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 I've mentioned before, I'm like my five-year-old self lost in a department store (five minutes away from getting screamed at by Mom for not sticking by her side) when it comes to the many genres within electronic music. I have never heard of grime music before aside from the fact that it originated in London around a quarter of a century ago. For those who are also unacquainted with the genre, you can take a listen to the samples above.
But apparently, this musical collaboration between Yellow Magic Orchestsra's Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）and Japan's David Sylvian called "Bamboo Houses" is seen as a prototype for grime music, some twenty years before it was actually born. Released as a single in July 1982, it's been labeled on Wikipedia under electronic, avant-pop, New Wave, proto‑grime and synthpop. Within my personal limited knowledge, I can definitely go with the technopop and New Wave and I'm sure back when it was released, most kayo kyoku fans were probably remarking "Uh, yeah...that's the Professor going weird on us again!". Indeed, it is original. Even the cover with a pouty Sakamoto in dapper tie, shirt and suspenders...and eye shadow probably took people's breath away.
I'm not sure about the bamboo house, but strangely enough (and perhaps as of this writing, I'd eaten too many roasted peanuts), I kinda think the collage of sound in "Bamboo Houses" makes me feel as if I were stumbling through a crystalline forest of bamboo trees. But at the same time, it's oh-so-Sakamoto! Several months later, the Professor and Sylvian would work together again on "Forbidden Colours" whose variant song is known under a much more famous title.
Welcome to another Urban Contemporary Friday on "Kayo Kyoku Plus". I'm starting things a little differently today with an Author's Picks. I was inspired to do this one this way from actually viewing a segment on Wednesday's edition of NHK's "Asaichi"（あさイチ）morning infotainment program which focused on the Kawasaki Industrial Site.
I not only remember seeing this glittering otherworldly complex of lights and metal but for one night, I was actually within it! That night, due to a teacher falling ill, I was assigned to teach a lesson for a couple of the employees working within the complex and yep, it was pretty stunning especially when seeing it from the train. Entering the area felt like boarding the mother ship.
The Japanese tourism industry certainly didn't let the opportunity go. There are now tours on foot, bus and boat to take a look at the Kawasaki Industrial Site through selected spots. If you're interested, you can take a look at the relevant page at Japan Experience. Also, the above video is by YouTuber Hachimantai Outdoors.
The reason that I wanted to do this "Night Drive" is because seeing the Kawasaki Industrial Site from the air had me thinking of Kazumasa Oda's（小田和正）lovely ballad "Oh Yeah!". The official music video for Oda's 1991 song had couples enjoying each other's company but there were a couple of scenes in there showing some glorious eagle-view night shots of Tokyo which stayed with me.
Now, to be honest, this Author's Picks isn't something unprecedented. I've already noted "Oh Yeah!" in a 2014 article "J-Canuck's Nighttime Playlist". Plus in 2022, I whipped up "Driving to City Pop" with its cool songs. So, consider "Night Drive" to be the love child of the two articles and I will be choosing different tunes that still reflect in my opinion, the nighttime drive experience in Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, etc. (although of course, you may have your own choices). Furthermore, another inspiration for this one is the old "Night Ride"1980s late-night Toronto show that appeared almost every night in the wee hours on Global Television to relax those night owls.
There are times when music critics and regular listeners totally agree on how good one particular song is. Of course, there are many more times when views and opinions clash between them and even among the two groups. And then there are songs that seem to have critics coming out with their knives unsheathed almost immediately as if they were Starfleet reacting to a sudden Borg incursion.
Regular listeners end up looking rather bemused and stunned wondering what is up with all the hate. But apparently that was the case with "We Built This City" by Starship (and I'll have to take care of that as a ROY pretty soon...I actually like the song) and I have found out that it was also true with this week's subject of Reminiscings of Youth.
