Night Drive

By Yudai_photography via Wikimedia Commons

Welcome to another Urban Contemporary Friday on "Kayo Kyoku Plus". I'm starting things a little differently today with an Author's Picks. I was inspired to do this one this way from actually viewing a segment on Wednesday's edition of NHK's "Asaichi"（あさイチ）morning infotainment program which focused on the Kawasaki Industrial Site.

I not only remember seeing this glittering otherworldly complex of lights and metal but for one night, I was actually within it! That night, due to a teacher falling ill, I was assigned to teach a lesson for a couple of the employees working within the complex and yep, it was pretty stunning especially when seeing it from the train. Entering the area felt like boarding the mother ship.

The Japanese tourism industry certainly didn't let the opportunity go. There are now tours on foot, bus and boat to take a look at the Kawasaki Industrial Site through selected spots. If you're interested, you can take a look at the relevant page at Japan Experience. Also, the above video is by YouTuber Hachimantai Outdoors.

The reason that I wanted to do this "Night Drive" is because seeing the Kawasaki Industrial Site from the air had me thinking of Kazumasa Oda's（小田和正）lovely ballad "Oh Yeah!". The official music video for Oda's 1991 song had couples enjoying each other's company but there were a couple of scenes in there showing some glorious eagle-view night shots of Tokyo which stayed with me.

Now, to be honest, this Author's Picks isn't something unprecedented. I've already noted "Oh Yeah!" in a 2014 article "J-Canuck's Nighttime Playlist". Plus in 2022, I whipped up "Driving to City Pop" with its cool songs. So, consider "Night Drive" to be the love child of the two articles and I will be choosing different tunes that still reflect in my opinion, the nighttime drive experience in Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, etc. (although of course, you may have your own choices). Furthermore, another inspiration for this one is the old "Night Ride" 1980s late-night Toronto show that appeared almost every night in the wee hours on Global Television to relax those night owls.

(1976) Yuming -- Chuo Freeway（中央フリーウェイ） 

(1982) Yasuhiro Abe -- We Got It!

(1982) Tohoku Shinkansen -- Up and Down

(1984) Anzen Chitai -- Mayonaka Sugi no Koi （真夜中すぎの恋）

(1985) Akina Nakamori -- Lonely Journey （ロンリー・ジャーニー）

(1987) Kahoru Kohiruimaki -- City Hunter: Ai yo Kienai de （愛よ消えないで）

Strangely enough, I'm already getting entries in my head for "Night Drive 2". Maybe next month. In the meantime, you can also enjoy "Night Walk".

Those Sad and Lonely Tunes

 

It was just this morning when I saw commenter Brian Mitchell noticing that there were indeed a lot of songs in Japan with the word kanashii（悲しい）or kanashimi（悲しみ）or some variant. They refer to sadness or loneliness and it would fit in with the kayo kyoku tendency to bring up a lot of sad stories within the lyrics albeit the music supporting them has often been quite cheerful. Well, I've opted to show off an Author's Picks (not complete by any means) of these songs which are mostly upbeat except for one. I refused though to post a thumbnail of a sad face...I went with something more symbolic, namely a Wikimedia Commons photo by User Kenlin of someone pouring some sake for someone having the blues.

(1966) Hibari Misora -- Kanashii Sake （悲しい酒）

(1983) Anri -- Kanashimi ga Tomaranai (悲しみがとまらない）

(1984) Checkers -- Kanashikute Jealousy （哀しくてジェラシー）

(1985) Anzen Chitai -- Kanashimi ni Sayonara（悲しみにさよなら)

(1987) Keisuke Kuwata -- Kanashii Kimochi （悲しい気持ち）

Peabo Bryson -- If Ever You're in My Arms Again

Kingkongphoto & www.celebrity-photos.com
via Wikimedia Commons

As KKP readers know, I do the weekly Reminiscings of Youth on Thursday and I did provide the one for Nik Kershaw earlier this afternoon. However, considering what I've heard in the last 24 hours or so, I feel that I have to write one more ROY tonight especially in the light of the passings of a few Japanese representatives in the music industry within the last month: songwriters Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）and Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）along with singer Yoichi Sugawara（菅原洋一）.

Singer Peabo Bryson passed away on June 2nd a couple of days ago at the age of 75 due to what may have been a stroke. The obituaries on television often mentioned his 90s duets for "Aladdin" and "Beauty of the Beast", but I had known him for a decade prior because of his songs coming onto radio frequently. And he's already got representation on KKP through two of those wonderful melodies from his work with Roberta Flack via the 1983 album "Born to Love".

The following year, another wonderful ballad was released by Bryson titled "If Ever You're in My Arms Again", which came out in April 1984. It's a lush Quiet Storm ballad of second chances that was created by Cynthia Weil, Michael Masser and Tom Snow, and listening to it once more reminded me that they don't come up with this sort of love song anymore. Some of those notes he hits! From the list of musicians involved, I notice that at least a few of them have worked with Japanese singers such as guitarist Paul Jackson Jr. and bassist Neil Steubenhaus. On the Adult Contemporary charts in both Canada and the United States, the song hit No. 1 with it staying at the top of the US chart for four weeks. I'm glad that a new generation is discovering his wonderful abilities.

My condolences go out to Bryson's family, friends and many fans. 

What else was coming out as singles in April 1984 in Japan?

