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.
Well, spring officially arrived at 10:46 am this morning. The problem here in Toronto is that everyone got the memo except for spring itself. It's been a cold and dreary day with freezing rain intermittently falling as I type this.
Ahh...that is just meteorological life in the largest city in Canada. Anyways, let's go to something more hopeful and cheerful. The uploader for the above video stated that he first heard singer-songwriter Issei Endo's（円道一成）"Kono Mama Truly" (Just Like This, Truly) on some late-night TV commercial as a jingle for something alcoholic. Not a bad thing to hear in the overnight hours. I could actually happily fall back into La-La Land listening to this or stay up savoring the music in my head.
Yup, I do like "Kono Mama Truly" which was released as a single in January 1986 (kinda like the "Miami Vice" threads there, Issei), according to Discogs. The singer was behind words and music with Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）providing the arrangement which hints at some old-time wonderful Motown soul. Maybe it is truly meant to be enjoyed along with some libations.
Last Friday, I provided an article featuring Side A of Midori Hara's（原みどり）sophomore album from March 1988, "KO・KO・RO・NOTE"(Heart Note) . It's been a production that's surprised me with the singer tackling some of the more urban contemporary genres such as City Pop. Today, I'm finishing up with the Side B tracks. Unless noted, everything here is by Hara.
This starts with "too young" which was written by Yu Aku（阿久悠）with Hara providing the melody which Masahiro Ikumi（幾見雅博）arranged (and in fact, he arranged all of the tracks). It starts off feeling as if David Foster got his hands on the song and it then continues onto a West Coast AOR vein. If you ever wondered what such a song would sound like if YUKI from Judy & Mary or NOKKO from Rebecca had gotten behind the mike, then today is your lucky day (though it's ironic then that today is Friday the 13th).
"Iro no Nai Movie"（色のない Movie...Colourless Movie） is a wholly Hara creation whose verses are underlaid with a bit of reggae before going into a city strut chorus. The singer herself takes on a slightly more plaintive and sultrier direction with her vocals. There's also some really nice guitar work here in the intro and instrumental bridge.
The penultimate track has a pretty existential title. "Yojigen Kuukan Ryokou"（四次元空間旅行...Trip Through Four-Dimensional Space） has that feeling of a relaxing jazz standard with a wood bass figuring prominently in the arrangement, although the presence of the Fender Rhodes or electric piano keeps things in the contemporary. So, would the title be referring to a regular trip through time and space?
For the final track of "KO・KO・RO・NOTE", "Tsuyoku Dakishimeteite mo Sayonara"（強く抱きしめていてもSa・Yo・Na・Ra...Holding You Tight Even If It's Goodbye）, the poignancy is in the piano as Hara delivers a heartfelt ballad about saying goodbye although the feelings for each other are still there. Just like the final track on Side A, "Itami"（痛み...Pain）, I can get that hint of gospel blues which makes me wonder what would it have been like if an actual organ had been used instead of the piano.
As I've mentioned, "KO・KO・RO・NOTE" is quite the delightful surprise from thirty-eight years ago by Hara. For those who like their 80s City Pop and some more genres, you can give this one the good ol' college try.
The above is the famous gyoza statue just outside of JR Utsunomiya Station in Tochigi Prefecture. Utsunomiya City is one of the big places for the cooking and consumption of those plump and delicious gyoza dumplings. I actually transited through the station on my way to other farther places in Japan at the time, but sadly, I couldn't partake in any of the gyoza places there (although I ate a truck's worth of the dumplings during my 17 years in the nation).
Now, the reason that I started out with one of the big symbols for Utsunomiya is that the lady for this article hails from there. I'm talking about singer-songwriter Midori Hara（原みどり）who has been mentioned twice in the blog. One article featured her 1987 debut (and what a debut!) single"Tsugunai no Hibi"（償いの日々）which was also a debut with Tulip lead singer, Kazuo Zaitsu（財津和夫）. If anyone asked me what an 80s power ballad sung by Japanese artists is like, I would point to this one.
I also found out that she had been the first female vocalist for the long-running eclectic band SPANK HAPPY from the early 1990s. And in those days, the band took on a rock flavour with Hara taking on a katakana-ized form of her name（ハラミドリ）and a certain timbre that reminded me of another rock vocalist, YUKI from the band Judy & Mary. And it was then that I assumed that Hara was really about that pop-rock sound.