I am talking about "I Only Want to Be with You" which I had first thought was a one-and-only by Nicolette Larson released in July 1982. I used to hear this enjoyable rock-and-pop tune by the late Larson on radio all the time and though I didn't ravenously pursue the single, I always enjoyed hearing it on AM. Considering her other songs that have been highlighted on KKP, her take on "I Only Want to Be with You" was her having fun in a Linda Ronstadt way. And yet, reading the critique on Wikipedia, she was pretty much kicked into the end zone by a frustrated football player. And Larson wasn't the only one.
Several weeks ago, when I decided that I would feature "I Only Want to Be with You" under ROY, I discovered that the original version had been recorded by none other than Dusty Springfield back in 1963. Created by Mike Hawker and Ivor Raymonde, I actually like the old arrangement here with all of the hip-swinging it must have induced. Even for the original, a critic years later gave one of the all-time great backhanded compliments by referring to "I Only Want to Be with You" as a piece of lint but an entertaining enough piece of lint. Well, the lint reached No. 4 in the UK.
More than a decade later, the Bay City Rollers gave their own take on "I Only Want to Be with You" which was recorded right here in Toronto. Released in August 1976, this cover featured some powered-up strings. I couldn't find any punches hitting this one so maybe the band escaped. It did hit No. 3 in Canada and No. 12 in the United States.
Another big surprise landed on me on finding out that a 1979 take on the song had been recorded by the New Wave and rock band The Tourists. The Tourists included a couple of members, Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart who would later front the far more successful Eurythmics. Again, I've liked the basics about "I Only Want to Be with You" so I'm also a fan of this one especially with Lennox's vocals but once again, the knives were out (along with paint and tomatoes)...making the cover for the single look rather appropriate. Poor Annie looks shellshocked.
From Wikipedia
The second version that I'd ever heard of the song after Larson's cover was Samantha Fox's single from January 1989. I'd known about Fox through earlier songs and I'd heard that she was showing up in a lot of topless shots in UK newspapers. This form of the song was unsurprisingly 80s dance-pop. It reached No. 31 in the States while in Canada, it peaked at No. 29.
Wikipedia also mentions that many other covers in various languages including Japanese have been created...which goes to show that no matter the bricks and arrows aimed at a song, if it's catchy enough, it will remain deathless. Personally, I will always prefer Larson's version. And let us go with Larson's version when it comes to what was being released as singles in Japan in July 1982.
I've been to Hong Kong, Seoul and Taipei and all of them I enjoyed. Unfortunately, I never got the opportunity to visit Shanghai with all of its modern towers. Mind you, I did have Shanghai crab...or Chinese hairy crab...in Hong Kong when it was in season. Marvelous stuff that and I say this as a guy who usually isn't too crazy about eating crustaceans simply because I don't like having to eat my food as if I'm on a mining expedition.
Well, let us segue into Yuko Kawai's（河合夕子）"Shanghai Bojou Exotica" (Shanghai Yearning Exotica) which was a track on her March 1982 sophomore album "Fujiyama Paradise". With Kawai handling words and music and Masao Urino（売野雅勇）also having a go at the lyrics, it's quite the bouncy technopop exotic kayo of touring through the titular city in the People's Republic of China. It sounds like it can describe a fascinating and supremely cheerful exploration of the metropolis, old and new areas all included (although Kawai has apparently thrown in a lot of other cities into the lyrical mix).
A few years later, a cover of "Shanghai Bojou Exotica" was released as Itsumi Osawa's（大沢逸美）7th single in January 1985. Under the late Hiroshi Shinkawa's（新川博）arrangement, this version got a fair share of steroids including some snazzy horns. It's no longer an innocent stroll through Shanghai...it's more of a limousine tour on the main streets with the guests gallivanting from the roof. I can only imagine the ultimate destination is some expensive bar at the top of one of those Shanghai towers.
A few days ago, I posted a Higurashi（日暮し）song on the blog for the first time in a while titled "Odayakana Gogo"（おだやかな午後）. Then, I checked vocalist Naomi Sugimura's（杉村尚美）file on KKP and I realized that I hadn't put up anything from her solo career in about six years!
