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.
When a song ends with the lyrics "Any love that's going well isn't love", I can assume that this isn't a light and breezy ditty of romance. But such is the case with Char's 2nd single from June 1977, "Kizetsu Suru Hodo Nayamashii"(You're So Annoying I Can Faint), and yep, maybe I can say the same thing about the title.
Written by Yu Aku（阿久悠）, composed by Tatsushi Umegaki（梅垣達志） and arranged by Jun Sato（佐藤準）, I can opine that "Kizetsu Suru Hodo Nayamashii" goes along the line of "can't live with each other, can't live without each other", as a man and a woman snipe against each other internally and yet won't commit to a breakup. Melodically, what's striking is how smooth and pop this Char song is...usually I think rock or City Pop with the Tokyo-born singer-songwriter (although he wasn't involved in the songwriting process here as noted above) , but this time, there is something almost approaching Gilbert O'Sullivan or Al Stewart with the rhythm, strings and guitar. Mind you, there is also a feeling that Umegaki and/or Sato had perhaps wanted to incorporate a bit of Jigsaw's "Sky High" at around the chorus part.
"Kizetsu Suru Hodo Nayamashii" reached No. 12 and ended up as the 98th-ranked single for 1977, selling around 300,000 records. A stripped-down version of the song made it onto Char's sophomore album "Char II have a wine" which was released later that year in November.
I heard about this big collaboration among these older singing veterans last year and then of course, they showed up on the Kohaku Utagassen to perform their song. At first, I thought this special group was called the "Jidai Okure no Rock 'n' Roll Band" (An Old-Fashioned Rock 'n' Roll Band) but it was actually their one-and-only single that got the name. For all of us, the group is the quintet of Keisuke Kuwata（桑田佳祐）, Motoharu Sano（佐野元春）, Masanori Sera（世良公則）, Char and Goro Noguchi（野口五郎）.
According to J-Wiki, Southern All Stars'（サザンオールスターズ）Kuwata had been looking at the state of the world last year with COVID-19, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and natural disasters inflicting themselves in various countries. He decided to give his old buddy, rock singer Sera, a call and they decided to make a song that would be released as a digital single for charity. They then gathered three other singer-musicians around their age of 66: 70s aidoruNoguchi, singer-songwriter Sano and guitarist Char, and once Kuwata got everything written out, they recorded "Jidai Okure no Rock 'n' Roll Band" for release in May 2022.
To give the proceedings that ol' nostalgic reunion effect, the music video was filmed at a Kanto region high school. Furthermore, joining the five in the video were SAS keyboardist Yuko Hara（原由子）, HOUND DOG's Kohei Otomo（大友康平）on drums, and bassist Hama Okamoto（ハマ・オカモト）. In the actual recording, Makoto Saito（斎藤誠）was helping out on electric guitar and Junichi Soga（曽我淳一）was on electric organ. As for the song itself, it's a gallant and summery rock-and-pop tune which is as comfortable as that once-retired leather jacket being taken out of the deepest corner of the closet as the five sing about getting off one's duff and doing something about the world.
"Jidai Okure no Rock 'n' Roll Band" managed to hit No. 1 on the digital charts with 21,000 downloads in its first week. The single is also available on Kuwata's 4th BEST compilation "Itsumo Dokoka de"（いつも何処かで...Always Somewhere） which was released later in November, also hitting the top of the charts and going Gold. Even before listening to the full version and hearing the hoopla about the song, I definitely got that Traveling Wilburys vibe.
Well once again my memory failed me since I completely forgot about putting up the weekly Gosanke team onto KKP the past weekend. However, at least I have remembered today.
On January 14th, I put up the Shibuya-kei Gosanke（渋谷系御三家）with some relief in that Takao Tajima（田島貴男）of Original Love has mellowed out about having to cringe at being included within that august trio. However, I have to say that when I opted to put up the rock version tonight, I was scratching my head at the inclusion of wunderkind Shinji Harada（原田真二）as one of the Rock Gosanke. I did see that among his genres listed at J-Wiki, rock was indeed one of them, but the tunes that I've put up onto the blog have all swum in the ocean of City Pop and J-AOR; mind you, the one other genre that was listed for him was pop. Maybe his rock tunes came later in his career and I have yet to cover them.
In any case, while Char started up early in the 1970s, both Harada and Sera（世良公則）debuted in 1977 so I'll use that as the year for Labels, although I'm unsure how the tag of Rock Gosanke came about for these three, although it is listed on that "idol.ne.jp" page for Gosanke and in the Yahoo.jp search engine.
When we first found out about singing firebrand Mari Kaneko（金子マリ）from her "Aru Toki"（あるとき）which was released back in 1976, we all learned that she was dubbed the Shimo-Kitazawa Janis Joplin with that voice of rock and blues.
