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.
As Kayo Grace Kyoku gets ready for her own New Year's Eve party, I also have to take care of something. One commenter a few days ago asked me about one remaining song in 80s aidoru Reiko Takahashi's（高橋玲子）brief discography which was the B-side to her 1986 debut single, "Love Song wa Utaenai"（ラブソングは唄えない）. Noting that this is the final day of 2024, I should clean things up as we make the transition into a new year.
That B-side is "Kitto Only You"(Only You For Sure) which was created by the same tandem behind the A-side, lyricist Junko Sato（佐藤純子）and composer Hiroaki Serizawa（芹澤廣明）. As would be the case for a Serizawa composition, there is that rock taste in there bordering on West Coast AOR, and Takahashi retains some of that languid Shizuka Kudo-like（工藤静香）feeling in her vocals although in that lower register aside from the chorus. Generally, "Kitto Only You" has a more upbeat feeling than the more urgent "Love Song wa Utaenai".
Unless something really big comes up, this will be my final entry for 2024. If I'm not mistaken we will finish this year with 1,032 entries and I'd like to thank anyone who has come onto the blog for contributions, commentary or just plain reading this year. I hope that we will continue to do the same in 2025. Happy New Year and we'll see you tomorrow on January 1st.🎉
OK, I would like to note that the above photo of the Kyoku family has its members carrying glasses of non-alcoholic grape juice...not champagne. I don't want to be accused of catering to delinquent behaviour. Anyways, I would like to state to the Japanese: 「新年明けましておめでとうございます。」since they're now well into 2025. As I'm typing this though, we here in the Eastern Standard Time zone are still about eight hours away from making that transition. Yup, I did watch the Kohaku Utagassen but I will hold off on any opinions for at least a day until other folks have had a chance to see any reruns of it.
The New Year's holidays in Japan may be a more solemn and family-oriented occasion but of course here in North America, New Year's Eve is probably the biggest party night of the year. So as such, I thought it would be nice to add this song to the blog's coffers.
"Party Time" was C.C. Girls' 8th single from April 1994 and yeah, you can enjoy it with real champagne. Written by Mami Takubo（田久保真見）, composed by Ichiro Hada（羽田一郎）and arranged by Hiroshi Shinkawa（新川博）, it's appropriately sparkling fun times condensed into a 4-minute song with some rock here and perhaps some Eurobeat feeling. Hopefully, all of you going out tonight to ring in the New Year will have a good and safe time.
Commenter Robert keyed me in on this somewhat of a mystery singer a few days ago. There's not much information on this enka singer and as far as I know, she only released two singles back in the 1960s.
And to be honest, because of the dearth of information and the unusual name of either Hisaji Soga or Hisamichi Soga（曾我ひさ路）, I had initially assumed that AI finally cracked the enka barrier and come up with a manufactured singer. But for any Soga fans out there, my apologies...seeing the crumply 45" single liner sheet in the video and hearing the quality of her voice, I do believe that she is or was indeed a real enka singer.
As for that dearth of information, the only website that had any bread crumbs was "International Kayo Day" which shows that Soga had singles out in 1965 and 1966. For an up-and-comer, that's a pretty languid pace of release which further adds to the mystery. I couldn't even find out any basic data such as date of birth and place of birth. Soga has the face of a teenager (looks a little like a young Yuko Asano) but the crackling voice of a middle-aged veteran behind the microphone as I listen to her 1966 "Kenka Kaidou" (The Fighting Path). From what I could understand of the lyrics that are shown in the video, it sounds like the adventure of a masterless samurai always on guard against enemies lurking about in the forests and small towns.
The lyrics were by Keiji Shuto（周東敬二）with Junpei Koshi（越純平） handling the melody which was arranged by Michiyasu Tadano（只野通泰）. Ahhh, I could get some information after all, thanks to the description underneath the video. Soga was born in 1948 in Chiba Prefecture (so she was indeed a teen when "Kenka Kaidou" came out) and was once a member of a group called Sakura Shimai（さくら姉妹...The Sakura Sisters） before making her solo debut in 1965 under Hisaji/Hisamichi Soga. However, she would change her stage name once more into something a little more unwieldy...Hiroko Ohzono（大園博子）.
We were watching the final episode of the kayo music program, NHK's"Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌...Songs of Japanese Spirit） which included up-and-coming teenage enka/kayo kyoku singer Kokoro Umetani（梅谷心愛）. I've mentioned her once before in a Sites article about a couple of interesting shops in Asakusa earlier this month, and I'm going to have to write about at least one of her singles in the new year. But in any case, for a 17-year-old, she certainly took on a moody and pretty mature song on that episode. It reminded me of adolescent Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）recording "Shishuuki"（思秋期）back in 1977.
The original recording of "Onna no Iji"(Pride of a Woman) was done by Sachiko Nishida（西田佐知子）back in October 1965. Written and composed by Domei Suzuki（鈴木道明）, it was the B-side to her "Akasaka no Yoru wa Fukete"（赤坂の夜は更けて）which is a bit more jazzy (ironically, I wrote about that one exactly nine years ago). "Onna no Iji" is a straight melancholy Mood Kayo and enka mix about the complicated emotions a woman is going through after a relationship goes sour, and it all probably takes place in a bar community in Shinjuku, Ginza or Akasaka. The same musical tropes of a Mood Kayo are there, but I have to say that the tenor saxophone in "Onna no Iji" really stands out.
