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's another Hump Day here on Kayo Kyoku Plus, but I have to admit that it's looking really nice outside although the temperatures are still below seasonal. Anyways, let's a little whimsical with another Author's Picks, and this week, I just wanted to give my tribute and congratulations to the astronauts aboard Artemis II (along with Nutella) who are now en route back to Earth after doing that whip around the Moon.
Back in September, I'd already done my first batch of Moon Songs commemorating the autumn lunar festival, so this will be Moon Songs 2, but I don't have quite enough moon-themed songs that I know off the top of my head (although some of them may have already been posted on the blog...my memory isn't that good anymore). As such, I've cordially invited some other tunes with titles of a planetary nature within the Sol System.
It's frigid as all heck out there in Toronto but March 17th, aka St. Patrick's Day, wasn't going to send anyone away from the Irish pubs, and I'm assuming that the places are still jam-packed with folks enjoying the Irish holiday. I personally don't celebrate the holiday myself but I remember a few times back in my Tokyo days when I joined fellow teachers and students for a pint at the local Irish pubs there such as Dubliners.
I recall in past years that I tried to come up with kayo kyoku with an Irish theme on St. Patrick's Day, but came up wanting. I think in those cases, I searched and perhaps found some songs with "Green" in their titles.
Well, I realized that the 1913 folk song"Danny Boy" has been sung in Japan through what I've learned while doing the blog over the years and from performances on TV by the older kayo kyoku singers. Although I don't know when the above performance was made, Akira Fuse（布施明）has given his own rendition of the tear worthy ballad. And below, there is singer-songwriter Ayaka Hirahara（平原綾香）with her cover of "Danny Boy" which was on her 2011 album"My Classics 3" with her own Japanese lyrics.
I just had to include Bing Crosby's take from 1943. Anyways, I hope that all of you are enjoying yourselves out there tonight.
Never wore an Issey Miyake although I do love the colour black as a fashion choice. His clothes were too expensive for me although even I heard about this Japanese designer who came up with the duds for a lot of celebrities (and perhaps the vast majority of citizens in chic Daikanyama, Tokyo) including the mercurial Steve Jobs via those black sweaters. It's been unfortunately a crowded week with celebrity deaths including the one for Olivia Newton-John, and as was reported a few days ago, the one for Miyake. He died on August 5th at the age of 84 due to liver cancer.
The late Miyake for me was immortalized in music thanks to a shoutout given to him in Pet Shop Boys' March 2004 single"Flamboyant" which was also included in the duo's big BEST compilation, "PopArt: The Hits". Being a fan of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, I was more than willing to part with my yen when the album came out some months ago in late 2003. As soon as I heard the mighty bass thrum of those synthesizers with the following suspenseful arrangement and Neil's familiar warblings regarding the enticement of celebrity, I just thought that "Flamboyant" was the catchiest PSB song which I'd heard in a good long while. Considering some of the amazing hits that they've provided since the early 1980s, that is indeed saying a lot. Ironically, the whole sound of the song made me think that this would have been the ideal theme for a master thief or assassin, someone who would absolutely eschew celebrity.
"Flamboyant" on its own is a great song but the music video takes the message of the song and puts it on its ear via the wonderfully wacky world of Hollywood stars and Japanese commercials. For those who have been their fair share of silliness with folks like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis and Sigourney Weaver spouting out nutty catchphrases surrounded by surreal images while hawking everything from isotonic drinks to ramen to real estate, this really hits the spot. But interspersed with PSB going WTF with the J-ads is a story of a salaryman trying to grab his fifteen minutes of fame by appearing in a real NTV contest show called "Kasou Taishou"（仮装大賞...Kinchan and Katori Shingo's All Japan Costume Grand Prix） despite the disapproval of all around him including his wife.
The whole video used to be on YouTube but for whatever reason, it was taken down (even the Wikipedia entry on "Flamboyant" mentions that it isn't currently featured in my nation). Maybe there were copyright strikes involved or Neil and Chris were just a little too embarrassed about their tongue-in-cheek shenanigans (personally I thought the latter looked great with long flowing hair). However, it can be seen on Vimeo. The video above just has the Boys' appearances which is hilarious enough.
Although nothing is mentioned about how "Flamboyant" did in either America or Canada, it did hit No. 3 on Ireland's dance charts. As for what else was doing fine on the Japanese Oriconcharts in March 2004, it looks like I'll be going with multiples of 3 for this week's Reminiscings of Youth.
The NHK asadora (morning serial drama) has been a viewing mainstay for my parents since basically forever. Frankly, I've been far more persnickety since I long shed my interest in Japanese dramas. The last drama I caught regularly was "Ume-chan Sensei"（梅ちゃん先生）, for instance. However, I've kept more of an open mind toward the theme songs for those 15-minute serials. They have varied widely in terms of hit appeal but I do remember "Haru yo, Koi"（春よ、来い）by Yuming（ユーミン）for the 1994 entry of the same name which has now become one of her classics and "Sakasama no Sora"（さかさまの空）, the ever-cheerful theme for the aforementioned "Ume-chan Sensei" from 2012.
