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.
Welcome to a steamy Sunday in the Greater Toronto Area. I think you have probably read me referring to Yasushi Akimoto's（秋元康）harem of aidoru groups such as AKB 48 as the Alphabet Aidoru. Well, today to start this broadcasting day on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I'll be providing some Alphabet Songs through their titles.
There's something here that is almost downright "Jeopardy" about this selection. I'll take Alphabet Songs for $200, Alex!
Last night, NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）did feature a short tribute to the great composer and arranger Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）who had passed away almost three months ago. There was some footage of his YMO days with Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）and Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）but maybe even 40-year-old technopop was a bit too far out of the show's range on the Shibuya stage to have performed, and admittedly, there are probably some who believe that only the original band could do justice to "Rydeen". Still, it was good to listen to the wistful Christmas mainstay in Japan, "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" and Kiyoshi Maekawa's（前川清）"Yuki Ressha" (雪列車) from 1982, the Mood Kayo singer's debut single as a soloist that was composed by The Professor.
I was looking for something that I could put up by Sakamoto but it's a bit more difficult now since I've already added a lot of his hits with YMO and beyond over the past dozen years of KKP. But I did find a song that probably would have been a little too avant-garde for "Uta Con" but it's perfectly fine here because I do like the cool and wacky. "Broadway Boogie Woogie" hails from his 6th studio album"Mirai Ha Yaro"（未来派野郎...Futurista） which was released in April 1986 and also includes "Ballet Mecanique".
The title "Broadway Boogie Woogie" originated from the 1943 Piet Mondrianpainting of the same name that you see as the thumbnail at the top. Mondrian had been inspired by the grid pattern of the Manhattan streets and the genre of boogie-woogie. In turn, Sakamoto must have been inspired by the painting and came up with this fun and cacophonous techno-boogie to get those Zoot suit guys and flowery-dressed dolls onto the dance floor; according to the J-Wiki article on the album, Sakamoto's "Broadway Boogie Woogie" is a blues-infused rock-n'-roll number.
Another interesting thing about the song is that along with Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）and Bernard Fowler (who provided vocals for "Ballet Mecanique") singing out Peter Barakan's lyrics, Sakamoto got deep into the sampling by hand-picking out certain sentences from "Blade Runner" for a repeated conversation piece. With saxophonist Maceo Parker (who worked with James Brown, Parliament Funkadelic and Prince) providing his input, "Broadway Boogie Woogie" could be the hit song for a Decopunk New York City. Techno jazz was a small thing in Japanese music with folks like Kazuhiro Nishimatsu（西松一博）but this particular song by The Professor is maybe the first example that I've come across which actually could have people cutting up a rug.
I've got quite a few albums by the amazing Yellow Magic Orchestra but I'm beginning to feel that I ought to also invest in a number of Ryuichi Sakamoto's（坂本龍一）albums as well. His 1978"Sen no Knife"（千のナイフ...Thousand Knives） is one prospect but another is his 1986 "Mirai-ha Yaro"（未来派野郎...Futurista）.
One reason is that it includes a track that I've already covered titled "Ballet Mecanique" that has a couple of more incarnations that will be explained if you go to the article. The other reason is that I recently discovered another snazzy and catchy number called "G.T.".
I figure that Sakamoto who composed "G.T." had some reason to title this song thusly but I haven't found out yet. But then again, there was an earlier YMO hit known as "U.T." back in 1981 and the Spielberg blockbuster "E.T." came out in 1982 so I guess The Professor must have had some sort of grand plan with the second letter "T".
But getting back on the road again, like YMO's "U.T.", "G.T" is another propulsive affair helped along by singer Bernard Fowler (who also sang "Ballet Mecanique"). There is even more of a feeling of a racing car warping around the big city whereas "U.T." always sounded as if the super car were in stealth mode. The "G.T." car is more than happy to show off its colours and sound off its skids. Plus, it's more than likely, it's leading the cops on a merry chase.
This cover version by Jimmy5820 of the live performance on Sakamoto's "Media Bahn Live" is even more kakkoii. Along with Sakamoto coming up with the music, Akiko Yano（矢野顕子）provided the original Japanese lyrics which apparently got translated into the English used here by media personality Peter Barakan（ピーター・バラカン）. But just getting out of the rebel car theme for just a sentence or two, looking at those lyrics, I got the impression that all involved were thinking far bigger ideas such a huge space race around the solar system. And being a "Doctor Who" fan, I couldn't help but feel that there was some foretelling in the words about how Earth's favourite Time Lord and future companions would interact decades later.