Well, how wrong I was. I had a bit of a taste of her debut album from June 1987, "MiDo", and the songs sounded like a playful funk-pop. And then for the Holidays, I was able to pick up a few albums, one of which was her second album"KO・KO・RO・NOTE" (Heart Note) which was released in March 1988. If I'm not mistaken, Hara took care of all of the songs' words and music while both Hara and Masahiro Ikumi（幾見雅博）were the album arrangers.
"KO・KO・RO・NOTE" is quite the revelation. If the aforementioned YUKI had been asked to tackle a City Pop or generally adult contemporary project, this album would be what I had envisioned. It all starts with "Pajama no Mama de STEP!"（ぱじゃまのままでStep!...Dance About In Your Pajamas!）which has a battery of synths and horns coming together to provide some of that Bubble Era champagne-and-caviar urban sound. The singer even sounds a bit like Janis Joplin having some real vocal fun with the breathy and propulsive delivery and scatting. I can imagine her dancing in her PJs when she was a teen...and getting yelled at by her parents.
"Uchuu Kuukan Yuuei"（宇宙空間遊泳...Spacewalk） is the second track and this one hit me very hard when I first heard it because of the really smooth City Pop vibes here. The groove and romantic sax solo provided by arranger Ikumi rolls in like a large ripple of velvety-smooth chocolate syrup. There are some big names of the genre helping out as well such as Shin Kazuhara（数原晋）on flugelhorn, Shuichi "PONTA" Murakami（村上ポンタ秀一）on drums, and Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）on piano (you can see the full list underneath the video at YouTube). It's been a while since I've heard something this City Pop and at the same time, I also got those early 80s Manhattan Transfer vibes.
Track 3 is "Kannazuki no Omoi"（神無月の想ひ...October Memories） which is even more laidback and languid than "Uchuu Kuukan Yuuei" but this is more of a Latin-tinged pop ballad. Time for a twirl around the dance floor at 10 pm here.
"Kokoro no Juunan Taisou"（Ko・Ko・Roの柔軟体操...Calisthenics of the Heart） has her bringing more of the old-timey-wimey jazz although the song is more of a fusion effort between it and pop...nice to bring this in when we've completed the first century of the American-born genre. I don't get to hear clarinets so much in jazz anymore so it's nice to have the ol' licorice stick back, especially I used to bring that home almost every night during junior high school.
The last one for Side A and the last one for Part 1 is "Itami"（痛み...Pain） which is a gently lilting ballad with a bit of a gospel blues touch. It makes for a nice contemplative cool-down track to end the side. Speaking of which, I'll bring Part 2 next Friday.
From what I've read of folk singer Hako Yamasaki's（山崎ハコ）debut album"Tobimasu"（飛・び・ま・す...I Can Fly） from October 1975 on J-Wiki, she was only 17 years old when she released it and it sold 50,000 copies which was quite the miraculous achievement especially when it came out without any special promotions. It managed to reach No. 51 on Oricon.
One of the tracks, "Sayonara no Kane"(The Goodbye Bell), which was written and composed by Yamasaki and arranged by Jun Sato（佐藤準）, must have left quite the impression on listeners. At over five minutes long, it is a bittersweet summary on a romance that has ended with a pealing bell on the hill being used as the symbol of the completion of the relationship. Through the lyrics and Yamasaki's delivery, there is a feeling of weeping over the death of what is perhaps the first love of that person. Maybe as the person grows older and more experienced with all those romantic entanglements, there is not so much drama but that first one which goes awry will always hurt. The melody is an interweaving of blues, folk and pop brought together as a contemplative piece on emotional pain and release.
Quite a few famous musicians were in the recording studio for "Sayonara no Kane": guitarists Char and Chuei Yoshikawa（吉川忠英）with the aforementioned arranger Sato also on keyboards.
A synthpop opening begins the cover version of "Sayonara no Kane" by Miyuki Kosaka（香坂みゆき）. The song was released as her 16th single in April 1984. Sato also arranged this one with those synths coming in. It's more than a minute shorter than the Yamasaki original but the bluesy feeling of melancholy and loss is still there.
