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.
Showing posts with label Chisato Moritaka. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chisato Moritaka. Show all posts
Man, those were quite the hey days for Hello! Project（ハロー!プロジェクト）, the huge Tsunku-created female aidoru umbrella under which resided the mightyMorning Musume（モーニング娘。）. And entering the 21st century from the 1990s, other groups and solo acts germinated such as singer Miki Fujimoto（藤本美貴）and the relatively recent OCHA NORMA.
I also recollect there being a few groups under Hello! Project that also had the name Musume. Except for a relatively few exceptions, I didn't dig too deeply into these other groups, but one group's name has stayed with me, Country Musume（カントリー娘。）. Unfortunately, the one reason for that is due to a tragedy that befell them. Country Musume was to have debuted as a trio: Rinne Toda（戸田鈴音）, Azusa Kobayashi（小林梓）, and Hiromi Yanagihara（柳原尋美）. However, just before the release of their debut single (which had already been recorded) in July 1999, Yanagihara was killed in an auto accident with Kobayashi departing the group after its release.
Toda stayed on as a solo act representing Country Musume and as such, she released the group's 2nd single"Yukigeshiki"(Snowscape) in November 1999. It stood out for the fact that not only did Tsunku（つんく♂）compose the song but Chisato Moritaka（森高千里）provided the lyrics. Heavy with the country music vibe, the Sapporo-born Toda sings about how frustrated she's been getting with the endless amounts of snow around her but making the best of a seasonally frustrating time by getting together with the boyfriend and hitting the slopes with a snowboard. That's right...take a negative and turn it into a positive!
What I hadn't known about Country Musume is that the group underwent a lot of personnel changes (but then again, Morning Musume was no stranger to that either) including the entry of some Morning Musume members with that Hokkaido lineage, continuing until 2009. Then in 2014, the group returned but experienced a name change going from Country Musume to Country Girls after which they continued for about another five years before calling it a day in 2019.
September in Japan has two statutory holidays: Keirou no Hi（敬老の日...Respect-for-the-Aged Day） on the third Monday and then Shuubun no Hi（秋分の日...First Day of Autumn）. For the former, there's the usual tradition of taking the folks out for lunch or dinner somewhere and probably there is a whole plethora of gateball tournaments across the country. Of course, being an official holiday and all, the TV schedule in Japan is all different today, so as we were watching NHK News this morning (down from the usual one hour to 30 minutes), my family was getting a little confused about whether Canada was having a holiday today (the next one for us in the Great White North is Canadian Thanksgiving next month).
Out of curiosity, I took a look for any kayo kyoku list online consisting of any songs that had an association with Keirou no Hi. There were quite a few out there and most of what I can give here has that theme of gratitude and enduring through the tough times.
Touching upon my old amity toward the "Star Trek" franchise, I knew about Brent Spiner's singing ability (heck, I even bought his "Ol' Yellow Eyes is Back" album) and so I enjoyed the above video by Lena Kingsleigh who spliced together a few scenes from the episodes "Data's Day" and "Datalore" from the fourth and first seasons of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" respectively with a scene involving Spiner's turn as nasty cruise director Gil Godwyn in the 1997 movie "Out to Sea".
The thing is though that I don't think it was the above that first got my attention about the song "Oye Cómo Va"originally recorded by Latin jazz great Tito Puente in 1962. I had heard it before though I didn't know of the title and something else led me to the "Out to Sea" scene with Gil's mechanical delivery. However, it was enough to check out its origins.
Then I read that the band Santana blew the doors off with their Latin rock rendition of "Oye Cómo Va" in 1971 on their venerated album "Abraxas".
I'm sure that there have been many other covers of "Oye Cómo Va" over the decades, but I just didn't expect one from Chisato Moritaka（森高千里）. But I heard from KKP co-administrator and friend Marcos V. that the singer-songwriter did her own rendition of the Puente original for her October 1990 album"Kokontozai"（古今東西...All Times And Places）. With Hideo Saito（斉藤英夫）providing the arrangement, I read on J-Wiki that it's supposed to be a bossa nova take but all I can hear here is Moritaka and company basically following the Santana model. In any case, it's been placed on the album just before her "Ame"（雨）.