According to the J-Wiki article on the single, "Onna no Iji" was one of Nishida's favourite songs and around the beginning of the 1970s, it got a second look as its own single. It then became a favourite of many listeners to the extent that "Onna no Iji" managed to sell about 400,000 records. At the end of 1970, Nishida was invited to the Kohaku Utagassen that year to sing it. Her tenth appearance on the NHK New Year's Eve special, it would also be her final appearance on the show after getting married.
Hello, J-Canuck here. Hope you have been enjoying the Holidays. Now that we are approaching the arrival of 2025, contributor Fireminer is here with an article on the J-Pop superstar Ayumi Hamasaki. Have a read of his take on "Never Ever".
In my previous article on TM Network’s“COME ON EVERYBODY”, I touched on a Famicom game that had to do with the band and that song in particular. Video games about musicians are nothing new. 90s kids will remember titles like “Michael Jackson's Moonwalker”, “Revolution X”, “Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style”, and “Queen: The Eye”. Then there are also “games” little more than interactive CDs like your “Prince Interactive”, “Kid A Mnesia Exhibition”, and what I want to get into in this article, “Visual Mix: Ayumi Hamasaki Dome Tour 2001 A” (alternative title: “浜崎あゆみ VISUAL MIX”)
But first, the song:
This is Ayumi Hamasaki’s 21st single“Never Ever” released on March 7, 2001. It was later included in the album “I Am…” released on January 1, 2002. “I Am…” brings together dance, rock, pop and ballad pieces with the theme of love, hope and peace connecting them all. It’s still weird to see “Never Ever” stands beside the fan-favorites “Dearest”, “M” and “Evolution” because it is admittedly one of her weaker songs.
“Never Ever” is quite a straightforward pop-rock song, with lyrics about finding strength from love in the face of despair. The instrumentation sounds a lot like early 2000s stripped back J-Rock in a nice way. What kills this song for me though is the vocals. I’m not really that deep in Ayu’s early discography, and one reason is her nasal voice. She did get a lot better in the early 2000s, but the squeakiness remained for “Never Ever” and prevented it from being a good piece. The song could’ve worked had it been written differently so that Ayu didn’t have to reach for the high notes, but then again, she composed it herself.
Back to “Visual Mix”. It was released on December 21, 2001 for the PS2 as a two-disc package. The first disc has footage of Ayu’s live performance and behind the scenes at the Tokyo Dome on July 6 and 7, 2001 (as part of the Ayumi Hamasaki Dome Tour 2001 A – she also toured the Nagoya Dome, Osaka Dome, and Fukuoka Dome.) The footage was captured by Sony’s Fourth View technology (also called SONY Spatial Video) which was a form of early 360° recording. It was previously used to make a very similar game named “Space Venus starring Morning Musume” starring the eponymous idol group.
In “Visual Mix”, you don’t passively watch Ayu perform “Never Ever” and other songs from “I Am…”. You can change the camera view, zoom in or out, and add visual effects such as fireworks or falling cherry blossoms. “Playing” with it is like messing with a video editor when you were a kid in computer science class.
The second disc consists of a simplified music mixer (“Ayu-Mix Studio”) and a fake web browser (“Ayu Browser”). In “Ayu-Mix Studio”, you get to play around with the remixes of “Endless Sorrow” or “UNITE!”. It’s rudimentary compared to more “professional” fares on the PS2 like “eJay Clubworld”. Ayu Browser on the other hand reminds me of some games like “Front Mission 3” and “Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers” which recreate the 90s Internet experience in a futuristic shell. Admittedly you don’t have much to do in “Ayu Browser” other than decorating it with pictures of Ayu and, more impactfully, sending and receiving prewritten emails to the singer herself. Nowadays we have ChatGPT for that.
All in all, “Visual Mix” is an interesting piece of software. It was released in a time when few Japanese had a PC at home, but many had the brand new PS2 and were all too eager to explore its multimedia capability. “Visual Mix” and the technology behind it were the products of Sony Music Japan, who also had a lot of involvement with the development of the PS and PS2. With “Visual Mix” they had -- in their own small way -- portended how the interactive concert experience would become.
A few weeks ago, I read a tweet from one of my Twitter buddies stating that Tsukasa Ito's（伊藤つかさ）"Namida no Crescendo"(Crescendo of Tears) was the only saving grace from her April 1984 5th album"Crescendo" and that her following album "Osusume!"（オススメ！）that came out in December of that year had no redeeming features whatsoever. Granted, even for a young lady in aidoru mode, Ito's voice was never heard as being all that strong and there's perhaps a big reason that she's only been described as an actress in her J-Wiki file (despite the presence of a discography there). However, her "Kanashimi wo Uketomete"（悲しみをうけとめて）from the latter album isn't all that bereft of intrigue, especially with that combination of synthesizers and a Maynard Ferguson-loving trumpet, but yeah, I am reminded of her vocals which had my face contorting a bit at times.
