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.
Now that Japan is in Golden Week mode, I remember when I was living in the nation, students and TV programs often spoke of Cebu in hushed tones as if it were a hallowed destination. And it was...for recreational purposes. It's a group of islands in the Philippines and apparently it was and is still rather popular. Taking a look at the above video from Island Hopper TV, I can see why.
I'm guessing that Cebu has been in the minds of vacationers for decades because I've encountered this track, "Cebu Islands", which belongs to composer/arranger Yasunori Soryo's（惣領泰則）first album"Wings of Love" from 1977. According to Discogs, the angelic chorus in the song are the Jim Rock Singers which seem to be Soryo's own group. "Cebu Islands" sure makes the actual place sound like an enticing Valhalla with the folksy AOR and Sunshine Pop arrangement.
It's nice to have Soryo back up on the byline again. I think the last time he was up there was back in 2021 when he collaborated with the chorus group EVE for "I'm In New York".
I believe I mentioned that I finally caught Zack Snyder's very long take on "Justice League" recently, and I was a lot more satisfied with that than with the version that I had caught some years previously at the theatre. Most notably, I was really happy with the scene involving Wonder Woman as played by Gal Gadot taking on those psychos in London early in the movie. Once I heard that warrior theme by Rupert Gregson-Williams, I knew I was going to witness some massive ass-kicking by Diana of Themyscira.
One day, the Snyderverse take showed up on the local sci-fi channel and that same scene popped up when I turned on the channel. My mother who has never understood or liked any form of superhero media surprised me when she verbally identified Wonder Woman. But then again, she had seen Diana many moons ago.
That's right. There was a time in the mid-1970s when my brother and I saw the weekly TV series "Wonder Woman" with Lynda Carter. So, we got to see the indestructible bracelets, the Lasso of Truth and the spinning around each episode.
Yes, I still remember when a pre-"An Officer and a Gentleman"Debra Winger guested as Diana's little sister, aka Wonder Girl. In fact, I think I prefer the first season when the show had been set during World War II instead of the more contemporary setting for the last couple of seasons.
At the time, I was also confused when I was watching the opening credits which paid homage to the original comic book from decades ago, and yet, the theme song was decidedly cheesy disco boogie. I mean, nowadays it all comes to me as very nostalgic but at the time, I thought it was pretty progressive to hear a superhero theme song that sounded like something one would dance to in the clubs.
I never knew who was behind the theme song for "Wonder Woman" the 1975 series. As it turns out, it was John Bahler of the Ron Hicklin Singers on the main vocals, Marti McCall, Carolyn Willisof the R&B group Honey Cone, and Julia Waters of the R&B group The Waters according to Wikipedia. Charles Fox and Normal Gimbel made up the songwriting team.
November 7th 1975 was the date when "Wonder Woman" premiered. Well, what was hitting the Oricon charts a few days earlier on the 3rd? We have Nos. 3 and 6.
But as the informercial announcer says...Wait! There's more!
"Wonder Woman" did make its way to Japan sometime down the line and though the Bahler theme song was played for that first season, the subsequent seasons had actress/singer Kaoru Yumi（由美かおる）provide a Japanese theme tune in the form of "Ai no Boukensha"(Adventurer of Love) which was specifically for the series; Machiko Ryu's（竜真知子）lyrics give a blatant shoutout to Wonder Woman. Meanwhile, the melody by Ken Sato（佐藤健）and arrangement by Akira Inoue（井上鑑）also follow a disco line but more on the AOR side of things.
This is Yumi's first time on the blog. From what I remember of her, she had a recurring role in the legendary jidaigeki series "Mito Komon"（水戸黄門）as quite a warrior herself. She was also famous in that show for her bathing scenes which you can see being parodied in the commercial below.
Haven't posted anything by the 80s female trio Sugar（シュガー）recently but I did come across this April 1982 follow-up to their razor-tongued debut single"Wedding Bell" from the previous year.
As was the case with "Wedding Bell", a lovingly-delivered curse of death to a former beau getting married, "Aventure wa Looks Shidai" (The Adventure Depends on the Looks) was also written and composed by Yoshiaki Furuta（古田喜昭）as this light and frothy Brazilian-tinged song. Furuta's lyrics also have some sting in them although the potency isn't as great as in "Wedding Bell". There are just some irritating internal barbs from a lady who's seeing the man in her sightlines going out with another woman. Considering how breezy it is, one wonders whether this could have been an ideal tune for some commercial or insert song in a rom-com of those days.
Although the next couple of days following Showa Day are technically regular days, the Golden Week holidays have begun and apparently folks could have as many as twelve straight days off depending on how nice the bosses are. I knew that GW was on when I saw NHK show the annual Bullet Train capacity percentages and shots of highways showing a packed route going away from Tokyo and a relatively empty one going to Tokyo. From what I've seen so far, it looks like a lot of the Japanese may be keeping things within the nation instead of flying overseas due to the yen looking rather middling and the rise in a lot of things such as airplane fuel.
