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.
Last Friday, when I put up Iruka's（イルカ）"NYC wa Toosugite"（NYCは遠すぎて）, I realized that there have been a number of New York-themed tunes posted up here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" over the years. And since we have those "America" tunes that I posted as an Author's Picks back in 2023, why not become even more localized and go straight to the Big Apple? A couple of them on that list ("Kennedy Airport" and "Purpletown") could comfortably belong on this list but since they're already up there, it wasn't too difficult to find two more. But without further ado, here are my five New York tunes.
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?
Since going into the 21st century, NHK's Kohaku Utagassen has undergone a number of key changes in its format, but one thing that has been retained is everyone's singing of "Auld Lang Syne" or as it is known in Japanese, "Hotaru no Hikari" (蛍の光）. The orchestra goes into its rendition at the end of the broadcast with a brief glimpse of the man who's conducting them. In the past, that has been singerIchiro Fujiyama（藤山一郎）and singer-songwriterMasaaki Hirao（平尾昌晃）. For the past several years, though, it's been singer-songwriter Shunichi Tokura.
Well, since it's been several months since I've written up a Creator article (the last one was for Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロー）back last August), I've decided to whip one up tonight for one of the more prolific songwriters. Tokura has come up with some of the biggest hits in the late kayo kyoku period including those for some of the most famous aidoru of the 1970s: Pink Lady and Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）.
Born in Tokyo in June 1948, Tokura got into music pretty early in life by picking up the violin at the age of 4. His father was a diplomat so for several years, their family was living in West Germany where he started studying the basics of music. Returning to Japan at the age of 12, some of his junior high school classmates included future officials in government and business. He then returned to Germany for high school (where he joined a band called The Beat Cats) before making his way back to his home country.
During his sophomore year in university, Tokura became the vocalist for the folk group The Panic Men which came out with a 1968 single called "Omoide no Komichi"（思い出の小径...Path of Memories）. This was also the time when he took up his future career as a composer and one of his first creations was Chinatsu Nakayama's（中山千夏）"Anata no Kokoro ni" (あなたの心に) in 1969.
A few years later in 1971, Tokura would compose "Tenshi ni Narenai"（天使になれない...Can't Be An Angel） with lyrics by Yu Aku（阿久悠）, a heartfelt 8th single for Akiko Wada（和田アキ子）that became her first Top 10 hit, coming in at No. 8. It was also Wada's ticket for her 2nd appearance on the Kohaku Utagassen that year.
Tokura currently has 60 articles, not including this one but including one which shows his own solo song "I'm Just a Man". I was pretty surprised and happy to get his name on the byline as a performer. But let's show some of the ones that he has composed for other big-time acts. Along with other composers such as Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, there is a bit of a "He made that one?!" buzz around Tokura.
Along with his many accolades over the decades, he was the JASRAC chairman and currently Tokura is the Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs. Not bad for a guy who once whipped up a melody about an alien-human love affair.
Singer-actress Akiko Wada（和田アキ子）has been in the entertainment limelight for over 50 years and considering her height (5'9" which was considered to be very tall and rare for a Japanese woman back in those days) and her very straightforward manner of speaking, she's most likely been one of the more intimidating celebrities all these decades. Therefore, I'm not all that surprised that her first starring role in a movie was that of a gang leader in "Onna Bancho: Noraneko Rock"（女番長 野良猫ロック...Stray Cat Rock: Delinquent Girl Boss） which hit theatres in May 1970. The above is a scene from the movie where she is singing in English.
"Otoko to Onna no Rock" (Rock for Men and Women) was used as an insert song for "Onna Bancho: Noraneko Rock", and it's a pretty laidback bluesy number backed up by an orchestra with Wada singing about the state of men and women and their relationships.
That song was actually the B-side to Wada's 5th single"Sasurai no Blues" (Those Wandering Blues) which was released in July 1970. With that lonesome trumpet and the jingle-jangle rhythm, I'd almost say that "Sasurai no Blues" hits me like a cowboy tune and at points, there is something approaching enka. Lyricist Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）and composer Kunihiko Suzuki（鈴木邦彦）were responsible for both songs.
"Sasurai no Blues" was the follow-up to one of Wada's most famous songs "Waratte Yurushite"（笑って許して）which was released earlier in March that year. And though it did only half the sales that "Waratte Yurushite" had done, I don't think 110,000 records sold is anything to laugh at, and according to J-Wiki, "Sasurai no Blues" hung around for a long time on the charts, peaking at No. 28.
When I first heard Akiko Wada's（和田アキ子）"Funanori-tachi ga Atsumaru Mise" a while back, I'd thought that the translation of the title would be along the lines of "The Store Where the Ship Passengers Meet" which struck me as a bit odd. Considering how groovy and urbane the song was, I felt that a souvenir shop for folks on a cruise seemed a bit ordinary. But then, I realized that the word funanori meant sailors and knowing that the source album was Wada's 1978 New York-set City Pop album"Park Avenue 7 PM", my mind automatically went to the conclusion that the singer and songwriters were referring to the annual Fleet Week in the Big Apple.
But I was wrong again. The tradition of American naval ships coming into New York City to give tours while their crew members can explore the metropolis themselves didn't officially begin until 1982, four years after "Funanori-tachi ga Atsumaru Mise"(The Store Where the Sailors Meet) and the rest of "Park Avenue 7 PM" hit the record shelves.
So I'm left wondering what the inspiration behind the song was. Maybe the songwriters had seen a ship docked at New York Passenger Ship Terminal (now known as the Manhattan Cruise Terminal) before the tradition began and noted a lot of sailors amassed around a particular establishment...maybe a bar. In any case, those songwriters were lyricist Reiko Imamura（いまむられいこ）and composer Tomoko Hakata*（八角朋子）. The intro to the song had me thinking Fashion Music with those dramatic strings but then it quickly settled down to some nice and groovy 1970s City Pop with Wada affecting that slightly world-weary tone in her vocals reminding me of fellow singer Naoko Ken（研ナオコ）.
