Hiromi Iwasaki -- Love Arabesque（ラブ・アラベスク）

 

It's been sunny the last few days which we are all grateful for but it's also been bitterly cold after Snowmageddon on Sunday. And apparently we're in for a really cold night tonight with the wind chill factor going into the -30s Celsius. I might leave the taps slightly ajar tonight.

Anyways, I should bring something with some summery warmth to the proceedings here. I only discovered this song by chanteuse Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）several weeks ago. "Love Arabesque" is the B-side to Iwasaki's May 1979 17th single "Natsu ni Dakarete"（夏に抱かれて）which I posted all the way back in August 2013. 

I mentioned in the article for that A-side that "Natsu ni Dakarete" is the first Hiromi song that didn't involve lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）or composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）. Well, Tsutsumi is back for this one while Yoko Aki（阿木燿子）, the songwriter behind a lot of Momoe Yamaguchi's（山口百恵） hits in the latter half of her career, provided lyrics. Unlike the tropical and breezy City Pop feeling of "Natsu ni Dakarete", "Love Arabesque" has more of the adventuresome exotic kayo (supposedly Mediterranean, Middle East, Central Asia vibes) which was a type of kayo kyoku that was also making itself felt to a smaller degree at the time. It does have those disco strings and bass in there, though.

Nash Music Library -- vi vi vid

 

Well, we're well into 2026 and I figure it's time to bring in the first Nash Music Library entry for the year. I think the last time I wrote about music maker NML was back on Christmas Eve last year when I had something seasonal.

This time around, today's NML entry doesn't have a particular seasonal purpose. "vi vi vid" is quite the title for this track which originates from the February 2020 collection "Neon Town". Even though it doesn't seem to have any special designation, it does have some spicy Latin rhythm along with a spacy electro melody. I can't help but think of some cute cartoon characters on a comically secret mission somewhere and making tons of mistakes along the way.

Janet Jackson -- Rhythm Nation

 

I heard this one for the first time in a long while on the car radio last weekend. Definitely reminiscing here.

When this song originally came out near the end of October 1989, I had already been a few months into my two-year stay in Gunma Prefecture on the JET Programme. The thing is that the first time I got a good listen to Janet Jackson's propulsive "Rhythm Nation" single, it was via a Japan Air Lines commercial in which I got to see Ms. Jackson strutting it up with her squad in military uniform in an airport. 

It wouldn't be for another several months before I finally got to see the award-winning and eye-widening music video. Music videos featuring a ragtag group of rebels attempting to bring light into a dystopia were nothing new by the end of the 1980s but I don't think anyone had ever seen anything this  amazingly choreographed. Certainly not by me...before then, I'd only known Janet as Michael's kid sister and a cast member of "Diff'rent Strokes" on NBC.

The song and the video had such an influence on Japanese viewers that singer Akiko Wada（和田アキ子）practiced and performed the "Rhythm Nation" dance on the annual New Year's Fuji-TV program "Kakushigei Taikai"（かくし芸大会）which features celebrities of all stripes tackling feats that they normally wouldn't do. In Canada, "Rhythm Nation" made it No. 6 on the charts while in the United States, it peaked at No. 2. 

So, what was coming out as singles in Japan in October 1989?

Kome Kome Club -- FUNK FUJIYAMA

Mariko Nagai -- Miracle Girl　（ミラクル・ガール）

Country Musume -- Yukigeshiki（雪景色）

 

Man, those were quite the hey days for Hello! Project（ハロー!プロジェクト）, the huge Tsunku-created female aidoru umbrella under which resided the mighty Morning Musume（モーニング娘。）. And entering the 21st century from the 1990s, other groups and solo acts germinated such as singer Miki Fujimoto（藤本美貴）and the relatively recent OCHA NORMA.

I also recollect there being a few groups under Hello! Project that also had the name Musume. Except for a relatively few exceptions, I didn't dig too deeply into these other groups, but one group's name has stayed with me, Country Musume（カントリー娘。）. Unfortunately, the one reason for that is due to a tragedy that befell them. Country Musume was to have debuted as a trio: Rinne Toda（戸田鈴音）, Azusa Kobayashi（小林梓）, and Hiromi Yanagihara（柳原尋美）. However, just before the release of their debut single (which had already been recorded) in July 1999, Yanagihara was killed in an auto accident with Kobayashi departing the group after its release. 

