Japanese Pop Music x Bon Odori（盆踊り）

 

Being summer, it's festival season in Japan and I know that it's in full swing whenever I hear about or see Tokyo's Sumida River Fireworks Festival on the final Saturday of July. I've seen it on television from the air-conditioned comfort of my Ichikawa apartment and around thirty years ago, I actually saw it with my own eyes from the apartment of a student who generously invited teachers and fellow classmates over for a fireworks party. We were very fortunate in that the apartment was right by the Sumida River in Asakusa where I used to work, so the fireworks literally exploded right over our heads. Getting back home, though, was quite the adventure in time and physics.

Festivals in Japan also mean bon odori...the great communal dance around the raised stage all draped in red and white like the colours of the Japanese flag. Nothing says the dog days of summer than doing those rhythmic steps while sporting a colourful yukata and geta while a min'yo is being sung and performed on stage.

However, in the last several years, there has been some relaxation of the rules in terms of the music, so instead of the traditional stuff, examples of kayo kyoku and J-Pop have been used to get the crowds all roused up and dancing. Thanks to an NHK report yesterday, I was rather inspired to put up this list that I got from a far bigger list on Line Music. Yes, you can dance to these in the Bon Odori style!

(1984) Ann Lewis -- Roppongi Shinju （六本木心中）

(1985) Yoko Oginome -- Dancing Hero （ダンシング・ヒーロー）

(1993) Pizzicato Five -- Tokyo wa Yoru no Shichi-ji (東京は夜の七時）

(2001) B'z -- Ultra Soul

(2013) AKB48 -- Koisuru Fortune Cookie (恋するフォーチュンクッキー)

P.S. They could even make a Bon Dance out of this classic!

Ann Lewis -- Please Tell Me（プリーズ・テル・ミー ）

 

The phrase "Think Pink!" may have popped up in some advertising campaign in America somewhere sometime but the only thing I remember is that it was used as the title for another "Pink Panther" animated series back in the 1970s. At the time, I had only known the Pink Panther as the suave and bumbling cartoon feline on Saturday mornings and weekday afternoons with the cool jazz theme before discovering the original Blake Edwards movie in the 1960s.

Well, at around the same time of that particular cartoon series in the United States, singer Ann Lewis（アン・ルイス） released her 5th studio album with the same title, "Think! Pink!", in September 1978 with that extra exclamation mark attached. Now, before I go any further, I've always believed that Ms. Lewis has been a vivacious and pretty woman, but seeing that cover of her in very glamourous garb with that heavily made-up face made me think that she was trying to become a Monty Python cartoon by Terry Gilliam. I was half-expecting to see her eyes shift from side to side and her mouth clack away in a deranged British accent.

Anyways, allow me to lead you to one of the tracks on "Think! Pink!", "Please Tell Me" which was written and composed by Tommy Snyder who was the drummer for the band Godiego（ゴダイゴ）at the time. Bassist Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）arranged "Please Tell Me" into a pretty groovy West Coast AOR tune with Lewis in character as that mink-wearing glamour queen delivering those sultry English lyrics. Once again, gotta love the sax! Jake H. Concepcion?

Ann Lewis -- Aah, Mujou（あゝ無情）

 

It's hard for me to remember when I first heard singer Ann Lewis（アン・ルイス）. It may have been when I heard her sweet 70s aidoru self on an episode of "Sounds of Japan" in the first half of the 1980s but the possibility may exist that the first time was through karaoke at Kuri in downtown Toronto since her hard rock persona's music was quite popular with some of us participants when we went there in the late 80s. In any case, it was quite the drastic change for Lewis between the 1970s and the 1980s...almost on the level of The Doctor on "Doctor Who" regenerating from one form to another. Happy 60th anniversary, by the way!

Anyways, lest I get too geeky, let me get back to Lewis. One of the songs that got performed at Kuri over and over again was her April 1986 27th single "Aah, Mujou" (Ahh, Heartlessness). I think one reason that I haven't posted this one until now is that I kept confusing it for another rocker by the singer, "Roppongi Shinju"（六本木心中）which had come out a few years earlier. But OK, now I can distinguish between the two.