It just goes to show though that the aidoru of the 1980s had a lot of good support from the songwriters and arrangers surrounding them. But anyways, let's go to "Namida no Crescendo", which was also her 6th single from February 1984. Written by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）, composed by Kazuhiko Matsuo（松尾一彦）and arranged by Akira Inoue（井上鑑）, the song is going into that more languid ballad-y (approaching AOR) style that was one part and parcel of the aidoru experience back in that decade. I also have to say that the backup singers in the main chorus were also quite heavenly for the hell being suffered by that lass in the song who has found out, gosh darn it, romantic relationships often don't take. Bitterness hasn't tasted so sweet.
True to the unpredictable nature of Toronto weather, after our first White Christmas in four years, we may be looking at a high temperature of over 10 degrees Celsius today and tons of rain in the next several hours. Well, at least we did get the snow when we wanted it and we don't have to bundle up in layers for perhaps the next couple of days.
For our final Sunday of 2024, let's start off with a very late 80s-sounding pop ballad by Yoshinori Monta（もんたよしのり）. It's been just a little over a year since his sudden passing at the age of 72 and so there is perhaps some added poignancy and bittersweetness to his "Totsuzen ni Furidashita Ame"(The Sudden Rain) that wraps up his 1987 solo album"Bitter".
Written by Maina（麻衣奈）and composed by Monta, it's a comfortable way to finish "Bitter" as the singer seems to be singing about pining for that love. It's got a beautiful piano going for it and even Monta's distinct vocals match quite tenderly in the arrangement as things fade off in the end. Contrast this ballad with its fellow track on the album, the supremely bouncy "Aisarenai Show Time"（愛されないShow Time）.
The above is a shot from one of the paths within Waseda University in Tokyo. I took this photo a little over seven years ago when I was with a couple of former work colleagues during the university's annual student festival.
I'm not sure if I'm overgeneralizing things a bit here. However, my impression has been that kayo kyoku dealing with high school have tended to be more rock n' roll raunchy or sentimentally romantic (especially with those 80s aidorutunes). On the other hand, songs based on university experiences have been much more folksy (not all that surprising considering all of the angry folk songs of the 1960s performed at university) or nostalgically tinged with sepia.
It was just last month that I covered aidoru Midori Kinouchi's（木之内みどり）Xmas tune"Hitotsuki Okure no Christmas"（ひと月おくれのクリスマス）, but this time, I'm introducing her 5th single from February 1976,"Gakusei Douri" (Student Avenue). Created by some heavy songwriting hitters in lyricist Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）, composer Kazuo Zaitsu（財津和夫）and arranger Masataka Matsutoya（松任谷正隆）, it's a bittersweet song about reminiscing over a past romance at university. What adds to the poignancy is the addition of bells, a French horn, shimmering strings and that keyboard for which I can never remember the name. The aural effects makes it sound as if the university senior is about to graduate and leave campus for good, thus tying off one major period of his life and his connection to his old flame.
"You can be my wingman anytime". I kinda wonder whether this statement marking the beginning of a friendship between Maverick and Iceman in "Top Gun" was how the key word entered the vernacular meaning a guy who will have his friend's back every time whether it be in war or love. I've been hearing "wingman" quite a lot in movies over the past few decades now.
And that's the reason that I was initially tickled by this manga-turned-anime titled "Yume Senshi Wingman"（夢戦士ウイングマン...Dream Warrior Wingman） from 1984. The Wingman here was actually the star instead of the sidekick. My information on 80s anime is pretty sparse but from what I could glean is that the hero is a high school boy who gets those delusions of grandeur of becoming a great tokusatsu hero and he actually gets his opportunity through an encounter with an alternative universe princess. Of course, as we can see in the above video, the process is never a smooth one. I guess all that chuunibyo stuff goes back further than I'd assumed.
In any case, the opening and theme songs for "Wingman" are surprisingly urban contemporary considering the plot of the show. And both were created by the same team: lyricist Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）, composer Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）and arranger Keiichi Oku（奥慶一）...pretty darn potent City Pop guys. The opening theme "Ijigen Story" can be translated as either "Story from a Different Dimension" or "Unprecedented Story". It's got that urbanity along with some haunting interdimensional whimsy as would befit some of the goofy humour. There's even what sounds like a bit of Dixieland jazz that pops up in the full version. Sumiko Fukuda（福田スミ子）, aka Poplar（ポプラ）, provides the bluesy and smoky vocals; she's also one of the singers responsible for the theme song for famous electronics chain Yodobashi Camera.
Norimasa Yamanaka（山中のりまさ）is another singer that I haven't heard a lot about, only writing about one song of his only a few months ago, "Sunrise Sunset"（サンライズ・サンセット）. His second one here on KKP is the ending theme for "Wingman", the West Coast drive-friendly "Wing Love", which is more on the AOR side with some Boz Scaggs/Bobby Caldwell influences in Oku's arrangement. Maybe this could be one song that could greet young Kenta on the stereo after battling his monsters as the title character himself.