Just for trivia's sake, although the version on "Kokontozai" was titled "Oye Cómo Va", the song first came to Japanese ears as "Boku no Rhythm wo Kiitokure"（僕のリズムを聞いとくれ）which is a direct translation of the title. In English, it's translated as "Listen how it goes".
I was watching the local news this morning when I found out that apparently today is National Burger Day here in the Great White North. Ah...wonderful...and I'm not going anywhere for lunch or dinner.😞 But those cheeseburgers did look rather sumptuous on television. Interestingly enough, I've heard that within the Japanese gastronomical world, the hamburger in all its different forms (sliders, smashed burgers, etc.) is getting its second wind. I was there for the first big blossoming of the burger there when all sorts of burger shops popped up throughout the Greater Tokyo Area.
After catching that TV segment, I was wondering about any burger kayo out there. The only one I knew was Kirinji's（キリンジ）bubbly "Pizza VS. Hamburger" from the band's "cherish" album of 2019. However, although I'd assumed that I would be lucky to find even one after several minutes, I was able to track down two within just a few minutes. So, for your listening (and perhaps future eating) pleasure, here are the double portions with cheese.
I have to really get better at distinguishing folksy singer Masato Shimon（子門真人）from Tatsuo Kamon（嘉門タツオ）. Shimon was the one behind the biggest-selling single in Japan, "Oyoge! Taiyaki-kun" (およげ！たいやきくん）, also a song about food but nothing to do with lots of protein. Kamon, on the other hand, is an entertainer who started out as the apprentice for a rakugo comedian in the late 1970s before becoming a singer-songwriter of comical novelty tunes from the 1980s.
His 34th single was released in December 1995. "Totsugeki! Hamburger Shop"(Bang! Hamburger Shop) comes across as a comedic country-western tune with Kamon acting in two roles: the grumpiest customer in a hamburger shop dealing with a super-polite employee and the grumpiest hamburger shop owner dealing with a nervous nellie of a customer. Basically, he brought in his old rakugo techniques into this one. Kamon composed the song while Tsuyoshi Sugimoto（杉本つよし）took care of the lyrics.
Meanwhile, Chisato Moritaka's（森高千里）"Teriyaki Burger" is one upbeat jukebox-friendly pop-rock track from her October 1990 album"Kokon Tozai"（古今東西...All Times and Places）. The title is the only thing that concerns any patty between two buns; Moritaka just lets loose on her ambitions to take over the world her own way without things such as formal education and borders getting in her way. In a way then, "Teriyaki Burger" could share something with the food-themed title "Sukiyaki" being slapped onto Kyu Sakamoto's（坂本九）classic "Ue wo Muite Arukou" (上を向いて歩こう) by that British DJ decades ago. "Sukiyaki" has nothing to do with the meaning of the lyrics but it's easier to pronounce that particular title. In any case, Moritaka took care of the lyrics while Hideo Saito（斉藤英夫）was the composer.
Now, here's a special video. I don't think I've ever seen Princess Princess and Moritaka collaborate. Cherish it and that hamburger today.🍔
Last week, I provided Part 1 to Chisato Moritaka's（森高千里）November 1992 7th original album, "Pepperland"（ペパーランド）. As I mentioned there, this had been an album that stayed up on my shelves for the longest time after first listening to it and just finding it a little too outré for my impressions of Moritaka back then. However, after many years, I've decided to give it another go and I'm more open to it now. Let's go with Part 2, then, shall we?
Track 6, and perhaps this could have been the beginning song to Side B if an LP version of "Pepperland" had been released, is "Ame no Asa"（雨の朝...Rainy Morning）. Composed by Yasuaki Maejima（前嶋康明）of the band Spick & Span, he's also accompanying Moritaka's drumming with his Fender Rhodes and synthesizer according to the liner notes. It's a familiar track to me so I've probably put it into one of my old mixtapes and it's the funkiest and grooviest track on the album, although the lyrical content is such that you want to give the lass in the story a great big hug. She is not having a good morning as she has to get ready for another day of the corporate grind while watching a downpour outside her apartment.
