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.
It appears that we may be having one of those KKP situations in which one singer or band's file is basically based on one album.
And yep, I'm talking about Kenichi Fujimoto's（藤本健一）"Aperitif" album from 1986. But it does say lots about the album especially if one's a City Pop or sophisticated pop fan. This time, the track is "Alone", and for a track titled "Alone", it sure doesn't feel alone. As written by Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）and composed by the singer himself, it's the equivalent of a fancy dinner out in Aoyama...crisp white linen, sparkling champagne flutes and bone-white china, and all that. Fujimoto may have been channeling some of his inner Henry Mancini when he came up with this one. Those strings approach a near-boogie level of emanation and of course, the sax is cooking up some richness.
I'm sure that a lot of folks in my neck of the woods would greatly prefer not to hear the word "snow" for the next several months at least. It was a very long and cold winter and even now, things are still pretty cool although temperatures should be rising happily next week.
However, allow me this one. A few weeks ago, I introduced singer Masaki Sato（佐藤正樹 or 佐藤真紀）who wasn't the most prolific fellow with just two singles that I could find online thus far. I did cover his second single"Million Night" from 1983 which seems to cover a really rumbling City Pop drive down the urban highways. Well, this time, it's his debut single from 1982 which is a whole lot more congenial and jingly.
I don't mean "jingly" as in a Christmas jingle bells sort of way, though. It's more like this really does sound like a commercial jingle (and the lyrics do contain the corporate catchphrase "It's the No. 1 spirit!"). "Snow Dancer" was the 1982 campaign song for the sporting goods store Salomon, and I guess from the title, perhaps the company was aiming for the skiing set. Written and composed by the same duo behind the later "Million Night", lyricist Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）and composer Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロー）, the happy City Pop disco arrangement was provided by Kazuo Otani（大谷和夫）. No, perhaps there isn't a city involved with the ski resorts and slopes but skiing has been connected with the urban and urbane lifestyle for such a long time that we can give this one a pass. It's just too bad that I couldn't find the commercial itself on YouTube.
When I came across the name Masaki Sato, I initially went "Oh, yeah! Masaki Sato? I've seen that name oodles of times. Should be fine getting him from Labels."
Ah, well, on that point. Actually, he hadn't existed until now when I did place him into Labels for the first time in this blog's history. According to J-Wiki, there is an animator who had worked on "Dragonball" and someone involved in the fabric industry with that name but no singer. Furthermore, according to Discogs, the kanji for this singer's name can be rendered as either 佐藤正樹 or 佐藤真紀. Go figure on that.
There isn't a whole lot about the mysterious Masaki but he apparently released two singles in 1982 and 1983, and for that second single, this is "Million Night" which seems to be quite the intriguing evening for one fellow and a lady (and I guess he really likes wearing his sunglasses at night). It's more on the rocking side of City Pop and bass addicts ought to have a good time with this one. This was written by Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）, composed by Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロー）and arranged by Satoshi Takebe（武部聡志）.
In the relevant J-Wiki article for this particular song by chanteuse Yuiko Tsubokura（坪倉唯子）, she sang this on TV Asahi's "Music Station" while still in her wild costume as the squeaky-voiced singer for B.B. Queens. Maybe they were reprising their hit song "Odoru Ponpokorin"（おどるポンポコリン）. Anyways, I would have loved to have seen the expressions on everyone's faces while she was creamily singing it. Well, we can all check the video below out.
No squeaky voice here for her 4th solo single"Je t'aime" which came out in January 1993 and definitely no hint of "Odoru Ponpokorin". This is a classy urban ballad that sounds as if it should have been the ending theme for a drama. Guess what? It was...it finished each episode of the NTV drama "Jealousy"（ジェラシー）. Written by Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）and composed by Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）, this sophisticated pop song was Tsubokura's highest-ranking single when it hit No. 25 on Oricon.