"Rambling Bird" is Masamichi Sugi's（杉真理）version of "Free as a Bird" that encapsulates his own thoughts of a bird trying to fly up into the great big sky but can't. This particular song is relatively unusual within his discography in that it's something which possesses a comfortable bossa nova rhythm with a charming melody which seems to drift slowly through the air. Personally, I've always preferred the period when he himself did all of the arrangements.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised" (2020).
When I saw the one comment underneath the above YouTube video for Satoko Shimonari's（下成佐登子）"Koi no Epilogue" (Love Epilogue), her 7th single from June 1982, I had to also admit that there were some obvious similarities between this tune and Junko Ohashi's（大橋純子）classic "Tasogare My Love" (たそがれマイ・ラブ）from 1978. In fact, I'd assumed that the latter song's composer, the late Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, was also behind this song but it was actually Kaoru Nakajima（中島薫）as the composer for "Koi no Epilogue" with Makoto Yuuki（結城まこと）as the lyricist and Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）as the arranger.
However, following a certain melody line or copying chords isn't particularly new in Japanese pop music especially when it comes to the 1980s. Not sure how Tsutsumi saw it; maybe he let bygones be bygones and focused on the expression "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery". Well, whatever the case may be, "Koi no Epilogue" is still a nice song to listen to (which shows how good Tsutsumi was) and Shimonari's delivery reminds me of some of Junko Yagami's（八神純子）soaring swagger and Ruiko Kurahashi's（倉橋ルイ子）smokiness.
I have to admit that the acapella scatting that begins Tazumi Toyoshima's（豊島たずみ）"Summer Night Rhapsody" hasn't quite impressed me too much thus far. To be honest, it rather reminds me of Canadian rock band Chiliwack's chant on their "My Girl (Gone, Gone, Gone)" which would come several months to a year later.
Toyoshima's track from her June 1980 album"Shukujo no Tashinami"（淑女のたしなみ...Lady's Etiquette） is the first on the B-side, and it was written by Yoko Nishiwaki（西脇葉子）and composed by Mutsuhiro Nishiwaki（西脇睦宏）; not sure what the relationship between the two is. As I said above, I don't quite like the scatting which starts things off, but the rest of "Summer Night Rhapsody" is fine with the electric guitar weaving in and out along with the various other musical tropes of City Pop coming to the fore. Considering what the current times are, I thought that having something summery might make for a nice alternative.
Probably one of the bigger surprises that I have received while working on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" for nearly thirteen years is the fact that Studio Ghibli's musical maestro Joe Hisaishi（久石譲）once had his own City Pop phase. Almost three years ago, I was somewhat flabbergasted at the composer with a full head of hair and sunglasses making like any street player on the roads and avenues of Tokyo as he sang "Night City" in the late 1980s.
Well, he didn't stop with himself when it came to the urban contemporary during those razzle-dazzle days and nights of the Bubble Era. Hisaishi also arranged City Pop singer Yudai Suzuki's（鈴木雄大）11th single from October 1987, "Something Never Change". Written and composed by the singer, it's another strutting and funky number on the streets of Japan's largest city, and just imagine Totoro and his minions in sunglasses and attitude shuffling down Chuo Dori as if there were no tomorrow.
Wasn't exactly doing any Boxing Day shopping this morning because I wasn't looking for any sales, but I did go downtown to pick up some new earphones for my relative's new Fii0 portable cassette player. They aren't cheap but they are working swimmingly much to everyone's satisfaction as they are enjoying their old enka songs on some ancient audiotapes.
It is Friday so no enka today. Instead, we have our usual urban contemporary numbers to consider, and to start off the final Friday for 2024, we have Masaki Ueda's（上田正樹）"Chiisana Uchuu". This could translate directly as "A Small Space" but that really doesn't reflect the singer-songwriter's feelings in his lyrics. At first, I had assumed that the song which occupies a track on his October 1978 album "Push & Pull" was supposed to be another happy-go-lucky tune involving a romantic couple. Instead though, it actually talks about one guy's joy at presumably moving into his own pad and treating the view of the night sky outside his window as his framed universe. So I gather that a more proper emotional translation can be "My Little Piece of Heaven".
For such a lyrically stationary tune, "Chiisana Uchuu" is a pretty pleasantly traveling disco-laced City Pop tune that brings more images of flying through space over Tokyo or bombing down the expressways criss-crossing the megalopolis. Enjoy the strings, Ueda's soulful vocals, the galloping rhythm and the guitar solo. I usually associate the singer with blues and/or soul, but he does pretty well with the disco, too.
On the cusp of her 60th anniversary in show business, veteran singer Saori Yuki（由紀さおり）appeared on one of the last episodes of "Uta Con"（うたコン）for 2024 and performed this song.
"Jinsei wa Subarashii"(Life is Wonderful) is her 66th single from April 2024 and it seems to absorb a number of musical styles: a bit of bossa here, a bit of AOR there and some sweet orchestral pop. The title is a big hint but I gather that this is a song of reassurance for everyone which encourages folks to stop and smell the roses once in a while. It was written by Goro Matsui（松井五郎）, composed by Gioacchino Maurici and arranged by Masayuki Sakamoto（坂本昌之）.