Created by the same duo behind "Roppongi Shinju", lyricist Reiko Yukawa（湯川れい子）and composer NOBODY, "Aah Mujou" seems to be a rocker relating a tragic tale of betrayals and counter-betrayals between one woman and perhaps a number of other characters in cruel Tokyo, although she has been trying in vain to get out of the vicious circle (maybe she's the Michael Corleone of Roppongi) For those bass addicts, feel happy to listen to a few rounds of the song. Jun Sato（佐藤準）, by the way, was behind the arrangement. "Aah Mujou" reached No. 21 on Oricon.

Ann Lewis -- Please Tell Me

 

Well, after catching "Mission: Impossible ~ Dead Reckoning Part 1" the other day, the big movie event seems to be today's joint release of the extremely fluffy and cheerful "Barbie" and the dead serious nuclear test-creating "Oppenheimer". The joint marketing of these two diametrically opposite movies has apparently become a godsend (ironically, smack dab in the middle of a contentious writers and actors' strike) known as Barbieheimer for both flicks. Supposedly, Margot "Barbie" Robbie was showing off her ticket for "Oppenheimer" and Christopher Nolan, director of "Oppenheimer", was displaying his pass for "Barbie". 

May both do well. In fact, I may be watching one of those movies next week with a friend of mine. However, I will probably not be wearing anything pink for "Barbie" or a soberly brown suit for "Oppenheimer". 

Ah, speaking of pink....I'd like to delve into Ann Lewis'（アン・ルイス）6th studio album "Think! Pink!" from September 1978. Specifically, there's one track there "Please Tell Me" which sounds like a nice slice of 1970s City Pop thanks to the words and music by Tommy Snyder of Godiego（ゴダイゴ）fame. Bassist Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）arranged everything into a cool downtown soul-pop strut into Roppongi or Shinjuku. Lewis also sounds very fetching and plaintive, but I have to admit that the picture of her on the cover can be a little scary (as beautiful as Lewis is). She looks like something out of Terry Gilliam's imagination for "Monty Python". 

Incidentally, the previous Ann Lewis song that I covered was about a year ago. It was for her "Shonan no Otoko-tachi"（湘南の男たち）which was also placed onto "Think! Pink!".

Ann Lewis -- Shonan no Otoko-tachi（湘南の男たち）

 

I have to say that the above video is a lovely one showing off Shonan Beach in Kanagawa Prefecture, and to give credit where credit is due, the YouTube channel responsible is Peace Nippon Project. As it has been a long weekend in Japan due to Monday being Marine Day, despite the increase in COVID rates, I'm fairly sure that the beaches were quite full of summer lovers. Shonan would have been one of the more popular sites, too.

The above is a nice enough introduction to bring back singer Ann Lewis（アン・ルイス）into the "Kayo Kyoku Plus" fold after almost six years. Yup, the last time that I put up one of her songs onto the blog was back in late 2016 for her "Shampoo" (シャンプー). 

I realize that Lewis was famous for her rock and disco material from the late 1970s onwards, but I guess that as late as 1978, she had still been singing those more innocent pop kayo. Case in point is the B-side to her 14th single "Onna wa Sore wo Gaman Dekinai"（女はそれを我慢できない...Women Can't Stand That） from May 1978. "Shonan no Otoko-tachi" (Shonan Guys) is an upbeat if slightly teasing tune by Lewis about how women are looking for the truest purest love while guys (at least in the Shonan area) are merely searching for something more physical and less permanent; wolves they are! Written by Makoto Kitajo（喜多条忠）, composed by Kunihiko Kase（加瀬邦彦）and arranged by Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）, "Shonan no Otoko-tachi" has got a hint of some of that 50s or 60s rock n' roll underlaying the innocent tune. Meanwhile, it's good to hear Lewis' distinct and slightly pleading vocals once more. The single itself went up to No. 12 on the charts.

Chiyoko Shimakura -- Ai no Sazanami （愛のさざなみ）

Caught my first "Uta Kon"（うたコン）in a few weeks. The theme was one that has popped up on the program a number of times in the past including when the NHK kayo show was titled "Kayo Concert"（歌謡コンサート）...all about ardent love. The show even had an actress give a reading of some messages of love from some famous folks such as novelist Soseki Natsume（夏目漱石）and songwriter Rokusuke Ei（永六輔）.