That lass probably wishes she were in the story of Track 7, "Tokonatsu no Paradise"（常夏のパラダイス）, (and maybe she is), as Chisato sings about being as happy as one can be after a not-so-great previous year. Written by Moritaka (as she did for all of the tracks) and composed by Toshiaki Matsumoto（松本俊明）, I think the original version on "Pepperland" had that Beatles-y sound but the remake above also has incorporated some Okinawan feelings. One of the other things that I like about this one is Chisato's "Ha~i!" in the chorus.
"U-Turn ~ Wagaya"（Uターン (我が家)...My Home） has a distinctly Japanese summer theme as someone is returning by train to the old hometown for a long-awaited visit. That someone can look forward to seeing mountains and rivers and having Mom's home cooking once again. Chisato's piano pretty much lays it out: this is one swaying nostalgic and welcome trip home. Yuichi Takahashi（高橋諭一）, who has also provided the melodies for some of the earlier tracks, is back here on music.
The next track on the album is "Gokigen na Asa"（ごきげんな朝）which I actually posted almost a decade ago as this jangly tribute to the band Shocking Blue. So have a look at it there through the link and then we go to "Rock Alarm Clock" which, like "Ame no Asa", is another work-related tune. This time though, the young lady is making a very energetic effort to get to work on time after her alarm clock lets her down, and in all likelihood, not for the first time. The vocalist and leader of the rock band Carnation, Masataro Naoe（直枝政太郎）, was responsible for the melody.
The final track is the sad and perhaps reflective-of-the-times song "Aoi Umi"（青い海）. Composed by Hiroyoshi Matsuo（松尾弘良）in a deceptively cheerful way, it's the story of a widowed man in his mid-sixties owning a bookstore in his seaside town. His daughter has moved away due to marriage to probably the big city. He goes and visits her but doesn't seem to enjoy the big city life and finds the travel arduous to the point that he may not make a second visit. By the end of the song, the bookstore has been torn down to become a parking lot. Meanwhile, the sea remains blue. 😭 I think I saw this scene play out in yesterday's episode of NHK's current morning serial drama "Omusubi"（おむすび）.
Once again, as was the case with Akina Nakamori's（中森明菜）"Crimson", I've found redemption in Moritaka's "Pepperland" as an album where the singer-songwriter-musician has decided to make a pivot in her style from the synth dance pop where she first made her name to a more grounded form of arrangement. And wiser people than me discovered this far earlier since the album hit the charts at No. 5.
Several years ago, I devoted time and space on this blog to Akina Nakamori's（中森明菜）1986"Crimson" album, a release that I had brushed off my shoulder as something that hadn't been to my taste at the time and politely returned it to the shelf to languish for literally decades. However, something inside of me poked at me to try it once again and it got its redemptive story; it was because I hadn't been quite ready for this side of Akina. Of course, the story was also tragic in that when I had played it on my tape player, Jaws proceeded to maul it to death (you can see the gory photo in all its glory on the article via the link).
I'm reminded of "Crimson" when I come to this November 1992 album by Chisato Moritaka（森高千里）titled "Pepperland"（ペパーランド）. I had gotten this one via "Eye-Ai" mail order in the pre-Internet age and to go against the adage, "Never trust a book by its cover", I went ahead and got it just looking at the black-and-white unexpectedly down-to-earth cover showing Moritaka in front of an old Japanese house. After all, there was no YouTube or streaming services to check out any tracks beforehand and I had no idea what the songs were since I don't think most of them had been performed on shows like "Music Station".