So I gather that it's time for an Author's Picks on vacations, and I'm surprised that I hadn't already done this in the past but I can rectify this right now.
This article's song title illustrates our feelings about those hot vacations...far away. We're well into spring but it sure doesn't feel like it today. We even saw a few snowflakes a few days ago flying about like gnats.
Anyways, allow me to bring back actress and singer Hiroko Kasahara（笠原弘子）. She's been in show business just about her entire life with her acting career beginning when she was around five years old in 1975 and then getting into the seiyuu industry in 1983 before finally going into recording in 1986. She's got quite the long discography despite it being the aspect of her overall career starting the latest.
From her June 1992 7th album "Tooi Natsu no Kyujitsu" (Distant Summer Holidays), I introduce the title track itself. Written and composed by Minori Hotate（保立稔）, it's a breezy and brassy contemporary version of 60s girl pop punctuated hard by a sax solo bent on jazzy excursions. It would make any current Torontonian swoon for the hot sunny days along the beach.
Well, that was quite the happy ending sequence for Episode 4 of "Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!!"（ガンバレ!中村くん!!...Go for It, Nakamura!）as you can see above. Nakamura saves the love of his life, Hirose, from some photography-crazed punks and he's celebrating his win at home. Meanwhile, the ending theme cavalcade of oldies continues apace and cheerfully for fans. Episode 5 had quite the explosion of delight with an old City Pop fave, Yasuha's（泰葉）"Fly-Day Chinatown"(フライディ・チャイナタウン).
As was the case with Kenji Ozawa（小沢健二）& Scha Dara Parr's"Kon'ya wa Boogie Back"（今夜はブギー・バック）which was the ender for Episode 3, Barbee Boys'"Makeru mon ka"(Like Hell I'm Giving In), which was Nakamura's celebratory tune at the end of Episode 4, is also a song that I hadn't covered on the blog or heard at all. I was never all that much of a Barbee Boys fan although we do have a couple of their songs on KKP and up to now, my impression has been that the band loved to create songs showing conflict of all sorts whether it be internal or external.
"Makeru mon ka" was released as Barbee Boys' 5th single in April 1986 and as soon as I heard it, I knew it was a signature Barbee Boys song with those sparkly guitars, soprano saxophone and Kyoko's（杏子）vocals. Written and composed by band guitarist Tomotaka Imamichi（いまみちともたか）, it's about a guy's battle with himself about how to handle the potential consequences of his very assertive girlfriend wanting to drop by his place late at night. Methinks that the angel and devil on his two shoulders are having an Avengers level of fighting.
That's quite the music video for "Makeru mon ka" as well. There's nothing like ancient Soviet-era propaganda showing the populace actually having fun to attract viewers. Anyways, the song peaked at No. .47 on Oricon, and it was a track on Barbee Boys' 2nd album "Freebee" from November 1985. It hit No. 18.
As I noted in my previous article, due to Wednesday the 29th being Showa Day in Japan (and thus the official start to Golden Week), NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）devoted a good chunk of its broadcast tonight to some of the Showa Erakayo kyoku which I was plenty grateful about. After all, this is what we're all here for when it comes to this blog.
I recollect that I may have done something in the past to commemorate Showa Day via an Author's Picks but I decided to still go ahead with another try at a list. Initially, I'd thought about bringing over some of a list of most popular Showa Erakaraoke songs but when I realized that most of those songs originated in the years 1985 to 1987, I jettisoned that idea for being a little too centralized, time-wise. Then, after some more thought, I blurted out "Oh, what the heck!". I'll just let my memories pick out one song that immediately comes to mind when I think of a certain decade or period within Showa (1926-1989) and let the chips fall where they may.
The list below only consists of five songs...yes, very inadequate (I've left out City Pop and Group Sounds, for instance) but take this as an opportunity for folks to chime in with their representative kayo choices. Anyways, anything that would seem adequate would probably force me to make a new blog. Plus, Labels would throw a major tantrum at me. Still, allow me to mention the Blue Comets'"Blue Chateau"（ブルー・シャトウ）from 1967 and Miki Matsubara's（松原みき）"Mayonaka no Door"（真夜中のドアー）from 1979.
I've been to Nagoya a few times and despite all the flak and indifference toward this major city in Japan, I think it's a perfectly nice metropolis to visit. Nagoyans and, on a larger scale, residents of Aichi Prefecture really bring the goods at wedding parties. Plus, the area is famous for all sorts of dishes that have been categorized as B-class. Ten-musu（天むす）in particular is one of my favourites. Just imagine...the combination of shrimp tempura and rice ball. Culinary match made in heaven ranking alongside peanut butter and chocolate to form Reese's Peanut Butter Cups! By the way, thank you Japanese Cooking 101!