Most of the songs that were featured have already shown up on this blog so the one new tune that stood out to me was Chiyoko Shimakura's（島倉千代子）"Ai no Sazanami" (Ripples of Love) that first saw the light of day back in July 1968 as the single commemorating her 15th anniversary in show business. What was interesting about the song was that despite its categorization on the J-Wiki article as an enka song (and all the singers in this article dressed in kimono), I really don't think it sounds like an enka tune...or a Mood Kayo song, for that matter. I don't hear any Japanese instruments; it's a gently rolling piano and guitar anchoring the ballad. In fact, I think there is almost something downright Carpenters about it. According to that article, the backing chorus was actually recorded in Los Angeles at the composer's suggestion but I'm not sure if that meant that an American group of backup singers was hired or whether Japanese backup singers were brought into LA.

"Ai no Sazanami" was written by Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）and composed by Kuranosuke Hamaguchi（浜口庫之助）. Nakanishi definitely leaves the love out there for Shimakura to sing. The first verse is as follows:

If there is truly a god on this Earth
I want to die in your arms
Gently, gently kiss me
In that lone boat on the lake
Over and over, just like ripples

I think it was a good choice for the song to be presented, and it was a good opportunity to find out about this fascinating pop song of the times performed by an already well-regarded enka singer. "Ai no Sazanami" was a huge hit for the late Shimakura, becoming a million-seller. And if I'm not mistaken, with Oricon just starting out, it was the singer's first entry into those charts, topping off at No. 20 for 2 straight weeks. December 1968 was also a busy one for her since she won a special prize at the Japan Record Awards as well as gaining her 12th straight appearance on the Kohaku Utagassen.

Of course for such a lovely song, covers are inevitable and I found this really wonderful version re-arranged as an R&B ballad and performed by none other than Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）, Kyoko Koizumi（小泉今日子）and Ann Lewis（アン・ルイス）back in the late 1980s.

Plus, there is Fuyumi Sakamoto（坂本冬美）providing her own version in 2006. But strangely enough, when I first heard the Shimakura original, I thought that "Ai no Sazanami" would also be an ideal choice for Kiyoshi Maekawa and The Cool Five（前川清とクール・ファイブ）to tackle.

Ann Lewis -- Shampoo (シャンプー)

Not sure if this also applies in the West, but in Japan whenever there is a romantic breakup, especially when the relationship had been a long one, the custom is that a woman with long hair would cut it down to a bob (the guy can apparently keep his money on haircuts). So I guess if any woman heads out to work or play with a radically different do, her colleagues may exclaim "Oh dear, I hope it wasn't too painful..." or "Why, that jerk! Dumping her like that...". Therefore, it's not just the fall season that signifies the end of a beautiful relationship but a drastic visit to a hair salon.

(cover version)

I decided to start off with this tonsorial anecdote since it would seem to be the theme of this unusual but lovely ballad by Ann Lewis (アン・ルイス). The reason I say "unusual" is that I've never heard Lewis sing something that wasn't hard rock from her 80s period or one of her very early sweet songs from the first half of the 1970s.

As it is, "Shampoo" is a track from her 8th album from August 1979, "Pink Pussycat". I've seen the cover for this album numerous times in books and at the CD shops in Japan, and yep, that was my image of Lewis because of all of those rock tunes. I would have approached her with trepidation. And yet, here is "Shampoo" done in this slightly gospel bluesy style almost along the lines of Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）. Perhaps it's not surprising then that Yoshida's frequent songwriting partner, Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）, was behind the composition of this ode to the breakup while Chinfa Kan（康珍化）took up the duty of writing the melancholy lyrics.

There was that old chestnut in America titled "I'm Washing That Man Right Out of My Hair" which was always performed gleefully as if the woman was celebrating a lottery win by finally ridding herself of that jerk. "Shampoo" instead has quite the opposite emotion in which the protagonist is crying her tears in the shower as she tries to wash away the sadness of the breakup from her now-shortened hairdo. Lewis tries to encourage her to forget about the past and look forward to the future. There are other fish in the sea, y'know.

Always nice to hear a new side from a singer that I've known for decades.