Good morning (although I'm typing this 7 minutes shy of noon)! I hope on this Boxing Day that you are satisfyingly still digesting your Xmas dinner from last night. I was fortunate enough to have plenty of protein in the form of turkey and roast beef, and then some apple pie to finish up. Ended up with a couple of cups of coffee, too, although I'm surprised to say that I was still actually able to get a good night's sleep.
It was a couple of years ago that I first introduced the eclectic band SPANK HAPPY with Midori Hara（原みどり）as the vocalist during the 1990s. The group has had a long history a goodly number of genres that they covered, especially in those early days in the 90s. When I posted about a couple of songs, "Boku wa Gakki"（僕は楽器）and "Hashiri Naku Otome"（走り泣く乙女）, both from 1994, they struck me as weaving between late 60s Beatles and Japanese pop/rock unit Judy & Mary.
Also from 1994, September 1994 to be exact, I found this final track from their album "My Name is...". "Ohayou"(Mornin'!) is yet another song of SPANK HAPPY that is catchy but quite different from the previous two songs that I mentioned. It's some happy pop rollicking against a backdrop of a House music rhythm, although it also decides to explore a bit near the end. But overall, it feels like something that the 80s synthpop band PSY-S would have whipped up in the late 1980s.
Merry Christmas to one and all! I'm hoping that all of you who may be reading this are enjoying December 25th with family and friends and savoring the amity and smells of the season (turkey, potatoes and the like). The Kyoku family is certainly doing and so, and I believe that they'll be having an appropriate get-together later on tonight.
For the final Xmas 2024 entry on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I've decided to go with a special Reminiscings of Youth song, and what better song to put on here than "White Christmas". Now of course, Bing Crosby is the traditional representative for this perennially sung Yuletide tune but I did want to begin with chanteuse Barbra Streisand because she wasn't only on that early 1970s Ronco compilation LP "A Christmas Gift" that my parents got me, but she was the first entertainer that I heard to sing the Irving Berlin classic while including that mystery first verse that's been usually omitted in other renderings of the song because it just took away (if briefly) that feeling of snow and cold and Christmas atmosphere. Apparently, Streisand's version was first heard on her 1967 album"A Christmas Album", and it's a solemn yet hopeful rendition.
"White Christmas" was first brought to ears in the 1942 holiday-themed musical "Holiday Inn" starring Crosby and Fred Astaire. It was one of many songs that was featured in this flick regarding Crosby's character's whimsical pursuit of running a countryside hotel that was only open on national holidays.
But "Holiday Inn" was a movie that I wouldn't discover until far into my life (actually, it was the Xmas episode of "SCTV" that introduced me to the existence of "Holiday Inn"). Before then, I had been accustomed to hearing it on those Crosby TV specials annually, Elvis Presley's cover of it, and then the movie "White Christmas" (directed by Michael Curtiz, the same guy behind the legendary "Casablanca") which came out in October 1954. Reading through the Wikipedia article on it, I'm not sure whether "White Christmas" the movie had been meant as a direct reconstruction of "Holiday Inn" despite the key presence of a countryside inn.
The movie was an annual ritual in my television life, especially at a time when I had known no other Turner Classic Movies-friendly Xmas flick at the time; "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Miracle on 42nd Street" would come to my attention many years later. "White Christmas" had a bigger main cast than "Holiday Inn" and between the bookends of the rendition of the song, the movie was chock-filled with some great song-and-dance moments (I've already talked about "Snow"here) such as "The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing" with Danny Kaye and Vera-Ellen, and may I say that Kaye was a great addition in terms of both his dancing and comedic prowess compared to Astaire who wouldn't join this movie and Donald O'Connor who had to bow out due to illness.
Of course, there is also the whole "Sisters" bit with the Haynes Sisters and then the parody by Bing and Danny. I'd always wondered whether the latter was ad-libbed since the laughter from the guys looked so genuine. And as it turned out, it was.
Is it a perfect Xmas movie? Maybe not...there were a few scenes in there that had me thinking "Yep, it was way back in the mid-20th century, wasn't it?" but that was then and this is now. Also, I've never been a fan of that latter-half manufactured tiff between Bob and Betty but I guess the writers felt that there had to be some conflict when things may have gotten too cozy for the couples too soon. Still, after not having seen "White Christmas" in many years now, I wouldn't mind taking another gander at it someday.
In any case, what are some other big songs from Japan that were hitting the airwaves in 1954?
I've been doing a lot of thinking. Well, maybe a bit too much because I think I'm beginning to see smoke coming out of my ears. But much of it revolved around Hachiro Kasuga (春日八郎) - shocker. I've had an entire year to figure out where I think he stands in the world of enka and kayokyoku. For the most part, I came to the conclusion that he's not just an enka singer, but a singer who can sing any genre. I focused on the point that he and his biggest hits were turned into enka when the genre was formally formed in the late 1960s/early 1970s, and grew hesitant to call him an enka singer. But my inhibitions have been lowered the more I read about and listened to Kasuga's thoughts on enka and after getting a feel of what his die-hard fans thought of him and the genre. Kasuga genuinely seemed to have embraced enka as his own and worked hard to show it from at least the 1970s all the way up to his death in the early 1990s. He released many overtly enka songs and albums, founded a club that supported aspiring enka singers in the 1970s (Enka wo sodateru kai (演歌を育てる会)), and hosted enka radio programs in the 1980s. Of course, I still believe that Kasuga can do more than just enka and that he was made into an enka singer. But if my Hachi believed that he was true blue enka, then that's what he is. I only managed to sort out my thoughts on this matter just today, mainly because it's the crux of my thesis and I can see the deadline catching up to me. But it was also something I felt that I had to figure out as a Hachiro Kasuga fan.