Several years later in September 1983, Kaneko put out her first solo album "MARI FIRST" away from her band Bux Bunny. I listened to the first track, "Street Information" and initially thought that the J-Janis had gone full New Wave considering the musical trends of the time. However, as the song went on, I came to the conclusion that Kaneko was still giving out her brand of rock.
Methinks that "Street Information" has been a great rousing song to put on at any of her concerts. You got Kaneko and her backup singers going full out along with the guitars and the drums thwacking away like crazy. Words and music were provided by guitarist and singer-songwriter Char who used to work with Kaneko in the 1970s band Smoky Medicine. According to the explanation for the above video, her then-husband Johnny Yoshinaga（ジョニー吉長）was on those drums, Jake H. Concepcion and Shin Kazuhara（数原晋）were contributing in the brass section, and the late gospel singer Yuka Kamebuchi（亀渕友香）was backing her up on vocals.
I don't recall ever seeing guitarist, singer and songwriter Char on television, let alone a music show, but he showed up last night on NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）for the first time and he made quite the impression.
The Tokyo-born music maker blistered through one of his earliest songs, "Smoky", and indeed he smoked the strings. Of course, it wasn't the full rendition but being the first time I had ever heard of "Smoky", I was definitely enchanted by it to seek it out once the show ended. My first KKP article for Char was "Kagerou"（かげろう）from his September 1976 debut album"Char" and "Smoky" is track No. 6.
"Smoky" was written and composed by Char under his real name, Hisato Takenaka（竹中尚人）, and it's a high-speed trip powered by his guitar and the rest of the band. At first, I was going to categorize it as a straight rock tune but then I heard those fusion elements including the 70s City Pop instrumental symbol of the synthesizer haze, so I threw in the J-AOR as well. Regardless, lyrically speaking, it's a dynamic and necessary kiss-off of a fellow named Smoky who had been a bad influence on the protagonist. My feeling is that Smoky was a dope dealer but his former customer has found music (and maybe religion?) and he's telling ol' Smoky that he no longer needs chemical stimulation for his mojo. Good on him.
Read one comment that pointed out how better his live performances of "Smoky" are, so here is one from his official YouTube channel.
After a few days of relatively cool weather, the roasting temperatures are on their way over here for the weekend. Not a huge fan of those, but 16 Tokyo summers' worth of heat and humidity have proofed me for the meteorological challenge.
Looks like dynamic singer-songwriter-musician Char is a sun worshiper, though. I've just heard his "Shinin' You Shinin' Day" and it's an uptempo funky delight that has been written and composed by him. The B-side from his June 1976 debut single"Navy Blue","Shinin' You Shinin Day" has nothing but English lyrics and it must have been a grand day. At first, when I was listening to it, I had assumed that he was cascading all those wonderful compliments on his girlfriend but as it turns out, his tribute is going all the way up to ol' Sol itself.
About a third of the way into the song, following Char's kind words to the sun, the singer and his fellow musicians go into a nice little jam session which must have created for that point in the drive along the shore when the roof comes down in the convertible. As I've mentioned in the past, I'm no big fan of the heat and humidity in my old stomping grounds but the sun is always welcome. By the way, "Shinin' You Shinin' Day" is also a track on his debut album"Char" which came out in September of that year.
That Krispy Kreme chocolate donut and coffee as you see above was purchased and consumed at a huge food court at the Diver City mall in Odaiba, Tokyo back in 2014. It's just behind the life-sized Gundam model. The famous donut franchise had its time in North America but did a quick fade once folks realized that arteries and veins actually needed to stay intact for survival.
It then hit Japan like a meteor almost 10 years ago with Store No. 1 launching in South Shinjuku just across from the Takashimaya Times Square shopping complex. I remember that opening day well on that one Friday in December 2009; since I was in the area, I had thought that I might attempt to get one of those icing-slathered donuts although I knew with all of the hoopla from the Krispy Kreme marketing machine and the usual reaction from foodie Japanese there would probably be a lineup of about half an hour or so. Well, my prediction was completely off...it was more like a 2-hour queue! And for several more months, it would stay that way as folks from all over the nation would flock in to grab a couple of briefcase-sized boxes of cholesterol bombs. It's as if the Japanese had never heard of yeast donuts before. For me, it would take about a year before I finally ventured my way into Store No. 1 and get a donut and coffee. It was an interesting experience....the donut was indeed rich and sugary but the coffee was about as strong as an Avenger at the Battle of Earth, probably to counteract the effects of the donut. Didn't get much sleep that night.
Branches eventually started popping up like fungi all over Tokyo and certain parts of Japan in the next couple of years before I took off for home for good. However, by the time I returned for my first visit to the country in late 2014, I found out that the KK bubble had popped and interest was falling. And by the time of my next visit in 2017, Store No. 1 was gone, to be replaced by an Italian restaurant. Maybe the branch in Odaiba is perhaps the only branch left in Tokyo...not sure. But the rise and fall of Krispy Kreme didn't particularly surprise me. There was a similar phenomenon with Cinnabons prior to the KK boom. Incidentally, Cinnabons is still a fixture here at Eglinton subway station after all these years.
