Akiko Nakamura -- Niji Iro no Mizuumi（虹色の湖）

 

The last time that I wrote about singer Akiko Nakamura（中村晃子）, it was for her 6th single "Taiyo ni Koi wo Shite"（太陽に恋をして）from May 1967, so this time, I'd like to introduce her 7th 45" release which came out later in October that year, "Niji Iro no Mizuumi" (Rainbow Lake).

With a cool intro consisting of snappy percussion and a bass, Nakamura sings about neglecting someone dear in her old hometown when she flew off to the big city, only to find out that he himself has gone elsewhere much to her eternal sadness. Created by the same tandem behind "Taiyo ni Koi wo Shite", lyricist Hiroshi Yokoi（横井弘）and composer Hirooki Ogawa（小川寛興）, the setting of the romantic hard lesson learned may have been out in the regional areas, but the sound feels very urban. In fact, "Niji Iro no Mizuumi" has been considered to be a solo Group Sounds effort.

Reaching No. 3 on the very young Oricon charts, the single would eventually become the 23rd-ranked single for 1968, selling around 800,000 records. Nakamura not only got invited to perform on NHK's annual New Year's Eve special Kohaku Utagassen for 1968 but she was also able to sing it in a movie that was released earlier in March of that year titled "Susume! Jaguars Kizen Jouriku"（進め!ジャガーズ 敵前上陸...Go Jaguars! Landing in the Face of the Enemy）. The flick actually starred Group Sounds band The Jaguars（ザ・ジャガーズ）but I gather that the producers wanted to kill two birds with one stone so they also put Nakamura in a major role, being able to put some more exposure on what was her first big hit in music with backup by the GS band themselves. The arrangement is indeed a bit more Watusi-able.

Akiko Nakamura -- Taiyo ni Koi wo Shite（太陽に恋をして）

 

From jp.mercari.com

The very first article that I did on singer-actress Akiko Nakamura（中村晃子）was for her 1981 single "Sasayaki no Kubikazari" （ささやきの首飾り...Whispering Necklace） all the way back in January 2013, almost a year following the premiere of this blog. It also happens to be the very first Nakamura song that I ever heard through an old tape of various kayo singers and I fell for it due to the very dramatic Mood Kayo imbued into his melody. The only problem is that after a brief appearance of the song on YouTube, it disappeared from view, perhaps permanently, much to my disappointment. 

As of this writing, no sign of it has yet to reappear on YouTube or elsewhere, even through any excerpts on iTunes. So until I decided to write up this new article on Nakamura, I'd kept the original article on "Sasayaki no Kubikazari" back in Inactive status for years but I've opted to bring it back out into the light as it were, still without any video. I figure that at least you can read about how I first found out about her; after all, that has been the mission statement of "Kayo Kyoku Plus".

As I said above, "Sasayaki no Kubikazari" is a single from the 1980s so why not go back to her early days from the mid-1960s. Her 6th single "Taiyo ni Koi wo Shite" (Fall In Love With The Sun) is a pretty bouncy kayo with a heavy rhythm section and sharp Mexican horns. She was only in her early 20s at the time so her voice sounds much lighter compared to the whiskey-and-cigarettes vocals that she would later bring to "Sasayaki no Kubikazari". Written by Hiroshi Yokoi（横井弘）and composed by Hirooki Ogawa（小川寛興）, I'd probably think that it was used for one of Nakamura's films (her acting career began years before her singing) but I couldn't confirm this.

For that original article, I didn't give any real biography on Nakamura but she was born in Narashino City, Chiba Prefecture in 1945. During her high school years in the early 60s, she was a finalist in the Miss Air France contest which led to her being scouted by Shochiku Ofuna Film Studios and then making her film debut. One surprising piece of trivia that came from J-Wiki was that she had voiced the title character in Filmation's "Sabrina The Teenage Witch" when it came to Japan as a dubbed import cartoon in the 1970s. That could indeed be Nakamura singing the theme song below.

Harumi Inoue's works

Source: http://m.iphotoscrap.com/Image/998/1222483134.jpg

It’s been a while since I last discovered one of these gravure aidoru turned singers from the early 90s. It’s no mystery that this has always been one of my favorite Japanese music niches, mostly because of how bad and really “in your face” it actually is. In fact, most of these artists were not even mainstream at all, being relegated to some shady variety TV shows that only wanted to show the girls in bikinis, but whatever. Really, it reminds me of how TV was decadent in Brazil during the 90s, but no complaining here.

Apparently, Harumi Inoue (井上晴美) was one member of a Onyanko Club-styled (おニャン子クラブ) larger group called Sakurakko Club Sakuragumi (桜っ子クラブさくら組). I’ve read this name a few times, but never listened to the group’s music, which is fine for me, since I’m not in a hurry to meet all B-rated aidoru groups from Japan’s past decades. And as I’m talking about B-rated aidoru, just to contextualize, I discovered Inoue’s songs after searching for some Aya Sugimoto’s (杉本彩) live performances on YouTube. So, nobody's more suited than the raunchy Sugimoto to pave my way for the awkwardly sexy Inoue.