Throughout my Hachi Centenary project, I had solely focused on his works produced before 1975, the majority of which, I would say, had little to no enka flavour. But since I have finally accepted that Hachi is an enka singer and began to re-listen to some of his later-day works, I would like to feature a Kasuga Enka for my final post as the singer's centenary celebration year comes to a close. This song is "Tokyo Sakaba".
This Kasuga Enka (春日艶歌) has everything: Bar stools (tomarigi), alcohol (mizu-wari), Tokyo, bars (sakaba), heartbreak, pining for one's lover at the bar, backup singers going "haa", and the koto (?) played in the tremolo manner. The only thing preventing me from getting an Enka royal flush is that this is a yonanuki pentatonic major scale song, not minor. Still, "Tokyo Sakaba" is truly an enka with a capital "EN". Seiji Kibugawa's (葵生川正治) melody makes this one of those enka tunes that sounds cheerful with its snappy melody, but once you hear what Hachi is actually singing, you realise how depressing it is. Ryutaro Kinoshita's (木下竜太郎)* words feature a man feeling the bite of a broken heart over his drink in a cozy bar in the heart of the city. I joke about the backup singers going "haa", but it's reminiscent of our protagonist's sighs as his ex-lover doesn't show up to their usual bar once again.
"Tokyo Sakaba" was released in Hachi's original album "Asu e no Shuppatsu" (明日への出発), which was released in 1981. Based on one of the Kasuga Kayo-Enka medley videos uploaded by user kiibo55 that includes this song, "Asu e no Shuppatsu" was meant to commemorate both Hachi's 30th Anniversary in showbiz and King Records' 50th Anniversary. Admittedly, I haven't listened to 80s enka in a really long time, especially not from Hachi, so listening to "Tokyo Sakaba" and the other entries in this album is a nice change in pace. Kinda like having a nice, warm barley tea after all that coffee and earl grey. Sake would be a better EN-alogy in this case, but I do not drink.
What a year it has been. I finally joined the fan club of my favourite artist, met people who love him as much or even more than I do, and learned so much more about him than I ever had in the previous 6 years of being a fan. Doing my Hachi Centenary project on KKP has also been really fun, so it feels a little sad that it's coming to a close. I think I'll keep it going until March next year since I started the series in March of this year. With that, I'd like to wish you guys a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
*I was doing up a Hachi singles discography as an appendix for my paper, and I came across some interesting songwriter names amidst the sea of Kenji Yoshidaya (吉田矢健治) and Ryo Yano (矢野亮) in my references. Perhaps one I found the most amusing was Kinoshita's, because there were a few songs he made that had their lyrics written by one Noboru Taki (滝のぼる). There's this myth that if a carp successfully swims up a waterfall, it will turn into a dragon. Taki's name literally means "Climb the waterfall" and Kinoshita's has a dragon under a tree, which makes me wonder if they were a songwriting duo that wanted to represent this myth in their names. It sounds auspicious, so maybe they were hoping it would bring them luck with producing hits.
It was the AI Gallery featuring "Christmas Edition 1" that officially began the Xmas season on KKP this year, and although "Christmas Edition 2" won't finish it (still have one more seasonal tune to supply tomorrow), it will make for a nice addition. Anyways, let's get at it!
It's not something that I drew myself when I was living in Japan, but I've come across this doodled face consisting of hiragana characters that has been likened culturally to "Kilroy was here". Henohenomoheji is made up of he (へ), no (の), he (へ), no (の), mo (も), he (へ), and ji (じ) stylized together into a visage which has been used as the face of Japanese scarecrows but more often than not in various aspects of media as a running gag.
Several weeks ago at the end of October, I posted a song by the folk duo SWAY with Kana Sugiyama（杉山加奈）and Masako Horibe（堀部雅子）titled "Minminzemi no Natsu"（ミンミン蝉の夏）The act lasted between 1985 and 2000, but for the first five years, the original name for the duo was Sasori-za（さそり座...Scorpio） when Sugiyama and Horibe were junior high school students.
In 1984, the two created their own song "Mado Garasu no Henohenomoheji"(The Henohenomoheji in the Window) which won them a prize at the 28th Yamaha Popular Song Contest, and it became their debut single in February 1985. The song hit No. 40 on Oricon and sold 36,000 records. It is a bittersweet song about goodbyes with the poignancy even more enhanced by the adorably young vocals by Sasori-za. The tune probably hit a lot of the kids and perhaps adults too in the feels.