As with a lot of other television programming, "Uta Con"（うたコン）is going on Golden Week hiatus but it still gave us one more episode. Since Wednesday is the beginning of the whole mess of national holidays in Japan with the first one being Showa Day, the NHK kayo kyoku show devoted a lot of its time to the Showa Era hits which was great.
Near the end, we got the usual new stuff from the guests. Enka singer and go-touchi song master Kaori Mizumori（水森かおり）came up with her latest single last month. "Koi no Owari no Nagoya ni Hitori" (Alone in Nagoya After the Love is Gone) is one song that makes it very nakedly plain that it's the typical number about recovering after heartbreak in the city of ten-musu. Written by Takashi Taka（たかたかし）and composed by Tetsuya Gen（弦哲也）, it's quite upbeat and reassuring though and the ever-smiling Mizumori is more than happy to be the happy guide through the city in the music video.
It was less than a week ago when I posted up "Tokyo Songs" which of course would have to include Shogo Hamada's（浜田省吾）"Tokyo"（東京）, a not-so-positive but probably more realistic account of what life in the big city could be like at the time. Maybe it was released as a counterpoint to Kenji Sawada's（沢田研二）hit "TOKIO" which was also out there in the same year.
Well, I was curious then to hear what the B-side of Hamada's "Tokyo" was like, so I came across "Kayaku no You ni"(Like Gunpowder). With that title, I had been expecting something quite hard rock and explosive, but it's actually quite the cordial rock n' roll story about a couple of high school buddies who choose to skip class and hop onto the motorcycle and hit the beach to play music and scope out the ladies. Ahhh...life in 1980 Japan...or maybe even 2026 Japan, I don't know.🤷 Hamada was behind words and music with Kimio Mizutani（水谷公生）arranging everything.
Time for a crazy coda for this article. As I was looking over the information on "Kayaku no You ni" on J-Wiki, I found out that the song was actually Hamada's own self-cover of a track that he'd provided aidoru Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）all the way back in August 1977 when her 12th studio album"Golden Flight" was released. It was titled "Ai no Twilight Time" (Twilight Time for Love) at the time, had different lyrics about lost love by Akira Ito（伊藤アキラ）, and though Hiroshi Kato's（加藤ヒロシ）arrangement kept things in rock, it had more of a honky-tonk style with a bit more in the production. "Golden Flight" hit No. 3 on Oricon. Always fascinating to hear a new Momoe tune and this one is no different.
Happy Monday! And perhaps that goes especially for the Japanese since the Golden Week holidays are right around the corner. It'll be interesting to see where a lot of folks will be headed this year. When I was living in Japan, I basically treated each GW as a staycation because I appreciated an empty Tokyo even more.
"Bitter Sweet Friday" might sound more appropriate for the day when we handle the urban contemporary material on KKP, but it's been in the backlog long enough. A track from bird's May 2011 7th album"New Basic", this one sounds anything but bittersweet. If anything, it sounds quite hopeful along that arrangement that brings to mind the Motown sound and Stevie Wonder. The singer was the lyricist here while Yoshito Tanaka（田中義人）took care of the zesty melody.
I do have a love for pasta, especially spaghetti. I grew up on Bolognese made by my mother but then in Japan, I realized that the Japanese absolutely adore pasta of all kinds and so that's how I discovered other types such as Pepperoncino, Carbonara and Napolitan (which actually doesn't come from Naples but is a purely Japanese type).
Of course, it's not as wonderful as actually eating the stuff itself, but I also indulge in watching the many pasta-making videos on YouTube such as this one by Preppy Kitchen for his take on Carbonara. His way of cooking actually makes the sauce look less intimidating to create...since I have some PTSD from making something that involved raw eggs from long ago.
Once again, my preamble ramble leads us to a group called spaghetti vabune! which I discovered by happenstance a few weeks earlier. When I posted an article on the technopop unit Plus-Tech Squeeze Box, I found out that their "Kitchen Shock" hadn't come from their own discography but it actually belonged to a December 2004 compilation album titled "Contemode V.A. 2".
Well, I looked through the rest of the tracks and saw some other dynamic-sounding acts there and tried looking up the titles. And spaghetti vabune! was one of them. According to their website, the group began life in 2001 and perhaps currently consists of vocalist/guitarist Keiji Tokuda, vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Chihiro Yoshii, guitarist Takayoshi Umeno, drummer Naoya Shimai and bassist Shuhei Kinukawa. Their J-Wiki article has them categorized as a unit into indies pop, jangle pop, Shibuya-kei and alternative rock.
spaghetti vabune!'s contribution to "Contemode V.A. 2" is "Favorite Song (contemode bossa mix)" which does have plenty of Brazilian swagger to the extent that I was wondering whether it should have been called "contemode samba mix" instead. But no complaints here. It makes for some fun and summery listening. I did wonder whether there was an original version of "Favorite Song" and the answer was Yes! The much shorter guitar pop original does appear on the band's April 2003 album"summer vacation, sunset vehicle". Incidentally, the bossa mix was created by Yasutaka Nakata（中田ヤスタカ）.