I would like to know who the musicians were behind "Funanori-tachi ga Atsumaru Mise" (including that bluesy guitarist and the funky keyboardist) since they were really getting into a nice mellow jam. I've already written about a couple of tracks on "Park Avenue 7 PM" including the title track last year so this is definitely firming up as a good album to grab if it's still out there for sale.
*The composer's family name has many readings and since I wasn't able to track down the confirmed reading, I just went with the first one that I saw on Jisho.org. If anyone can tell me what the proper pronunciation is, I would be most grateful.
Happy Monday! One of the defining characteristics for veteran singer/actor/TV personality Akiko Wada（和田アキ子）has been that really short haircut that she's been having for decades. It's so much the case that any record cover or video footage featuring her in any longer hair is automatically from way back in the early 70s and beyond.
Case in point: her 12th single from June 1972, "Natsu no Yoru no Samba"(Summer Night Samba). Seeing her in that hairdo on the cover is absolutely precious. Written by Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composed by Koichi Morita（森田公一）, the same duo behind her previous single and far more recognized song "Ano Kane wo Narasu no wa Anata"（あの鐘を鳴らすのはあなた）, "Natsu no Yoru no Samba" is still a snazzy number although aside from some of the samba effects in the intro and outro and here and there, it's still more of a nocturnal downtown kayo kyoku.
Hey, summer is just a few days away. I'm sure in Japan, things are already starting to bake and the workers are hitting the rooftop beer gardens. It can't be that comfy in the heat and humidity but the beer must help.🍺🍻
Well, I noticed that the previous article was No. 9699 so I figure that I ought to finish off tonight's slate of articles with No. 9700.
And I've got an oldie-but-a-goodie by veteran singer-TV personality Akiko Wada（和田アキ子）. I remember hearing "Waratte Yurushite" (Forgive Me with a Smile) on various shows but it was good to be reminded of it once more. This was actually Wada's 4th single from March 1970 when she was just a month shy of her 20th birthday.
Written by the legendary Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composed by Ryochi Wada（和田良知）...no relation to the singer...under the pseudonym Takekuni Haneda*（羽根田武邦）with arrangement by Shunichi Makaino（馬飼野俊一）, the memorable parts of "Waratte Yurushite" are the coquettish way that Wada sings the title and that persistently tinkling piano (reminds me a bit of the "Perry Mason" theme). It's a brassy kayo about a woman who's in her innocent "little ol' me" mode as she asks for forgiveness for some sort of romantic malfeasance.
"Waratte Yurushite" just missed out on the Top 10 by placing in at No. 11 on Oricon. The song sold 200,000 records and won the Best Arranger prize at the Japan Record Awards that year. Even more importantly, Wada was invited at the end of the year to NHK's Kohaku Utagassen for the very first time to sing this song, something that she would do again in 1973 and then in 2010 and 2015. The singer came onto the New Year's Eve special a total of 39 times with the 2015 edition being her final appearance to date.
*Not totally sure about the pronunciation of that pseudonym.
It's been over twenty years since I last set foot in The Big Apple. I was in New York City twice, the first time in 1993 and then I was there in 2001. Even as someone from the largest city in Canada, it's still an eye-opening experience walking through the streets of Manhattan and Brooklyn. I definitely remember walking along Madison Avenue and Fifth Avenue but I'm not 100% certain whether I did traipse along the famous Park Avenue. At this point, my only touchstones with one of the most expensive streets on the planet are through the game Monopoly and, being the "Kayo Kyoku Plus" writer, EPO's "Park Ave. 1981".
Well, I've gained another touchstone with the avenue and it was through writing B.B. Queens'"Yume no End wa Itsumo Mezamashi!"（夢のENDはいつも目覚まし!）. Veteran songwriter and producer Daiko Nagato（長戸大幸）provided the lyrics for that happy-go-lucky tune but I saw this song on the right side of YouTube while I was listening to B.B. Queens and discovered that this was given the melody by Nagato. Considering that I've known Nagato mostly for his 90s happy rock and pop stuff, this was indeed a discovery.
This is the urbane City Pop of "Park Avenue 7 PM", a track on Akiko Wada's（和田アキ子）1978 album of the same name, and I have already written about one other song on the album, "Sayonara wo Iwanaide"（さよならを言わないで）which actually follows the title track. Indeed, "Park Avenue 7 PM"might be another one of those City Pop treasures that not many of the genre's fans know about for now. With lyrics by Sachiko Murata（村田さち子）, it's a silky and sophisticated Mancini-esque arrangement which would befit a walk down the actual Park Avenue with a Holly Golightly sighting. Wada, who I now believe can pretty much anything in the pop genre from City Pop to synthpop, sings this in an atypically subdued and tender tone.
It's just a few weeks away from Akiko Wada's（和田アキ子）birthday and it's been a long career for her since starting out with her first single in 1968.
Wada is still seen as one of the interpreters of Japanese-style blues, and I think "Tasogare ni Encore"(Encore at Sunset) is a good fit with that arrangement of gospel blues. The video is also a touching one as the life of a couple is played out through the good and bad times, but in the end, it all works out as their elderly versions have a swing together.
This track was part of a mini-album that was put out in December 2021, "WADASOUL2", and "Tasogare ni Encore" was written by Gota Nishidera（西寺郷太）of Nona Reeves and composed/produced by Yu Sakai（さかいゆう）. "WADASOUL2" also has the previous Wada song that I wrote about last year, the very different "YONA YONA DANCE".
Let's see...there was that whole thing with Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）and "Plastic Love" via the YouTube algorithm in 2018, I think. Then, just at the end of last year, Miki Matsubara（松原みき）and "Mayonaka no Door"（真夜中のドアー）became a thing thanks to Tik Tok. What Japanese music sensation could be hitting us right now between the eyes and ears?