Anzen Chitai -- Mayonaka Sugi no Koi （真夜中すぎの恋）

Meiko Nakahara -- Kimi Tachi Kiwi Papaya Mango da ne （君たちキウイ・パパヤ・マンゴだね。）

Yoko Oginome -- Mirai Koukai ~ Sailing （未来航海）

Naked Eyes -- Promises, Promises

 

A little over three years ago, I did a ROY article on Naked Eyes' "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me" which was a New Wave version of an old Burt Bacharach and Hal David easy-listening ditty that I used to hear on AM radio all the time. Not only was I surprised but I was actually quite gobsmacked that a song like this could be made into a synthpop example of coolness.

Well, Naked Eyes pulled off another hit several months after that one. On April Fool's Day in 1983, they released "Promises, Promises" which I remember getting a lot of airplay on the radio and plenty of TV play on the music video shows. I will always remember that svelte young woman drying off her hair to the synthy jazz-soul. "Promises, Promises" hit No. 13 on Canada's RPM while in the States, it reached No. 11. On the Wikipedia article for the song, I read that Madonna even provided background vocals for the extended versions of it.

Up at Straw-Wara, I discovered that three hit tunes from Japan were also released on the same day as "Promises, Promises".

Anzen Chitai -- Las Vegas Typhoon（ラスベガス・タイフーン）

Yu Hayami -- Natsu Iro no Nancy (夏色のナンシー）

Rats & Star -- Me Gumi no Hito （め組のひと）

A Few of Those Champagne-and-Caviar City Pop Songs as a Review

 

I've often referred to the Japanese asset price bubble which arguably lasted from around 1986 to 1991. Commonly it's known as the Bubble Era and it originated from the effects of the Plaza Accord signed at New York City's Plaza Hotel by representatives of various countries including Japan and the United States. Basically, the US dollar was depreciated against the currencies of the other nations, and from the following year, a huge influence was felt in Japan with asset prices skyrocketing and economic activity bubbling away like my pot of boiling pasta.

When I visited Japan in 1981 and started studying about the country in those early 1980s, I'd already thought that the economic party-hearty atmosphere arrived. I saw glossy magazines from the nation showing what was a pretty nice life among the citizens and certainly borrowing all of those videotapes of Japanese TV shows with their commercials emphasized those feelings. 

But then it was in the late 1980s when I was fully into my time at the University of Toronto that I read the craziness of buying million-dollar golf club memberships, sidewalk tiles that were more expensive than whole cities outside of Japan, and sprinkling gold flakes on broiled eel on rice. I got to Japan once more in 1989 at the tail end of the Bubble Era although I was working deep into the countryside so it wasn't quite that often that I experienced the grand Tokyo life.

In terms of Japanese popular music, and specifically City Pop, I thought that during those late 1980s, there was a certain additional swagger in City Pop which encompassed a lot of genres including disco, soul, and Latin. During that time, I think that there was also a goodly injection of sophisticated pop and horn-based jazz. And I've often made use of the phrase "champagne-and-caviar" when describing some of those tunes because whenever I heard them, it wasn't just about walking the streets of Tokyo; it was also about partaking in the various high-priced and high-life establishments on those streets of Tokyo. There still was the groove to be sure but there was also some of that Henry Mancini swing jazziness grafted onto the City Pop tunes. And since I love both groove and Mancini, I've remained a happy camper when it comes to the songs of the Bubble Era.

Of course, the party came to a crashing end at the beginning of the 1990s and music took a new tangent but I still look fondly at the City Pop that came out then. So yes, I'm also a nostalgic guy about the uber-genre. And as such, I thought that it would be nice to provide a summary of some of those champagne-and-caviar City Pop songs. One of the songs on the list actually came out a few years before the Plaza Accord but I still think it fits the bill in terms of the overall feeling. Anyways, have a good weekend.

PS If any of you have your own favourites that you think would fit the champagne-and-caviar platter, please let us know!

(1983)  Junko Yagami -- Jealous

(1986) Anzen Chitai -- Gin'iro no Pistol （銀色のピストル）

(1986) Ruiko Kurahashi -- Chuo Line（中央ライン）

(1988) Junko Ohashi -- Nemurenai Diamond (眠れないダイアモンド）

(1989) Masayuki Suzuki -- Wakare no Machi (別れの街）

The Eyes Have It!

 

Aliens vs. Anime? I figure that could be one of the last frontiers that the 46-year-old sci-fi-horror franchise could visit. By the way, the photo above was taken in Nakano Broadway.

In any case, the latest in the "Alien" franchise is "Alien: Earth" and in the months and weeks approaching its arrival on screens, we've been getting tidbits about the terrifying yet fascinating new predators going on the attack. Perhaps the one big monster is T. Ocellus that is 50% octopus, 50% eyeball and 100% nightmare. It literally bursts out in its debut as you can see above (or perhaps you don't want to, especially if you love cats).

Well, considering that it's Hump Day today and I want to gently scrub my brain of any of T. Ocellus' work, I'm going with another whimsical Author's Picks consisting of songs that have "eyes" in the title. It'll be a short list today.

(1982) Tatsuro Yamashita -- Your Eyes

(1983) Rats & Star -- Me Gumi no Hito （め組のひと）

(1985) Anzen Chitai -- Aoi Hitomi no Elise（碧い瞳のエリス）

Only Japan could make a comedic commercial involving a Xenomorph. Maybe it could do the same for T. Ocellus. A contract with Kirin perhaps?

