In the past few years, there have been a lot of YouTube reactors covering the works of singers from long ago and enjoying them greatly. And in turn, being a fellow who has been appreciating the cool music from his childhood and adolescence (which is why I've been including ROY articles here on a Japanese music blog), I've been enjoying the reactions greatly myself. Furthermore, it seems as if the songs of Boz Scaggs and Steely Dan have been getting particular attention and joy.
Boz Scaggs is a name (and it's a name that I can never forget) that has been synonymous with radio listening since I was that kid of the 1970s but it's only been within the last decade or so that I've finally appreciated his funk, soulfulness and balladry. In fact, I inadvertently ended up providing Reminiscings of Youth articles on his legendary "Lowdown" twice in less than a year here and here. Such is my love for that 1976 single and personally I think for any budding graduates who are heading for prom night and despite the nature of the lyrics, "Lowdown" is the type of song that should be accompanying the limos filled with high school seniors to the hotel ballrooms.
However, getting back to those reactors, they have been going ga-ga for not only "Lowdown" but also for his June 1980 single "Jojo". For instance, the guys on the YouTube channel Views from the 502 above went into total meltdown especially when Adrian Tapia did his sax solos on the song. I used to hear this one all the time on radio but it's been only within the last several years that this romantic-sounding tune about a dangerous pimp (and for some reason, I can only believe that Jojo lives in the Big Apple) being backed by a jazzy and sunset disco arrangement has been truly appreciated by me. The backing chorus, the horns, the groove, and of course Tapia's saxophone and Scaggs' vocals are splendiferous and it's a kind of a wonder that "Jojo" wasn't even made into a movie.
The other thing that makes this ROY stand out among the others is that I had actually introduced "Jojo" much earlier as a cover version performed by fusion band Chikara Ueda & The Power Station（上田力&パワーステーション）some months after the original had been released. I've provided some further information on the original song in that article but let it be said that it was Scaggs, David Foster and David Lasley who were the brains behind "Jojo". Also, though I didn't mention it in the Power Station article, Ueda unfortunately passed away in 2017.
In the United States, "Jojo" peaked at No. 17 on Billboard while in Canada, it hit No. 15 on RPM. Now, what else was being released in June 1980?
Juicy Fruits -- Jenny wa Gokigen Naname （ジェニーはご機嫌ななめ）
Yellow Magic Orchestra -- Rydeen (雷電）
Off Course -- Yes-No
Those three are from 1980??!! Wow, I was expecting music from that year to still sound a bit like the late 1970's, but ジェニーはご機嫌ななめ and 雷電 sound very much like the early to late mid 1980's. ジェニーはご機嫌ななめ sounds a bit like some the new wave and maybe punk music coming out of the UK. I am really impressed at progressive Japanese artist were and how fast they were adapting and changing with times. I think American music of the year 1980, still sound a bit like the 70's.
ReplyDeleteHello, Brian. Yeah, as much as City Pop was getting its first wind, kayo kyoku was also dabbling into synthesizers and emulators. I've been discovering some technopop acts that I had never heard of before starting the blog like Motocompo and P-Model.
DeleteSeeing how disco was getting derided by the masses approaching the 1980s, some of the artists and their recording companies were still not willing to let the genre go, so they did some tweaking with the arrangements (more synths, less strings perhaps) to create stuff that's been categorized as post-disco.