In the inaugural episode of "Uta Kon"（うたコン）, the new NHK kayo kyoku program wanted to show off some of its new finery by presenting a fairly long segment on those asadora theme songs. "Haru yo, Koi" was featured of course, but then there was this lovely ballad sung by the just-as-lovely Ayaka Hirahara（平原綾香）that got me right here.
The song was "Ohisama ~ Taisetsu na Anata e" (To My Dearest You) which was the theme song for the 2011 asadora from April to October, "Ohisama". That beautiful arrangement and Hirahara's voice were the perfect combination....still gives me shivers when I hear it in my head.
Yoshikazu Okada（岡田惠和）, who had written the screenplay for "Ohisama", also provided the lyrics for "Taisetsu na Anata e" while Toshiyuki Watanabe（渡辺俊幸）who was responsible for the show's soundtrack created the theme melody. The interesting thing is that when the serial first premiered that April, "Taisetsu na Anata e" had initially been just a lovely instrumental. However, due to many inquiries from viewers about the song, and Watanabe's comparison of Japan's recovery from World War II which figured in the story for "Ohisama" to the Tohoku region's recovery from the massive earthquake that had just occurred in March 2011, the composer sounded out Hirahara, who was an acquaintance of his, to see if she would be willing to sing a lyricized version. Obviously, she consented. The full title of the song was set once the lyrics were laid down.
"Taisetsu na Anata e" was released as Hirahara's 26th single from June 2011. It peaked at No. 44 on Oricon and was placed as a track on her 10th album"Dokki!" (ドキッ!...Ba-Bump!) from February 2012. Hirahara was also able to perform the full version at the 2011 Kohaku Utagassen. The song also won the Best Arrangement Prize at the Japan Record Awards that year as well.
This is the original instrumental opening for the drama. Hirahara's sung version was used to open only the Saturday morning episodes from the middle of July a few weeks following its release as a single. Try to see if you can get through either version without getting a little misty.
When it comes to my family's viewing habits, one thing hasn't changed in over 50 years. We're still suckers for animal documentaries. Yup, when the weekend came during the 60s and 70s, it would often be "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom" (Mutual of Omaha being the name of an insurance company; considering some of the animals the cast literally tackled weekly, the producers were really hedging their bets here). The late Marlin Perkins, director of the St. Louis Zoo, would host the show about some of those big animals in the wild while two of his assistants, Jim Fowler and Stan Brock tried to make sure they weren't mauled or eaten.
Now that we're all in the teens of the 21st century, things seemed to have come full circle...or perhaps half of one since my family is watching an animal show on the weekends again but this one is produced in Japan. "Darwin ga Kita! - Ikimono Shin Densetsu"（ダーウィンが来た! 〜生きもの新伝説〜...Darwin Has Come! New Legends of the Animals） has been showing on NHK since 2006, and we get it here on Saturdays on TV Japan at 6:45 p.m. Completely devoid of animal wrestling, it involves an offscreen announcer and a cute anime figure called Hige-ji talking and broadcasting the exploits of animals in the wild ranging from the slow loris of Southeast Asia to the recovering if still endangered cranes in Japan. It's all very comfy viewing after a hearty dinner; I've certainly nodded off at times during the 30 minutes.
The current theme song for the show has been "Smile Smile" by the lovely Ayaka Hirahara（平原綾香）since 2012. And as you can see in the official video above, it's obvious that Hirahara has a love for the animals as well. Her rendition is just as comfortable as the typical episode of "Darwin ga Kita!". I've always liked her voice which I wouldn't say is completely husky; it's a bit lighter, perhaps the term sandy might be a better description.
"Smile Smile" was written by Hirahara and composed by Hidekazu Uchiike（内池秀和）as the singer's 29th single for release in July 2012. It didn't get too high on the Oricon charts, just topping off at No. 87. However, the song is such that I will probably want to pet my local squirrels on the head whenever it gets into my head.
Even without realizing it, I had been hearing excerpts from the various movements of Gustav Holst'smagnum opus, "The Planets" for decades on TV and the radio. One of my earliest exposures was "Mars, The Bringer of War" which came from a viewing from....get this...an episode of that sci-fi show "Space: 1999" titled "Space Brain" in which Commander Koenig and his intrepid crew on Moonbase Alpha had to battle a massive wave of foam while "Mars" was playing (you'll never see a bubble bath the same way again). In retrospect, the final battle (as was much of the series) was pretty darn silly but Holst kicked major butt with that movement (yeah, those last few words don't sound that great together, do they?).