I don't have a lot of information on this group unvivid except for these facts: 1) they have been around since at least 2022, 2) their vocalist is Shino Honma（ほんましの）and 3) they were once known as Mini Mikke before the name change.
Their single from just a couple of months ago, "Break Free", sounds mighty nice. In addition to that soulful groove, I can pick up on some blues and jazz. If unvivid had been a band back in the 1950s or 1960s playing this, they would have gotten their fair share of appreciative finger snaps in the beatnik clubs. The music video has a slightly tongue-in-cheek cooler-than-thou atmosphere which plays up the song. Mind you, Honma and company look like they could be advertising for a mixture of MUJI and Eddie Bauer for most of the video until they go all United Colors of Benetton at the end.
It was just a little over fourteen years ago that musician and singer George Yanagi（柳ジョージ）left this mortal coil at the untimely age of 63. He's probably one of those guys who fit that Japanese fashion meme of slightly rascally middle-aged men that was making some headlines on TV twenty or so years ago.
Yup, he's still looking very kakkoii on the cover of that April 1993 album "Yokohama AREA 2" in which I serve you a track "Araburu Tenshi-tachi" (Scarface Angel). Just from the title of that song, I'm guessing some well-meaning guy is taking the hits and rolling with the punches as he tries to clean up his area of town. There's almost something Batman-like about this.
But Batman gets orchestral soundtracks. Over here, it's Yanagi backed up by a chugging and churning bluesy-rock horn section as the singer is growling out his lyrics but not in an overly raspy way. Listening to "Araburu Tenshi-tachi", I also feel some similarity toTomoyasu Hotei（布袋寅泰）, although Yanagi's stuff has a bit more soul in there. Toshi Sumikawa（トシ・スミカワ）took care of the lyrics while the melody was handled by Toshiro Masuda（増田俊郎）. "Yokohama AREA 2" reached No. 45 on the yearly Oricon rankings.
Singer-songwriter Sumiko Yamagata（やまがたすみこ）is someone that I got to know first from the pages of "Japanese City Pop" and then from her 1977 album"Flying". It was the album that signified the young folk singer's transition into something more adult contemporary.
However, I think the Tokyo native may have already been showing signs of trying out different genres as early as 1974 when she released her third album"Melodies Come From My Heart". It was still considered a folk LP but I think with her track "Murasaki Iro no Kaze" (Purple Wind), I've been getting different genres including folk. I could pick up on some blues guitar and a general feel of New Music. Yamagata was behind both words and music with the story of a woman standing in the midst of a stiff breeze as she tries to forget about that man who's now very much part of the past. There may be some lingering regret but as the last few notes hint, there is also hope around the corner.
Well, we did get a light brushing of snow this morning although so far it's nowhere near those four inches that had been forecast yesterday. However, the day is still young; we'll have to see what more comes down by tonight.
Earlier this year, I posted an article regarding a track, the frenetic "Sonic Barrier", from musician Mikio Masuda's（益田幹夫）1980 album "Silver Shadow". This time, I've got a far more relaxing track from the same album titled "All About You". This time, it mixes the fusion with blues and it has that feeling of contemplation or gratitude for that special someone. I don't think the title "All About You" sounds anything like an admonition as the phrase that has been used like "Oh, it's always all about you, ain't it?". Considering the weather outside my window today, "All About You" seems perfect but what might make it even better is just having that quiet cafe conversation as this is playing.
Now, as for the reason that I've put up WFan's glorious photo of those West Shinjuku buildings, I've enjoyed the cover of "Silver Shadow" for its shot of fog-shrouded towers west of Shinjuku Station, buildings that I think still exist despite all of the renovation taking place at the station itself. Tokyo has some very photogenic areas but West Shinjuku will always remain one of my favourites.
Kinda having the Microsoft Office activation blues right now. I tried to activate the key and it wouldn't open for me. In a way, I guess it's almost heartbreakingly romantic.
Well, for that reason and for the fact that it is Hump Day today, perhaps I can bring in a bit of blues. However, seeing that title "Osaka Big River Blues", one might think that this would be a Japanese band going for some of that American blues sound. But it's not quite that cut and dry.
