet mourning the passing of one of its members. Unfortunately, I don't remember which one but the Tokyo Happy Coats（トーキョー・ハッピー・コーツ）apparently was a sister act of the Hakomori family consisting of Eiko, Keiko, Shouko, Tomiko and Ruriko. Trying to look them up online, a number of the articles on these ladies state first and foremost that there isn't a whole lot of information on them although writers such as Sayo Sakamoto（坂元小夜）do their level best.
And in fact, the writing has it that the Tokyo Happy Coats weren't all that well known in Japan, mostly becoming famous throughout the United States through concert tours and perhaps the odd TV appearance such as on "The Ed Sullivan Show". Their time was in the late 1960s going into the early 1970s at least as they covered the hits including jazz tunes and even the old kayo kyoku in English.
One song that I found on YouTube that got my memory engrams buzzing immediately was "Forevermore" from 1970. The reason was that it is a cover of Yuzo Kayama's（加山雄三）evergreen "Kimi to Itsumademo"（君といつまでも）from 1965 as done as a gentle guitar ballad with plenty of heartful harmonies.
Well, good heavens, it's been almost five years since I last posted up anything to do with the beloved anime "Shirokuma Café"（しろくまカフェ）. I believe my last article on the various ending themes was Katsuyuki Konishi's（小西克幸）"ZOOtto, ne"（ZOOっと、ね♪） in character as Jougin Panda（常勤パンダ...Full-Time Panda）. That was a pretty slice of Grand Ole Opry-friendly country music right there.
There were plenty of other panda bears as side characters on "Shirokuma Café" but one who also garnered a slightly higher status alongside Jougin Panda was Panda Mama（パンダママ）, main character Panda-kun's（パンダくん）mother. Her main claim to fame on the show was as a patient parent always doing her best cleaning the house but even that patience can be sorely tested by her lazy son, and when Panda-kun finally snaps that patience, out comes the vacuum as more than a mere household appliance.
Played by veteran seiyuuToshiyuki Morikawa（.森川智之）, Panda Mama gets her own ending theme which was featured throughout October 2012, "Kimama ni Panda Mama" (The Indulgent Panda Mama) as written and composed by Saki（紗希）. Although it's not quite as down-home as "ZOOtto, ne", it still comes across as a very friendly slab of country jazz with those strings. I'd say that it even has a bit of that Disney musical in the arrangement, too.
Earlier today, I met up with some friends for some refreshing hiyashi chuuka at Kinton (and no, the above photo is not it...that's some Spicy Miso Ramen from Santouka in 2023) since we're talking summer here. It was good to have the professional stuff once more.
As such, it was time once more to search for another ramen-based song somewhere out there that I had yet to cover. It didn't take too long to find this one by singer-songwriter Toshihide Baba（馬場俊英）from Saitama Prefecture called simply "Ramen no Uta" (The Ramen Song). Sounding amiably like a mix of the works of early Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen, the song is a beautifully wistful piano and Baba's inviting vocals (before the rock rolls right in) taking us on through a young life from childhood to adulthood via visits to the beloved ramshackle ramen shop. The ramen isn't super fancy...it's just the usual bowl topped with cha-siu and menma that feeds body and soul. "Ramen no Uta" was part of Baba's 22nd single"Ep. 3 ~ Yowai Mushi"（EP3～弱い虫...Weak Bugs） from November 2012. It peaked at No. 27.
Born in 1967, Baba has been playing the guitar since elementary school and got into the folk songs of Kaguyahime（かぐや姫）and Takuro Yoshida（吉田拓郎）as well as the rock from Southern All Stars（サザンオールスターズ）and RC Succession（RCサクセション）. His music career began in 1983 as a high school student who formed his own indies band Sun's Train（サンズトレイン）which lasted until 1992 with two albums coming out of that experience. His first major single was released in 1996 and since then, he's put out close to thirty singles along with over twenty studio and live albums up to 2024.
It was only in the last half-hour that I wrote up "Ai no Toubousha"（愛の逃亡者）by the late singer Yoko Nagisa（渚ようこ）. And I figured that considering her singing abilities to bring back some of the genres of yesteryear, she could have easily covered any of the material by balladeer Naomi Chiaki（ちあきなおみ）.