Gowan -- A Criminal Mind

Wikimedia Commons
Hector Sanchez

For this week's edition of Reminiscings of Youth, I'm once again going into the Canadiana vault because my good friend and KKP contributor JTM and I had a talk back on Sunday, and he was further interested in what other Canadian singers and bands were up to back in the ol' 1980s. 

Well, there has been one singer that's been on my mind for a while since he went by a mononym during the time that he had made a splash on the music scene in the 1980s. Singer-songwriter (Lawrence) Gowan struck us not only with his distinct name but also with his third single, "A Criminal Mind", and its accompanying music video. Coming out in January 1985, I think I was in the middle of my freshman year at University of Toronto when this sinister but alluring pop/rock number popped out with Gowan fully acting up the role as an unrepentant if somewhat tragic evildoer amid synthesizers and guitars done up in a gothic dark way. In a way, I thought "A Criminal Mind" was a musical cousin to Pet Shop Boys' "Opportunities", although the feeling is that the bad guys in the latter song were mere pretenders to Gowan's successful mastermind.

Videographer Rob Quartly was behind the making of the video which combined stylized live-action and classic comics-influenced animation. Watching it and hearing the delectably devilish delivery by Gowan definitely made it all stand out when it was given heavy rotation on MuchMusic all those years ago. 

"A Criminal Mind" made it to No. 5 on RPM here in Canada and it was a track on Gowan's second studio album "Strange Animal" which was released a month after the single. To raise the ante on the Canadian-ness of it all today, I also have to give my props to the sinister narrator at the beginning of the video, the late voice actor Len Carlson from Edmonton. I only found out that he was the same fellow who used to do all those soothing Kraft recipe ads that I saw as a kid (although I don't think my mother would ever try them out).

Of course, "SCTV" couldn't help but poke fun at those commercials. Eugene Levy was the Carlson-soundalike here.

So, what else was coming out as singles in Japan when "A Criminal Mind" lurked out of the shadows?

Yoshie Kashiwabara -- Lonely Canary （ロンリー・カナリア）

Yutaka Ozaki -- Sotsugyo （卒業）

Anzen Chitai -- Nesshisen（熱視線）

Pete Townshend -- Face the Face

 

Welcome to the weekly article for Reminiscings of Youth where I bring forth a song that I remember from my childhood and adolescence (most of the time) and give some of my memories about it. 

I was never a fan of legendary rock band The Who although even as a rock-averse child, I'd known about Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, John Entwistle and Keith Moon going nuts on the stage and smashing guitars via television footage and radio station commercials. In my first year of high school and final year of ever picking up a clarinet again, we even had to practice selections from The Who's 1973 "Quadrophenia" album. I can guarantee that our attempts to play those selections didn't help me to appreciate or even remember any of the tracks.

But my image was set that The Who was a very angry group of musicians and singer-songwriters. And of course, in the decades to come, the "CSI" franchise made it a tradition to use their songs as themes for their individual shows. Personally, I've learned to enjoy the scream-worthy "Won't Get Fooled Again" for "CSI: Miami" while watching sunglasses-toting Lt. Horatio Caine spout one of his droll musings.

However, that was obviously much later in the century. Some years earlier, when I had that image of Townshend raging and transforming his Fenders and Gibsons into so much kindling and metal parts, he rather surprised me when I was a university student. I caught a music video of his where he transformed himself into an old-fashioned 1940s bandleader in a cheesy tuxedo in charge of a group of happy musicians playing some high-energy jazz and rock. Townshend looked stylish (as a mix of Nicolas Cage and Ralph Fiennes) and apparently absorbed a bit of Cab Calloway showmanship. 

I've read that "Face the Face" and its November 1985 source album of "White City: A Novel" weren't exactly warmly welcomed by critics who probably didn't enjoy seeing and hearing a hardcore rock musician going all Joe Jackson jive all of a sudden. However, I actually was good with the catchy song, and according to what I've read in the comments for the various YouTube representations of the tune, the song has amassed its popularity. For example, whoever was on the drums all throughout "Face the Face" should have received a massive bonus for providing that cool and percussive storm to get the folks up and dancing along with those happy and jamming horns.

"Face the Face" reached No. 17 on Canada's RPM and then No. 26 on America's Billboard charts. The highest that it got anywhere else around the world was in Sweden where it hit No. 8. Now, what was hitting the Top 3 of Oricon in November 1985?

1. Akiko Kobayashi -- Koi ni Ochite (恋におちて）

2. Checkers -- Kamisama Help!（神様ヘルプ！）

3. Anzen Chitai -- Aoi Hitomi no Elise（碧い瞳のエリス）

Just for Fun...The J-C AI Gallery -- TOKIO, SHOW-YA & Anzen Chitai

 

TOKIO -- Ambitious Japan!

SHOW-YA -- Mizu no Naka no Toubousha（水の中の逃亡者）

Anzen Chitai -- Wine-Red no Kokoro （ワインレッドの心）

Anzen Chitai -- Anzen Chitai ZERO (Part 2)

 

Last week, I posted an article on the Anzen Chitai（安全地帯） release that should have been their debut album instead of their official one as a major act, "Remember to Remember" (1983). "Anzen Chitai ZERO" consists of tracks that were probably made in the late 1970s when they had changed their name from Invader to Anzen Chitai as an amateur group. From what I could glean from a few Ameba blogs, the tracks were produced and performed during their concerts with tapes containing the songs being sold there only. For some reason, Koji Tamaki（玉置浩二）and company perhaps decided that they were no longer worth the time and effort to bring them aboard for their major debut and jettisoned them to find that new sound that would come in the early 1980s; it might explain why Tamaki and/or the powers-that-be haven't really made any effort to take down the YouTube video showing these fascinating early works. However, listening to the first five tracks in Part 1 of the article, I have found them eminently listenable and worthy of the band name.