The last article that I had put up was her final single from June 1982, "Kaze no Naka no Melody"（風の中のメロディー）. A couple of months later, she released her third and final original album which had the same title. From there, I give you "Tasogare ni Last Scene" (Last Scene at Sunset). Written by Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）and composed by Tsunehiro Izumi（和泉常寛）, it's one of the more fleet-footed bossa nova tunes that I've ever heard. Sugimura also gives her usual lovely light touch in her vocals.
As I've mentioned in the past, I've sometimes used the 5th and final slot for my articles on Urban Contemporary Fridays to place something a little out of the ordinary. This time, I'm going with an Author's Picks devoted to songs that have some form of Friday or Saturday in the titles since we're going to transition from Friday into Saturday in a few hours, and not surprisingly, a lot of these songs are City Pop in nature. Friday night is the time in Japan to whip off the tie and go crazy at an izakaya or karaoke box while Saturday could be more of the same or maybe friends can meet up for brunch or coffee in the morning. One song actually doesn't haven't a Friday or Saturday in its title but I figure that "Pay Day" by EPO is close enough to a celebratory Friday to get an honorary nod. Anyways, have a good weekend everyone!
It was about a couple of months ago that I posted Mai Yamane's（山根麻衣）"Kibun wa Fairness"（気分はフェアネス）,her August 1982 5th single and a most congenial pop/rock song that was used as a commercial jingle for a Shiseido brand. As I said in that article, the song seemed to be a transitional one between her early City Pop material and her later jangly blues-rock stuff.
Well, today, I have the B-side from that single. "Doyou no Yoru to Nichiyou no Asa"(Saturday Night and Sunday Morning) was written and composed by Yamane, and this time around, it tends toward a more AOR line (although I'd been leaning toward New Wave in the first few measures initially), but is no less congenial. Although the titular days of the week aren't mentioned in the lyrics, Yamane relates a tale of a woman apparently smitten through a weekend encounter with a man of her dreams via a romantic car ride. Now, whether things pan out to her benefit is unknown but for right now, she's more than happy to keep the swooning up. I do love the combination of Fender Rhodes and guitar here.
When I was writing up the Author's Picks article for the works of lyricist Fumiko Okada（岡田富美子）a few years ago, I was able to find some more of her songs for other artists that I decided to save up for future entries. This is one of them.
Outside of the band Godiego（ゴダイゴ）, vocalist Yukihide Takekawa（タケカワユキヒデ）had his solo career which I've so far represented on KKP with his 1979 "Happiness"（ハピネス）. That song was used for a Suntory commercial. Well, "Doki Doki Summer Girl" (Hubba Hubba Summer Girl) was his 6th single from 1982 and it was also used for an ad for Kose Cosmetics back in the day. Written by Okada and composed by Takekawa with arranging help from his old bandmate Mickey Yoshino（ミッキー吉野）, it's the playful and twangy summery tune that has listeners thinking of beaches, beautiful girls in skimpy bikinis and billowing brews of beer.
There was an English-language version of "Doki Doki Summer", also performed by Takekawa but with the lyrics written by Will Williams. Also backing Takekawa up was the band TALIZMAN which had a brief fun between 1979 and 1983.
A little over a year ago, I put up "The First Day of Summer!", an Author's Picks consisting of all of those summery tunes with the explanation point being that all of the song titles contained the word "summer". Well, I figured that I would go for another similar posting but I've relaxed the rules slightly by also allowing the Japanese term for summer, "natsu". So, without further ado then, get into that hammock and pull up a citrus-y cocktail.
Over the past few years, it's become fairly regular for me to wait in hospitals and clinics while my folks and myself go through various medical procedures. And as such, I bring a book along to wile away the time. A few weeks ago, I brought the above tome called the April 2018 edition of "Record Collectors" which was focusing on the City Pop singles and albums from 1980 to 1989.