Well, commenter Justin tipped me off a few days ago about this collaboration between veteran entertainer Akiko Wada（和田アキ子）and the rock band Frederic（フレデリック）which has culminated in the former's very first digital download single last month called "YONA YONA DANCE" (Night Night Dance). Frederic's bassist, Koji Mihara（三原康司）, who has a knack for those catchy beats, came up with the words and music for this fast-paced synthpop with a hint of old funk. My kudos to Yasutatsu（ヤスタツ）as well for creating the video. If you can see the English translation above, you can see that "YONA YONA DANCE" is all about tripping the light fantastic on the dance floor.
Justin also informed me that since the debut of the single and probably the original video, things have gotten rather lively about "YONA YONA DANCE" on both YouTube and Tik Tok with folks trying to emulate the dance on screen. Not sure yet whether it has achieved meme status, so we'll need to stay tuned.
There have also been variations on Yasutatsu's video including this one with a couple of characters from this popular anime. Looks like Jojo has gone YONA YONA.
Of course, I can't finish this article without having the Queen of J-R&B herself do the YONA YONA dance, and apparently she did with a fellow TV personality on her own variety show. If "YONA YONA DANCE" does go really big by the end of the year, then it's always possible that she might come back onto NHK's Kohaku Utagassen (that is, if she wants to). It's been several years since she's been on the special in which she had once been seen as practically a regular member.
Also for some encouragement from me...in the same way that Mariya is not just "Plastic Love" alone or Miki is not just "Stay With Me" alone, have a look at Wada's discography. She's been around for more than half a century and one of her trademark tunes is "Ano Kane wo Narasu no wa Anata" （あの鐘を鳴らすのはあなた）.
Entertainer Akiko Wada（和田アキ子）has been a singer, TV personality, emcee, comedienne and actress for decades but for me, when it comes down to it, I always think of her as that first aspect, as a singer, specifically under that title of The Queen of Japanese Rhythm and Blues. Although she hasn't really sung anything new in the past couple of years at least, any appearances on NHK's Kohaku Utagassen for example will have her belting out her brassy hits of yesteryear such as "Ano Kane wo Narasu no wa Anata"（あの鐘を鳴らすのはあなた）.
So I was rather surprised to find out while doing the blog over the past several years that Wada has actually been one of the handful of veteran singers who have also plied their vocal cords toward City Pop. But perhaps I shouldn't really be that shocked by the revelation since R&B is also one of the engines for this style. In any case, the one example that I discovered was her "Datte Sho ga Nai Janai"（だってしょうがないじゃない）from 1988, a smooth and sophisticated urban contemporary tune which possesses those caviar-and-champagne synths I've often referred to when talking about such tunes from that time period.
However, lo and behold, it looks like Wada had dipped into the City Pop well long before "Datte Sho ga Nai Janai". Back in 1978, she released an album called "Park Avenue 7 pm". Just from that title, it sounds quite City Pop, and indeed I found this track with the dramatic name of "Sayonara wo Iwanaide"(Don't Say Goodbye). Also as that album title intimates, the setting is indeed New York City and it's a Big Apple making its transition from autumn to winter according to one Japanese-language blog.
As much as "Datte Sho ga Nai Janai" is a representative of the City Pop of its time, "Sayonara wo Iwanaide" holds its own banner of the City Pop of the mid-to-late 1970s with that alternately silky-smooth and brassy arrangement of how the Japanese could have felt about what life was like in New York back then. There is that amazing jazz saxophone playing somewhere in Manhattan perhaps, but at the same time, there are those shimmering strings that remind me of Keiko Maruyama's（丸山圭子）"Douzo Kono Mama" (どうぞこのまま）, another 1970s example of City Pop, although more in the bossa nova vein, as it reflects some of that romantic Mancini magic.
Along with that sax, I can also hear the delicate piano and the bluesy guitar so I figure that must have been quite the trio backing up Wada. The singer herself seems to have a slightly echoing and perhaps an even more tentative delivery in comparison with her more reassured singing of "Datte Sho ga Nai Janai" a decade later. Perhaps "Park Avenue 7 pm" was indeed her first foray into something like jazz balladry or pure City Pop which might explain some of that uncertainty but on repeated listenings to the song, I can also pick up some appealing smokiness in her voice, too.
It's a pity then that, try as I might, I couldn't track down who were on the instruments, but after some searching through the JASRAC database, I was able to find out who had crafted "Sayonara wo Iwanaide". Reiko Iwamura（いまむられいこ）was behind the lyrics while Tomoko Hakata（八角朋子）took care of the music. That last name of the composer is a guess since Jisho.org has provided a number of readings for the kanji and the Yahoo search engine couldn't help me out this time.
Regardless, I will have to see whether I can find more tracks from "Park Avenue 7 pm". The jazzier and more romantic side of early City Pop is another side that I appreciate.
It's the end of April here but in Japan as of now, it's the beginning of a new era: Reiwa（令和）. Mind you, I was disappointed with TV Japan and its broadcast of all of the hoopla surrounding the abdication of Emperor Akihito and the accession of Emperor Naruhito since it didn't bother with live NHK footage of the change at midnight (11 am here) but went with the several hours of preamble programming on the national network. I saw the YouTube livestream of Shibuya and saw a whole bunch of umbrellas over the people so the weather was unfortunately not too good for a celebration.
Well, it may be Reiwa but I will introduce the first "Kayo Kyoku Plus" article of this new era as one for a Showa（昭和）song. The husky-voiced Akiko Wada（和田アキ子）has been one of the mainstay pillars in Japanese show business for decades as a TV personality as well as a singer, but I have to admit that I had never known about this particular song by her.
It's a very early single, her third to be exact, and it's titled "Sono Toki Watashi ni Nani ga Okitta no?"(What Happened to Me Back Then?). Released in October 1969, Wada was only 19 years old and exactly one year into her singing career when she came up with this whimsy-laden but punchy song about getting that wanderlust to go with a handsome guy and flee from her sleepy hometown. It's definitely Wada but considering her youth back then, her voice really does sound like her as a teenager. The singer was called the Queen of Japanese-style R&B but although I don't think this song is particularly R&B, it still has some of that hip-swiveling swagger in its arrangement, in my opinion.