Well, we are really on the cusp of the big day since today is Christmas Eve. And hooray! Toronto will be guaranteed a White Christmas for the first time in four years. The video above is of a local neighbourhood here called Inglewood Avenue in the Midtown area and around the Holidays, the street name takes on a couple of more consonants to become Kringlewood (after Kris Kringle) because just about every house has taken on some huge versions of illumination and Christmas decoration, a phenomenon that has also caught on in the States. Traffic jams have become common due to all of the tourists coming by to take photographs and this was before the snow arrived. Just imagine what it's going to be like tonight and tomorrow. Unionville now has a rival in the Yuletide department!
It used to be an annual tradition within our household to catch as many of the Christmas animated specials that we could such as "A Charlie Brown Christmas". Another one was the Rankin-Bass production of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" which made its premiere back on December 6th 1964.
Well, sometime during that same year, the ereki band Takeshi Terauchi and His Blue Jeans（寺内タケシとブルージーンズ）came up with their first Christmas record titled "Let's Go Christmas". One track included there was a twist-friendly instrumental version of the Gene Autry 1949 original song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", and it's definitely swivel-hippingly aural fun for the whole family. It's also interesting to note that on Discogs where "Let's Go Christmas" is listed, each of the four tracks has its own distinct genre attached. You can also listen to the entire album with commentary at Scott's "Holly Jolly X'masu".
This particular song here (along with any other kayo kyoku dealing with the titular place) has taken on a further poignancy considering that between the time of its release in 1975 and the last several years, the big boss airport for the Tokyo area had been Narita all the way out in the wilds of Chiba Prefecture for many many years while Haneda Airport was the faded glory as more of a domestic hub (although flights were there between Japan and Taiwan). However, up to around the mid-1970s, Haneda had been the mighty airport of destiny in many a song and it was my first entry into Japan in 1972.
"Doyoubi no Yoru wa Haneda ni Kuru no" (I'm Coming to Haneda on Saturday Night) is the B-side to vocal group Hi-Fi Set's（ハイ・ファイ・セット）far more famous "Sky Restaurant"(スカイレストラン) that was released in November 1975 as their 4th single. Created by the same team behind the A-side: lyricist Yumi Arai（荒井由実）, composer Kunihiko Murai（村井邦彦）and arranger Masataka Matsutoya（松任谷正隆）, "Doyoubi no Yoru wa Haneda ni Kuru no" continues that dreamy urban and urbane atmosphere that began at that rooftop restaurant in downtown Tokyo and takes it Haneda Airport a few kilometres away. A woman goes there to remember an old flame who has long since headed for a place overseas perhaps with a new lady on his arm. I'm not sure if her visit to the airport is a one-off or something she does on a weekly basis; I'm hoping that at least she's taking the subway or monorail there instead of a pricey taxi.
As I stated earlier, there seems to be a musical link between the A and B sides but with "Doyoubi no Yoru wa Haneda ni Kuru no", though the arrangement retains the wistful feeling, there is also a sweeter hope that sort of wins out over any bitterness. The lady in question is perhaps ready to move on with her life. In addition, there is also some fine harmonizing with the soft scatting among the Set.
In the last thirteen years that I've been back in Canada, I've managed to visit my old stomping grounds in Japan in 2014 and 2017, and I've gone through the new-and-improved Haneda Airport which has become a bustling transportation centre once more. Restaurants and shops abound galore.
Happy Monday! And yes Virginia, there is snow on the ground right now and areas north of us will be getting pounded with a lot of the white stuff starting from this afternoon, so those odds of a White Christmas have gotten a lot better. Just hope that the drive up north to the lodges and cottages won't be too arduous.
Back in October, "Holly Jolly X'masu" highlighted jazz singer Mami Horie's（堀江真美）2010 album“The Swingin’ Christmas" which I found to be a delightful collection of the standards. If you have a chance, have a listen to Scott's review of the entire album since he goes into the background of Horie's history as a singer. Interestingly enough, I'd forgotten that Horie already has had a presence on KKP through a gushy City Pop song that she provided all the way back in 1979, "Loving You"; the track was part of the "Light Mellow" compilation CDs.
After listening to "The Swingin' Christmas", I immediately searched for anything of the album on YouTube, and I was soon rewarded with the presence of the first track, Horie's rendition of "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" which has had the word mommy strangely misspelled as "mammy", maybe as a portmanteau of Mami and mommy. But that aside, Scott said it best when he refers to Horie's version as one of the better takes on the old Xmas song and describes it as a cute and playful tribute. I can say that it does sound like Mami was at a gorgeous Xmas party of friends and she suddenly decided to sing it with a trio of instrumentalists in the living room. Compare this version with the Big Band Swing take on "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" by fellow jazz chanteuse Yasuko Agawa（阿川泰子）who I covered a few weeks ago after listening to her cover on "Holly Jolly X'masu" as well.
Scott mentions it in the podcast and I've mentioned a little bit of it in "Loving You" but just when Horie was about to get her big break in the music business, she and a music publishing company had a dispute in the early 1980s which unfortunately got her blackballed in Japan for several years. However, it seems as if her redemption began in the 1990s and her career has been in fine fettle for the past few decades. In fact, according to the Casio website, a voice training book that she published has become a bible for singers and in recent years, she has even become a tourism ambassador for her native Kochi Prefecture.