Well on Page 47, there was an article with the title "Cunimondo Takiguchi ga Erabu Shiteki Hachi-juu Nendai City Pop Best 10"（クニモンド瀧口が選ぶ私的80年代シティポップベスト10）which has been translated into the title on the above byline. Now, Takiguchi is the leader of the band Ryusenkei（流線形）, one of the groups that spearheaded a new version of City Pop going into the 21st century although he has gone on record to state that he doesn't particularly want that exact label applied to his work since City Pop is a musical phenomenon of past decades; he would prefer that his discography and those of other similarly-minded contemporary musicians be called urban contemporary. I respect his opinion but I also have my own on the reach of City Pop throughout the past few decades and I feel that City Pop never really died out even when the Bubble Era collapsed at the turn of the decade from the 80s into the 90s so I have continued to use the label to categorize songs by Ryusenkei, Kirinji（キリンジ）and Suchmos, etc.
But in any case, I have here Part 1 of his list of those City Pop albums from the 1980s that he has enjoyed starting from 1 to 5. The latter half of the selection will be posted next week. I have also included the comments that he stated in the article for each album. For the last couple of entries, I wasn't able to find a full album.
When I was a junior high school sophomore, one summer, my three buddies and I listened to "Futari" on the Walkman from the veranda of an Atami cottage while looking at the night sky. We were so moved as we each had a turn listening to it and the memory has lasted as a formative experience in City Pop for me.
For the wonderful keyboardist, Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）, who had his input on that Yamashita album, I took another look at his "Awakening" in my thirties and it became one of my most favourite albums. He once gave me an interview and though I was nervous, he was kind enough to give me two hours of his time which was a happy memory.
Going back from Matsushita's（松下誠）days with AB's, the original jacket from "First Light" struck me as something that was so cool. The refined chord progressions and arrangement along with Matsushita's not-overly-polished vocals were very comfortable to hear.
I got into "Coconuts High" through the soundtrack she provided to "Urusei Yatsura"（うる星やつら）, and those tropical songs contained the Latin rhythms and her light and cute vocals which harmonized just right with those muscular synths.
I fell in love with "Tasogare My Love"（たそがれマイ・ラブ） when I was in elementary school. I got to know her cool and groovy side when I listened to "Point Zero" in my twenties.
Jun Togawa（戸川純）is a singer whose works have popped up periodically on the blog over the years, beginning with KKP writer nikala's article on her "Yumemiru Yakusoku" (夢見る約束) and my own article on Togawa's "Zukei no Koi"（図形の恋）, both from the 1980s. My own impression of the singer was that she was an avant-garde post-punk/New Wave chanteuse who could be seen as a precursor to Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）.
Recently though, commenter YMOfan04 let me in on some information about Togawa. Before all of that post-punk and New Wave tour de force hit my eyes and ears for the first time, the Tokyo native had also been a member of the band Guernica which formed in 1981. Togawa formed it with keyboardist and composer Koji Ueno（上野耕路）and stage designer/costumer and lyricist Keiichi Ohta（太田螢一）. In this particular period of Japanese music culture when the Golden Age of Aidoru, 50s rock n' roll, technopop and City Pop were grabbing for their share of the popularity pie, Guernica was devoted in bringing the sounds of early 20th century kayo kyoku or ryukoka and military marches back to life. Incidentally, Guernica, which was also the title of Picasso's legendary anti-war painting from 1937, wasn't the first choice as a name for the trio; initially it had been Intonarumori which were musical instruments devised by an Italian futurist, but they changed their mind.
Guernica's first and only official single was "Ginrin wa Utau"(Singing of Silver Rings) which was released in December 1982. Backed by a full orchestra, Togawa was the vocalist here and the song sounded just like some of that beautiful music, as it was called a century ago, I heard on the old movies and television shows such as "The Little Rascals". Beautiful music were the melodies that were played at those fancy dance parties or soirees to contrast with the so-called "evil" music known as jazz back in the day. One can imagine Togawa being her melody moppet ancestor singing behind a huge NBC microphone on a New York soundstage, and I think that's where member Ohta brought some more of that yesteryear magic while dressing the others in the finery of the day. Quite the contrast with the type of music that Togawa would sing a few years later. Still, Guernica would release three albums up to the end of the 1980s.