"Sono Toki Watashi ni Nani ga Okitta no?" was written by the legendary Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composed by Fusae Taguchi（田口ふさえ）. It did rather modestly on the charts, only getting as high as No. 52. The song was also placed on Wada's 3rd album"Sotsugyo sasete yo"（卒業させてよ...Let Me Graduate）which came out in 1971.
Having watched Japanese comedy over the years, I've known and enjoyed acts such as The Drifters（ザ・ドリフターズ）, Tunnels（とんねるず）and Kuniko Yamada（山田邦子）. Ironically, though, I never got to know Kin'ichi Hagimoto（萩本欽一）quite as well although he seems to occupy the status of a grand marshal of variety shows and comedy. I recollect that I did catch a few episodes of his long-running show "Kin Don!"（欽ドン!）which also featured 3 comics who would become Imo Kin Trio（イモ欽トリオ）and spawn a novelty technopop hit "High School Lullaby".
Being such a famous figure on Japanese TV, Hagimoto had a lot of programs on the air over many decades, and on one of them, there was a recurring skit which featured a soba shop and its sassy proprietress, Tami-chan, played by former aidoru Tamiko Nosaki（野咲たみこ）. Apparently, the skit was so successful that it either got spun off or the TV Asahi show itself was refitted to become "Tami-chan"（たみちゃん）. The show had a weekly run on Tuesday nights for the better part of a year from June 1984 to March 1985.
Now, the reason that I mention all this is that the ending theme "Kimi ga No ni Saku Bara nara"(If You are the Rose that Blooms in the Field) is sung by Akiko Wada（和田アキ子）. And for those who know the veteran singer/actress/tarento, she's known for singing a lot of soulful numbers with that boomer voice of hers. With "Kimi ga No ni Saku Bara nara", though, her delivery is as congenial and soft as lamb wool. And color me nostalgic, but I certainly don't hear ballads as countryside warming as this one anymore. Plus, I am a sucker for those shimmering strings. Toyohisa Araki and Takashi Taka（荒木とよひさ・三木たかし）took care of words and music respectively for her 42nd single from September 1984.
Since I've gotten into that nostalgic "Ponkikies"（ポンキッキーズ）mood thanks to writing about "Kimi to Boku"（キミとボク）in the last several minutes, I found another catchy song from the Fuji-TV kids' show. The songs used for the program were not only used in the music segments but also for the intros and outros. One particular song that resonated with me at the end of an episode was "Saa Boken da" (Hey, It's An Adventure) since the video involved scenes from the 1902 French movie "A Trip to the Moon".
This was sung by veteran soul singer Akiko Wada（和田アキ子）as her 59th single from September 1995. At first, I hadn't been able to recognize that it was the relatively tall and tough Wada since she approached it vocally with a lighter touch, and certainly it was a different sort of melody for her. In fact, I was downright impressed by the names involved in the making of "Saa Boken da". Chisato Moritaka（森高千里）and Shigesato Itoi（糸井重里）wrote the lyrics while Tatsuya Ishii（石井竜也）of Kome Kome Club（米米CLUB）took care of the music with the band arranging the whole thing.
"Saa Boken da" has that fun and carefree spirit of a road trip whether by car or motorcycle, and it looks like it was filtered through The Beatles with that harmonica in there. However, that melody also seems to be following a pattern similar to that old musical song "Ol' Man River". And just like that standard, "Saa Boken da" keeps rolling along to the next destination.
I remember when I first saw Ken Yokoyama（横山剣）of the Crazy Ken Band(クレイジーケンバンド) on TV years ago. With that louche and thuggish appearance, in retrospect, I thought he was the epitome of a choiwaru oyaji (ちょいわるおやじ) which would translate as "slightly nasty middle-aged guy". This was a brief fashion phenomenon created by the Japanese men's magazine, LEON, to describe the usually staid and sober-suited guys from their forties dressed up in a cool set of sunglasses, open shirts and pastel suits...and often attached to a swirling goblet of brandy. There were segments on various variety shows on Japanese TV where the fashion experts would take ordinary guys or senior male tarento and transform them into these middle-aged "don't f*** with me" goodfellas.
However, I did qualify my above paragraph with "in retrospect" since I think the phenomenon started in the mid-2000s whereas the first time I saw Ken Yokoyama was a few years previously. Perhaps, he was the inspiration for LEON. Who knows? In any case, it was obviously not just about the looks with Crazy Ken Band. Yokoyama had also created quite the cool song back in December 2002 titled "Tiger and Dragon".
This was the 5th single of a band that has dipped into all sorts of genres since it got started in 1997. According to their J-Wiki entry, Crazy Ken Band has been into rock, pops, kayo kyoku, soul, jazz, funk, etc. with Ken and his 10 bandmates. And I think "Tiger and Dragon" is one of those songs that could fit into all of the categories I've just listed above. The official (and nifty) music video above also illustrates it, but the cool sound of "Tiger and Dragon" has that feeling of the urban 1970s.
From what I gather from Ken's lyrics is that he is begging, as that fellow from the wrong side of the tracks, his lover to give him those 5 essential minutes to explain himself and make things right. Whether he can right himself for good is anyone's guess but he is earnest with his pleas. Plus, he's got quite the kakkoii musical backing that could help out any Tarentino flick set in the decade of "Shaft" or "The French Connection".
However, the really notable thing about the song is how Ken delivers it. Until I decided to write about "Tiger and Dragon" a few days ago, I had always thought that the guy was channeling soul singer Akiko Wada（和田アキ子）, right down to the characteristic "Ha~!" he belts out at the end of a verse. The "Ha~!" is one of Wada's musical trademarks. Well, as it turns out, Yokoyama had composed the song so that Wada herself would sing it someday, and thus recorded it as such. And the legendary Wada did cover it the following year in 2003 as a coupling song to her single "Rumba de Bunbun"（ルンバでブンブン）.