By the way, the band behind "Osaka Big River Blues" is Ukadan（憂歌団）which does translate directly into Melancholy Song Group...namely a blues band. Consisting of vocalist/guitarist Atsuki Kimura（木村充揮）, lead guitarist Kantaro Uchida（内田勘太郎）, bassist Kenji Hanaoka（花岡献治）and drummer Kazuo Shimada（島田和夫）, the group originated with the first two members in 1970 with their first performance behind held at the cultural festival at Osaka Prefectural Technical High School where three of the members had been enrolled. After high school, Ukadan picked up gigs at local coffee shops.
Their first single was released in 1975 and their eleventh happened to be "Osaka Big River Blues" from May 1988, and at least with this single, the blues is mixed in with some other genres such as City Pop and AOR. It goes down very smooth (and late 80s) like a Bailey's Irish Cream (sorry, can't do straight whiskey) through the melody by Hitoshi Haba（羽場仁志）and the lyrics of Chinfa Kan（康珍化）which involve a couple having one final stroll one evening in Osaka before breaking up for good. It's a sad situation to be sure, but at least the music accompanying these soon-to-be former lovebirds is fine and wistful.
Also, one other sad note is original members Shimada and Hanaoka passed away in 2012 and 2024 respectively. In addition, I'd like to thank podcaster Rocket Brown who first recommended "Osaka Big River Blues" on Discord a few months ago.
Have you heard that old-fashioned standard, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"? Well, I only found out today that it had evolved from a song known as "Mbube" which was first released in 1939 by South African musician Solomon Linda and an acapella group known as The Evening Birds. I also read that Linda never got his due accolades or remuneration for his creation according to the Wikipedia article for the song. I think his descendants are still fighting on that one.
As the decades passed by, the song got transformed into pieces covered by various artists such as the American doo-wop group The Tokens with their 1961 "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". The song was also titled "Wimoweh" in other versions. I first heard it many years ago and I think The Tokens' version is the one that is most cited among the covers.
I also remember one cover that was done by a fairly obscure UK pop group called Tight Fit back in 1982. The music video showed up on an episode of the local music show "The New Music" here in Toronto.
Recently, I read that the song had a pretty important role in the both of the "Ace Ventura" movies starring Jim Carrey. Although I enjoyed him in "The Mask" and "Liar, Liar", maybe he just got a little too "carrey-ed" away in those for my liking (I will see myself out for the rest of the paragraph, thank you😁).
Anyways, the Japanese music industry was also aware of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" since I managed to find out that there were at least two recordings of the song. One was by musician and singer-songwriter Noriyuki Asakura（朝倉紀行）with his group GANG, also in 1982. Asakura has provided a lot of songs to aidoru and other singers since he basically switched over to composing and arrangement but back in those early days, he came up with his own very frantic version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" under the ironic title "Lion wa Okiteiru"（ライオンは起きている...The Lion is Awake）, although the original English title is also clearly labeled at the top of the single cover. As would befit the times, Asakura's version feels New Wave but somewhere in the middle, things slow down significantly for a bluesy turn.
The GANG cover was used as the theme song for the dramedy "Keiji Yoroshiku"（刑事ヨロシク...Detective At-Your-Service） starring comedian and future movie auteur Beat Takeshi（ビートたけし）. And yep, those opening credits for the show may have inspired the man. By the way, the translations into Japanese were done by Arisu Sato（佐藤ありす）.
Japanese doo-wop vocal group The Kingtones（ザ・キング・トーンズ）had given their own cover of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" back in 1969 in one of their albums.
Back in 2023, I wrote about a singer that I had no idea about named Kimiko "Kiiko" Shiba（芝紀美子）, and apparently since she was more of a part of the underground Japanese music scene in the 1970s, maybe a lot of people in Japan hadn't been aware of her either. The article for her was on her languid and relaxing song "Nagarete Ikitai"（流れて行きたい）, a track on her 1975 album"Shikomegari"（醜女狩り...Ugly Woman Hunting） which contained kayo kyoku, blues, folk and soul.