I've had this one on the back burner for a while, so I thought it was time to bring it to the light. It's another obscure song and apparently for Toshiko Tamamushi（玉虫俊子）, this was her one-and-only single to ever come out. There are some sites that talk about the obscurity of "Ochibazaiku (Watashi wa Ima)"(The Craft of Fallen Leaves ~ Me as I am Now) from December 1982 but I couldn't find any information about who the singer was and where she came from.
And that's too bad since I think her vocals are pretty good. Written by Uichi Ohwada（大和田宇一）and composed by Tatsuya Ogino（荻野達也）, "Ochibazaiku" strikes me as being an old-fashioned kayo kyoku most likely about heartbreak (autumn is the perfect season for that when it comes to the Showa Era music) that sounds as if it had been made a decade earlier and it also has a bit of Gallic flavour infused. At the same time, the first several seconds of the song reminds me of Mizue Takada's（高田みづえ）"Ai no Imagination"(愛のイマジネーション）that came out the previous year. Tamamushi has been referred to as an enka aidoru or an enkadol but I really don't get that vibe through this one song. She was apparently just a young lady with that one tune to her name.
It was a few weeks ago when I was quietly thrilling over the fact that both Canada and Japan had made it out of the group stage of the World Cup and heading into the knockout rounds. Well, as it stands now, both nations did eventually get knocked out and in a few days, we get to watch Argentina and Spain duke it out in the final match.
I noted this when I was writing about the fusion band Early Byrds for the first time in late June. Had never heard of these guys before and there's not a lot of information on them aside from their relative time of duty and the number of albums released. But "Galaxy Special" with Kyoko Kimura's（木村恭子）vocal assistance was indeed something quite special and vacation-friendly which got my attention.
Speaking of their albums, there is their July 1982 work "Morning Reflexion" which comes across as quite clever in the naming. On it is the track "Step Emotion" (not sure what that title even means) which was created by Early Byrds member Hiroshi Nakanishi. No Kimura on this tropical fusion cocktail of a tune, but there's still plenty of scatting from male and female voices and it's still worthy of a margarita or two while listening to it.
I can actually say this for the first time since I returned to Canada from Japan for good back in late 2011. Today is feeling like torrid Tokyo summer weather. It is majorly like swimming in atmosphere outside. All I can say is that I'll be glugging down a lot of water and other refreshments today and probably tomorrow, too.
Back in the day, popular music had hit songs which inspired other singers to come up with so-called answer songs to essentially rebut the original songs' message. For example, Shogo Hamada's（浜田省吾）1980"Tokyo"（東京）can be seen to be the bleaker response to Kenji Sawadas's（沢田研二）all-is-wonderful "TOKIO" from the same year (you can listen to both songs on "Tokyo Songs").
One of the earliest Japanese pop songs that I ever heard since I realized that I was actually loving to hear them was Hiromi Go's（郷ひろみ）July 1982"Aishuu no Casablanca"（哀愁のカサブランカ）which was the cover of Bertie Higgins'"Casablanca". I only found out recently that aidoru Yu Hayami（早見優）had released an answer song to that Go song as her 3rd single from October that year. Titled "Answer Song wa Aishuu" (The Answer Song is Filled with Sorrow), it was created by a different set of songwriters: famed lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）, composer Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）and arranger Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）. And yet, there is a similarity with this and "Aishuu no Casablanca" in terms of the overall melody and there isn't really any rebuttal at all within Hayami's song. It's actually more like commiseration on the loss of love. The two tunes can get together at a bar and drink down their sorrows like buddies. In any case, Hayami's third single reached No. 38 on Oricon and was a track on her sophomore album "Image" from November 1982 which hit No. 15 on the album charts.