Well, I did get it after waiting several weeks and much like Nakamori's "Crimson", Moritaka's "Pepperland" revealed a different turn for the singer's music. Up until then, I'd been accustomed to her lively Eurobeat music such as "Benkyou no Uta"（勉強の歌）. The tracks on "Pepperland" didn't go anywhere near that genre and it was again that I decided that the album wasn't really my type of stuff so it also went onto the shelves to languish for literally decades. It took several years for me to even acknowledge one of the tracks "Gokigen na Asa"（ごきげんな朝）and post it onto KKP.
However, after getting that equivalent of Obi-Wan's ghost on Hoth exhorting Luke to head to Dagobah to learn from Yoda, I was once again drawn to this album that I once rejected as Chisato going a little too far off the beaten pop path.
As it hints on the byline, I will be doing the first half of "Pepperland" today with the second half coming out next week. The lyrics for all of the songs were written by Moritaka with a variety of composers helping out on the melodies. As well, Moritaka herself was handling a lot of the instruments including the drums.
The first track is the title track which was composed by Shin Kohno（河野伸）who was also a member of the band SPANK HAPPY (and a participating guitarist on the song). As I mentioned in "Gokigen no Asa", "Pepperland" has some significance for the singer because it was the name of the live house in Kumamoto Prefecture where Moritaka had performed with her old band back in the day. The lyrics even tell of the story of how that one night had gone. It's quite the jangly rock n' roll which was something that I hadn't quite understood when it came to the singer's music although it would become increasingly part of her sound going deeper into the 1990s.
Track 2 is "Dotchi mo Dotchi"（どっちもどっち...Six of One, Half a Dozen of the Other） which is a somewhat wistful musical comparison of the generations. Yuichi Takahashi（高橋諭一）composed this one which involves a woman witnessing the constant conflicts of her parents' dislike of each other's interests while perhaps she and her significant other have taken a milder stance about their own differences. Along with the battle of the sexes, perhaps this could also go into the comparison of the Showa and Heisei generations.
"Atama ga Itai"（頭が痛い...My Head Hurts） is frankly my least favourite track on "Pepperland". Compared with the self-cover video above, the original arrangement for "Atama ga Itai" is even more discordant as if Moritaka had really wanted to give her listeners a headache. When I saw the title, I had assumed that the singer was going to give an indictment on men but as it turned out, she really was just giving a description of her coming down with a bug. Takahashi was also behind the melody here.
"Sunrise" is a nice deliverance from "Atama ga Itai" that was also Takahashi-composed. A comfy and genki tune, it presents the nicest friend anyone could get with the person inviting a buddy over and just having a good time noshing and chatting all night until the sun rises the next morning. A nice key change in the middle, too.
The final song for this part is "Rock n' Roll Kenchoushozaichi"（ロックンロール県庁所在地...Rock n' Roll Prefectural Capitals）, a 1950s or 1960s-feeling rocker of another Chisato flight of fancy as she peels off the names of prefectures, prefectural capitals and famous dishes from the area. She doesn't name every one of them (that probably would have taken her into dance remix territory) but gives enough of them in the less than two-and-a-half minutes of time to entice potential tourists to check some of the food out. Moritaka was responsible for both words and music.
Doing another reference to last night's "Uta Con"（うたコン）, the episode began with Sayuri Ishikawa's（石川さゆり）non-enka hit, the jazzy "Whiskey ga O-Suki deshou?" (ウィスキーが、お好きでしょ）and the singer naturally sang it in the middle of a whiskey distillery. Not sure if she got free samples afterwards; it certainly couldn't have been beforehand.
But it did get me to think about another Author's Picks list about kayo kyoku involving alcoholic libations. It's a natural fit, too, since Japan has been said to possess a bar culture. Noting how much the Japanese love their drink whether it be the native sake and shochu or the imported beer, whiskey, cocktails, etc, the culture has basically woven itself into the practice of doing business in the nation. Weirdly enough, I never considered myself even a social drinker. How I (or my liver) managed to survive nearly two decades in Japan, I'll never know but I was practically forced to learn to appreciate beer in mass quantities.
However, before this article ends up as a sermon at Alcoholics Anonymous, let me show you some Alcohol Kayo Kyoku.