Case in point: Chiaki's 18th single from September 1974, "Kanashimi Moyou" (Patterns of Sadness). First hearing this on one of the NHK music shows recently and then listening to the original, there's definitely a nostalgic feeling of the American pop ballads of those late 1960s and early 1970s. In fact, I was reminded of "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" by The Hollies from 1969.
With lyrics by Yu Aku（阿久悠）and music by Makoto Kawaguchi（川口真）, Chiaki gives one of her splendid smoky deliveries and though the words describe a woman trying to grapple with life after a romantic breakup, Kawaguchi's melody sounds very hopeful so there's a big hint that despite the lass' regrets, recovery is just around the corner. "Kanashimi Moyou" did OK by reaching No. 69 on Oricon but Chiaki was able to perform it during her fifth appearance on NHK's "Kohaku Utagassen" at the end of 1974. She made a total of nine appearances on the New Year's Eve special.
Happy Monday! Last month, I wrote up an article on the late Yoko Nagisa's（渚ようこ）"Shin-Koiwa kara Kameido e"（新小岩から亀戸へ）, a song that was reminiscent of 1960s Group Sounds and Keiko Fuji（藤圭子）-based Mood Kayo although it had actually come out in 2016. Intrigued by the song and the source album cover which had me assuming that Nagisa did have her time in the actual 1960s, I pursued some more of her discography.
And so, I came across her 2nd single from April 2003, "Ai no Toubousha"(Fugitive of Love). Now, this isn't to be confused with the other "Ai no Toubousha" which was Kenji Sawada's（沢田研二）November 1974 11th single; completely different animal there. Nagisa's "Ai no Toubousha" doesn't even sound like Group Sounds or Mood Kayo. Instead, it draws its strength from another musical form from the 1960s, Sunshine Pop and Burt Bacharach; in fact, those early seconds remind me of "Up, Up and Away" by the 5th Dimension (I have to do a ROY on that song soon).
I gather then that "Ai no Toubousha" can fall into the Shibuya-kei genre. In any case, the lyrics were provided by Masaya Nakahara（中原昌也）with the jaunty music and arrangement by Gary Ashiya（ゲイリー芦屋）. The Tokyo-born composer of movie soundtracks, commercial jingles and game music based his stage name on American composer Gary Usher. Born in 1966, he was really into Yellow Magic Orchestra during his junior high school years, but then got into the aforementioned Bacharach and Big Band Jazz going into high school and university.
Ahhh....the Mood Kayo Avengers. Always nice to have at any drinking establishment on a Sunday night before we all have to put our noses to the grindstone once more the next day.
Glad to see some of the kayo kyoku veterans still around to make some really nostalgic yesteryear tunes. For example, it was only in the last week or so that I heard about "Koi wa Suteki na Showtime" (Love is a Splendid Showtime), a Mood Kayo released earlier this year with venerable Masao Urino（売野雅勇）on the lyrics about an alcohol-boosted ode to the bittersweet experience of love. Just-as-venerable Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）was behind music and arrangement for this fun and jaunty karaoke-friendly tune with a good dollop of Latin stirred in.
But that's not all, as they say on those old commercials. "Koi wa Suteki na Showtime" reminds me of another Mood Kayo duet titled "Otoko to Onna no Love Game"(男と女のラブ・ゲーム）from 1986; the karaoke classic happens to have been composed by Makaino as well. Not only that, the male half of that duet is back to help out on this one: Shiro Aoi（葵司朗）. This time though, his partner is enka singer Minami Hazuki（葉月みなみ）from Niigata Prefecture. Hazuki, who has been in showbiz since 2009, not only lends her vocal cords to the proceedings but also her ability as a flutist (she can also play the accordion according to her J-Wiki profile). The song is officially her 5th digital single released in February 2024.
Postwar era Eguchi From Hachi's "Futari no Sakamichi" autobiography (1981)
Yoshi Eguchi (江口夜詩).