"Tiger and Dragon" was the theme song for a TBS comedy-drama of the same name (among other TV and radio programs) which started out as a 2-hour episode in January 2005 before getting a full run of 11 episodes later from April. The show starred a couple of Johnny's Entertainment mainstays, Tomoya Nagase（長瀬智也）of TOKIO and Junichi Okada（岡田准一）of V6 with Nagase portraying a gangster who decides to make a big shift in his career and become a rakugo comedian. The plot kinda reminds me of a recent anime's story.
In any case, "Tiger and Dragon" the song peaked at No. 17 on Oricon and was also a track on Crazy Ken Band's 7th album from 2005, "Soul Punch" which hit as high as No. 9 on the album charts.
Not sure but this could be the last song that I remember from my Kuri days that I have yet to put up on "Kayo Kyoku Plus". The title is easy to remember with just two identical letters (standing for Fortissimo), and it was often a song that roused the bunch in the karaoke bar whenever anyone who was liquored enough gave this one a try.
The other things I remember from HOUND DOG's 10th single is the intro whose synths made it sound like the theme song for some 80s action-adventure series by Stephen J. Cannell (a la "The A-Team") and gravelly-voiced Kohei Otomo's（大友康平）anthemic delivery of the refrain. I bet just about every young company worker who's gone through a hellish week of bowing in profuse apology to angry clients and getting screamed at by the kacho gave "ff" the good ol' college try at karaoke. It just has that sort of tone that references an old Hollywood line "I'M MAD AS HELL AND I'M NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE!!" and demands copious amounts of Asahi.
Ironically enough though, it was actually used as the commercial song for Nissin's Cup O' Noodles since university students probably had lots of issues as well.
Well, whatever the need, "ff" has become the karaoke favourite for a certain generation of amateur singers. I never tackled it though since I couldn't be convincing at all as a rock pretender. Written by Yukio Matsuo（松尾由紀夫）and composed by Hitoshi Minowa（蓑輪単志）who was the keyboardist for the band, it was released in August 1985 after which it peaked at No. 11 on Oricon. The song also got onto HOUND DOG's 7th album"Spirits!" which was released in August 1985.
Kohei Otomo has always been the frontman for HOUND DOG since it first started up in 1976. There have been a number of changes in the lineup over the decades but it seems that, according to the J-Wiki article on the band, the most stable period was between 1978 and 1984, with Junichi Yajima（八島順一）and Yoshihide Takahashi（高橋良秀）on guitar, the aforementioned Hitoshi Minowa on keyboards, and Sadao Kaito（海藤節生...I hope that this is the right reading）on bass. However since 2006, it's just been Otomo who has also plied his trade as an actor and tarento.
HOUND DOG didn't get onto the 1985 Kohaku Utagassen to sing "ff" but in 1991 when the 42nd Kohaku Utagassen was due to be broadcast, NHK extended the invitation to the band to sing the song, but the members didn't cotton onto the idea since they felt it was too old an song and they just didn't want to sing it, instead feeling that they would prefer to try out "BRIDGE" which was to be released in February the next year. NHK nixed that idea and HOUND DOG was taken off the list to be replaced by Bubblegum Bros. The band has yet to considered for another appearance but I imagine Otomo has never really lost any sleep over it.
In 2011, Akiko Wada（和田アキ子）did a funky cover of "ff" for a Suntory beer commercial which consequently became her 87th single in April.
Yup, that's the line there. But along with other famous pop culture phrases such as "Beam me up, Scotty!" and "Play it again, Sam", the above line wasn't actually said in Akiko Wada's（和田アキ子）"Furui Nikki" (Old Diary)...at least, the two parts weren't sung together like that. Apparently, one of the popular monomane performers concocted the phrasing on a special...and a great Wada impersonation was born.
I remember the brassy Wada mainly for her other big hit, "Ano Kane wo Narasu no wa Anata"（あの鐘を鳴らすのはあなた）from 1972. However, I was reminded of this other musical touchstone of hers earlier this afternoon when an NHK educational program popped up about how to use and have fun with a smartphone, and Wada and the very first "Kamen Rider" actor, Hiroshi Fujioka were the "students"; "Furui Nikki" just happened to pop up in a little mini-game of "Name That Tune" (and Fujioka failed to figure out the title...lucky Wada didn't bop him). To be honest, even I didn't know what the title was; I had assumed it was "Ano Koro wa".
I was a bit surprised at the title, though. When I hear a title like "Furui Nikki", I would expect a song to be some languid Mood Kayo, folk or enka ballad. Instead, Wada's 18th single from February 1974 is this funky pulser of a kayo about a young couple slowly figuring out the challenges of a relationship that the singer was probably more than happy to sink her teeth into since she is a big fan of R&B. This isn't a song to be sung at some lonesome nomiya...it's better to have a dance floor on hand to strut.
"Furui Nikki" was written by Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）and composed by Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）, both of whom were prolific in their fields. They also were responsible for another hit song from 1974, "Hageshii Koi"（激しい恋）for Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）, and Makaino was also the composer behind Arashi's （嵐）hit debut, the catchy "A-RA-SHI" a quarter of a century later. Although "Furui Nikki" has become one of Wada's most recognized songs, it initially didn't do all that well, just peaking at No. 44 on the Oricon weeklies. Perhaps for that reason, Wada didn't sing the song at that year's Kohaku Utagassen although she was one of the Red Team. In fact, it wouldn't be until the 2003 edition that she finally got to sing it on the Shibuya stage in a remixed form and then perform it once more on the 2014 show last year.
Y'know...considering its R&B beat, it's not surprising that it makes for a good dance remix....HA!
As I said in Part 1, I have been trying to find something about how the late lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）managed to create all those hits. Well, with a bit of further digging, there are a couple of YouTube videos which include a 2011 interview with Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）, currently the No. 1 lyricist for top-selling singles in Japanese music history with Aku in 2nd place, in which he talks about what made the earlier lyricist tick.