Toda stayed on as a solo act representing Country Musume and as such, she released the group's 2nd single "Yukigeshiki" (Snowscape) in November 1999. It stood out for the fact that not only did Tsunku（つんく♂）compose the song but Chisato Moritaka（森高千里）provided the lyrics. Heavy with the country music vibe, the Sapporo-born Toda sings about how frustrated she's been getting with the endless amounts of snow around her but making the best of a seasonally frustrating time by getting together with the boyfriend and hitting the slopes with a snowboard. That's right...take a negative and turn it into a positive!

What I hadn't known about Country Musume is that the group underwent a lot of personnel changes (but then again, Morning Musume was no stranger to that either) including the entry of some Morning Musume members with that Hokkaido lineage, continuing until 2009. Then in 2014, the group returned but experienced a name change going from Country Musume to Country Girls after which they continued for about another five years before calling it a day in 2019.

Kozo Murashita -- Fuyu Monogatari（冬物語）

 

In the post-Snowmageddon days, the one thing that I've had to endure are the rocky and slippery unplowed sidewalks. My leg muscles have gotten quite sore from the workout they've been getting trying to navigate the streets. It may be the only time that I have something in common with professional speed skaters...and hey, we've got the Winter Olympics coming up, don't we?

Anyways, keeping up with the winter theme, let's take a listen to this B-side from the late singer-songwriter Kozo Murashita's（村下孝蔵）August 1983 single "Odoriko"（踊り子）, "Fuyu Monogatari" (Winter Story). In contrast to the fairly jaunty A-side, "Fuyu Monogatari" is a beautifully arranged piano ballad of still pining for a past love. The song sounds as if it had a setting of somewhere in Europe but there is mention of a clock tower at least a couple of times in Murashita's lyrics, so I'm wondering if he'd been walking through Sapporo in Hokkaido instead. 

The protagonist in the song has apparently been without his now-ex-paramour for over a year so he's been through the emotional wringer. I can only ask him to find a stylish cafe somewhere close by and get some cocoa to alleviate his symptoms.

On the J-Wiki article for "Odoriko", I found out that "Fuyu Monogatari" had been covered in 1987 by Hong Kong singer Sandy Lamb. It's known as 「也許當時年紀少」.

The Last Show -- Tomo ni Genki（ともに元気 ）

 

Some years ago, I mentioned a band by the name of The Last Show（ザ・ラストショウ）which was set up to act as backup for folk-rock singer Shigeru Izumiya（泉谷しげる）back in 1974 and then went on their own way from the latter half of that decade. However, following their 1978 album "Last Show 2", nothing more was heard from Koichi Matsuda（松田幸一）and his group.

But then in 2010, almost forty years later, The Last Show got together again and provided a new album in January called "Ieji ~ My Sweet Home"（家路）followed by a live album a few months later titled "The Noise From 80’s". I've already written about the title track and now here's a ballad from the album called "Tomo ni Genki" (Fine Together). 

I dare you not to get all gooshy inside after listening to this one. Written by Kenji Kadoya（門谷憲二）and composed by band guitarist Hirofumi Tokutake（徳武弘文）, it sounds contemporary but there's also a feeling of an anchor to the past via some of those 70s slow love songs in a Boz Scaggs way. I don't know for certain who sings the male part, but it might be Rina from the band indigo blue as the female half of the duet here. You may want to have a tissue nearby.

The Year of the Horse

From Alexandra Sigrit2323
via Wikimedia Commons

Y'know...I should have posted this one up right on New Year's Day almost a month ago, but then again, I was rather busy with family stuff on January 1st. But I digress. This year is once again the Year of the Horse; people who were born in that year are supposedly responsible, confident and agreeable.

As such, I'm not sure whether I can find any kayo kyoku that are responsible, confident and agreeable, but at least I can find some songs that have some sort of relationship to horses.

(1970) Salty Sugar -- Hashire Koutarou（走れコウタロー）

(1980) Yellow Magic Orchestra -- Rydeen (雷電）

(1988) Yuki Saito & Takao Kisugi -- ORACION - Inori （ORACION -祈り-）

(1996) Koji Tamaki -- Den'en （田園）

I realize that this last one may not have anything directly to do with horses, but dang it, the rhythms here just remind me so much of taking a running ride on a steed through the countryside!