Outside of the video and ending theme song that will be heard by you below and the poster above, that's all I could find of the early 1990s TV Tokyo historical drama "Edo Nakamachi Bugyoujo"（江戸中町奉行所...The Nakamachi Magistrate's Office of Edo）. I can only assume that it deals with samurai dealing out their own brand of double-edged justice to evildoers in Edo Era Japan.
Up to now, I've featured singer-actress Ai Kanzaki（神崎愛）singing her early 1980s fare of City Pop (which has currently been excised due to copyright strikes) and Fashion Music. So it was with some surprise that I discovered that Kanzaki had also been one of the cast for "Edo Nakamachi Bugyoujo" (I'm assuming that's her in the video thumbnail...usually I would imagine her holding a flute instead of a katana). Another surprise is that she sings the theme song for the first season of the show titled "Ai no Refrain".
Considering the name of the singer, I can translate the title as "Ai's Refrain" or "Love's Refrain". But let's assume that Ms. Kanzaki was never self-serving and go with the latter translation. Without knowing the release year of 1990 initially, I had thought that the song was heading into Fashion Music territory but the arrangement just had that urbane sophistication (but with no City Pop groove), and then when I did read up on its 1990 release, I concluded that this was more along the lines of New Adult Music of that decade which mixed some of the traditional enka/Mood Kayo with more pop stylings, usually of that sophisticated brand. Lyricist Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）and composer Keisuke Hama（浜圭介）were responsible for its creation.
In any case, it's quite the song for a samurai drama. I would usually think that something like "Ai no Refrain" would be used as the ending theme for a contemporary mystery/suspense drama or a cop show.
Recently, on one of the episodes of the NHK information variety programs "Chiko-chan", I found out that the whole thing about the penlight phenomenon at concerts in Japan could all be credited to the one-and-only Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）. Apparently when he was doing his first concerts back in the early 1970s, he had expressed some disappointment that he couldn't see his fans' faces while performing on stage. So through the media of the time, he asked fans for his next concert if they could bring something like a flashlight to light up so that he could see the lights beaming so that he could also see his fans beaming. Of course, since then the rest is history as the penlight not only evolved but a certain choreography around it evolved as well.
We've also got some Hideki and some light here as well in the form of his 50th single, "Ichi-man Kounen no Ai"(10,000 Light Years of Love) which was released in February 1985. I guess to commemorate this auspicious single and the subject matter, a heavenly pipe organ was brought in along with some major rhythm machine drumming. Saijo sings about courting this beautiful cosmos-weary lady soaring through space and time. Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）was the lyricist here while Daisuke Inoue（井上大輔）was responsible for both music and arrangement. It peaked at No. 12 on Oricon, selling around 100,000 records, and first appeared on the album "'85 HIDEKI Special in Budokan - for 50 songs -", a live album from March 1985.
I know that they are completely different songs but there's something about "Ichi-man Kounen no Ai" that reminds me of Europe's "The Final Countdown" although that song wouldn't arrive until May 1986 in the United States. As for that cosmos-weary lady, I can only think of one example.
It's just two days shy a year since I put up the last Sumiko Toyohiro（豊広純子）song up on KKP. "Namida ga Kawaku made"（涙がかわくまで）is an elegant City Pop tune from her 1983 album"Water Heart", and as I finished up that article that day, I'll begin this one with the same sentiment: "Water Heart" can make for a fine addition to any City Pop fan's shelf.
Another reason is the second track "Ai wa Mellow Yellow"(Love is Mellow Yellow). Not sure how the title works but the song itself does as a fun and relaxing J-AOR drive down the highway. The lyrics were written by Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）and Kisaburo Suzuki's（鈴木キサブロー）melody fairly soars over the pavement by the seashore. That electric guitar solo sounds like something that Suzuki would whip up. "Ai wa Mellow Yellow" was also released as a Toyohiro single in the same year.