Anyways, let's start up "Anzen Chitai ZERO" again with Track 6 at 17:02, "Oki Tegami"（置き手紙...The Letter Left Behind）. Beginning with what sounds like a circus accordion, Tamaki tenderly tickles our ears with a lovely ballad that also utilizes a lot of strings, so I think the band was already showing some ambition in their arrangements and choice in musicians. Having the ability to draw tears from a piece of granite has always been Tamaki's stock-in-trade and "Oki Tegami" is one tablet to show his vocal ability.

At 21:24 is "Moegiiro no Snap"（萠黄色のスナップ）which was Anzen Chitai's debut single from 1982, and I actually wrote about it all the way back in 2019. Back then, I noted that this was the song that didn't get onto "Remember to Remember", but it is here on "ZERO" so its history does go back to at least 1980 perhaps. 

Track 8 is "ROMENAPONCHI" at 26:35. Try as I might, I couldn't find any rhyme or reason behind the meaning of the title; maybe it's Tamaki's version of Phil Collins' "Sussudio". In any case, it seems to have something to do with baseball with perhaps Tamaki himself playing the play-by-play announcer. The song begins with a saucy guitar solo and a stubborn bass beat before Tamaki has a bit of fun with his voice...perhaps in a New Wave sort of way? As the song continues, the arrangement decides to have that fun as well. I was even tapping my heel as I was listening.

At 31:09 is "Dakishimete mo"（抱きしめても...Even Holding You）, I got some cool Electric Light Orchestra vibes for this pop/rock track. There's a nice guitar solo and along with "ROMENAPONCHI", I thought that "Dakishimete mo" was an example of Anzen Chitai stretching out their wings a bit more from the typical Anzen Chitai sound, although admittedly, the members themselves may not have known what their sound was back at the time. Maybe it was more along their old Invader ways.

The final song at 34:49 is "Tsubuyaki"（つぶやき）and nope it has nothing to do with Japanese tweets as in the former Twitter (we're talking about decades ago, after all). Back then, the word meant "murmurs", and the short song here is an apt track to finish the album off as a calming guitar ballad backed by those shimmering strings and some wonderful harmonies. 

So, what do I think of "ZERO" overall? Well, it's no zero by any means, and if I had a chance to talk with Tamaki, I would probably say that he had been a bit harsh in ditching these nice early works, if that is indeed what did happen to them. It doesn't have quite that nocturnal moody sound that the band became famous for within their second, third and fourth albums, but it does contain what I would later hear in the epic multi-LP "V" on certain tracks in terms of their rocking-out tunes and ballads, so I have a different take on these songs that I'd assumed were them spreading their wings but now believe were them going back to their original stylings. Not surprisingly, they were also a bit experimental back then trying to search for their identity so just on that alone, it would be worth a purchase if "ZERO" ever gets an official release on streaming or even old-fashioned CD or vinyl.

Anzen Chitai -- Anzen Chitai ZERO (Part 1)

 

This is a bit of an intriguing one, and of course, I'm coming very late to the party. About a week ago, I noticed a YouTube video at the right of the screen which said "Anzen Chitai Mihappyou Album Zero"（安全地帯～未発表アルバム ZERO）. Now, that basically translates into "Anzen Chitai Unreleased Album Zero", and whenever I see "Zero" attached to anything regarding pop culture, I will think that this is a prototype or a prequel of something.

At the same time, my first cynical thought was that those AI gremlins were at it again trying to copy ol' Koji Tamaki's（玉置浩二）voice and that distinctive Anzen Chitai sound from the 1980s. However, when I listened to those first few tracks from "Anzen Chitai ZERO" (as I will call it henceforth), I was somewhat taken aback when I realized that this could indeed be a true and young Tamaki and band performing here. It didn't sound like AI or for that matter, an impressionist doing his best. 

I then consulted with a couple of fellow Anzen Chitai fans: JTM, former KKP writer and good friend, and my sister-in-law. I had broached the subject with JTM before I sent him the link to the video so he had also been skeptical since there was nothing mentioned in J-Wiki or even Anzen Chitai's website about "Anzen Chitai ZERO", and for that matter, the video has been up on YouTube since June 2023 without any powers-that-be striking it down like Darth Vader on Obi-Wan Kenobi. I got a message a day later from him stating that the tracks did sound authentic and raw like a band on the cusp of stardom, but the question remained: Why has there nothing been mentioned about this? My sister-in-law simply said that it could indeed be artificial intelligence at work.

Well, when I threw the title of this mysterious new "first" album into the Yahoo.jp search engine, I got drawn into a number of Ameba blogs whose bloggers wrote about "Anzen Chitai ZERO", and apparently according to them, the songs brought together were from their amateur days in the late 1970s when they had already changed the band name from Invader to Anzen Chitai. One of the bloggers mentioned that one of the tracks, "Yubi no Tawamure"（指の戯れ...Finger Play） had been part of a "Tape 3" that had been sold at one of their amateur concerts back in 1980. Another blogger posited that the songs recorded had been seen by Tamaki and company as being something less than fresh and inspiring so they were given the figurative heave-ho with the band working on a new sound.