I actually heard this on the most recent episode of NHK's "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）and found it intriguing enough for me to investigate its source.
Singer-actress Akari Uchida（内田あかり）was born Kuniko Ogata（大形久仁子）in Osaka just after the end of World War II and her career had begun in 1967 under her birth name. She scored a quick big hit due to a collaboration with the Mood Kayo group Mahina Stars（和田弘とマヒナスターズ）in 1968 for the song "Watashitte Dame na Onna ne"（私って駄目な女ね...I'm a Bad Woman）, but her solo career of eleven singles going into 1970 didn't yield any good results for her.
Then in 1973, under the wing of producer Masatoshi Sakai（酒井政利）, she took on the stage name of Akari Uchida and released her debut single, "Ukiyo-e no Machi"(Ukiyo-e Town) in August. Written by Masao Ishizaka（石坂まさを）and composed/arranged by Makoto Kawaguchi（川口真）, this atmospheric enka-and-kayo mix seems to have that extra infusion of truly exotic "wafu" through the delicate strains of the koto, and then with Uchida's floating vocals, it feels like a couple taking a very leisurely stroll through a ukiyo-e painting.
No idea how it did on Oricon but "Ukiyo-e no Machi" sold 700,000 records so I can only assume that it was a huge hit. Apparently, the outfit that she wore for her live performances cost a whopping 1.2 million yen or over four thousand US dollars according to the 1973 exchange rate. Strangely enough, she apparently didn't get that invitation to the Kohaku Utagassen but a movie based on or inspired by "Ukiyo-e no Machi" titled "Lost Love: Abura Jigoku"（ロスト・ラブ あぶら地獄...Lost Love: Oil Hell） was produced in 1974 with Uchida herself starring in it. It was produced by Nikkatsu, which had a hand in the roman porno industry, so considering part of the title, my pervy little mind suddenly had some distinct thoughts but it was actually and basically a dramatization of Uchida's own heartbreak story.
Since then, Uchida has had a long career in singing and acting up to 2019.
Millions of people watched the most recent edition of the World Baseball Classic last month. What I hadn't known was that while I was in Japan, the 2009 edition had at least some of its games played in Toronto's Rogers Centre...although I still prefer to call it the old name of Skydome.
What I also didn't know? Japan Netflix's own broadcast of the WBC this year had one eye boggling and mind-blowing campaign song. Imagine Koshi Inaba（稲葉浩志）of the kickass duo B'z doing a cover of Yoshimi Iwasaki's（岩崎良美）most famous song "Touch"? Well, we don't have to imagine it. It actually got recorded and then released as a single on March 6th. Perhaps a lot of people and their What Ifs were finally satisfied. Written by Chinfa Kan（康珍化）and composed by Hiroaki Serizawa（芹沢廣明）, the original guitar riff is back but instead of the ol' rock n' roll from Iwasaki's original, this "Touch" has got Inaba's arrangement touch for that B'z vibe.
I was in contact with a Kei Marimura（真梨邑ケイ）fan, Bree, in the last few days and that person mentioned the song "Shiseikatsu" (Private Life) which was a 1986 single for the jazz-and-City Pop singer who made quite the career turn when she also opted to become a hardcore porn actress. And yes, that also did pop up very briefly in the conversation.😎
"Shiseikatsu" was one of the first songs that I'd heard by Marimura and way back when, I couldn't find it at all on YouTube so it was a case of reluctant relinquishment and forgetfulness that the song left my memory. But Bree's contact got me back to this interestingly arranged song so I'm quite grateful and it's great that "Shiseikatsu" has finally made it onto YouTube. As for Bree, it was a case of falling for the song when first encountering it on J1Gold back in the pandemic days.
There are a couple of City Pop hands behind the creation of "Shiseikatsu". Lyricist Masako Arikawa（有川正沙子） weaves the story of a woman psyching herself up for a possibly sinful night with a fellow in a hotel room while Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）comes up with the melody that starts off with a keyboard sounding akin to a warning alarm (accompanied by some sexy sax) as if the lady is entering some mightily dangerous territory before the song jumps into a more relaxing warm bath of slow groove and sophistication (rose petals and candles optional). Even Marimura has this rather off-kilter bent to her vocals which may be reflecting the lady's trepidation; once she enters that suite, she's not coming back to her normal world.
I'm sure that a lot of folks in my neck of the woods would greatly prefer not to hear the word "snow" for the next several months at least. It was a very long and cold winter and even now, things are still pretty cool although temperatures should be rising happily next week.
However, allow me this one. A few weeks ago, I introduced singer Masaki Sato（佐藤正樹 or 佐藤真紀）who wasn't the most prolific fellow with just two singles that I could find online thus far. I did cover his second single"Million Night" from 1983 which seems to cover a really rumbling City Pop drive down the urban highways. Well, this time, it's his debut single from 1982 which is a whole lot more congenial and jingly.