Last week, I posted Part 1 of my article on Hiromi Iwasaki's（岩崎宏美）July 1982 11th studio album"Yugure kara...Hitori"（From Twilight--Alone）, and so today, I'll be completing the release with this Part 2 which is essentially Side B of the original LP. The final track, by the way, was the version of "Madonna Tachi no Lullaby" (聖母たちのララバイ）which was used as the ending theme for "Kayo Suspense Gekijo"（火曜サスペンス劇場.... The Tuesday Night Suspense Movie) on NTV and you can read about that particular song through the link. However, let's get through the remaining four tracks.
Starting off Side B is "China Reef" which was written and composed by Kaoru Ito（伊藤薫）and arranged by Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）, the same duo behind Side A's"Yoake no nai Asa"(夜明けのない朝...Morning Without a Dawn) . Although this time around, it doesn't quite stray into Fashion Music territory like "Yoake no nai Asa", the creators of "China Reef" still maintain that certain jaunty pop elegance that Iwasaki could bat right out of the park. I have no idea where this China reef is located but it apparently is quite the magical place.
I especially love the intro and the rest of "Etranger"（エトランゼ...The Stranger） which has that lovely City Pop vibe and that Iwasaki elegance, to boot. Not surprising, considering that it's Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）behind the melody and arrangement with Masako Arikawa（有川正沙子）providing the lyrics about a woman who has gone off to an exotic locale, ostensibly to forget a past romance, and trying to ensure that she remains a stranger in paradise without any further love entanglements. Iwasaki's voice gets to further shine here as it plumbs more depths and heights. The ending is interesting, though, since it almost sounds like it's lifted a City Pop riff via flugelhorn from another song.
All you bass addicts rejoice as we dive into "Go-juu-ni Kai no Off-Stage"（52階のオフ・ステージ...52nd Floor Off-Stage） which is a slightly more down-to-town City Pop tune with Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）behind the lyrics, Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロー）taking care of the melody and Masaaki Omura（大村憲司）as the arranger. These three were also behind "Single Man" which finishes off Side A, and it's quite the different animal from the 50s pop of that final track, as the boppy urban contemporary takes over here, thanks to the aforementioned bass and the sax solo. Hiromi-chan seems to be singing about analogizing the whole experience of heading up to an exclusive nightclub at the top of a really tall skyscraper and its surrounding tapestry of sunset hues and cityscape as a major love play.
Ohtsu, Suzuki and Omura also collaborated on this final track of this article, "Heartbreak Twilight"（ハートブレイク・トワイライト）. Beginning with a twangy guitar and keyboards, it's a mid-tempo melancholy melody as a high-flying couple realize that it's time to part ways with each other. In fact, aside from a slight peep into major chord territory before the second verse, "Heartbreak Twilight" keeps up the sad drama with the keyboard arrangement sounding downright sinister and creepy. One would almost think that the boyfriend was Nosferatu.
So, "Yugure kara...Hitori" has plenty of City Pop and elegant pop tunes for all of the Hiromi Iwasaki fans circa early 1980s. As well, the tracks have their own different tempos to keep ears alight. The original LP scored a No. 4 ranking on Oricon.
Chanteuse Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）has been in the music industry so long that she's had a lot of different images since her debut as a teen in 1975. However, the one image that will always stick with me is the one when I had first known about her in the early 1980s as you can see above: elegant, svelte and hair that went all the way down to her waist.
Yugure kara...Hitori
Today, I want to explore her 11th studio album from July 1982, "Yugure kara...Hitori"（From Twilight--Alone）. I've already written about some of the tracks on this No. 4-ranking LP: the surprisingly downtown warp-speed "Koi wa Senso"（恋は戦争）, the 1970s kayo kyoku-reminiscent 27th single"Lemon"（檸檬）which begins the album, and the follow-up single "Madonna Tachi no Lullaby"(聖母たちのララバイ）that has become one of her trademark songs. Even with those three covered, there are seven more tracks on the original LP alone so I'll be splitting up my impressions into two parts with Part 2 coming in next week.