Let's see about that. There are ten tracks on "Anzen Chitai ZERO" so for this article, I will tackle the first five tracks. As for the release date, I don't know when the album was to have gone onto shelves but since "Yubi no Tawamure" evidently existed in 1980, we'll go with that until someone corrects me. 

Right from the beginning, there is "Platform" which begins with a train clanging and then a rock guitar wailing away. Tamaki and the gang are obviously having a good time here with the roots rock, and strangely enough, "Platform" hints at some of the good-time stuff on their much later album "V" in the mid-1980s.

At 3:54, "Ai wo Tsutaeru"（愛を伝える...Expressing Love） begins with a slightly cool and goofy acapella from the band and it's a bit more of a pop tune with the rock reined in. There's some guitar chugging and a bit of synth work that I had never heard in an Anzen Chitai song before right in the middle. Tamaki is already showing off that amazing set of vocal cords.

8:05 is when we hear the aforementioned "Yubi no Tawamure" as a funky strut about some interpersonal expressions of love, and yep, those digits are involved. Tamaki hasn't been hesitant about expressing love fairly explicitly.

"Ohzora inst."（大空"inst"...Big Sky Instrumental） at 12:06 is a brief ditty with an acoustic guitar going into some romantic Latin. Finally for this article, at 13:21, "Naite Ki ga Sumunonara"（泣いて気が済むのなら...If Crying Makes You Feel Better） begins with a lonely introspective piano which would usually hint at a heartbreak ballad especially with those amazing Tamaki vocals, but then almost a minute in, our ears are introduced to an electric guitar reggae rhythm and things speed up to mid-tempo wistful and maybe even hopeful.

I'm stopping here for today with Part 2 coming out next week. My initial feelings for "Anzen Chitai ZERO" are that for a group of songs that may have been disposed like a plate of scraps, they're pretty good scraps, and they sound more like the familiar major-label Anzen Chitai than at least some of the music on the band's official debut album "Remember to Remember" from January 1983 although I have yet to hear the moodiness that set the tone for those early years of the band through hits such as "Wine-Red no Kokoro"（ワインレッドの心）. But any of you Anzen Chitai fans can let me know how you feel about the tracks on "ZERO".

J-Canuck's Favourite Ballads by Male Singers

 

Ahh...yes. Getting all moony-eyed are we? As a sequel to last night's J-Canuck's Favourite Ballads by Female Singers, I now have the male singers and their songs of love to finish things off. 

(1987) Takao Kisugi -- Sugao no Ashita e （素顔の明日へ）

(1984) Anzen Chitai -- Koi no Yokan（恋の予感）

(1983) Jun'ichi Inagaki -- Natsu no Claxon （夏のクラクション）

(1982) Masaki Ueda -- Kanashii Iro ya ne (悲しい色やね)

(1982) Tatsuro Yamashita -- Your Eyes

Songs in Honour of Showa Day（昭和の日）

 

I failed to mention this yesterday but April 29th is part of the Golden Week holiday season in Japan and it's currently known as Showa Day. It had been celebrated as Emperor Hirohito's (the Showa era emperor) birthday until his death in early 1989 and then it was known as Greenery Day until 2007, when it was given its current name (Greenery Day is now May 4th).

Since there has been some nostalgic attraction for the culture of the Showa era (1926-1989), that's how I've usually seen Showa Day...not so much for the veneration of the late emperor but for what the times and trappings were like for ordinary people in Japan. Apparently, there is a Showa era museum in Aichi Prefecture as you can see above via MEGULOG's video. My particular examples of Showa era culture that regularly pop up in my memories are the old public phones of different sizes and colours, and the old-style kissaten as you can view in Mikki Café & Life below. Personally, my Showa era café will always be Café Renoir, the long-running franchise.

But of course, this being a kayo kyoku blog, I wanted to give my own contribution to Showa Day in terms of culture by providing some of the old songs. I'd wondered if I could find some sort of Top 5 list regarding memorable kayo kyoku but really couldn't find anything, so I've decided to come up with my own list of six songs representing each decade from the 1930s to the 1980s (sorry, couldn't remember anything from the 1920s). There wasn't any great research or all-night brain wracking for these songs...they just popped into my head and together they can perhaps show how music changed during the Showa era. So, without further ado...

(1936) Ichiro Fujiyama -- Tokyo Rhapsody（東京ラプソディ）

(1949) Hibari Misora -- Kanashiki Kuchibue （悲しき口笛）

(1959) Frank Nagai & Kazuko Matsuo -- Tokyo Nightclub （東京ナイトクラブ）

(1968)  The Tigers -- Hana no Kubi Kazari (花の首飾り）

(1976)  Momoe Yamaguchi -- Yokosuka Story （横須賀ストーリー）

(1983) Anzen Chitai -- Wine-Red no Kokoro （ワインレッドの心）

Perhaps you have your own list over the decades of personal favourites over the Showa era.

Anzen Chitai -- First Love Twice

 

For all of those Anzen Chitai（安全地帯）fans as well as any casual purveyors of Japanese pop and rock in the 1980s, do you remember "Remember to Remember"? Yes, I'm partially being a smart aleck here but I am indeed also being serious since the Hokkaido band did come up with their January 1983 first album with that very title. And as the link indicates, I also devoted an article to this debut release especially in the light that this original LP was rather proto in that it had come out before Koji Tamaki（玉置浩二） and his band really hit the big time with "Wine-Red no Kokoro"（ワインレッドの心）later in the year.

