Substance Kayo

By wilfredor via Wikimedia Commons

 

In high school, I was always more adept in Chemistry than I was in Physics (Biology was my favourite, though). I couldn't make heads nor tails of Physics but give me a test tube and some substances, and I was a happy camper. For one class, we had to go crazy making esters. It was indeed great fun but all those odors infused into us so heading home on the bus that day wasn't the most pleasant for my fellow commuters. 

Anyways, I did bring over a periodic table from Wikimedia Commons. At one point, I was able to memorize the first ten elements. I think I still have the ability but I've noticed in the 40 odd years since my last Chemistry class, the periodic table has grown some more elements. Also, I need to put a shoutout to my old Chemistry teacher, Mr. Phillips. He was a grizzled elderly ex-soldier who definitely held a position of some responsibility (sergeant at the very least) and if he detected any nonsense, he made you feel like the lowest recruit at boot camp. But if you were on his good side, he could be quite cordial.

Yes, I am being quite whimsical (and before a Wednesday, to boot) which means that I've got to get an Author's Picks out of my system. This time, it's all about the substances that I've seen in titles of kayo kyoku over the years. And I'm not just talking about the bare elements either.

(1966) Barb Satake -- Neon Gawa（ネオン川）

(1975) Hiromi Ohta -- Momen no Handkerchief (木綿のハンカチーフ）

(1977) Momoe Yamaguchi -- Imitation Gold （イミテイション・ゴールド）

(1981) Anri -- Cotton Kibun （コットン気分）

(1981) Noriko Miyamoto -- Silver Rain

(1981) Jun Horie -- Memory Glass（メモリーグラス）

One more thing about Mr. Phillips. There was once this cockamamie so-called allowance at high school in which if a teacher didn't show up at class within the first ten minutes, then the students could walk out and have a free hour. One time, our math teacher didn't show up due to traffic issues so of course, a third of the class just stood up and walked out gleefully. A minute later, that whole third walked back in looking dramatically glum...and in walked Mr. Phillips behind them looking very miffed. We then got the drill sergeant's reprimand along with a no-nonsense reminder that no such allowance existed. It turned out that the math teacher had called the office to let the school know that he would be late. Mr. Phillips was there to make sure that the allowance never happened.

Barb Satake -- Neon Gawa（ネオン川）

 

I have to say that among all of the ways that singers have gotten their stage names, this is probably one of the more interesting ones. Yutaka Satake（佐武豊）from Kushiro, Hokkaido up north was all of 22 years old in 1957 when he made his way south to Tokyo to try and make it big as a singer, and as such, he got gigs at nightclubs while strumming his guitar. 

However, because of the kanji of his family name「佐武」, he often got called "Sabu" instead of "Satake", so to remedy that, that second kanji「武」in "Satake" was changed to 「竹」so there would be no confusion. Also since 「竹」means "bamboo" in English, it was decided that even his first name would get a change from Yutaka to Barb「バーブ」 since apparently "Barb" sounds close enough to "bamboo" ("Sports Nippon" said it, not me); I guess losing that voiced bilabial nasal consonant doesn't change things all that much, linguistically speaking in Japanese. Even J-Wiki was aware enough that "Barb" is the short form of the female name "Barbara" that the Barb Satake article made it very clear that this was the stage name for a male singer.

Barb Satake's（バーブ佐竹）voice was heard as being quite distinctive to the extent that his music was called "Barb Song" and he had a hit right off the bat with his first single "Onna Gokoro no Uta"（女心の唄...Song of a Heart of a Woman） at the end of 1964. In July 1966, he had another successful single with "Neon Gawa" (Neon River). Written by Hiroshi Yokoi（横井弘）and composed/arranged by Toshio Saeki（佐伯としを）, despite the setting of a drinking area by a river (which would have me thinking Mood Kayo), the instrumentation and feeling is that of a very melancholy enka as folks go there for not only drinks but also acknowledgement of the loss of anything: love, money, the will to live. I can hear that distinctive Barb voice which sounds as if it, and not he, is weeping up a storm. 

Satake appeared four times on NHK's Kohaku Utagassen, between 1965 and 1968. His second appearance would have him perform "Neon Gawa". The singer passed away at the end of 2003 at the age of 68 due to multiple organ failure.