One kernel that I managed to understand from the first part of the interview above (and it comes at 3:29) is that according to Aku himself "....the song is of the era..." which is pretty interesting since a number of his songs have become timeless. But then again, unless the fellow is supremely arrogant, I couldn't see any budding songwriter exhort, "Yes, I will write a song that will live throughout the ages!! MWAHAHAHAHAH!!" (cue thunder and lightning) He really just wanted to write lyrics that would address the times and conditions in the years that he also existed in.
But the big thing I found out in the second part (2:59) is that Aku had left "Yu Aku's 15-Condition Constitution for Lyricists". Namely, it was a list of 15 guidelines expressed as a series of contemplative questions (I wonder if he was deeply Buddhist) when approaching his work to create the words, and I found the list at another blog for which I am grateful. I'll do my best at a translation and provide it at the end of this article below. However, I will refer to some of the fifteen questions when I take a look at some of the songs.
When picking songs out of the massive Aku collection, I just went with my gut. And with that visceral guide in mind, I found veteran Akiko Wada's（和田アキ子）"Hoshizora no Kodoku"（星空の孤独）whose English title is "The Stars in the Sky" although I think it's probably more evocative to go with the direct translation of "The Loneliness of a Starlit Sky". This was the then-18-year-old Wada's debut single from October 1968, and true to the singer's love for Ray Charles, the song is romantic and bluesy. This was a joint collaboration between Aku and Robbie Wada（ロビー和田）with Wada composing the song as well.
Mune ni hirogaru, kodoku no tsurasa Yozora ni dakare, hitori no nemuri Ai wo shinjita, yasashii mune no Kizu wo atatame, hoshi ni namidagumu Hoshi yo omae ga matataku kagiri Ashita wo shinjitai The pain of loneliness that spreads in my heart Embraced by the night sky, sleeping alone I believed in love, the scar in my gentle heart is warmed, I come close to tears toward the stars Stars, as long as you twinkle I want to believe in tomorrow
I have to admit on hearing the song and reading the lyrics, "Hoshizora no Kodoku" kinda got me right here. One thing that Akimoto mentioned in the interview was that Aku wanted to cut to the chase when it came to the picture that he painted for the listener which chimes in with his quote (in Part 1) that he wanted to pack the same power of a 2-hour movie within a 3-minute song. So, with this particular song, we all seem to have been thrust into the middle of this melancholy scene with the heroine sitting by her open bedroom window, perhaps several hours after a breakup, and trying to recover emotionally. And No. 6 from Aku's treatise seems to apply here: Can't a popular song describing one woman be rewritten to include all women? Well, the rule seems pretty obvious today but back then perhaps it was quite novel. And it is interesting to note since singer-songwriter Yumi Arai（荒井由実）who debuted in the early 70s has been known to rely on the feelings of women to come up with her own catchy tunes. Could there have been some influence?
The song, by the way, got as high as No. 70 on Oricon. And to commemorate Wada's 25th year in show business in 1993, she sang this song at that year's Kohaku Utagassen.
Gonna jump over a few decades into the 90s. When I wrote up the first entry on rock band Sheena & The Rokkets, I referred to a Japan Times article in which the late Sheena and her husband Makoto Ayukawa（鮎川誠）praised Aku for his storytelling prowess through his works. They'd had a long desire to work with the lyricist but never thought that he would ever deign to work with a rock band. Happily, he proved them wrong....and one song he wrote was "Rock no Suki na Baby wo Daite" (Hug That Rock-Lovin' Baby) in 1994 as the band's 15th single. Guitarist Ayukawa took care of the thrashing melody.
And this brings up No. 9: Isn't it also necessary to shift the singer from a storytelling role to that of the subject in the drama? In "Rock no Suki na Baby wo Daite", Sheena is the one growling out the lyrics but considering that she's using the masculine "omae" meaning "you", I'm wondering if hubby Makoto is the one voicing his feelings.
Rock no suki na baby wo daite Kawaii mama ga iku Kono ko ga nijuusai ni naru to Kono yo ga kitto yoku natteiru Dakara shibaraku mama to omae de Ganbarou ne, ganbarou ne! Rock de warau omae wo miteiru to Yuuki ga itsumo waiteiru kara Hug that rock-lovin' baby Cute Mama is on the way When this kid reaches 20 The world will have become a better place So just for a while, with you and your Mama Let's do our best, do our best! Since when I see you laughing to rock My courage always comes to a boil
In the middle of all that head-bouncing rock, there's a poignant and heartwarming story for a daughter or son to do well in childhood/adolescence. The message could apply to any heartrending ballad or lullaby but it was done in the Rokkets way! However it was Aku who wrote the words...I recall writing in Part 1 that his experience as a copywriter was probably useful in sizing up the idea behind the message and the artist. Maybe the lyricist and the rock band had some heart-to-heart talk about family.
As I mentioned above for Sheena & The Rokkets, even that band thought that Aku wouldn't give them the time of day since they thought that the sentimentality of kayo would never mesh with the rock sound. Well, let's get back to the sentimental stuff. Actually, the resident enka/Mood Kayo writer for "Kayo Kyoku Plus", Noelle, suggested this one: Hiroshi Uchiyamada and Cool Five's"Koi Uta"（恋唄...Love Song） from July 1972 (which peaked at No. 14). The solid and slightly heartbreaking vocals of Kiyoshi Maekawa are in there, along with the background vocals of The Five and the reliable horns. But unlike some of their other hits, the horns are somewhat more subdued and there's an air of melancholy gratitude.
Aku's penchant for making movies out of songs is in here, too. Against Kunihiko Suzuki's（鈴木邦彦）somber melody, the lyricist, through Mae-Kiyo, relates that bittersweet farewell to that brief but lively affair.
Honno mijikai yume demo Totemo shiawase datta Aete honto ni yokatta Dakedo kaeru anata It was merely a short dream but I was truly happy It was really great to have met you However you're going away
1972 was a very busy year for Aku. I counted the number of songs that he had concocted at his website, and it came to about 110 or so. And looking at the other years in that decade, he didn't slack too much for those either. Considering that he wrote so much in his heyday, he may have been the one fellow to have created the forlorn love song that I often associate with in kayo kyoku. Perhaps in another life, he would have been the ultimate country-&-western songwriter. In any case, another rule of his pops up, and it's interesting: No. 2: Isn't the sentiment or mentality of the Japanese regret and masochism? Not exactly the most optimistic insight here. Maybe he's trying to intimate that the Japanese relate more to having loved and lost.