As I've mentioned in the past, I've always been fascinated by the early days of any legendary singer or band since it's frequently been the case that they hadn't sounded in the same way that we've known them in their prime. Case in point: Anzen Chitai's 2nd single "I'll Be On My Way" from October 1982 which was also placed onto "Remember to Remember". In my article on the album, I indicated that it didn't quite sound like the Anzen Chitai that a lot of us fans knew.

One other thing that I've mentioned in the past is in the form of a catchphrase: Never forget those B-sides! In the case of "I'll Be On My Way", that was "First Love Twice". The charismatic Tamaki did compose the tune with the band and familiar Anzen Chitai face Katsu Hoshi（星勝）handling the arrangement, but this time, it was singer-songwriter Kei Ogura（小椋佳）who provided the lyrics of getting that second chance at love. "First Love Twice" also has a similar energy to its A-side but over here, there seems to be that feeling of transition from the proto-atypical "I'll Be On My Way" to that famous atmospheric sound of Anzen Chitai that marked "Wine-Red no Kokoro" and their subsequent hit records. 

"First Love Twice" didn't make it onto any of the original albums by the band but it would get onto a couple of their BEST compilations: the 2005 "Anzen Chitai Complete Best" and the 1994 "Anzen Chitai Another Collection Mishuuroku Kyoku Shuu"（安全地帯 アナザー・コレクション -アルバム未収録曲集-...Album-Excluded Song Collection）.

Pet Shop Boys -- Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)

 

It's Thursday night so it's time for another weekly entry of Reminiscings of Youth, and this duo already has a few entries on KKP under this Label, but that's how good and popular they are. Pet Shop Boys have been one of the anchors for my beloved music of the 1980s.

Reading up on this particular song on Wikipedia, I was surprised that "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)" had come out in the mid-1980s. The first version of the song was apparently released in July 1985; I assumed that it had first made its appearance a couple of years earlier because as the very first PSB song that I'd ever heard, I made my first encounter with it as I was in the car listening to the "Top Six at Six" on CFTR-AM when our family was making the weekly drive to Nippon Video to return and rent out new Japanese videos. Indeed I am now aware that their ticket to the big time was "West End Girls" which was an earlier single but for some reason "Opportunities" was the first one for me.

Some months later, I was able to see the music video as shown above for the original version. The practical effects done to Neil Tennant were a bit on the scary side, admittedly, but the song was catchy, and along with Canadian singer Gowan's "A Criminal Mind", "Opportunities" was the first tune that I heard that dealt with planning the so-called perfect crime. Tennant seemed to have the perfect voice for the lyrics: silky and oh-so-slithery, although him and his partner Chris Lowe have stated that the partners-in-crime in the song were total losers, so I'm kinda thinking Harry and Marv from the "Home Alone" franchise.

The original version did very modestly, coming in at No. 116 on the UK charts. On the other hand, its slightly rearranged version which was released in May 1986 with a slightly more strident approach hit No. 11 in Great Britain while reaching No. 10 in the United States and No. 22 in Canada. There was even another music video for this new version which looks like a synthpop band's attempt at Penn & Teller. Strangely enough, I still rather prefer the original 1985 version because it comes off as a bit more sinister.

Now, what was in the Top 10 for July 1985 on Oricon? I have here Nos. 1, 7 and 8.

1. Akina Nakamori -- Sand Beige - Sabaku e (砂漠へ)

7. Ayumi Nakamura -- Tsubasa no Oreta Angel （翼の折れたエンジェル）

8. Anzen Chitai -- Kanashimi ni Sayonara（悲しみにさよなら)

The Style Council -- My Ever Changing Moods

 

Doing the Gosanke（御三家） series now for the past several months has made me think about what a hypothetical Western sophisti-pop Gosanke would look like. And yes, indeed I know that there were more than a few 1980s acts amassing jazz, soul and pop as triggered from the whole New Wave thing. But if I had to go with three off the top of my head, they would be ABC, Swingout Sister and this group.

The Style Council shares a little bit of something with The Beatles, The Carpenters and The Ventures in that they may even be more beloved in Japan than in the West. One tune of theirs, "Shout to the Top", was used as the theme song for a Fuji-TV weekday morning information show for years and years. And if I'm not mistaken, "My Ever Changing Moods" (which I like even better) was used in a commercial over in Japan.

"My Ever Changing Moods" was released sometime in 1984 and it's one of those songs that can be compared with chewing gum that never gets old or stale. The flavour has still remained and it's a joy to listen to each time. Although the lyrics (and music) by lead vocalist Paul Weller (love his breathy soul) make some veiled mention to the darkening global political climate, the song has always had that cool and jaunty and cheerful old-timey arrangement (a tribute to The Classic IV's "Stormy" according to Thomas McLean) that matches the bike race between two buddies in the music video. The message in that video seems to be stating: "Yeah, the world may be going to Hell in a hen basket, but at least the two of us can enjoy a pleasant ride in our neighbourhood. Maybe hit the pub later on?".

While "My Ever Changing Moods" hit No. 42 on the Canadian charts, it got even higher in America as it tagged in at No. 29. In the UK, it peaked at No. 5. I couldn't find out when exactly the song was released aside from the year, but the source album "Café Bleu" was released in March 1984. So what was hitting the Top 10 on Oricon that month? I have Nos. 1, 2 and 4.