I don't mean "jingly" as in a Christmas jingle bells sort of way, though. It's more like this really does sound like a commercial jingle (and the lyrics do contain the corporate catchphrase "It's the No. 1 spirit!"). "Snow Dancer" was the 1982 campaign song for the sporting goods store Salomon, and I guess from the title, perhaps the company was aiming for the skiing set. Written and composed by the same duo behind the later "Million Night", lyricist Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）and composer Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロー）, the happy City Pop disco arrangement was provided by Kazuo Otani（大谷和夫）. No, perhaps there isn't a city involved with the ski resorts and slopes but skiing has been connected with the urban and urbane lifestyle for such a long time that we can give this one a pass. It's just too bad that I couldn't find the commercial itself on YouTube.
Yeah, I knew that Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）had his City Pop phase going deeper into the 1980s but I didn't realize that it went quite this deep. Armed with a sparkling single cover by Hiroshi Nagai（永井博）, Saijo released his 57th single from May 1987 in the form of "New York Girl".
Beginning with a quiet intro that had me thinking of Earth Wind & Fire's"Fantasy" for a little while, "New York Girl" vaults into sultry urban dance pop action with Saijo yelling out the title throughout the song (bass addicts, you'll love this one, too). It seems the song was created for Saijo right from the start with keyboardist and record producer George Duke and Shalamar member Howard Hewitt creating the song while future AKB48 Svengali Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）came up with the Japanese lyrics. "New York Girl" managed to peak at No. 50 on Oricon. The Japanese version is above while the English B-side is below. Its first appearance on an album was on the December 1987 version of "BEST PACK/Saijo Hideki".
Hiromi Ohta's（太田裕美）trademark song will forever be "Momen no Handkerchief"(木綿のハンカチーフ）. It has that fresh countryside feeling of innocence and hope emanating from a young lady. Written by Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）, composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）and arranged by Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）, one couldn't have asked for a steadier trio of song creators to weave this hit.
But guess what? I guess that young lady simply couldn't resist that pull from Tokyo or whatever huge metropolis was close to her small town. She finally relented and took the train and ran into the disco to dance out her passions. And that's where we are with "Unlimited" which is represented by the "∞" on Ohta's source album"Umi ga Naiteiru"（海が泣いている...The Sea is Crying） from December 1978. It also happens to be the final track on the album, so I guess Ohta wanted us to continue all of the nocturnal dancing.
The crazy and wonderful thing is that Matsumoto, Tsutsumi and Hagita were also all in on this number as well which had me thinking mirror ball, Bee Gees and flashing floor panels. But then again, back in those 1970s, when it came to disco stuff, Tsutsumi was the go-to guy for the melodies. That piano instrumental break followed by the electric guitar is absolutely sublime to me. Enjoy boogeying the night away!
Y'know...taking a look at the above music video for Piper's 1984 single"Sunshine Kiz", I would have bet that this had been filmed almost a good half-decade earlier when the City Pop group led by vocalist Keisuke Yamamoto （山本圭右）had their Early Installment Weirdnessphase with lots of sung songs. The video has a bit of that cringey factor with the members goofing around but it's not quite as eye-squinting as the music video for YMO's "Kimi ni Mune Kyun"（君に、胸キュン）which had been released a year earlier.
Still, "Sunshine Kiz" has that City Pop feeling of summery groove and good times from decades ago. The strange "ooh-wah-ooh-wah" vocalization aside, I will always welcome the boppy bass and the Fender Rhodes which practically demand an icy cocktail and a beach umbrella. The titular sunshine kids are probably around my age now and just about to get their retirement funds, but hey, they can now spend a lot of time by the sea.
Happy Friday! We're at the end of another work week so as far as "Kayo Kyoku Plus" is concerned, it's time for some urban contemporary material. A few nights ago before I went to sleep, I decided to listen to the late Miho Nakayama's（中山美穂）"angel hearts" album from December 1988.
I'd expected "angel hearts" to launch with a bang such as one of her dance-pop numbers created by Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）...although Kadomatsu had nothing to do with this album. Actually, the only biggest constant in the songwriting crew is Chinfa Kan（康珍化）, but for this first song, "Sweetest Lover", it was Miporin herself that came up with the lyrics of dedication to the love of one's life; mind you, she went under the pen name of Mizuho Kitayama（北山瑞穂）. The very tender soulful ballad melody was created by another singer-songwriter who also left us very prematurely, CINDY, with Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）handling the arrangement.
"Sweetest Lover" sounds like a nice comfortable way to ease into the waters of "angel hearts" and the style of the song reminds me some of the balladry that was coming out back in those 80s in the States. I'll have to see if I can cover the rest of the album but I'll have to re-listen to it once more; it did too good a job of sending me off to La-La Land.
Welcome to the weekly Reminiscings of Youth for this Thursday. I heard that Madonna was coming out with a new album sometime later this year. I went WOW since for a guy like me who's nearing retirement age, I first knew about Ms. Ciccone when I was in my late teens. Man, has this been a career for her!