So, my story about Krispy Kreme in Japan was put up to introduce this sunny and contented song by the band Pink Cloud（ピンククラウド）. "Sweet My Baby" first caught my attention when I saw the video off to the side to the right of YouTube and saw that album cover with the two comical Japanese masks. With the name of Pink Cloud, I was rather intrigued.
I soon discovered that "Sweet My Baby" was one happy and funky piece of musical joy by Pink Cloud. Another revelation is that the band consisted of guitarist/vocalist Char, bassist Masayoshi "Louise Louis" Kabe（加部正義）, formerly of the Group Sounds band The Golden Cups, and drummer/vocalist Johnny Yoshinaga（ジョニー吉長）from the rock band Yellow（イエロー）. If I'm not mistaken, that is indeed Yoshinaga behind the mike for "Sweet My Baby" and he puts his own sweet soul and funk into his voice, punctuated by his "Doo-doo-bee-doo".
The song belongs to the 1982 album"Cloud Land ~ Tougenkyou"（桃源郷...Shangri-La）. Char, Kabe and Yoshinaga first got together as a trio in 1978 and simply identified themselves as JOHNNY, LOUIS & CHAR. But then, they decided to go with the new name of Pink Cloud going into 1982. Looking at their discography on J-Wiki, they were certainly prolific with their releases until the band broke up in 1994.
Right after I listened and enjoyed "Sweet My Baby", I found another Pink Cloud confection under the title of "Open Your Eyes" which came from their 1989 album"Pink Stick". It's a fun guitar-based boogie with what I think is a little mix of rockabilly and jazz. The cover bands would love this one to death.
Pink Cloud has been categorized on J-Wiki as a rock group but from listening to these two songs so far, I think Johnny, Louis & Char came up with even more in terms of their music.
This is my second article tonight and as I said in my first article, I sometimes get tips from readers about songs that they also like that have yet to get onto the blog. Happily, most of the tips that I've gotten have led to some fine tunes that do get themselves onto "Kayo Kyoku Plus".
Yesterday, one commenter was good enough to leave a tip when he read about Char's "Kagerou"（かげろう）. He/she asked me if I had ever heard of his "LET IT BLOW" and whether it was an original for Char or if it was a cover by him. Plus, he/she said that it's something right up my alley.
First off, the commenter was on the mark. "LET IT BLOW" is a good rousing number for a Monday night (especially with the rains coming down now on Toronto). "Kagerou" was a track from Char's debut album"Char" all the way back in 1976, and I mentioned that it was a nice mix of funk and rock. Well, his single from October 1998 also has that same mixture and I believe it is indeed a Char original with Takashi Aida（相田毅）on lyrics and Makihiko Araki（荒木真樹彦）on music.
Plus, it is great for some extended riffing as you can see in the concert video above. "LET IT BLOW" is a most intense platform for Char to encourage folks who may have gone through a tough time to just throw off any of those negative vibes and bad feelings like a ratty and heavy coat and get on with life. Message is quite happily received. Maybe this would be ideal for those folks who've just paid their taxes.
Usually when I hear the word "char", outside of the usual definition of "burning to a crisp", I've heard it used to describe a famous anime villain or that fish found all the way up north. However for the purposes of this blog, I'm using the word to define a Japanese musician and singer.
This Char was born Hisato Takenaka（竹中尚人）in 1955 in Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo. And the reason he chose "Char" to be his stage name was that his first name could technically also be read "Cha-to" which then got shortened to "Cha~" or just "Char". Even more fascinating was that by the time he got to his twenties, the rock guitarist had already been involved with several bands starting with FOX when he was just 11 years old, followed by JAH, GAS MASK, Shock, and Bad Scene. Moreover, he was already picking up work as a studio musician in his final year of junior high school!
In June 1976, Char released his debut single"Navy Blue" followed by his debut album"Char" which came out in September that year. And this article has to do with the second track from that album "Kagerou" (Heat Haze). A commenter on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" referred me to a list of favored City Pop performers by a Brazilian musician and found his name on the list. In fact, I had heard of Char through literature such as magazines and newspapers but never heard any of his work.
"Kagerou" has Char's rock guitar in there but the whole song has that funky vibe which would put the song in the City Pop category. It would make for a nice strutting song in any city on the planet but heck, why not walk down Chuo-Dori in Tokyo to this tune? There's some nice bass, keyboard work reminiscent of Stevie Wonder, and Char's guitar solo along with the background chorus of "doo, doo, doo". I couldn't find out officially but I'm pretty sure that the song was written and composed by Char himself.