1. Anzen Chitai -- Wine-Red no Kokoro （ワインレッドの心）

2. Seiko Matsuda -- Rock n' Rouge

4. Alfee -- Hoshizora no Distance （星空のディスタンス）

A-ha -- Take On Me

 

Yellow Magic Orchestra gets my eternal gratitude for helping me not only get into technopop as it was used throughout music in Japan, but also into the synthpop and New Wave of bands outside of the nation of my ancestry during the 1980s.

One of those showstopper synthpop songs and frankly one of the legendary 80s songs, period, is A-ha's "Take On Me". Released three times with the latest being in September 1985, this Norwegian band came up with a melody that has been catchier than the most effective flypaper and is also notable for vocalist Morten Harket's ionosphere-scratching falsetto. It also didn't hurt that the song came with a music video that is still causing jaws to drop almost forty years later. The lines between reality and comic books got a whole lot more diaphanous as a result. It's not surprising that "...the video won six awards and was nominated for two others at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards." according to Wikipedia.

In the past few years, it looks like trailers for movies and television have been grazing on the pop music of yesteryear for songs to add that oomph. As such, we've had Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" being woven into the next "Ant-Man" sequel and New Order's "Blue Monday" getting into "Wonder Woman 1984", and in the past few months, "Take On Me" has had its role in the trailers for "The Last of Us".

Of course, the amazing pencil-drawn animation sequence from the video wasn't going to be left alone. It's been used in "Family Guy".

I also remember that the famous NBC cop show "Hill Street Blues" used the technique for one of their commercials. It's probably been used in other commercials that I have yet to see, and as I did for the "Hill Street Blues" ad, I would start singing out the synth intro for "Take On Me".

The song reached No. 2 in Canada whereas in the States, it hit No. 1. Incidentally, I was also a big fan of the extended remix whenever it came out on the radio dance shows on Saturday night. That synth bass was really rocking!

Now, what was hitting the Top 10 of Oricon in September 1985? We have Nos. 1, 3 and 5.

1. Anzen Chitai -- Kanashimi ni Sayonara （悲しみにさよなら）

3. Sonoko Kawai -- Namida no Jasmine Love（涙の茉莉花LOVE）

5. C-C-B -- Lucky Chance wo Mou Ichido （Lucky Chanceをもう一度）

The Pointer Sisters -- Jump (For My Love)

 

As mentioned in the previous Reminiscings of Youth article regarding Earth Wind & Fire's "Boogie Wonderland", this is a ROY twofer because not only of the passing of EWF percussionist Fred White on New Year's Day but also of the passing of Anita Pointer of The Pointer Sisters on New Year's Eve.

Now, I first heard of The Pointer Sisters back in the 1970s through their television appearances on various talk and/or music shows. Back in those days, I think that they were doing quite a lot of boogie jazz and even some country music. If I'm not mistaken, Anita, Bonnie and June even showed up on "Sesame Street" with some of their golden harmonies.

However, going into the 1980s, I remember that The Pointer Sisters also discovered the novelty and power of the music video, and one song and video that really had them soaring up on the charts was their April 1984 single "Jump (For My Love)". This video was on such heavy rotation on the local shows that I assumed that it would apply for permanent resident's status.

Created by Stephen Mitchell, Marti Sharron and Gary Skardina, listening to that beat again after so long had me swooning over how the pop music of the 1980s were. Also, The Pointer Sisters were already being seen as chart-topping superstars during the decade. Its release just before the Los Angeles Olympics was timely, especially with that title, so excerpts of athletes doing their amazing thing were included in the video. "Jump" jumped to No. 8 on Canada's RPM singles (while hitting No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary charts) and it got up to No. 3 on America's Billboard.

My condolences to the family, friends and fans for Anita Pointer.

So, what was scoring on Oricon in April 1984? I have Nos. 1, 3 and 5.

1. Checkers -- Namida no Request （涙のリクエスト）

3. Anzen Chitai -- Wine-Red no Kokoro （ワインレッドの心）

5. Akina Nakamori -- Southern Wind （サザンウインド）

Anzen Chitai -- Ichido dake（一度だけ）

 

Well, I'm obviously still here after those ominous warnings I gave in my final article last night about that huge Holiday storm, but how long I stay up today is still up in the air. The heavy rains have subsided but we're still awaiting the dreaded winds and snow which may take down the power lines, so Toronto and the surrounding vicinity are still not in the clear by any means. However, I will try to get my four in.

And it's on that note that I deliver yet another case of sad news from Japanese music. Before I turned in last night, I read on the Yahoo Japan news feed and J-Wiki that drummer Yuuji Tanaka（田中裕二）of the pop/rock band Anzen Chitai（安全地帯）had passed away at the age of 65 on November 17th 2022 according to a December 23rd (Japan time) announcement on the band's website. Tanaka had been undergoing treatment since November 8th for a cerebral hemorrhage.  On the same day as that announcement came word that Anzen Chitai would be appearing on the upcoming 73rd edition of the Kohaku Utagassen as a special guest so there will be some poignancy to this performance.

On that point, I wanted to start off today's urban contemporary session on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" with an Anzen Chitai song in tribute to Tanaka. A few years ago, I put up an article regarding the band's first single from February 1982, "Moegiiro no Snap"（萠黄色のスナップ）, and so today, I'm tackling the B-side, "Ichido dake" (Just Once).

I have taken an instant liking to "Ichido dake" although the protagonist within the lyrics written by the band and Namiko Saki（崎南海子）seems to be a rather persistent and maybe odious or strangely charming fellow bothering a young lady for a few minutes (and if successful with the "courtship", more) of her time. I've seen scenes of those young guys in real life and in anime going on the girl-hunting. For all I know, the guy in "Ichido dake" could be a smiling Koji Tamaki（玉置浩二）himself. The music by vocalist Tamaki and arrangement by Katsu Hoshi（星勝）is a cool button-down strut on the pavements of the metropolis with a mixture of City Pop and rock.