It’s Oliver Ebisuno, coming back to Kayo Kyoku Plus after a long break. For some time now, in spite of work and personal stuff, I wanted to make an update on the blog, but always felt either unmotivated or drained from strength when sitting in front of an open draft editor. I think the time is right for a special post; to be specific, an Author’s Pick text. Shamelessly, I admit that J-Canuck’s Driving to City Poptwo-parter provided me with much needed dosage of inspiration.
Evidently, I do not live in Japan and there are no prospects of me visiting the country in the nearest future, but I thought it would be fun to mix my love for Japanese music with my personal experience, that is, commuting to work.
The city I live in is such a hole in the middle of nowhere (and forgotten by the Almighty) that basically right after finishing high school I had to get used to commuting. I had to undergo a one-hour trip by bus while studying for 5 years, the same applied to PhD studies, and my first employment. Last year, I switched jobs and now I also commute by bus, but this time to a different city, which is located roughly an hour away from my place of residence.
Being on the bus for two hours per day (please bear in mind that this is a “there and back again” route) gives me a lot of time to do various sorts of stuff like reading, browning the web, but also listening. For years, I was never that keen on the idea of listening to music outside of the comfort zone of my home, but I warmed up to the idea after the pandemic.
Now, en route to work (and most importantly coming back from it) I can’t help but listen to Tomoko Aran. Her albums Fuyuu Kuukan and Last Good-bye really calm me down and put me in a positive mood, especially in the morning. The same also goes for Toshiki Kadomatsu’s After 5 Clash and Hitomitoi’s City Dive albums.
When I am in a more adventurous mood, then I reach for music that is more charged with Synth-Pop or Rock. In such instances, Yoko Oginome’s Route 246 Connexion and Chisato Moritaka’s Mi-ha prove to be invaluable. Very rarely, when I feel deeply melancholic, I decide to desperately turn to Wink’s Best of selection or Naomi Akimoto’s Poison 21. Please refer to the selection of my favourite songs from the aforementioned albums here:
That’s it for the moment, I sincerely hope that you enjoyed my list of suggestions. I should also add that apart from the aforemtioned songs/albums, I also tend to listen to either Pet Shop Boys or Animotion while commuting. Thank you for reading.
Image sources: The feature photograph at the top of the post was taken by me on a bus to work on wintery night at 5 AM. I usually sit at the back, so it was easier for me to make sure that the faces of other commuters won’t get caught by the phone camera. The image of Akina Nakamori next to Mercedes was found on Pinterest. All the hyperlinks lead to previous Kayo Kyoku Plus posts.
Chisato Moritaka（森高千里）made another appearance on "Uta Con"（うたコン）a few nights ago. As always, it was fine to see her up on stage. This time around, the show decided to give a small retrospective of some of her past hits.
I remember the music video for her 25th single "Futari wa Koibito" (The Two are Lovers) since it got a lot of heavy rotation on the music video shows on TV. Moritaka didn't perform this one on "Uta Con" but on really hearing the song after so many years, it finally got me to write about it. "Futari wa Koibito" was written by the singer and composed by Hideo Saito（斉藤英夫）as this jangly swinging 60s sort of tune regarding a couple who might be in the midst of that period in the relationship where they are having doubts about each other. However by the end of the song, they're still hanging in tough. Personally, although I know that Moritaka is a multi-instrumentalist, I never got to see her perform on other instruments all that much so to see her in the video playing the drums is nice to see.
"Futari wa Koibito" hit No. 5 on Oricon following its release in February 1995. It was also one of the new songs on her March 1995 BEST compilation "DO THE BEST" which hit No. 2 on the charts and ended up as the 10th-ranked album of the year. The song was also the theme for the NTV drama "Koi mo Ni Dome nara"（恋も2度目なら...Love The Second Time Around）.
Yup, it's not exactly fun weather out there unless you like being buffeted by wind and rain whilst the temperatures are just above freezing. Had to get some grocery shopping done but both my umbrella and I managed to run the meteorological gauntlet without losing too many of our wits.