Let's see if we can go for three songs here beginning with the second track. Following the innocent and sweet "Lemon", there is "Tobashite, TAXI"(Step On It, Taxi), a keyboard-funky urban tune of giddiness about a woman hopping into a taxi to confront a lover at his hotel on whether the rumours surrounding him are true; apparently, she's still in the denial stage. Written by Chinfa Kan（康珍化）, composed by Toshio Kamei（亀井登志夫）from the band NASA and arranged by Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）, the lyrical content may be rather tense but the arrangement speaks of one exciting time in the big city. This particular song isn't to be confused with the similarly-titled "Tobashite Taxi Man"（とばしてTaxi Man） by Yurie Kokubu（国分友里恵）from her 1983 album"Relief 72 Hours". May I just complete this paragraph by noting how amazing her voice is when she yells "TAXI!". The multi-cab crash that could result if she yelled it in that way.
Following Track 3"Koi wa Senso", Iwasaki turns from the disco-lined streets of Roppongi to an area that's much more discreet...say a boutique hotel off the main drag or an exclusive restaurant. "Yoake no nai Asa" (夜明けのない朝...Morning Without a Dawn) sounds like it should have been recruited to become a theme song for those weekly murder-mystery dramas on Japanese television as was the case with "Madonna Tachi no Lullaby" and a few other contributions by her. However, it remained just a track on "Yugure kara...Hitori" but it stands out for that wonderful intro and throughout the song it has that one foot in classy Fashion Music territory although the chorus rhythm with the punchy percussion keep things in the metropolis. Kaoru Ito（伊藤薫）was responsible for words and music with Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）handling the arrangement here.
If I'm not mistaken, "Single Man" was the final track on Side A of the original LP. Taking on a gentle 1950s pop ballad form, Iwasaki sings about the realization that a summertime romance is about to head to its end as the autumn comes. Good times...but hey, that's the way it goes. Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）was the lyricist here while Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロー）and Kenji Omura（大村憲司） were the composer and arranger respectively.
Just before tackling the album here on KKP, I had been wondering whether I would be getting a mix of her City Pop from the late 1970s and that murder-mystery balladry that was her thing in the early 1980s. So far, I think I've been getting even more variety with "Yugure kara...Hitori". Looking forward to the second half which will basically look at all of Side B.
Yes, I'm bringing out KKP AI representative Kayo Grace in her "live-action" form since I think the photo fits the song here. I've only just noticed that there are a lot of filled glasses beside her at the bar along with the innumerable bottles of alcohol. Bing really wanted to let me know that this is a bar.
Anyways, the reason that I brought this particular song onto KKP was because of my previous article on Bonnie Tyler's"Sayonara Tokyo"（サヨナラ Tokyo）. Seeing that composer Yusuke Nakamura（中村裕介）was not only the fellow behind the AOR magic of that song but also the melody weaver of Mai Yamane's（山根麻衣）"Tasogare"（たそがれ）in 1980, I was curious about what else he's done in terms of the City Pop or AOR realms. Well, there is a list of songs on his J-Wiki page that he's provided other singers.
One of them is "Wine Night" as recorded by Keiko Mizukoshi（水越恵子）. A track on her December 1984 album"Actress" (which scored a peak ranking of No. 79 on Oricon), veteran lyricist Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）provided the lyrics of an affair taking place. It's a pretty fleet-footed song that rather straddles the line between pop and City Pop, and for a song that's titled "Wine Night", the bright keyboards kinda pull things back to the afternoon. Mizukoshi's vocals are fairly smoky with a certain seen-it-all/done-it-all attitude.
It's been a little over a year since I posted an article by 80s aidoru Hidemi Ishikawa（石川秀美）and that was for the track "Easier" which got onto her July 1986 8th album"Pastiche". I went slightly pop philosophical in that one and wondered aloud or in print about when an aidoru tune is really a City Pop or J-AOR song in terms of "Easier" but in the end, my Labels for the song still included "Aidoru" and "City Pop".