As I mentioned in last night's final article regarding Original Love's "X'mas NO HI", it's always interesting to hear the very early days of a long-existing band or singer. Maybe it's just me but there is something a bit different to "Ichido dake" compared to the hits that Anzen Chitai would come up with going further into the 1980s with that distinctive band sound. Still, I can hear some of that here, too, along with Tamaki's amazing vocals. Incidentally, "Ichido dake" never showed up on any of the band's original albums but is present on their September 1994 BEST compilation, "Anzen Chitai ~ Another Collection: Album Mishuuroku Kyokushuu"（安全地帯 アナザー・コレクション -アルバム未収録曲集-... Non-Album Song Collection） which includes a lot of their B-sides.

To finish off, I found this performance from a 1997 concert featuring Anzen Chitai singing a more unplugged rendition of "I Love You Kara Hajimeyou"（I Love Youからはじめよう...Let's Begin With I Love You) . This time, though, instead of Tamaki, it's Tanaka doing the vocals. The band will be performing this very song on the Kohaku in a little over a week. My condolences to Tanaka's family, friends and fans.

Joe Jackson -- Body and Soul

 

It's Thursday once more and so that means another Reminiscings of Youth article. Once again, I bring you the fantastic Joe Jackson. Back in March 2021 on KKP, I introduced the Staffordshire singer/songwriter and musician through his sophisticated New Wave "Steppin' Out" and the wistful "Breaking Us In Two", both tracks from his 1982 "Night and Day". 

Discogs.com

I still love the cover of "Night and Day" which illustrated the high life and high class of the bright lights and big city. But a couple of years later came his March 1984 album "Body and Soul", and the cover of that one was a straight emulation of "Sonny Rollins Vol. 2" (from 1957) according to Wikipedia aside from the tint. The impression that I got was that we were going from the gorgeous if isolated penthouse of that New York skyscraper down to the underground jazz club somewhere in Manhattan with Joe. He and his band were going more be-bop, I gathered. Even the title of the album is a tribute to Coleman Hawkins' 1939 recording of jazz standard "Body and Soul".

The reason that I decided to go for the album rather than just one track was that three of them were heavy-rotation songs on the radio, and for good reason. All of them were released as singles and all of them possessed different styles. However, what they all had in common was that no matter where you heard them: at home, in the park or in front of a stage, they could welcome an audience. Even if you were alone, you felt like you were among Jackson fans at the Masonic Hall in Manhattan where my favourite of the three singles was recorded.

My favourite is "You Can't Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want)" which is filled with all types of jazzy goodness: Jackson's earnest vocals, the tight percussion, the groovy guitar by Vinnie Zummo, the boppy bass by Graham Maby (which would have sent Toshiki Kadomatsu to the moon in ecstacy) and those horns. On the radio, I usually got the shorter version which excised most of the instrumental bridge including Maby's and Zummo's work, so it was always a treat when the station would give me the full five minutes or thereabouts. 

I've always thought that "You Can't Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want)" could have been a great theme song for some sort of New York-based detective movie or TV show because of the jazz involved. Otherwise, it would have made for a great accompaniment to a montage of a nighttime swing through the Big Apple.

"Happy Ending" could also fit some sort of rom-com based in New York City, and it's a duet with Jackson and Elaine Caswell that I think would be amazing heard live anytime on stage by the professionals or at karaoke by the amateurs. It does have that 1960s pop ring along with that indelible Jackson-ness and it was another track that got plenty of airplay on the radio. The horns here sound really boss as if they were the E Street Band playing for The Boss. 

When I was thinking about doing this article, I hadn't thought to include "Be My Number Two" within my New York movie analogy, but then reading about its story on Wikipedia, I've changed my mind. As Jackson himself put it in an interview with "The A.V. Club" online newspaper back in 2019:

"I would say it's a bit world-weary or, not world-weary, but a bit, how else to express this? Once bitten, twice shy. It's saying, 'Well, let's try again, but it's not going to be like it was the first time.' So it's poignant, I think."

Listening to the first few lyrics of the song all these years, I had simply assumed that the song was about some lout deciding to go with his next-in-line girl after his former girlfriend had dumped him. But now I realize that things are perhaps even more poignant as Jackson was quoted. The marriage failed and maybe should never have happened in the first place, but the guy might have another chance to be with the one that he should have been with all this time, although there may always be a millstone hanging around the guy's and maybe even No. 2's necks. How heavy those stones weigh will depend on time and work.

The melody pretty much loudly whispers poignancy along with melancholy, redemption and hope through the tinkling piano and Jackson's cooing vocals. As I mentioned, this could describe a certain bittersweet coda at the end of a movie with at least one of the protagonists learning a life lesson. That big sax finish might be signalling the new or renewed couple accepting each other's hands and taking a walk to the supermarket...just like they used to in the old days. FIN

"Body and Soul" did pretty well on the charts in the USA and Canada with the album hitting No. 20 in the former while peaking at No. 13 in the latter.

So, what were hitting No. 1 and No. 2 on Oricon in March 1984?

1. Anzen Chitai -- Wine-Red no Kokoro （ワインレッドの心）

2. Seiko Matsuda -- Rock n' Rouge