Harumi Inoue only released two singles, in May and October 1991, respectively. The first was “Furimukanaide” (ふりむかないで), one very well known The Peanuts’ (ザ・ピーナッツ) song from the 60s, with a cover of Hibari Misora’s (美空ひばり) “Makkana Taiyou” (真赤な太陽) serving as the coupling song. As for the second single, it’s “Eve no Yuuwaku” (イヴの誘惑), a dance version of Beethoven’s “Für Elise”, which counted with a cover of Akiko Nakamura’s (中村晃子) “Nijiiro no Mizuumi” (虹色の湖) as the coupling song. In fact, with the obvious exception of Beethoven’s “Für Elise”, all of Inoue’s songs were covers from 60s hit singles.

Honestly, I don’t really care for “Furimukanaide” at all, and Inoue’s version does nothing to make the song stand out from the other million versions out there. Yes, this song is always pleasant, but it was probably meant to be a cute and safe debut song before launching Inoue’s brief music career into something sexier and cring… sorry, more interesting.

And with the b-side “Makkana Taiyou” things start to pick up, since Misora’s 60s hit is turned into a sexy funky house song with some slicky synths. Also, the clip is a must, since the seductive Inoue does everything to turn our attention away from the very low budget video. It’s almost as if we were watching one of those infamous image video, but with actual music (and not just some easy listening melodies) serving just as background noise. Well, it’s clear how Inoue’s looks were the true intended product here, but I like the cheesy music as well. I can groove in my chair and tap my feet to it.

Things are not very different in “Eve no Yuuwaku”... but maybe a little worse and less polished (which counts as better and more interesting to me, of course). If it wasn’t obvious enough how bad of a singer Inoue was (and dancer too, it that counts), this bizarre dance version of Beethoven’s “Für Elise” is here to scrub this fact in our faces. It continues in the sexy route and Beethoven would probably be a little bit upset – to say the least – at how one of his famous works turned into a piece of regurgitated pop in our times… or maybe he would be positively hypnotised by Inoue’s captivating persona (really?) and the strangeness of the whole thing. Who knows, right? 

To finish Inoue’s adventure in the music industry as a solo act, we still have the delicious “Nijiiro no Mizuumi” with its urgent synth-y arrangement that maybe could pass as a Tetsuya Komuro (小室哲哉) production for Alisa Mizuki (観月ありさ) or Yuki Uchida (内田有紀), or even a Minako Tanaka (田中美奈子) song from her early studio albums. I also like how Inoue is dressed in this video, just like the almighty Reiko Kato (かとうれいこ) did for her video promotions one year earlier. The fashion style of those gravure aidoru turned singers was really something at the time. And the male dancers around Inoue??? Well, I really love how bad they are. Not that I'm a better dancer, but I don't show up on some random aidoru videos. Shame on them, but it's really funny to see.

I can’t tell if I will still be fascinated by Harumi Inoue’s music in the near future, but I'm still having fun with her cute crooked smile and cheap early 90s dance-pop tunes. Long live the obscure late 80s/early 90s aidoru!

"Furimukanaide" (left) and "Eve no Yuuwaku" (right)

Source: http://lovephoenix.typepad.jp/photos/cd_single/photo_5.html

Akiko Nakamura -- Sasayaki no Kubikazari （ささやきの首飾り）

From jp.mercari.com

From my trip to Japan in 1981, I brought home an audio tape of Yellow Magic Orchestra's very first album (already profiled), but my relatives in Osaka were also kind enough to give me a gift in the form of another tape of general kayo kyoku for my parents. On it were a few Yujiro Ishihara（石原裕次郎） songs such as "Brandy Glass" and a couple of hits by Mizue Takada（高田みづえ）.....all three of those have been profiled. To be honest, I listened to that tape as much as I did to the YMO tape.

One of the other songs that I got attracted to was this one by Akiko Nakamura（中村晃子）, "Sasayaki no Kubikazari"(Whispering Necklace). She debuted in 1965 at the age of 17, and from listening to some of her earlier tunes such as "Niji Iro no Mizuumi"（虹色の湖...Rainbow-Coloured Lake) and "Garasu no Shiro"（ガラスの城....Glass Castle）, she performed a lot of shimmy-shammy uptempo stuff kinda along the lines of Linda Yamamoto（山本リンダ）.

However, this song, released in January 1981, is a heart-on-your-sleeve dramatic ballad of the Mood Kayo variety...something to listen to while you're drowning your sorrows in drink at that bar. Written by director/screenwriter Yoichiro Fukuda（福田陽一郎） and composed by Takashi Miki（三木たかし） (who had created melodies for singers as varied as Sayuri Ishikawa and Yoshie Kashiwabara), "Sasayaki" reminds me a bit of that old chestnut "Those Were The Days" from the late 60s in that it has that "la la la" type of European singalong-friendly melody. At the time, I hadn't realized that I could be so into something this sentimental, especially in the New Wave 1980s, but of course that year was one of so many revelations in kayo kyoku. I ended up listening to this song a lot for some months, especially at night. And I like to think that although this is the only Nakamura song that I know well, it was one of the stepping stones for my 30-year trek into this genre.

And for those who have forgotten the song or who have never heard of it, here is Mary Hopkin with "Those Were The Days".

courtesy of Christian Kaiser
from Flickr