There is no doubt that he was on par with the early kayo greats like Masao Koga (古賀政男), Ryoichi Hattori (服部良一), and Yuji Koseki (古関裕而). After all, the former naval band officer was behind countless ryukoka classics from the Showa single digits to the Showa 30s (1930s-1950s). Yet, somehow, his presence seemed relatively muted in comparison to the above-mentioned bunch. At least, it felt that way to me. It was always Koga sensei this, R. Hatter that; I get Yuji-san's appeal now, etc. But I've somehow always forgotten about Eguchi.
The first half of the podcast.
Apparently, Eguchi's birthday was on 1st July, so the "Osakabe-Takehei Showa no Utagoe" (刑部たけ平の昭和の歌声) episode for this month naturally centered around him. The show's nice selection had me reflecting, and I came upon a revelation: I actually like more Eguchi Melody than I thought I did, and the bespectacled composer with the tiny moustache played a significant role in my kayokyoku-ryukoka-enka journey without even me realising. You see, the very first ryukoka that had ever hit my ears about 13 years ago was Haruo Oka's (岡晴夫) sunny "Akogare no Hawaii Koro" (憧れのハワイ航路). My Hachiro Kasuga (春日八郎) went under Eguchi's wing in a last-ditch effort to debut around 1950 or so, and finally made his break with the fateful "Akai Lamp no Shuressha" (赤いランプの終列); it was also the first Hachi song I heard 8 years ago. And then in the present day, we have Akira Matsudaira (松平晃). "Minato no Ame" (港の雨) finally made me notice the singer's presence, and look where we are now. I hear a call from Gifu, and it's coming from the Yoshi Eguchi Museum.
Akira-san was, perhaps, the singer Eguchi sensei was most associated with. They produced a spate of hits especially in the first half of the 1930s. So successful was the Columbia Matsudaira-Eguchi combo that it was said to rival the (Ichiro) Fujiyama-Koga combo at Teichiku. But even a little before their golden age at Columbia Records, prof. Osakabe in the kayo podcast's Eguchi episode mentioned that Matsudaira and Eguchi had already worked together at Polydor Records in 1932, producing the mildly successful "Wasurarenu Hana" (忘られぬ花). At the time, Akira-san was Toshio-san (Toshio Ikegami... 池上利夫) - this was when he was doing undercover recordings at various companies while at music school and used multiple stage names. So, the relationship between Akira-san and Eguchi sensei ran pretty far back.
Anyways, what launched the Matsudaira-Eguchi duo into fame was "Isoge Horo Basha" (Hurry on, Covered Wagon) from 1934. Its lyrics were penned by Yoshifumi Shimada (島田芳文), and it revolves around our protagonist riding through the wilds of Manchuria on an adventure without a destination. "Isoge Horo Basha" is commonly known as and seen as one songs that kickstarted the craze for "Koya mono" (曠野もの), songs that revolve around Manchuria and focuses on roaming the expansive northern plains. Because of that, they have this element of adventure, but also a wistful longing. It's most characteristic traits are a rhythmic melody (often in the minor key) with a quick tempo, mimicking the pace of a horse carriage barreling through plains, and the tinkling of sleigh bells replicating the jingling of the bells on said carriages.
The media is always quick to incorporate what's hot into its products. Manchuria was one of the hottest topics at the time, what with Imperial Japan's move on it as one of its own in the early 1930s, the politically spicy incidents (e.g. the Manchurian Incident, the Lytton Report), and the migration of locals over to the new frontier for adventure and fresh opportunities (not yet in full force, though) that followed*. Koya mono, "Isoge Horo Basha" being one of it, was produced under such circumstances. Also, the exotic atmosphere from the Russian-sounding melodies and image of Koya mono actually feels reminiscent of American films depicting the Wild West.
Akira-san utatteru!!
I've said before that I did not like "Isoge Horo Basha," and it was part of the reason why I couldn't have cared any less for Akira-san than I do chocolate ice cream (yes, I'm not a fan of chocolate ice cream). Its minor key giving it a foreboding atmosphere I was mostly averse to, and I just wasn't too keen on the concept of Koya mono in the first place. But ever since I came to like Akira-san (my sentiments on chocolate ice cream remain the same, though) and became willing to sample his darker-sounding tunes, I decided to give "Isoge Horo Basha" another chance. I'd met a fellow ryukoka enthusiast at record cafe Ataraxia some time back for some SP record appreciation and among his collection was "Isoge Horo Basha," so I took the opportunity to listen to it on the credenza gramophone. If I fell in love with the way Akira-san sounded singing a Basha mono (馬車もの... Horse carriage songs, which is also what "Isoge Horo Basha" is) on a smaller Victrola gramophone at prof. Osakabe's event a month prior, surely the almost-century old credenza at the cafe would do the same. Long story short, it did.