The same goes with this song that I only found out about in the last day or so. "Kokuhaku Go-hyaku Mile"(Confession 500 Miles) is a track on Ishikawa's December 1986 9th album"Blanche", and it's another City Pop zinger powered by wailing electric guitar, that boppy bass and rumbling synths. Written by Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）and composed by Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロ）, it's got the aidoru going really funky which almost strangles her vocals at points but overall, it's a nice urban contemporary night tune through the streets or highways of any Japanese city.
A bit of an announcement here since Rocket Brown and I will be working together once more on his podcast "Come Along Radio" via Mixcloud for the first time in several months. We'll be going live at 9:30 am Pacific Time/12:30 pm Eastern (provided I finish lunch fast enough) Saturday October 21st 2023. The topics that we will be covering are the legacy of singer-songwriter Shinji Tanimura（谷村新司）who passed away earlier on the 8th, Tetsuji Hayashi's（林哲司）upcoming concert on November 5th, and then we'll be going over singer-composer Kengo Kurozumi's（黒住憲五）October 1982 debut album"Again". Coincidentally, the 21st will mark 41 years exactly since the album was put onto record store shelves.
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to procure my own copy of "Again" but luckily some generous souls have been able to upload the album onto YouTube so I've been doing some listening to all of the tracks in preparation. I've covered some of the tracks, actually, in the past: "Lusia" and "Pastel Love" which was my first KKP posting on Kurozumi.
Well, this Kurozumi article will be on "My Sweet Lady" which was his 1982 single ("Lusia" was the B-side). Composed by the singer, written by Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）and arranged by Masaki Matsubara（松原正樹）, "My Sweet Lady" has had me thinking of some of those 80s West Coast AOR songs, and singers such as Christopher Cross and even Neil Sedaka because of that first verse sounding a bit like "Calendar Girl". There's nothing like a wailing electric guitar to get visions of mullets and skinny ties once more into my head.
Featuring a Chris Rea-esque slide guitar solo by Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）, "Wasted Summer Love" is a first-rate medium-tempo song that skillfully weaves via Hiroshi Sato's（佐藤博）arrangement an image of momentary silence while riding on the highway. While an exceptionally fine Hamada song with a specially urbanite sentimentalism permeating its mellowness, "Wasted Summer Love" can also be considered to be an absolute masterpiece which unreservedly displays that distinctive Hamada flavour.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised" (2020).
It just so happens that the final day of June falls on the typical Urban Contemporary Friday for "Kayo Kyoku Plus", so let's make it a good one.
With a title like "Wasted Summer Love", I'll have to ask for Kingo Hamada's（濱田金吾）forgiveness for assuming that it is rather depressing. This is the penultimate track on his fifth album from August 1983, "Mugshot", but in spite of the title, it's another beautifully crafted ballad by the singer-songwriter with lyrics by Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）and arrangement by Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）. Maybe there was a love lost here but I'm hoping that the breakup was amicable and both parties learned something wonderful from each other during their time together.
Especially listening to the bridge, there is something rather Boz Scaggs or Bobby Caldwell in Sato's work, and the wistfulness is amped up due to the addition of that steel pedal guitar. Though I'm writing this in the early days of summer, "Wasted Summer Love" could be more for the latter days of the season (that August release date certainly hints at it) nearly hitting fall which would fit the theme of the song.
This figuratively walloped me when I read the sad news just some minutes ago from Michael Kamiooka's Twitter account which had the report from "Sponichi Annex". I knew that actor/singer/TV personality Toru Watanabe（渡辺徹）had his health issues, but I was stunned to find out that he had died on November 28th from sepsis at the age of 61.
Watanabe was a mainstay on variety shows either hosting or guesting them. He was always a jovial presence wherever he appeared, and one example of that was during his time on the long-running detective series "Taiyo ni Hoero!"（太陽にほえろ!）as the burly Detective Junji "Rugger" Takemoto, a very genki and fresh-faced young cop.
The Tochigi Prefecture native didn't have a huge discography. He released 9 singles between 1982 and 1991, along with having a couple of duet singles with comedienne Kuniko Yamada（山田邦子）, and four studio albums in the 1980s. Watanabe will always be known musically for his hit "Yakusoku"（約束）, his 2nd single from August 1982.