Above in the Akimoto interview, Aku said that the song is of the era. Well, with 5,000 songs under his belt, perhaps a lot of them were only meant for their respective eras or decades, but with the three songs that I've talked about, the lyrics seem to transcend any barriers of time. I think any of those sets of words could apply to situations today, and personally the lyrics to "Koi Uta" could also apply to an old flame I knew a long time ago.
Kenji Sawada（沢田研二）was sporting earrings even before I realized that men who were not pirates could wear them. He was an iconoclast, an artist who went to the beat of his own drum. I think that's how Aku sized him up when he wrote the lyrics to Sawada's 22nd single from January 1978, "Samurai"（サムライ）. Perhaps "ronin" (masterless samurai) would have made for an even better title, but the samurai tag was good enough to create that image for that wafuu lone wolf in the 20th century.
Katate ni pistol Kokoro ni hanataba Kuchibiru ni hi no sake Senaka ni jinsei wo Aaa aaa aaa Arigato, Jenny Omae wa ii onna datta Hanpa na wine yori yowasete kureta yo Dakedo Jenny abayo Jenny Ore wa ikanakucha ikenain dayo In one hand, a pistol In my heart, a bouquet of flowers Firewater on my lips My life on my back Aaa aaa aaa Thank you, Jenny You were a great girl You got me drunk on half a glass of wine But Jenny, farewell Jenny I gotta go, y'know
Yup, there's another movie in there. And there are a couple of other Aku rules, the ones about having regrets and the singer becoming the protagonist in the story. Listening to "Samurai", I know that it isn't Julie singing about a lone wolf gangster...it's Julie singing about HIMSELF being that lone wolf gangster in the same way that Harrison Ford IS Indiana Jones. I can't imagine anyone else in the part when he sings the song. I mentioned that whenever Aku comes to mind, Pink Lady pops up as well. Well, I only realized not too long ago that Sawada should also be popping up when I think about Aku in the 70s since he has written a number of songs for him during those days. And in "Samurai", the lyricist pegged the singer's foppish tough guy persona to a T, even putting in that theatrical Sawada cry.
I also have to mention Katsuo Ono's（大野克夫）music for the song since it also reflects that lone wolf character. There seems to be a hint of Spanish matador behind the first verse before the music settles into a 50s-style ballad reminding me of James Dean and early Marlon Brando. "Samurai", by the way, hit No. 1 on the Oricon weeklies and finished 1978 as the 13th-ranked song.
Before I talk about the final song here, allow me to show the Top 10 Yu Aku singles in terms of sales as of 2012 (from the good folks at J-Wiki):
See the pattern? You can imagine why I've always put Pink Lady and Yu Aku together like bread and butter. The other interesting thing is that the lyricist seemed to have usually put Mie and Kei in some sort of thriller element whether it be cops and robbers or aliens and monsters with the ladies musically throwing in their lot with them or battling them.
One song by Pink Lady and Aku that is not up on the above list is "Toumei Ningen"（透明人間...Invisible Man）. Released in September 1978 as their 9th single, the usual upbeat Pink Lady song sounds like some tokusatsu theme song (those fanfare horns) with a rumbly 50s guitar.
Masaka to omotteiru desho ga Jitsu wa, jitsu wa Watashi wa toumei ningen desu Shock... Seken wo sawagasu fushigi na koto wa Subete wa toumei ningen nano desu Tenka muteki no champion Totsuzen down wo kutta no mo Spoon wo magetari, nejittari Nenriki boom mo watashi desu It's impossible to believe but The tr..truth is I am the invisible man Shock... The strange thing rocking the world is That everyone is invisible Champions without peer Absorbing sudden blues Bending and twisting spoons The psychokinesis boom...that's me
At first, I wondered if any of Aku's guidelines really applied here. Perhaps the lyricist just wanted to have a bit of vacation but still keep his words within the Pink Lady lyrical groove. I mean, I don't think No. 2 about the Japanese penchant for regret and masochism would come in here; if anything, "Toumei Ningen" comes off as the opposite. And try as I might, even with Mie and Kei singing about everyone being invisible, I just couldn't imagine the ladies invisibly jumping about the streets of Tokyo . As I mentioned, the melody sounds like something out of a tokusatsu or anime superhero series...the lyrics certainly hint at someone similar.
However, being an old fan of superhero comics and the need for titans like Superman and Batman here in North America and Ultraman and Kamen Rider in Japan, I wondered if Aku was subtly channeling No. 3: Shouldn't we be gradually focusing on human relationships within the urban lifestyle?
Neither J-Wiki nor the Q&A section at Yahoo.jp divulged any insights into the lyrics, and perhaps this is a leap for me but I mused about the rapid economic modernization and urbanization of the country during the 50s-70s and their benefits and consequences, especially the latter. Was Aku, however comically, addressing the usual urban problems such as isolation and crime? Maybe he was being somewhat sarcastic about the abundance of folks in the big city becoming faceless and invisible, and therefore gaining these wonderful new powers. Come to think of it, that brings up No. 7: How do the maintenance of telecommunications, the development of transportation, an automobile society, the Westernization of housing, changes in diet and the modernization of lifestyles affect the emotions?
Most likely there are Aku songs that better highlight Nos. 3 and 7 but I have yet to come across them, and when I heard "Toumei Ningen" and read its lyrics, I just thought that there was some sly message about city life. To be honest, when I did read those two rules, I initially assumed that Aku even had something to do with City Pop, but I think they now perhaps hint more at anti-City Pop. In any case, let me stop my ramblings here. The song, by the way, did hit No. 1 on the Oricon weeklies and eventually became the 6th-ranked entry for 1978.