Since hearing her for the first time back in 1983 for "Holiday", it was pretty much Madonna everywhere for the rest of the 1980s. I'm not sure how many nicknames she's picked up during that time, but one of them was The Material Girl because of that January 1985 single, "Material Girl", and it's the nickname that I usually associate with her (I just read that she hasn't been too fond of that one, though).
As with a lot of her hits, "Material Girl" was all over the airwaves and the music video was on heavy rotation on the local video shows with her going all Marilyn Monroe. Songwriters Peter Brown and Robert Rans wrote the lyrics to show that Madonna was all about the glam and goodies but the music video impressed upon the viewers that she was quite the opposite. The melody itself hit me as a synthy and slightly sinful song for Madonna done up in a cutesy yet sly fashion, and it was quite the change to see the lady done up in a totally different fashion compared to her previous videos. I also forgot that there were a couple of other celebs involved in the video: Keith Carradine and Robert Wuhl.
"Material Girl" reached No. 2 on America's Billboard and No. 4 on Canada's RPM. So, what else was hitting the record stores in Japan inJanuary 1985?
The above video is provided by WizArno: A Magical Journey Together, and it's a most detailed tour of what is perhaps the leading drug store chain in Japan, Matsumoto Kiyoshi. It may sound like the name of an enka singer but believe you me, you'll remember it for all of the medicine, medical supplies and cosmetics that you can shake a stick at.
A while back, I posted up an article regarding one of my favourite songs, period, "Like a Queen" by Tomita Lab（富田ラボ）with the sister R&B act Soulhead providing their smooth vocals. If I ever need a pick-me-up that doesn't involve caffeine or alcohol, this is one of the songs.
Well, the original 2005 single of "Like a Queen" did have a coupling song called "PHARMACY", and to be blunt, it's not quite as catchy or epic as the main song. But it's still a Tomita Lab creation so there is still a fair bit to like. At first though, it was a little weird listening to this odd conglomeration of the typical Tomita groovy smoothness and a synth-based reggae rhythm underlying everything. If I'm not mistaken, it's Tomita himself singing the lyrics here although according to the JASRAC database, no lyricist name is given so perhaps he was winging it while recording it. And as we approach the end, I even get some late 1970s Steely Dan feeling. Maybe "PHARMACY" is the type of song to hear while chilling at the most boho cafe in Tokyo.
Back in the 1980s, Japan and Coca-Cola pretty much equaled good times in the big city as you can see above. All the more reason to grab the fizzy stuff. Ironically, I don't drink it nearly as much as I used to since the rest of my family prefers the clear stuff: Canada Dry, 7-Up, Sprite, etc.
As I mentioned in my last article regarding singer-songwriter Kaoru Nakahara（中原薫）, she'd been given the rather appropriate if somewhat cringey stage name of Cola Hazuki（葉月コーラ）earlier in her career because she'd become known at the turn of the decade from the 1980s into the 1990s as someone who sang a lot of cola jingles. Hey, if the gigs pay the rent...
In June 1991, Cola Hazuki and comedian Kanpei Hazama（間寛平）put out a single titled "Anata dake wo"（あなただけを...Only You） as the ending theme song for one of Hazama's variety shows. However for this article, I wanted to focus on the coupling song which Hazuki handles on her own called "Day In Vacation". If the song sounds familiar, then you must have heard the original version by the summery supergroup Nagisa no All-Stars（渚のオールスターズ）when they recorded it back in 1989.
Nagisa no All-Stars included the band TUBE and at least a couple of their beloved songwriters, Tomoko Aran（亜蘭知子）and Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）, and not surprisingly, those two were the ones behind the creation of "Day In Vacation". Hazuki gives the song her summery best as well and perhaps I'm imagining things here, but it even sounds a bit ZARD-ish. Furthermore, my timing isn't too bad either because next week will introduce the annual Golden Week holidays in Japan. Enjoy guzzling down that Coke!
As I mentioned last night in the latest Oricon Singles list article, I had been outside for a good chunk of the day yesterday and that was because I went down to the Art Gallery of Ontario. Now, I'm not a huge art guy but this was only my second time there and the last time I was at the AGO was 50 years ago back in 1976 when I was an elementary school student. So I figured that it was time for another visit.
I took my congenial walk through the various rooms and spaces and I also encountered good ol' Henry Moore's sculptures. For me, the AGO is Moore and Moore is the AGO since one of his bronze works once greeted anyone who arrived at the gallery. One of the few things that I remember from the field trip with my school over to the AGO was being separated into pairs with each pair given a huge dark fabric bag for which one partner would enter and make some sort of Henry Moore-esque shape under the direction of the other partner. Considering my partner's name was Nancy, I was VERY careful about not touching her in the wrong places but luckily, she was a good sport. Not sure if such an activity would be allowed today but those were the 70s for you.