I don't watch French movies...although I did catch a few scenes of "Les Parapluies de Cherbourg" on television (warning: make sure you have the Kleenex next to you, especially in the last scene). As a rule of my imagination (and my apologies to all those fans of the Nouvelle Vague), I always envision old French movies with scenes like these: a man or woman sitting forlornly next to a window on a cold rainy day, letting their breath hit the pane with condensation. This lasts for two hours. FIN
Strangely enough, I've encountered this song titled "Mado" (Window) sung by Keiko Goto（後藤啓子）. In fact, this was her debut single from 1981 although it apparently was also a track on her 1980 album"Aimez-vous Sagan". I've posted about Goto once before for her 1981 song "Me wo Tojite"（目を閉じて）which was quite the bouncy City Pop tune.
"Mado" is probably more in tune with her days as a singer at Gin-Pari（銀巴里）in the 1970s, the famous chanson cafe in Ginza that I mentioned only a few days ago when I paid tribute to the recently departed Akihiro Miwa（美輪明宏）. I'm not sure if "Mado" would fall under the chanson category but it's still quite the spirited French waltz of a kayo kyoku as written and composed by Shigeru Inumaru（犬丸秀）*. Maybe I can give it the Fashion Music label. It certainly doesn't have Goto breathing sadly on a window pane for a couple of hours.
One interesting thing happened while I was searching how to read the lyricist/composer's name. I found out that "Mado" had gotten a cover version via aidoru Junko Sakurada's（桜田淳子）37th single from August 1982. If anything, it's even breezier and an accordion has been thrown into the arrangement, to boot, for that enhanced Gallic flavour.
*Not totally sure on the reading of the above name. If anyone can confirm or deny it, let me know.
Well, first off, I should recognize the fact that 80s aidoru and actress Kyoko Koizumi（小泉今日子）celebrated her 60th birthday earlier this year. Hopefully, her kanreki has gone well.
Less than a month ago, I featured Kyon-Kyon in techno dance mode through her 1989 song "Micro Wave"（マイクロWAVE）. Today, I'm heading back to her early days as an aidoru with her third single "Hitori Machikado"(Alone on the Corner) which was released in September 1982. I'd been accustomed to hearing Koizumi as this rather sassy-sounding teenybopper so hearing "Hitori Machikado", a song of being alone once again with only a seashell brooch as the final symbol of a former relationship, was interesting because the lass sounds less sass and more conventional high-falutin' aidoru.
Written by Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）and composed by Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）, I'm never going to turn down a disco beat in an aidoru tune and it's got those fleet-footed strings that occupied many of such a tune. "Hitori Machikado" peaked at No. 13 on Oricon. Another piece of trivia is that this single was Koizumi's first truly original song since the first two singles including her debut"Watashi no 16-sai"(私の16才）were actually cover songs of previously recorded tunes by other singers.
According to the J-Wiki article on the song, it picked up a number of awards including a Gold Prize at the Shinjuku Music Festival for that year. During the finale of that festival though, Koizumi was pelted with a raw egg which hit her on the head by some disgruntled person in the audience. Apparently, Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）, who had been the runner-up for the Gold, immediately came to her assistance.
Well, along with the bear incursions, the weather was becoming rather belligerent throughout Japan last week with some very intense rainstorms and hail coming down like meteorites in a sci-fi flick. Some of the footage looked as if a blizzard had suddenly blanketed entire regions.
And with that segue, I give you "Kanashimi no Blizzard"(Blizzard of Sorrow) which was the third single by 80s aidoru Hidemi Ishikawa（石川秀美）from October 1982. The setting is actually a hot summer seaside but young Hidemi's heart is filled with a raging snowstorm after suffering a major breakup with a guy. You can thank Kaoru Asagi（麻木かおる）for the lyrics.