His follow-up single for "Yakusoku" was "Ai no Naka e"(Into Love) which came out in December that year. The lyricist Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）, who was also behind "Yakusoku", was back for "Ai no Naka e", but this time, the composer and arranger was Toshiyuki Kimori（木森敏行）. The feeling of the song is quite similar to that of the previous single with it kinda straddling between straight pop and City Pop. Perhaps it was also made as a fit for his cop character on "Taiyo ni Hoero!", but I then discovered that it was actually used for a Glico chocolate ad.
"Ai no Naka e" peaked at No. 6 on Oricon and became the 59th-ranked single for 1983. Watanabe's wife was former aidoru/actress/TV personality Ikue Sakakibara（榊原郁恵）, and my condolences go out to her and her two sons along with Watanabe's friends and fans.
This must be a coincidence that would have the appropriate fans prostrating themselves in front of the City Pop gods in joy and gratitude. Singer-songwriters Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）and Miki Matsubara（松原みき）share a birthday (November 28th), and though I am a day late, I would like to give my well wishes to the both of them although I know that Ms. Matsubara left this mortal coil around eighteen years ago.
It was a little over a week ago that I put up an article for a Taeko Ohnuki song, so let's go with Matsubara tonight. I was just scanning through the BEST compilation of hers when I discovered "Bay City Romance" which was originally a track on her 5th studio album, "Aya"（彩...Brilliance）, from December 1982. Lyricist Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）and composer/arranger Jun Sato（佐藤準）were behind this spritely nighttime adventure of a date bayside; I'm assuming that it's Yokohama which is why I've got the googly photo of Yokohama Bay and Minato Mirai up on top.
Yup, the City Pop is in there but especially at the beginning, I also get those funky notes reminiscent of the Dazz Band. Although I think that all of us City Pop fans are lucky to be alive now since we have access to all of this melodic goodness, when I hear the lyrics regarding the lucky couple enjoying a wonderful evening, I can actually begin to understand when some of those fans wish that they were around in Japan in those early 1980s. Well, I was in Japan in 1981 but I certainly didn't have the appreciation of the time and place that I do now.
Ahh...just a couple of more days before summer officially comes to an end for 2022. I'm sure that there are many out there who lamenting the end of the season, especially those sun worshippers here in Toronto considering that for a lot of the year, we seem to be swathed in perpetual cold and the odd snowstorm. Well, those are the breaks for the city whose meteorological makeup is predictably unpredictable.
Then, allow me to provide some final summery solace with Crystal King's（クリスタル・キング）"Cecile". Yeah, it's been a long time since I've put up an article about one of their songs so I'm happy to bring them back. Dreamy "Cecile" was their 8th official single from July 1982, and it's been categorized as a New Music tune on J-Wiki, but I also think that it's quite the AOR piece about mooning over a woman named Cecile.
One thing that stands out with "Cecile" is that it's neither the supremely high-pitched Masayuki Tanaka（田中昌之）nor co-vocalist Monsieur Yoshizaki（ムッシュ吉崎）, the two band members behind their biggest hit, "Dai Tokai"（大都会）, who was the main vocalist here (although Tanaka does pop up now and then). It was in fact composer and guitarist Michio Yamashita（山下三智夫）behind the microphone this time round with Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）coming up with the lyrics. Singer-songwriter Tatsushi Umegaki（梅垣達志）was responsible for the arrangement that seems to bring up images of sunshine, seashore, and beach chair. "Cecile" managed to peak at No. 33 on Oricon.
Yup, along with some of the anime that was able to come our way via North America in the 1980s, my Sunday mornings were also occupied by "The Transformers". They were indeed robots in disguise and there was more to them than meets the eye.
Yup, I do remember the opening theme song for "The Transformers" as well. Any kid and teen of the 1980s do. It is frankly obligatory. We must give thanks to songwriters Ford Kinder and Anne Bryant.
AUTOBOTS! DANCE AND BOOGIE!