Ann Lewis -- Woman

Along with the sad news of Chiyonofuji's passing, I also caught the somewhat surprising report that former TV Tokyo broadcaster and former Defense Minister Yuriko Koike（小池百合子）became the first female governor of Tokyo. Many congratulations on the victory but I was surprised that she did win since the mandarins of her old political party, the Liberal Democratic Party, had been doing their darnedest to discourage the politician from grabbing the brass ring. And frankly, I thought former governor of Iwate Prefecture and former Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications, Hiroya Masuda, was a shoo-in.

One of my students remarked to me that he frankly thought Koike seemed to lap up the media attention too much during her time as a national politician. I'm merely hoping that she doesn't end up like her two immediate predecessors and spend the metropolitan coffers as if it were her own personal bank account. If she can keep her hands out of the taxpayers' till and keep a good handle on the Tokyo Olympics, she should do OK....I hope.

I hadn't put up an Ann Lewis（アン・ルイス）article in many a moon so under the circumstances, perhaps it is time to rectify that situation. "Woman", Lewis' 32nd single from September 1989, was a song that I had initially thought was sung during my Kuri days at university by one of the members of our karaoke cadre. For those folks who have read the manga by Akira Toriyama, "Dr. Slump", she was the spitting image of the character of Akane Kimidori in terms of her looks and sassy attitude. So I had mistakenly assumed that she had owned the karaoke-singing rights to "Woman".

However, since it came out in that September of that year...well, I was already in Japan teaching at junior high school so my memory was definitely not right. But I do know that it was a favourite song at karaoke so probably during my JET days or in my years in the Tokyo area, it was performed by students at many a karaoke joint that we visited at night.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5eat7_%E3%82%A2%E3%83%B3-%E3%83%AB%E3%82%A4%E3%82%B9-woman_music

Written by Ayuko Ishikawa（石川あゆ子）and composed by Hideya Narazaki（中崎英也）, "Woman" was also a song that I had thought was meant to be powerfully delivered, judging from the karaoke performances that I'd heard. However, as originally delivered by Lewis, it was actually a relatively quiet form of encouragement against the backdrop of screeching electric guitars, but no less defiant in the lyrics which basically throw a huge "Screw you!" to that man who wronged the woman. She will no longer take the guff.

There is nothing listed about how well "Woman" did on Oricon, unfortunately. However, getting back to Koike's big win today, it looks like she took the song's message to heart. The song was also used as the ending theme to a special episode of the famous anime "City Hunter" series known as "The Secret Service". Regrettably, though, anything connecting the anime with the song has been muted due to copyright issues. But below is a promo for that show.

Ann Lewis -- Koi no Boogie-Woogie Train （恋のブギ・ウギ・トレイン）

(karaoke version)

Disco, baby, disco!! That's the feeling I get from listening to Ann Lewis'（アン・ルイス） "Koi no Boogie-Woogie Train"(Boogie-Woogie Love Train) and I guess the title pretty much says it all. Time to shed the inhibitions and get on the dance floor and party like it was 1979.

Lewis' 17th single comes in smack dab between the two musical personae that I had recognized the singer as: her initial appearance as the sweet innocent aidoru in the early 1970s and then her rock queen of the early 1980s....from Patsy Cline to Pat Benatar in about a decade. With "Koi no Boogie-Woogie Train", she's in disco queen mode, dancing to a beat that brings to mind a lot of the fun and excess (perhaps for a lot of you, the previous conjunction might actually be an "or") of partying in the big city at that time....Tokyo or New York..

Minako Yoshida/吉田美奈子 (lyrics) and Tatsuro Yamashita/山下達郎 (music) were behind the making of this example of disco kayo, and although I don't think it's quite on the same level as Yoshida's amazing "Town" that nikala talked about on her own Best 80s list, "Koi no Boogie-Woogie Train"is a fun bit of musical nostalgia.

While the original version was released on Xmas Day 1979, an English version of the song with lyrics by Chris Mosdell came out six months later as her 18th single. If there had been a Japanese version of the US dance show, "Soul Train", at the time, I think the producers would have known who to have turned to for its theme song.