The one exhibit I was keen on seeing was famous Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirrored Room. She's the artist who's had the real big thing for polka dots and I was a little disappointed that the room was the only example of her works that I could experience aside from one other large mural around the corner. Regardless, I had to leave my coat and bag outside of the IMR but I could take my camera in there and I was given one minute alone to contemplate the environment. Nope, no polka dots but there were plenty of shiny round things to see.
Speaking of polka dots...and yes, there is a song here...I have Polkadot Stingray's latest which happens to be another snazzy jazzy number titled "Sakasama" (Upside Down). For some reason, this anime season has been filling up with these danceable (at least, in one's room) theme tunes. I just wrote about Penthouse's "Ichi, Ni, San"（一二三）for the show "Mairimashita! Iruma-kun"（魔入りました!入間くん...Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun）, and now this is "Sakasama" which ends each episode of the anime adaptation of the manga "Koori no Jouheki"（氷の城壁...The Ramparts of Ice） which seems to be another show about a student slowly coming out of one's shell. I will never turn my head away from an intrepid Big Band swing thing. There are a few more Polkdadot Stingray songs on KKP starting with T-cat's article on "Telecaster Stripe" (テレキャスター･ストライプ) from about nine years ago.
Just one last thing about my trip to the art gallery. My lunch happened to be a refrigerated turkey-and-havarti croissant. With the chai latte, the whole thing cost me almost as much as my general admission to the AGO! Well, at least, it was good and filling. And the visit was also a pleasant one. If any of my art-inclined friends ever came to Toronto, I would take them there.
I'm just off by a week here but it was a little over a year ago that I posted "Osaka Songs", a list of Osaka-titled tunes, and crazily enough, in all those 53 weeks since then, I hadn't put up anything called "Tokyo Songs". Little old me had naturally assumed that I'd already done so. Nope, that isn't true. Kinda wild considering that I'd just recently written about Takajin Yashiki's（やしきたかじん）"Tokyo"（東京）. Well, that changes today. Quite the wide range of kayo, too!
(1959) Frank Nagai and Kazuko Matsuo -- Tokyo Nightclub （東京ナイトクラブ）
It's been one of those days where I was out for most of it (explanation next time) and so I'm doing my second of two postings as usual close to the midnight hour. Therefore, I'm not exactly filled with energy right now. I'll have to settle with putting up some rankings and since it's close enough to April 22nd, why not go with April 22nd 1968?
In the old days of NHK's various incarnations of its weekly kayo kyoku show such as "Kayo Concert", hosts, staff and guests would occasionally come up with a theme night. The theme could be based on a samurai drama with the singers all dressed up in historical garb or it could be a bunch of guys out on the town in Shinjuku or Akasaka with one of the female veteran chanteuses as the proprietress of the popular drinking hole. The sets would be quite elaborately set up.
Since the COVID days though, I think those big theme nights have largely shrunk in design and frequency, perhaps due to health and/or budgetary concerns. Still, tonight's "Uta Con"（うたコン）brought out the theme of the annual welcome party for the newbies of a company with everybody getting involved including legendary kayo singer Hiroshi Itsuki（五木ひろし）as the generous and wise (if perhaps a tad longwinded) president.
Not surprisingly, Itsuki, who is now celebrating his 55th year in show business, had the final song of the night, and as has been the gimmick for the last few weeks, the staff placed a small trivia question regarding Itsuki as he was performing. As Itsuki fans know, the singer had gone through a number of stage names early in his career in the late 1960s before the name Hiroshi Itsuki was the final one he needed for sustained success. The question was "Which stage name did he have for only one day?", and the answer was "Jun Nakagawa（中川淳）" which explains why I haven't seen any songs under that name in his J-Wiki discography.
Still, let's go to one of his songs under the past stage name of Eiichi Ichijo（一条英一）. I have posted one song when Itsuki was Ichijo, and that was his first single under that name, "Ore wo Nakaseru Yoru no Ame"（俺を泣かせる夜の雨）from 1967. That was more of a Mood Kayo number but his third and final single under Ichijo was "Hatoba no Mari" (Marie on the Waterfront) which was released in April 1968 and it's quite a different animal.
Written by Kaoru Mizuki（水木かおる）and composed by Hideyuki Fujiwara（藤原秀行）, if I could use the 1980s-and-beyond genre New Adult Music, I probably would. It's quite the mix of enka with a jangly Group Sounds arrangement including a really boozy saxophone. My other observation is how consistently high-toned Ichijo is here along with a plaintiveness that reminds me of a young Shinichi Mori（森進一）who was breaking out at around the same time.
Apparently, "Hatoba no Mari" didn't sell but the man hung on for a few more name changes and singles, before he finally hit pay dirt with "Yokohama Tasogare"（よこはま・たそがれ）.
Unlike "Uta Con"（うたコン）and "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）, it's not as easy to catch "Hayauta"（はやウタ）on Jme since it seems to be thrown in anywhere on the schedule. Specifically in our case, it's scheduled at times when we are neither awake or otherwise available to watch it.