I gather that for this Xmas season on KKP, we've had a bit of a running theme coursing its way over the past several weeks thanks to Masamichi Sugi's（杉真理）1997 compilation"Winter Gift Pops" album and Scott's podcast"Holly Jolly X'masu". I've already taken care of a couple of tracks there: Caoli Cano & Hiroshi Takano's（かの香織・高野寛）"First Flight" and Miwako Saito's（さいとうみわこ） cover of "Anata dake I Love You"（あなただけ I LOVE YOU）.
Well, it continues here as well with Takano coming back to do another duet...this time with the illustrious singer-songwriter Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）. Together they perform "Silent Song" which is a fairly languid and intimate tune about spending that special night. Another running theme within "Winter Gift Pops" is that Scott himself even mentioned that not all of the tracks on the album (45:26 on the podcast) strictly adhere to a Christmas theme (it's Winter Gift Pops, not Christmas Gift Pops after all), and "Silent Song" can also be considered to be a more general winter tune.
Still, despite there not being any mention of Christmas in "Silent Song", all sorts of romance can happen on Christmas Eve in Japan (hotels are very busy on the 24th) so why not have "Silent Song" be an honorary Yuletide tune? Takano was responsible for everything in the song with Ohnuki in charge of the chorus arrangement. One more point is that I think this might be the first tune that I've ever encountered that has both a euphonium and a didgeridoo being performed in a song.
Over the last couple of days, folks have been streaming out of Toronto via plane, train and automobile, most of them presumably to much warmer climes for the Holidays. And it's no wonder...this morning, I woke up to -17 degrees Celsius with a -24-degree wind chill. Having cocktails on the patio didn't come to mind here. The good thing is that the weather forecasters have predicted something closer to zero on Xmas Eve and Xmas Day with some precipitation so that we may get that White Christmas plus something a little balmier.
This particular cheerful song will be coming up on the final Yutaka Kimura Speaks article for 2024 (and after that, there will be just ten more weeks of the series before it all comes to an end), and all I can say is that Kimura must really love the works of singer-songwriter Masamichi Sugi（杉真理）considering how many of them have appeared.
His latest entry is "Rambling Bird", a track on his 8th studio album,"Sabrina", from July 1986. Written and composed by Sugi, it's another musical trip to Margaritaville and the beach through the eyes of the titular avian as he flits all over the place witnessing the beautiful people enjoying surf and sun. The light tropical air with the combination of piano, percussion and synth-harmonica (?) along with Sugi's floaty vocals bring that all-is-right atmosphere of flying down to a warm vacation away from the Great White North. Helping out on chorus isSeishiro Kusunose（楠瀬誠志郎）.
Unfortunately, this was one aspect of Japanese culture that I never got to participate in...but then again, I get seasick rather easily, so by not doing so, I may have saved my friends from disgust and the tatami on the boat from something rather noxious.
The yakatabune are boats that can be seen sailing in bays and rivers and they can be chartered for private dinner parties. They are regular sights in Tokyo Bay and along the Sumida River, and I would think that at around this time, they must be very busy because it is the year-end party season. Nothing like a traditional seaside cruise and dinner to finish off the year.
Considering how much I've seen enka singer Mika Shinno（神野美伽）on television via programs such as "Uta Con"（うたコン）, I'm surprised that she's only popped up once on KKP, so I must rectify this situation. The Osaka native appeared on an episode of "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新・BS日本のうた） recently to perform a March 1989 single of hers, "Shunka Shuutou Yakatabune"(Yakatabune Throughout the Seasons) which was written and composed by Yoshikazu Fukano（深野義和）. It's a gentle and refined enka that emphasizes the gentle sailing of the boats hundreds of years ago with perhaps the only passengers being a romantic couple. No over-boisterous salarymen singing karaoke here. The song reached No. 47 on Oricon.
I managed to get through a wet snowy night last night to meet up with some friends for good hearty Greek cuisine about an hour away by bus. We don't get together all that often anymore but when it comes to the Holidays, we try to make our best efforts to gather and catch up on the year.
Scott from "Holly Jolly X'masu" introduced this one from one of his podcasts this year, but it was news to me that the entertainment legend that is Yuzo Kayama（加山雄三）released some Christmas music. In November 1966, he put out a single, "Jingle Bells/Boku no Christmas" (My Christmas)."Boku no Christmas" is a friendly country-style Xmas ditty that was composed by the man himself under his songwriting pseudonym of Kosaku Dan（弾厚作）with Tokiko Iwatani（岩谷時子）providing the lyrics. He somehow even got his buddies, Alvin & The Chipmunks, apparently to chime in behind the mike (really, some of Kayama's associates on helium).
So, Kayama-san doesn't always man a surfboard after all. He can ride the sleigh as well.
"LA-LA-LU" is a gem of an acoustic ballad that is said to be a casual opening declaration by Makoto Saito（斎藤誠）in his debut album. Listening to it in his "Ballad's Best", I was once again surprised by its freshness and high quality that makes it hard to believe that it's more than thirty years old. With lyrics that have a universality and allows the listener to project his/her own thoughts on it, there is no doubt that this is one song that clears all of the conditions for it to become a masterpiece.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised"(2020).
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