Well, another track from "Shikomegari" is "Little Jimmy" which seems to have all of those genres wrapped up unto itself. Written totally in English by Irene or Eileen（アイリーン）...maybe Shiba under a pseudonym?...and composed by Yasuo Inada（稲田保雄）, perhaps all involved were big fans of Ray Charles considering the scotch-soaked arrangement. I was even surprised that Charles had nothing to do with this song at all while I was listening to it. Shiba sings about the title character of Little Jimmy who has long gone; maybe he's left this mortal coil or arrived in a new area somewhere but although his old friend misses him terribly, he/she hopes that wherever he is, he's doing well.
The interesting thing is that there are parts of the song that sound just like "Memory" from "Cats", although the musical wouldn't come out for several more years.
Considering that New York has been called "the city that never sleeps", a song whose title contains "Manhattan" and "lullaby" would be a contradiction in terms.
However, Mantovani was able to create his own "Manhattan Lullaby" in 1963 and singer-songwriter Kyozo Nishioka（西岡恭蔵）and his wife KURO created his own "Manhattan Lullaby" as the final track for his 1981 album"New York to Jamaica". A soft and playful bluesy jazz number that has the personality of a sleepy kitten, it sounds like the ideal way to finish off a concert in some intimate hole-in-a-wall somewhere in the Big Apple or Tokyo without having the janitor angrily flick the light switch on and off to get the stragglers to go home. Have a safe trip back!
The above is a photo by the City of Toronto (via Wikimedia Commons) of New Chinatown (although after many decades of existence, it really isn't anymore) in the downtown area on Dundas St. going west of University Ave. up to Spadina Ave. It was here that one friend of the Japanese-Canadian Students' Association (as it was called back then) at the University of Toronto introduced me to Wah Yueh and one other store which had all sorts of Japanese music LPs including those of Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）and Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）.
And it was also here that many other friends introduced me to a lot of new and original Chinese dishes including those within dim sum when I was an undergraduate compared to the Sweet and Sour ChickenBalls and Deep-Fried Shrimp (90% batter, 10% shrimp) that I had been used to eating as a kid when my family went to Old Chinatown which is on the east side of University Avenue. Not that I have any animus toward the old stuff...still like those, too. Old Chinatown is not really Chinatown anymore...it's even changing into a bit of a Little Tokyo. For that matter, New Chinatown has been becoming more Vietnamese in the last little while. But there are still a number of Chinatowns up in the suburbs in Toronto and even one small area a little east of downtown.
However, compared to my gastronomic and pop cultural reminiscings of downtown Toronto Chinatown, chanteuse Kei Ishiguro（石黒ケイ）apparently has something more romantic in her fond memories. I seem to have been focusing on her 1982 album"Yokohama Ragtime"as of late, so it's nice to jump to her next album "Purple Road" from 1983 and its final track "Remember China Town".
Written and composed by Ishiguro with Rei Yoshimoto（ヨシモトレイ）helping out on lyrics, it's quite the sippin' whiskey-friendly bluesy ballad going down Memory Lane which coincidentally connects with her beloved Chinatown. Remembering that fellow beau hasn't sounded this nice in a long time, especially with that resonant piano, that organ and the chorus backing the singer. And don't forget the saxophone!
I've known about the Mississippi River since I was a toddler when I saw it used in a song in a cartoon. The spelling was killer for me for a while, though.
Several days ago, I received a contact from Alan who has been looking for the lyrics for the song "Mississippi River" by Ruriko Ohgami（大上留利子）. I'd never heard of the song before so I tried to search for those lyrics, but alas, I couldn't find them online.
However, at an attempt at some redemption, I'm covering the song right here. Now, "Mississippi River" was originally recorded by the composer himself, Kyozo Nishioka（西岡恭蔵）with his band at the time, Carib no Arashi（カリブの嵐...Caribbean Storm） when they put out their January 1978 album "'77.9.9 Kyoto [Crucifixion]"（'77.9.9京都「磔磔」）. With lyrics by his beloved wife, KURO, "Mississippi River" is a playful mix of blues, funk and jazz centering around the New Orleans area, according to those lyrics.
In the same year, Ohgami released her "Dreamer From West"（ドリーマー・フロム・ウエスト）sophomore album where she put out her cover of "Mississippi River" (which can be heard above at 19:15 in the above video). The same fun and sultry arrangement is there but with some added horn including a brassy saxophone doing a solo. I can imagine Ohgami being the owner and singer of some 1920s speakeasy as she's singing this.
