It was just this morning when I saw commenter Brian Mitchell noticing that there were indeed a lot of songs in Japan with the word kanashii（悲しい）or kanashimi（悲しみ）or some variant. They refer to sadness or loneliness and it would fit in with the kayo kyoku tendency to bring up a lot of sad stories within the lyrics albeit the music supporting them has often been quite cheerful. Well, I've opted to show off an Author's Picks (not complete by any means) of these songs which are mostly upbeat except for one. I refused though to post a thumbnail of a sad face...I went with something more symbolic, namely a Wikimedia Commons photo by User Kenlin of someone pouring some sake for someone having the blues.
(1966) Hibari Misora -- Kanashii Sake （悲しい酒）
(1983) Anri -- Kanashimi ga Tomaranai (悲しみがとまらない）
(1984) Checkers -- Kanashikute Jealousy （哀しくてジェラシー）
(1985) Anzen Chitai -- Kanashimi ni Sayonara（悲しみにさよなら)
(1987) Keisuke Kuwata -- Kanashii Kimochi （悲しい気持ち）
Fireminer here. It's great to see someone pointing out an interesting aspect of Kayo. And it'd be fun to know more about stock words and phrases in Japanese music. For example, there are more than a few songs with the name "Toki no Hana" or that phrase in their lyrics (like one by Machiko Watanabe).
ReplyDeleteHello, Fireminer and thanks for the tip on Kuwata, by the way. I'm sure that there will be oft-used phrases in kayo titles that will gain my attention and Author's Picks written about them.
DeleteI find it very ironic that Kōji Tamaki wrote both「悲しみよこんにちは」(March 21, 1986) and「悲しみにさよなら」(June 25, 1985)! Oh, and J-Canuck thank you for the mention and this write up! This list has some of my favorites. It must have been hard for to pick only a few after all there are more than 30 different songs from 1980 to 1989 that have some variation 悲しみ in their titles or at least that is accourding to my personal list.
ReplyDeleteNo problems here. As for Tamaki's songs, I just wonder whether he wrote the earlier one and then decided to throw the later title with the opposite greeting just for the heck of it.
DeleteBeing that the songs were released only 9 months apart it really seem likely that Tamaki composed the music to this song for fun of it! However, 森雪之丞 (Yukinojo Mori), they who wrote the lyrics to 「悲しみよこんにちは」explained that the title/concept came from Françoise Sagan's novel Bonjour Tristesse (Japanese title 「悲しみよこんにちは」). He stated that he liked the idea of personifying an emotion and addressing it directly. Even more importantly, he explicitly identifies 浜口庫之助's 「涙くんさよなら」 as the song he was consciously paying homage to. BUT, I still think that Tamaki chose to work on this project because it would be ironic to do so and because 「悲しみにさよなら」was still a big hit in 1986 that basically everyone knew.
DeleteI don't know very much about Mori although he has quite a large file on KKP. However, knowing Tamaki and his personality all these years, he'd probably be one to make the titular irony come true for fun and giggles.
Delete