But we finally did catch an episode last night after the usual "Asaichi"（あさイチ）, and it was quite a good one. Almost all of the guests were performing stuff that seemed to be arranged in the old kayo kyoku style including this one here.
We don't really hear much about Mood Kayo these days in contemporary Japanese popular music, and the duets are most likely even rarer than appearances of the typical Mood Kayo groups. However, there was one such couple on "Hayauta" last night and it was a combination that I wouldn't have imagined. Singer-songwriter Okayu（おかゆ）, who's been this beautiful nagashi（流し）, or traveling balladeer through the drinking establishment-lined avenues of Tokyo, paired up with the funny man of the comedic duo Knights（ナイツ）, Nobuyuki Hanawa（塙宣之）, to perform the song "Ai no Michikusa". Now, michikusa is defined as "loitering on the way somewhere" according to Jisho.org, but I think "Loitering of Love" loses a lot of its romantic appeal (and may actually hint at something illegal), and the feeling within Okayu and Yasunari Izuma's（出馬康成）lyrics is of a hand-in-hand congenial walk through the shitamachi area of the nation's capital, so why not go with "Love Stroll"?
This is the first time that Izuma's name has been mentioned within the pages of KKP but it should be remembered here because he also happens to be a movie director. In fact, he has directed the movie of the same title as the song of note which stars Okayu and Hanawa as a couple with the former playing the proprietress of a typically tiny nomiya（飲み屋）. According to J-Wiki, the movie "Ai no Michikusa" will be shown later this autumn. In any case, Okayu's melody strikes that Mood Kayo feeling of yesteryear with the frenetically plucked Spanish guitar leading the way.
Happy Monday! Although the temperatures are back below freezing again, the skies are brilliant out there, so can't complain too much. It does go to show that there is a sage piece of advice for Torontonians and that is to never put away your winter tires or clothing until May. I have personally seen snow falling in May but that was decades ago.
There has been a lot going on out there in the world and that includes a fairly powerful earthquake that rocked Hokkaido and the Tohoku area earlier today. I woke up and turned on Jme to see that there had been ongoing NHK coverage of the quake and the ensuing tsunami warning and watches for several hours. Hopefully, everyone there is hanging in there OK.
Perhaps we can start with something a little calming and cosmopolitan, and this would be singer-songwriter Tomoko Soryo's（惣領智子）3rd single from 1977, "Kirameita Hibi"(Sparkling Days). I can feel the City Pop in there but Soryo's creation is quite subtle so that I can also place it as a calm blue ocean of a New Music lullaby. Perhaps the soulful "Kirameita Hibi" can be an example of how folks born in the 21st century feel that strange sense of nostalgia for 1970s or 1980s City Pop. The single was also included in the singer's "City Lights by the Moonlight" album from the same year.
Looks like the good times are still rolling with "Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!!"（ガンバレ!中村くん!!...Go for It, Nakamura!）with not just the main show but also with the ending credit sequences which include the songs of yesteryear (specifically, those of the Showa and Heisei eras). We've already gotten Kozo Murashita's（村下孝蔵）"Hatsukoi"(初恋）and Da Bubblegum Brothers' "Won't Be Long" for Episodes 1 and 2 respectively.
The ending of Episode 3 has gone into the hip-hop field this time apparently, so the target song here is "Kon'ya wa Boogie Back" (Tonight is Boogie Back) which was the March 1994 7th single for hip-hop group Scha Dara Parr with Kenji Ozawa（小沢健二）, formerly of Flipper's Guitar. It was pretty interesting hearing Ozawa going rap but then again, I've learned that he's tried all sorts of genres including jazz and of course, Shibuya-kei when he was with Flipper's Guitar.
Incidentally, there are two versions of "Boogie Back": the "smooth rap" and the "nice vocal" takes of which the former has Scha Dara Parr taking the lead while the latter has Ozawa behind the mike most of the time.
The thing is that the first time I ever listened to "Kon'ya wa Boogie Back", it was not through the original artists. It was actually listening to some musical guests covering the song on the late-night Saturday music variety show "Love Love Aishiteiru" (Love Love 愛している....Love Love I Love You） hosted by the Kinki Kids. At the time, I hadn't heard a whole lot of Japanese rap although we were just on the cusp of a big J-R&B boom from the late 1990s, so I wanted to hear the original with Ozawa and Scha Dara Parr.
"Boogie Back" was written and composed by Ozawa and the three members of Scha Dara Parr: Bose, Ani and Shinco. It peaked at No. 15 on Oricon (selling over half a million copies), and it looks like it has had plenty of covers done over the last thirty years. The song also samples En Vogue's "Give It Up, Turn It Loose" from 1992.
Apparently, the end of Episode 4 features a song by The Barbee Boys that I hadn't experienced before. That'll get its due then.