A couple of years ago, I posted an article regarding "My Endless Scene", a City Pop song recorded by actress/singer Mayumi Asaka（朝加真由美）as the first track for her one-and-only album, "Yasashii Kankei ~ Mayumi I"（優しい関係...A Gentle Relationship）, from October 1981. It's a relaxing slice of urban contemporary for all those high-rise dwellers and visitors.🌇
This time, in contrast to that Side A, Track 1 song, I have Asaka's Side B, Track 1 song. "Sasowarete..." (Enticed...). And I would like to emphasize the contrast since this particular number starts off with a brief soliloquy by the actress herself in a rainy milieu for the first several seconds before the melody by Daiko Nagato（長戸大幸）begins with a revelatory chorus which turns into a comely arrangement of lilting country and blues. With lyrics by Tomoko Aran（亜蘭知子）, "Sasowarete..." also has that reminder of a 1950s or 1960s ballad, especially with that saxophone solo in there.
As I mentioned in my previous article, Toronto is at the beginning of its first heat wave since 2023. It was indeed hot out there when I went out for grocery shopping and the air conditioning in the supermarket was very welcome. However, I have to say that summers in Japan helped to heatproof me to a good extent; I faced weeks upon weeks of very hot and humid weather day and night until mid-September. Of course, there were times when I really didn't want to actually heat something up during a roasting-hot day so I often bought a package of hiyashi chuuka（冷やし中華）to nourish myself and keep cool to the best of my ability. You can take a look at the above video by Japanese Cooking 101 to see how it's prepared.
Of course, I wrote the above to provide a fairly smooth segue into this particular song which made up the soundtrack for this particular "Heart Cocktail"（ハートカクテル）vignette called "Cool Lunch Time" some time in 1987. Now, the vignette is not referring to a cold meal such as hiyashi chuuka but the fact that some young fellow in the throes of the wonders of the Bubble Era of Japan is enjoying a spectacularly kakkoii noon hour.
Leaving your Ralph Lauren suit on a branch while you surf during your lunch hour?! Living life large, my friend! Would like to see your life insurance coverage as well. Anyways, the song that adorns "Cool Lunch Time" is another Ken Shima（島健）concoction with the same title that is powered by Nobuo Yagi's（八木のぶお）romantic and saucy harmonica. I always love a good bluesy-jazzy harmonica so you can imagine that I'm also getting some wonderful Toots Thielemans vibes as I listen to this. Now if the name Nobuo Yagi sparks a memory, then you may know about his group Curtis Creek Band.
Originally, "Cool Lunch Time" belonged to Shima's contributions to "Heart Cocktail", "Heart Cocktail Vol. 4" from August 1987, but I gather that from the thumbnail image to the video of the song below, it's also been included on the recent "Heart Cocktail ~ Original Soundtracks" from 2024. Also, have a listen to his "Yakko Ressha"（夜行列車）which is also a part of Vol. 4.
My own cool lunch time back in the day? Well, it wasn't surfing. It was more like hitting Mickey D's and then browsing through Tower Records in Shibuya.
When it comes to the good-time rock n' roll group, the Downtown Boogie-Woogie Band（ダウン・タウン・ブギウギ・バンド）, almost all listeners will be reminded of "Minato no Yoko, Yokohama Yokosuka"（港のヨーコ・ヨコハマ・ヨコスカ）from 1975.
But immediately before that, their 3rd single"Smokin' boogie" was said to be the song that got the band into listeners' ears. Written by bassist and vocalist Takeshi Arai（新井武士）and composed by fellow bandmate Ryudo Uzaki（宇崎竜童）, it starts off rather rootsy before we all get that reminder of what it must have been like to cut a rug on the dance floor back in the 1950s. Meanwhile, Arai's lyrics talk about how one probable teen got into a life of cigarettes. Japan Tobacco must have loved this one while anti-cancer campaigns probably did not. Even the chorus makes like the sound of the guy puffing away.
However, as they say, "Wait, there's more!". It turns out that "Smokin' boogie" was inspired by American blues guitaristElmore James' 1961 "Shake Your Moneymaker", itself inspired by previous songs according to Wikipedia.