I learned something interesting regarding Ishikawa's beginnings as an aidoru and perhaps this might have been true for many aidoru. Composer Yuuichiro Oda（小田裕一郎）was responsible for Ishikawa's first four singles including the No. 29-ranking"Kanashimi no Blizzard", and apparently, he got the first three done even before the lass made her debut in early 1982. In fact, there were discussions on which of the three would become Single No. 1: a song with a refreshing melody, one with a sentimental atmosphere and one more with a so-called London sound.
Well, the refreshing one "Yousei Jidai"（妖精時代...Fairy Age） became the debut single (I'll have to cover that one soon enough), the sentimental one "Yu-re-te Shonan"（ゆ・れ・て湘南）was the follow-up, and then that London sound ended up as "Kanashimi no Blizzard" (although Oda had preferred Single No. 3 as Single No. 1). I guess that London sound was represented by the (possibly synth) horns although first listening to the song, I would never have guessed it being influenced by swinging London. Overall though "Kanashimi no Blizzard" is quite the peppy and distinct tune with some quick key changes and though Ishikawa's delivery is very "aidoru", it's still quite the fun thing to listen to. In fact, I think it has a kissing cousin in the form of Ginji Ito's（伊藤銀次）"Cherry Night" even though that song wouldn't come out until 1986. By the way, Makoto Yano（矢野誠）provided the arrangement.
My Hump Day this week has been a little more eventful than usual. I was heading to check up on the snail mail when I encountered one of my elderly neighbors after he had apparently fallen down the short stairs and couldn't quite get up on his own. He was OK...just a little rattled but I got him back home to his wife.
Anyways, let's start the Wednesday edition of KKP off with something nice and jaunty from singer-songwriter Mai Yamane（山根麻衣）. This was her August 1982 5th single"Kibun wa Fairness" (I Feel Fairness) which slots in somewhere in between her earlier City Pop material such as "City Drive" from 1980 and then her rock music including her contributions to the anime "Cowboy Be-Bop". Written by Ririko Shimano（島野凛々子）and composed by Junichi Tagiri（田切純一）, it's a cordial pop/rock song about a woman who was heads-over-heels over some guy named J.B. (James Bond?) Before we get too metaphysical about the title, the song was used as a jingle for a Shiseido brand named Fairness.
Several years ago, I posted an article about the 1981 debut single, "Koi no Kirakira Dance"（恋のキラキラダンス） , by an obscure aidoru named Keiko Nishina（二科恵子）. As mentioned there, she only released four singles in 1981 and 1982.
Well, I found a succeeding single titled "Koi no Shocking Town" (Shocking Town of Love) sometime in 1982 (maybe Nishina loved her 恋). Written by Fumiko Okada（岡田富美子）and composed by Yuuichiro Oda（小田裕一郎）, compared to the more conventional "Koi no Kirakira Dance", "Koi no Shocking Town" infuses a bit of Doobie Bounce for a more AOR flavour. Meanwhile, the B-side which begins at 4:08 of the above video, "Umi no Ue no Restaurant"(The Restaurant on the Top of the Ocean) has that popular 50s or 60s girl pop arrangement. Dapper singer-songwriter Ryohei Yamanashi（山梨鐐平）provided words and music for that one.
I remember the Yellow Magic Orchestra single "Taiso"（体操）with its upbeat melody and its message of up-and-at-'em just to rouse up the kids for the morning exercise session. The music video made me wonder how much in the way of stimulants and the like were pumped into its production, though.
There's a bit of lyrical psychedelia as well in the B-side for "Taiso", although the more dramatic "Tegakari"(Key) didn't get its own video which is too bad in a way. Haruomi Hosono's（細野晴臣）words seem to describe a depressed fellow who's ended up in a one-person video adventure game that could also serve as a mindscape aching to be analyzed by a psychiatrist for their thesis. Hosono and YMO drummer and vocalist Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）came up with the urgent pounding melody that could make that fellow build up quite a sweat as he's running up and down those hills in the gamescape.
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