"G.T." came out as a single in March 1986 for Sakamoto while "Mirai-ha Yaro" peaked at No. 5. Come to think of it, perhaps I will put "Media Bahn Live" onto the wish list as well.
Finishing up with Barakan, one show that he's been associated with is "Begin Japanology" on NHK-BS which had its run between 2003 and 2013. He's also helped YMO in the past as well through the song "Mass" in their album "BGM".
A little more than 8 months ago, nikala contributed an Author's Pick in the form of her Techno-Kayo Playlist. Aside from Imokin Trio's"High School Lullaby", I hadn't known about the rest of the list and it was fascinating to read about and hear these songs that were created through that filter of technopop, the genre that was spearheaded by the Yellow Magic Orchestra from the late 70s.
The one entry on nikala's list that especially had my attention was "Wonder Trip Lover" by aidoru Yukiko Okada（岡田有希子）. For one thing, although I hadn't known this song proper, I knew it in its future incarnation as "Chronic Love"（クロニック・ラヴ）by singer-actress Miki Nakatani（中谷美紀）since I sometimes caught her TV detective drama, "Keizoku"（ケイゾク...Unsolved Cases）, which had that particular song as its theme.
Initially, I had been going to talk about just "Chronic Love" and the version of the song that was between it and "Wonder Trip Lover", "Ballet Mecanique" since nikala gave her two cents (strictly speaking in Canada, it should be two nickels since the 1-cent coin has been retired) on the original version by the late Okada. However, listening to "Wonder Trip Lover", I realized that I wanted to give my own brief opinion on the song via follow-up.
My fellow collaborator mentioned about the sax and galloping drumming that set "Wonder Trip Lover" apart from Okada's other songs. I can also go beyond that and say that the song is simply a cut above/apart the usual aidoru tune. It is indeed an aidoru tune because of the vocals behind it but it is also quite different from the run-of-the-mill aidoru song because of that interesting arrangement, and in addition, Okada sounded very unlike her regularly girlish self from her other contributions such as "Kuchibiru Network" and "Dreaming Girl". There was something nearly operatic...even avant-garde...with her delivery. Unfortunately the above YouTube video only has the sound from that Heart Jack Tour of hers so I cannot see how she performed "Wonder Trip Girl"...I couldn't imagine she was sashaying around to this song as would be the case with the usual aidoru and her cute tune. I'd only muse that Yukiko would have been more at home in one of the intriguing outfits worn by members of YMO.
Speaking of one of my favourite bands anywhere, Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）composed this song with City Pop princess EPO providing the lyrics. I had a conversation with nikala the other day and I mentioned that The Professor during that time could really do no wrong when it came to creating fascinating tunes for other singers. "Wonder Trip Lover" continued that streak.
Just a month after "Wonder Trip Lover" made its presence felt as the leadoff track for Okada's final album in March 1986, "Venus Tanjo"（ヴィーナス誕生...The Birth of Venus）,Sakamoto made a cover version of his creation under the new title of "Ballet Mecanique", named after the 1924 Dadaist film by Fernand Leger and Dudley Murphy. However, instead of the techno kayo march that its predecessor was, Sakamoto's version is a slightly bipolar mix of quiet and innocent dream music and screeching-like-a-rabid-horse electric guitar. The vocals were supplied by Bernard Fowler, a musician and actor who has had a long history providing backup vocals to The Rolling Stones. The lyrics were also changed into English and contributed by Sakamoto's then-wife Akiko Yano（矢野顕子）.
"Ballet Mecanique" first appeared as a track on Sakamoto's 6th album, "Mirai-ha Yaro"（未来派野郎...Futurista）, but I came across it as a part of his live album, "Media Bahn Live" which was released later in the year in September.
The last version is the first version that I ever heard of this ever-morphing song. As I mentioned, this was the theme song for Miki Nakatani's"Keizoku", and Nakatani herself provided the English & Japanese lyrics for "Chronic Love". Her 7th single from February 1999, the music here was a bit flightier and eccentric, kinda like her character of Jun Shibata on the show. The song managed to peak at No. 14 on Oricon and was placed as a track on her 3rd album, "Shiseikatsu"（私生活...Private Life）from November 1999.
The above video has all of the quirky episode openings for "Keizoku" with the theme song by Nakatani.
A few paragraphs above, I mentioned that nikala and I had a good talk. I'm happy to say that for the first time in "Kayo Kyoku Plus" history, I could finally meet a collaborator in person for a coffee the other day. It's not all that easy since most of us are located all over the globe, but it was fortunate that the two of us lived in the general area of Toronto. Hopefully, someday, all of us can somehow meet up whether it be in our respective countries or the nation where our mutual music interest lies.