According to Wikipedia, the first two seasons of "The Transformers" were exported over to Japan in 1985 where they became known as "Tatakae! Chō Robotto Seimeitai Toransufōmā"（戦え!超ロボット生命体トランスフォーマー...Fight! Super Robot Life-Form Transformers）; man, they really loved those extended titles, didn't they? What's more, the opening theme wasn't the famous intrepid march by Bryant and Kinder.
Instead, it was "TRANSFORMER" by Satoko Shimonari（下成佐登子）and this theme sounded more like Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and the rest of the Autobots hit a City Pop party one Friday night. Shimonari may not have been a huge household word but I've gotten to know about her well enough that I've even purchased an album by her. However, little did I know that she had recorded a theme song for those robots in disguise as her 13th single in September 1985.
Shimonari had a trio of masters helping her out with "TRANSFORMER". There were lyricist Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）, composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）and arranger Shiro Sagisu（鷺巣詩郎）who created something that sounded very reminiscent of the "Cat's Eye" theme by Anri（杏里） a few years earlier. Heck, the song even included a fluegelhorn; just try to imagine a flugelhorn in a theme about transformable robot heroes. It is all so urban and cool and I can easily see Optimus and gang aerobicizing in their own 20-minute workout to "TRANSFORMER" as well as hit the dance floor: AUTOBOTS! COOL DOWN AND FLOW!
A few years back, I contributed an article regarding Hyogo Prefecture-born Mariko Ashibe（芦部真梨子）and her lone 1984 album "Street Scandal"（ストリート・スキャンダル）, and I did mention that I was slightly disturbed by the front cover. Calling The Equalizer!
fromjapan.co.jp
Yahoo.jp
However, looking at the inside of "Street Scandal", it appears that Ashibe held her own quite well, and in fact, she even had the wherewithal to relax on the cool night pavement later on. No idea where the assailant's body ended up.
To join her "Highway Dancer"（ハイウェイ・ダンサー） as the album representative on KKP, I give you "Private Friday" this Friday. With lyrics by Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）who also wrote "Highway Dancer", the City Pop melody was provided by Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）, and with those tight horns including a solo saxophone, images of Anri（杏里）and Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）come flying along with the breezy feeling of driving along Tokyo Bay. Ashibe's vocals also remind me to a certain degree of Meiko Nakahara（中原めいこ）.
I don't usually lap up a song from YouTube that has just been uploaded on the same day since it seems a bit hasty and vulture-like, but the channel belongs to my near namesake Kayo Wave Plus and I've just read that they will be scaling back on their contributions due to various circumstances. The channel has had a lot of good songs put up there over the years and so it will be too bad that it will be slowing things down. However, I wish Kayo Wave Plus all the best in their future endeavors and thank them for the good music thus far.
Back in June 2019, so a mere three years ago, I wrote up something on Kazuhiro Nishimatsu's（西松一博）1981 debut album"Good Times" that I purchased on not only the merits of a couple of tracks that I'd covered individually, the happy-go-lucky "My Last Lady" and "Crescent Night"（クレッセント・ナイト）, but also because of Nishimatsu's 1985 second very different album"Bouekifu Monogatari"（貿易風物語）which had that cabaret-on-Tatooine feeling.
Now the copy of "Good Times" that I got came with six bonus tracks consisting of Nishimatsu's singles and a couple of songs that he did for the soundtrack of the anime movie "Crusher Joe"（クラッシャージョウ）. I was able to cover a couple of those in the original "Good Times" article, but I could still only find one more bonus track on YouTube.
Back then when I did the 2019 article, I rather lamented that there weren't any more tracks for me to cover. Well, that has changed over the past three years for which I want to thank the YouTuber, Minmo. One reason for having good times with the eclectic "Good Times" is that it's not just a straight City Pop album but it also has elements of other genres in there, too, such as New Wave and some hints of that techno jazz that would be part-in-parcel for the later "Bouekifu Monogatari".