"Jupiter, The Bringer of Jollity" was the other movement that I have heard the most. And I also heard it within the Japanese pop sphere via an episode of "Music Fair" when ALFEE was plugging their 1990 album, "The Alfee Classics with London Symphony Orchestra".
So several years later, when I heard the velvet tones of Ayaka Hirahara （平原綾香）sing for the very first time through one of the music channels, my brain automatically perked up in recognition. "Jupiter" was her debut from December 2003, and it became a regularly heard song throughout 2004 and most likely beyond. It was just one of those songs that perked everyone up and made them listen because of Hirahara's vocals. According to the J-Wiki article on "Jupiter", the singer herself was the one who had suggested placing lyrics onto the original Holst melody, and that duty fell to Yumi Yoshimoto （吉元由美）who had helped out on a lot of Anri's （杏里）R&B discography in the 80s and 90s. It turned out to be a great idea since Hirahara has that lower register in her delivery which isn't what I would call husky but a really mellow vintage of scotch. And this was an artist who had started her musical career as a saxophonist but was given her true calling when the president of her first label, Dreamusic Incorporated, discovered her via her performance in a high school re-enactment of "Sister Act II".
I never mentioned it in the other articles I've written about Hirahara, but her family has got quite a musical background as well. Her elder sister, Aika（平原愛花）, is herself a singer and saxophonist, while her father, Makoto（平原まこと）, is versed in a number of woodwind instruments and her grandfather, Tsutomu（平原勉）, was a trumpeter.
"Jupiter" went as high as No. 2 on Oricon and became the 3rd-ranked song of 2004, going Triple Platinum with 675,000 copies sold. It would continue to keep on selling, finally breaking the million barrier halfway through 2006. And Hirahara would also get that opportunity to perform the song at the 2004 Kohaku Utagassen.
And here is the original Holst take on the big guy himself.
My origins of listening to what has become a modern perennial Xmas song actually were rather strange. I actually heard the original Natalie Cole"Grown-Up Christmas List" from 1989 when it was being used to start off the usual nutty sketch by comedian Ken Shimura. My memories of the payoff for that sketch have disappeared into the cobwebs of my mind, but the song whose title and singer I didn't know for some years after stayed with me. However, all was resolved when I bought Cole's 1999 Xmas album"The Magic of Christmas" with The London Symphony Orchestra.
And then many years after that, I found out that mellow songbird/saxophonist Ayaka Hirahara（平原綾香）released her version of the song. Coming out as her 12th single in November 2006, she acquits herself nicely to the David Foster melody and the Japanese lyrics by Yumi Yoshimoto（吉元由美） (the English lyrics were provided by Linda Thompson). "Christmas List" would also become part of Hirahara's 5th studio album, "Sora"（そら...Sky） which came out in January 2007. As for the single, it went as high as No. 29 on the Oricon weeklies.
I'm not sure but perhaps "Grown-Up Christmas List" may be the most popular foreign Xmas song to be heard in Japan, next to WHAM!'s "Last Christmas". In any case, here is the original song below. Ah, but there is Mariah Carey's"All I Want for Christmas Is You", isn't there?
I might be writing about "Banka"(Late Summer) a few months too early, but I think I can swallow my pride here. This was the final track on Yumi Arai's（荒井由実） marvelous album, "The 14th Moon"(1976), and it has that feeling of satisfying finality for me (although I'd like to know if Yuming herself would agree). After some of the bouncy tunes on the album, the singer finished it off with a quiet ballad with that late-sunset glow. I could imagine a baritone announcer during the last few notes intoning that we've all come to the end of our broadcasting day....time for sleep.
But that satisfying finality didn't just refer to the album, but also to the first stage of her career. In a way, "Banka" was that signoff to Yumi Arai. Afterwards, she would become Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）, after marrying her producer and fellow musician, Masataka Matsutoya（松任谷正隆）, and eventually go into a poppier direction.
But the first time I ever heard of "Banka" was actually through Ayaka Hirahara's（平原綾香） cover of it several years ago. I had heard of Hirahara via her hit debut, "Jupiter" back in 2003, but didn't buy a CD of hers until I saw her cover of the Yuming classic on an episode of "Bokura no Ongaku"（僕らの音楽...Our Music）, the Fuji-TV Friday night music program. I just found that her mellow voice fit the melody so well, and the producer/arranger of this version was none other than Masataka Matsutoya, who added an instrumental bridge. For the video above which seemed to have come from an NHK show, the bridge was covered by a jazzy guitar, but I prefer the version that was on "Bokura no Ongaku" and on the official single version....a nice group of horns. It was from this version of the song which led me to track down and buy "The 14th Moon".
Hirahara's cover was the singer's 9th single, released in September 2005, which reached as high as No. 16 on Oricon. It was also the first track of her 3rd album and an album of covers, "From...To", released in November of that year. In that album, Hirahara covered everyone from Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵） to Koji Tamaki（玉置浩二）. The album peaked at No. 4.
.jpg)