What first surprised me was how soft and delicate Akira-san’s voice was in delivering “Isoge Horo Basha.” I always held the assumption that he reserved a more deadpan and dry delivery when doing Koya mono, so this was a pleasant discovery. The next thing was Eguchi sensei’s melody. Prof. Osakabe’s event had taught me to pay closer attention to the musical accompaniments in these songs, and doing so allowed me to finally understand why this tune was such a hit. While, yes, the harried tempo conveys a sense of urgency and the image of a horse carriage rushing through the Manchurian plains, what I really enjoyed was how it begins with the sleigh bells slowly building towards a dramatic crescendo of strings and percussions. And then at the end of the song, the melody peters out and all you hear is the sleigh bells once again. It’s as if you’re in some village and you hear the carriage approaching from a distance, then see it roar past you, and then off it disappears into the horizon. Tamaranai! (≧ω≦人)
On another note, according to the "Showa no Utagoe" podcast, there was only one musician Masao Koga saw as a rival, and that was Eguchi. Both were constantly trying to one-up each other, and the latter seemed to draw inspiration from the former's successes. Case in point, "Wasurarenu Hana" and Koga's "Kage wo Shitaite" (影を慕いて). Being cognizant of this trend, I noticed that "Isoge Horo Basha" has a somewhat similar structure and sound to Koga's earlier "Circus no Uta" (サーカスの唄... Akira-san's other smash hit)... Well, but that's just a personal view.
Anyways, to wrap up, here is Hachi's version of "Isoge Horo Basha." It was released in "Kasuga Hachiro Enka Hyaku Sen" (春日八郎演歌100選) in 1973. Come to think of it, I think I first heard this tune via Hachi years ago before I even moved Japan. As you'd expect, I did not like it at the time. But now, I think it's pretty good and fits his forlorn vocals quite well. However, I am partial to the original's arrangement.
*Information on Koya mono and its background came from my understanding of Edgar Pope's "Songs of the Empire Continental Asia in Japanese Wartime Popular Music" (2003) and Kiyomaro Kikuchi's "Showa Enka no Rekishi" (2016).
Hopefully, everyone is having a nice time out this weekend. Mind you, in our province over the past couple of weeks, folks ranging from restauranteurs to patio-loving customers have been on tenterhooks because of a strike that was going on with employees of the provincial liquor board stores. This meant that stocks of alcohol were slowly going dry and if it hadn't been for the resolution of the dispute earlier this morning, drinkers would have had a hard time getting their scotch-on-the-rocks and margaritas, but it looks like the taps will be running again as of Tuesday...if everything is ratified.
Anyways, getting away from local labour disputes, I think this song can make for a pleasant accompaniment to any outside patio for a drinking establishment in Shibuya or the Tokyo Bay area. As one YouTube commenter put it, the band Satellite Lovers slipped through the cracks of recognition for that person as they did for me. I only discovered them within the last few weeks. Their J-Wiki article has them categorized as two men and one woman starting out in 1994 as a folksier Shibuya-kei soul unit but later going into hip-hop.
Vocalist Mika Ikeuchi（池内美加）, guitarist Hiroyuki Suzuki（鈴木洋之）and guitarist/bassist Yutaka Nakano（中野豊）put out two singles and four albums and mini-albums in those 1990s, and to begin the Satellite Lovers file on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", we have "Best Friend", the first track on their July 1996 mini-album"Sons of 1973". The first few seconds of an organ that sounded like the opening for an old-fashioned radio-based soap opera worried me for a bit but then came the horns including the lovely flugelhorn and I was set at ease. "Best Friend" really is a summery and pleasant mid-tempo tune to join one for a Heineken or a Sapporo Super Dry.