Track 3 is "Sasurai City"（さすらいCity...Wandering City） which was created by the sibling songwriting team of Etsuko and Takao Kisugi（来生えつこ・来生たかお）with guitarist Tsuyoshi Kon（今剛）arranging it (along with a number of the other tracks). It's an interesting tune since it has Nishimatsu singing with that falsetto that I've come to associate with his cabaret style on "Bouekifu Monogatari" although Takao's melody and Kon's arrangement result in a sports car-driving West Coast AOR style along the Ventura.
(Sorry but the video has been taken down.)
"Swan" is a gentle pop ballad of coming to terms with a romantic situation with Nishimatsu and Kon working on the melody while Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）wrote the lyrics. It becomes further tenderized thanks to those slow and shimmering strings and the old-timey piano. Again, due to Nishimatsu's high-toned vocals, we get hints of what's to come with that second album. The way that "Swan" ends with those key shifts in the instrumental shows that there is hope over the horizon.
"Gosan"（誤算...Mistake） is a nice slice of light Latin Resort Pop written by Yoko Aki（阿木燿子）, composed by Takao Kisugi and arranged by Akira Inoue（井上鑑）. Despite the ominous warning of that title, the music by Kisugi and Inoue certainly don't show any foreboding. If anything, everything seems very copacetic on the boardwalk.
Let me first get the name of Seabornia out of the way. I automatically did get some marine vibes from the word, and when I checked it out in the search engines, I found out that there was a yacht club and a restaurant with that name in Kanagawa and Tokyo respectively. I gather then that Nishimatsu must have truly savored his "Seabornia Lunch" (it likely included one fine vinaigrette on his salad) . The song itself has got more of that West Coast AOR with a side of rock, and the singer even puts on a bit of a growl in the delivery. Ohtsu provided the lyrics while the melody was another Nishimatsu and Kon collaboration.
Some soft-shoe French jazz finishes the original album before all of the bonus tracks thanks to "Michelet Dori"（ミシューレ通り...Av. Michelet）. Now I'm not sure if that's the romaji that Nishimatsu was aiming for since I couldn't find anything online that corresponded with the katakana of 「ミシューレ」. However there was 「ミシュレ」without the bar which did lead to 19th-century French historian Jules Michelet. And when I punched in "Av. Michelet" into the search engines, I did get a few hits of streets with that name in a number of French municipalities. On the other hand, I did throw in the title verbatim into Google Translate and got "Michele Street" which actually exists in Dearborn, Michigan, but I rather doubt that Nishimatsu was pondering about the Midwest when he came up with the song (for instance, I did hear "bonjour" in there along with some other French words).
Ah, good heavens. My apologies for making the above sound like a CIA intelligence briefing. Getting back to "Michelet Dori", Chii Uchida（内田栞）, who was the lyricist for the title track of the album, came up with the words for this one, while Nishimatsu and Kyoko Matsumiya（松宮恭子）worked on the romantic French music (aside from a bit of City Pop midway) together with Inoue once again providing arrangement. I could imagine if there had been a music video, it would have had Nishimatsu dancing around in tuxedo, hat and cane like Charles Boyer. Once again, there is that hint of what he would do on "Bouekifu Monogatari" except that "Michelet Dori" is a straight jazz interpretation without the synths.
As I mentioned all the way up at the top, I could only find one more bonus track which was, "Hishou ~ Never End"（飛翔...Flight）, the theme song to the 1983 anime motion picture treatment of "Crusher Joe". Although I wouldn't say that this would have been a fit for "Bouekifu Monogatari", it does have that epic ballad vibe to span the cosmos. The singer is officially known as Kazuhiro Nishimatsu by ARAGON and he was responsible for the melody. Meanwhile, the lyrics were by Fukuoka Prefecture-born poetRyuichiro Fujiwara（藤原龍一郎）under the pseudonym Tsukihiko Fujiwara（藤原月彦）.
Yes, those were indeed good times with "Good Times", but I'm now going through tired times after today's bunch of articles so I will call it a night. See you tomorrow!