To be honest, in the decade-plus history of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" I don't know whether I've done an Author's Pick on rain-titled kayo or J-Pop. I should have since one of the first sources of Japanese pop music that I heard once I became a believer was an episode of "Sounds of Japan" which had the theme of rain. In fact, the first two choices of the five listed below were played on that very episode.
For some reason, of all of the basic elements out there, rain seems to have been the most popular choice for kayo kyoku titles. Perhaps it's due to all of the emotions that it evokes. But without further ado, here are a mere five of my rain songs.
As if anyone needed reminding, it is indeed October 1st, 2022. Time for fall leaves, harvesting and good food such as matsutake mushrooms and grilled sanma in Japan. Turkey and pumpkin pie would be the delicacies here in Canada and the United States, but I digress.
Last Saturday, I began a series known as "Go-Touchi Songs", those tunes that reflect a certain region or prefecture or city in Japan. They are held near and dear by many people in the country and last weekend, I started with Hokkaido and the Tohoku region which tends towards the northern part of the main island of Honshu. But as promised, I am now going into the area where I spent almost two decades of my life: the Kanto region which includes Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Gunma, Chiba and Kanagawa Prefectures along with Metropolitan Tokyo. As was displayed in last week's list, the songs aren't all about enka and Mood Kayo. Also to reiterate, this is a very tiny list merely to provide a small taste of these geographically based songs (especially where Tokyo and Yokohama are concerned); you can take a look at the far more extensive list at J-Wiki. Plus, I'll be covering the Chubu region next week.
1. Yukio Hashi -- Itakogasa (潮来笠) for Itako City in Ibaraki (1960)
2. Duke Aces -- Ii Yu da na （いい湯だな）for Gunma (1966)
7. Ayumi Ishida -- Blue Light Yokohama（ブルーライト・ヨコハマ）for Yokohama, Kanagawa (1968)
As was the case with Hokkaido and the Tohoku last week, I'd like to finish with a couple of delicacies from the Kanto: yaki manju（焼き饅頭）in Gunma and monjayaki（もんじゃ焼き）in Tokyo respectively.
Uh, say what now? I get the first three but did you say the fourth was Chisato Moritaka?! The techno aidoru of the late 80s and early 90s? The one who came up with "Benkyo no Uta"（勉強の歌）?
Indeed, I said so. Now, I don't mean that Moritaka made that full transition into kimono-wearing enka chanteuse; she's still first and foremost a pop singer, but for her 6th album in March 1992, "Rock Alive", she did have one enka/Mood Kayo tune for which she provided words and music, "Yowasete yo Kon'ya dake" (Get Me Drunk for Just This One Night). And yep, not only is her melody perfect for the genre, but her lyrics are the classic love-done-me-wrong kayo of a woman drinking herself into a stupor to forget the love that she's just lost (and not really being successful). The above is her own self-cover from many years later but the atmosphere is apropos with that street of nomiya behind her.
One other singer who eventually made the full shift from teenage pop to enkais Sanae Jounouchi（城之内早苗）, a member of Onyanko Club（おニャン子クラブ）. In 2016, Marcos V. first introduced her to us at KKP through her "Ajisaibashi"（あじさい橋）, her debut single of June 1986. Her 8th single from August 1993 is a cover of Moritaka's "Yowasete yo Kon'ya dake" which became a much-requested song on the cable radio circuit in Japan for the next several months. Hideo Saito（斉藤英夫）provided the arrangement for this tune which peaked at No. 87 on Oricon.
I don't live in a postcard city like Rio de Janeiro, but
the town where I live, called Resende, is also quite charming... especially
when the nature helps. This photo was taken in 2012.