NOBODY/Ann Lewis/Nanase Aikawa -- Don't You Go/Roppongi Shinju （六本木心中）

Have a listen to this song by rock duo NOBODY:

Sound similar? Yup, this is "Don't You Go", one of their creations from April 1987 which got onto their live album, "NOBODY LIVE 2". NOBODY, which consisted of Yukio Aizawa（相沢行夫） and Toshio Kihara（木原敏雄）, also composed songs for a lot of folks such as "Dance Beat wa Yoake Made"（ダンス・ビートは夜明けまで） for Yoko Oginome（荻野目洋子）, and "C-Girl" for Yui Asaka（浅香唯）.

However, with Reiko Yukawa（湯川れい子） as the lyricist, NOBODY's "Don't You Go" started life explosively as "Roppongi Shinju"(Roppongi Lovers' Suicide) back in October 1984 for someone who has been called "The Queen of (Japanese) Rock", Ann Lewis. That's quite a shift in genre considering her aidoru tunes back in the 1970s (see "Goodbye, My Love"). But for me, Lewis' incarnation as Rock Goddess is the one that I primarily know, thanks to the popularity of "Roppongi Shinju" in the Kuri karaoke lounge. Our Akina Nakamori specialist was also the go-to singer for Lewis' anthem of a woman who can no longer go on without her dead lover in the cold, alienating world of Tokyo...notably Roppongi (although the neighbourhood is never cited in the lyrics).

Although I've categorized the song as "J-Rock", Lewis, who has been a huge fan of hard rock and bands like Led Zeppelin, decided in 1978 to make a fresh start in her music and decided to aim for something called K-ROCK...namely, Kayo Rock. Her 24th single from October 1984 here held court in the Oricon rankings for the better part of a year, peaking at No. 12 and becoming the 41st-ranked song of 1985.

A number of artists have covered the song, along with the aforementioned NOBODY, over the years. But I think perhaps the one singer who especially received the baton from Lewis was Nanase Aikawa（相川七瀬）. In October 2002, she put out her own down-and-dirty version as her 21st single and as a track on her BEST album, "ID:2", released in March 2003. It did even slightly better than the original, when it peaked at No. 10.

Ann Lewis -- Roppongi Shinju

Ann Lewis/Mariya Takeuchi -- Linda

Ann Lewis（アン・ルイス） and Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）are good buddies. In fact, they hit it off so well that in August 1980, Takeuchi created this ode to her friend and named it with Lewis' middle name. Probably one reason for the special present was that Lewis was getting married that year. Since it was early in Takeuchi's career, "Linda", Lewis' 19th single, has that 50s bobbysoxer ballad lilt to it. I can imagine Olivia Newton-John tackling this one.

 

(karaoke version)

A year later, Takeuchi did her own cover of "Linda" on her 4th album, "Portrait". For a while, the song was a popular one to play at weddings in Japan; just imagine anyone named Linda getting married there. Just my personal opinion, but I prefer Takeuchi's take on it just because her voice has that timbre to it. Neither version particularly leaped up the Oricon charts but that's OK; it was a personal message of love, after all.

Ann Lewis/Teresa Teng -- Goodbye, My Love

Ann Linda Lewis（アン・ルイス）was born to an American father and a Japanese mother in 1956 in Hyogo Prefecture before her family moved to Yokohama. She was a child actor and eventually she started living on her own in Roppongi, Tokyo at the age of 18. By that time, she had already started modeling and singing. But my first memories of Ann Lewis were far from the cute young lady you see in the video. I first saw and heard her when she had already become a hard rock goddess on the level of a Lee Aaron or the Wilson Sisters of Heart. One of our old karaoke members at Kuri made it a weekly custom to sing a Lewis rock song.

Nope, I was surprised when I learned that she had once been an aidoru who sang this cute if slightly corny little number called "Goodbye, My Love". Released in April 1974, the song was written by Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）and composed by Masaaki Hirao（平尾昌晃） (who had composed and sung "Canada kara no Tegami"). Once in a while, another one of our group would also sing this one although I wouldn't find out who the original singer was for quite some years. The song went as high as No. 14 on Oricon, and her 6th single would become her first big hit.

The late Teresa Teng (テレサ・テン) also did her own winning cover of the song although I'm not sure if it ever came out as a single in Japan. Apparently, it's on one of her BEST compilations.