Well, I figure if I can reference the latest Marvel flick "Thunderbolts*" a few days ago, I can throw in Johnny Storm the Human Torch for this one.
A few years ago, I profiled a 1979 album "Radio Moon and Roses 1979Hz", a collaboration between the band Moonriders（ムーンライダーズ）and singer-songwriter Nanako Sato（佐藤奈々子）which came about from the latter's relatively recent discovery of recorded but unaired tunes that she had done with the former decades previously.
One of the songs on the album that I hadn't covered in the original 2022 article is Moonriders and Sato's cover of the former's "Hinotama Boy"(Fireball Boy). Written and composed by Keiichi Suzuki（鈴木慶一）, it's a combination of hot and sultry Sato with Suzuki giving a bluesy rock vocal performance along the lines of a young Tom Waits (still a few bottles of hard liquor away from getting that Waits growl) as the lyrics tell of a life of a young lad living life rough in the big city...maybe an updated version of Hibari Misora's（美空ひばり）Shoeshine Boy (or Girl). Can't help but think of the two sashaying across a rough wooden floor in a honky-tonk dive bar deep downtown as they are performing "Hinotama Boy" which strikes me as something rather prog rock, especially with the violin in there.
As I mentioned above, the track on "Radio Moon" is a cover of the original Moonriders' title track from the January 1976"Hinotama Boy" album, and that original is even snazzier with some jazzier arrangements in there. This time, the venue isn't an alleyway honky-tonk but a cabaret club a grade higher with room for those cool horns. Also, the video above provided by kun hoh is absolutely top-notch and an obvious labour of love that was first put up about a decade ago.
There were a number of stars helping out on the original such as Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）, Akiko Yano（矢野顕子）and Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）. In fact, according to the J-Wiki writeup on the album, Suzuki had based the song on Hosono's way of music. Finally, if I were to Marvelize this song, it wouldn't be "FLAME ON!" but "Simmer...".
Back in November 2019, I posted an article from Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）March 1980 album "Love Songs" regarding one of its tracks, "Lonely Wind", which has been noted in one of the comments underneath its YouTube video as sounding like an unrevealed "Grease" track. I can't deny that...it does have that 1950s or early 1960s romantic doo-wop feeling.
What I didn't know at the time was that Takeuchi's "Lonely Wind" which had been composed by Kingo Hamada（濱田金吾）and written by Kazuko Kobayashi（小林和子）was actually a cover of Hamada's original version. Mind you, it was only by a few months since his debut album of "Manhattan in the Rain" had come out in January 1980. It was also added as the B-side to the singer-songwriter's 2nd single"Hotel Surf-Rider" in June of that year.
Although Hamada's original "Lonely Wind" also retains that old-fashioned mid-20th-century flavour that would have Richie and Lori Beth swooning on the porch on that cool summer night (and was also a trope of Mariya's music back in the early days), his version seems to also possess some jazz and blues with an intro that's reminiscent of a Carpenters song. Overall, and this isn't to put down Mariya's cover (and how I could ever do that?), the original sounds a bit more mature and refined, for the lack of a better word.
Considering that he died at such a young age (40 years old), I think that a lot of his fans can only wonder now what the late actor Yusaku Matsuda（松田優作）could have further achieved in Japan and perhaps even in Hollywood (beyond "Black Rain"). His characteristic role and appearance as the lone wolf avenger has passed even onto anime and manga characters such as Kenshiro from "Fist of the North Star" and Spike Spiegel from "Cowboy Be-Bop".
I discovered that he was once in a 1979 crime film titled "Yomigaeru Kinrou"（蘇る金狼）with him playing a quiet accountant by day and a robber-assassin by night. As usual, he had that huge puff of locks while sporting a natty suit.
For such a lone wolf, the perfect theme song was created. "Yomigaeru Kinrou no Tehma"(The Theme of "The Resurrection of the Golden Wolf") was released as the late Yoko Maeno's（前野曜子）4th single in July 1979. A bluesy folk rock ballad, it was written by Hiroko Asano（浅野裕子）and composed by Casey Rankin of the band SHOGUN. The theme song seems to fit around Matsuda's Tetsuya Asakura just like a dirty trench coat. The thick sounds coming from the guitar work some wonders here.
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