Yu Aku passed away at the age of 70 in August 2007 from cancer. With all of those 5,000 or so songs that he wrote lyrics for, and for all those Pink Lady and Kenji Sawada entries among his most successful hits, the one song that is my favourite by him is "Shishuuki"（思秋期...The Autumn of My Years）, as sung originally by Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）back in 1978. I've already devoted an article on this song, but what I wanted to add here is that I think the evergreen and bittersweet ballad is that message which still echoes through the generations about the passing of time and the loss of youth. Whether he wrote it as an inevitable realization or as a warning to the young to cherish those moments of vitality and camaraderie before it's too late is not something I can answer definitively, but the way the song is delivered melodically and lyrically has that color of Aku sepia. It can still relate to today but there is still that nostalgia for a type of song that will most likely never be re-created.
Now, as for that constitution...as I mentioned way up above, I'm not 100% confident on the translations so for those who are better than me, please let me know.
1. Isn't there a different path to the usual one for popular songs that were thought to be completed by Hibari Misora? (I'm not sure if this was a slight indictment against the maxim that songs which could only pass muster by the Queen of Kayo Kyoku were proper songs.)
2. Isn't the sentiment or mentality of the Japanese regret and masochism? 3. Shouldn't we be gradually focusing on human relationships within the urban lifestyle?
4. Isn't there a meaning applied to the simultaneous separation of the musical world and the ideal image of a musical person? (not totally sure here)
5. While writing about the modest happenings for a person and the truth of that person, is sending a message to society at the same time impossible? 6. Can't a popular song describing one woman be rewritten to include all women? 7. How do the maintenance of telecommunications, the development of transportation, an automobile society, the Westernization of housing, changes in diet and the modernization of lifestyles affect the emotions? 8. Are the expressions, behaviour and bad habits of a human being everlasting? Are there things that he/she will absolutely not want to do depending on the generation? 9. Isn't it also necessary to shift the singer from a storytelling role to that of the subject in the drama? 10. A close-up of the singer will not reveal everything but with the technique of thrusting that singer into a larger space, isn't it acceptable to demand an image up to that point?
11. Won't a song be created even if the words "douse" (anyhow) and "shosen" (the beginning of a conflict) are eliminated? (I had no idea what Aku was on about here, but apparently lyricists before his arrival on the scene were using those two words to such an extent that it seemed like they had a patent on them, according to this Japanese blog entry.)
12. Other than the seven-and-five-syllable meter, isn't there a set number of words that evokes a pleasant aural sensation? 13. There is nothing that cannot be made into a song. For example, a short story, a movie, a speech, an amusement park. Can't any of these fill up 4 minutes at the same volume? 14. An era is not something that can be seen so that you can see it. However when you face that age, can't the reasons for things specific to that age be seen? 15. A song is playing catch with that era. Doesn't a hit song pierce the sense of hunger of that era?
For years, I have always seen Akiko Wada（和田アキ子） as the big Godsister of Japanese show business and as the singer of her trademark song, "Ano Kane wo Narasu no wa Anata"（あの鐘を鳴らすのはあなた）. With that booming Kansai dialect, she could hold the audience's attention or terrify any of her celeb kohai who crossed her.
But there was also this one mellow song that she released in the late 80s. "Datte Sho ga Nai Janai" (C'mon, Nothing I Can Do About It) was composed by Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二） and written by Masumi Kawamura（川村真澄） as her 47th single in April 1988, and it has Wada singing in a slightly woozy tone as the protagonist resignedly declares her fate as a lady going in and out of the one-night affairs, and probably in and out of the bars of Osaka. I could imagine the woman sitting slumped over the counter in some skyscraper bar way past midnight as she spills her guts to some other barfly. Being a City Pop fan, it's nice to hear Wada croon this one in that quietly velvety voice. Admittedly, I'm not a huge Wada fan, but it would be nice if I could discover some of her other past songs that had this sort of tone.
"Datte Sho ga Nai Janai" did pretty decently on the charts, getting as high as No. 25 on the weeklies and becoming a long seller for the next couple of years. It ended 1989 as the 94th-ranked single and sold a total of about 200,000 copies.
Akiko Wada（和田アキ子）is arguably the lone female power on Japanese TV, up against heavyweights such as Beat Takeshi. Physically and conversationally, she makes quite the presence on the small screen. She has strong opinions which she doesn't hesitate to make loud and clear on her own Sunday morning show, and for the Japanese anyways, her 174 cm (5'8") stature, often has her as the tallest and most imposing person on the stage. She's an actress, a TV personality and commercial pitchperson.
However, she's also known as "The Queen of Japanese R&B", although fans of Misia and AI may take some umbrage at that label as applied to her. Maybe it's better to say that she is the Empress Dowager of old-style Japanese R&B. The music world is where she started when the founder of Hori Productions, one of the big talent agencies in Japan, scouted Wada back in the late 60s. Wada was born in 1950 in Osaka. She is of Korean ancestry and was born as Kim Bok-Ja（金福子） before also taking on the name of Fukuko Kaneumi（金海福子）. When she entered the geinokai (show business) and took on Japanese citizenship, she changed her name to Akiko Wada.
Her 11th single, "Ano Kane wo Narasu no wa Anata"(You are the One who Rings That Bell), was released in March 1972. It is a song of hope with a hint of gospel. In the Oricon rankings, it didn't do as well initially as some of her previous hits (it peaked at No. 53), but it has become one of Wada's trademark songs. In fact, she has sung it so often on the year-end Kohaku Utagassen that it could almost be used as the unofficial theme. The song was written by Yu Aku（阿久悠） and composed by Koichi Morita（森田公一） who has composed tunes for Pink Lady and Agnes Chan among other stars.
I was never a huge fan of Akiko Wada but her association with R&B aside (she's reportedly a huge fan of Ray Charles), I've always thought that she still has that link with nostalgic 70s kayo kyoku. By the way, the images in the video above are from the affected prefectures right after the March 11th earthquake and tsunami.
This is Wada doing a duet of her standard with the lead singer of Hound Dog, Kohei Otomo（大友康平 ）.
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