Earlier this year, I shared a selection of Japanese
songs that were inspired by Brazilian music genres here on Kayo Kyoku Plus called Marcos V.’s Special Selection: Love Letter to Brazil. It
wasn’t a new idea, as I’ve done a similar exercise at least once many years
ago, but I believe I’m more suitable to its challenges right now… basically
because I’ve been paying more attention to these crossovers recently. Also, considering
that there are a lot of Japanese pop songs composed and arranged like samba or
bossa nova (which is something quite surprising to me, honestly speaking), I
could probably build countless of these selections. Many of the songs are very
faithful to Brazilian rhythms and composing style, while another good chunk is
just vaguely inspired. I like both types, though, so I decided to post five
Japanese songs, plus a Brazilian one at the end, but in a very free manner,
without worrying so much about authenticity or things like that. I just happen
to like them, and they remind me of the rich musical heritage of my country…
even if, in this case, filtered by Japanese lens.
Megumi Hayashibara – Distance
It was not easy to choose this one among many other
Brazilian-inspired pop songs released by Megumi Hayashibara (林原めぐみ) since she began her singing career. Originally
released in 1991 as an image song to the OVA adaptation of Yuzo Takada’s (高田裕三) manga “3x3 EYES”, “Distance” is curious because it has
nothing to do with Brazil or Latin American, since its lyrics, if I’m not
mistaken, are closely related to the character Pai (パイ), voiced by Hayashibara, who alternates between a
sweet and innocent Tibetan girl and a powerful, ancient, three-eyed demon who
lives inside her (hence “3x3 EYES”). Anyway, the music is clearly samba-inspired,
just don’t ask me why, and I love Hayashibara’s raw vocals from her early days.
“Distance” was later rerecorded and included in her second album, “WHATEVER”,
released in 1992.
Chisato Moritaka – Modorenai
Natsu (戻れない夏)
Besides Pink Lady (ピンク・レディー) and The Beatles, I believe Chisato Moritaka (森高千里) is also a big fan of bossa nova/samba, since
she has recorded many Brazilian-inspired tunes through the years. “Modorenai
Natsu”, an early example of this trend in her discography, is probably the one
I listen to the most, mainly because it’s kind of relaxing and features a nice
arrangement filled with jazzy keyboards, a sometimes relentless cuíca and the
rich instrumental breakdown. It’s not one of Moritaka’s strongest vocal
performances, though, but her breezy vocals are also kind of charming.
“Modorenai Natsu” was included in the singer’s third full album “Mite” (見て), which was released in 1988.
Toshiki Kadomatsu – La Carnaval
Toshiki Kadomatsu (角松敏生) is probably best known for the City Pop sound he
explored through the 80s, but the man kept releasing quality stuff even after
the dawn of the Bubble Era, with 2010’s“La Carnaval”, from the album
“Citylights Dandy”, being a nice example. This time, though, there’s no obvious
urban City Pop quirks, as Kadomatsu uses his musical experience to create a song
full of Brazilian rhythms and swing. Just like Moritaka’s “Modorenai Natsu”
beforehand, Kadomatsu also engages in a jazzy piano solo here.
Aya Matsumoto – TOKYO Wagamama
Musume (TOKYOわがまま娘)
Easily one of the rarest Japanese singles I’ve ever
listened, Aya Matsumoto’s (松本彩)
“TOKYO Wagamama Musume” is as bouncy as a Japanese take on samba can be with
its nice percussion and that melodic short guitar solo in the instrumental
breakdown, even though, apparently, it has nothing to do with Brazil in its thematic.
Anyway, I really like the inclusion of cuíca (well, based on the examples above, it
seems like Japan loves to include those when doing a Brazilian-inspired song)
and samba whistle in the arrangement. Unfortunately, besides this single, which
was released in 1989, Aya Matsumoto just vanished from show business and never
released other songs.
A promotional song from the Tomato n’ Pine’s album “PS4U”, which was
released in 2012, “Odore Carnaval”, lyrically speaking, is a big mishmash of a
song, but in a good and fun way. It mentions lots of Latin American countries
(including Brazil, of course), cities and words related to their music genres,
contains the Italian expression “mi amore” and evokes a hot, sweaty and
tropical party… all of this behind a discofied Carnival-like sound. Everything
is very stereotypical here, combining lots of different things into an
amorphous Latin song, but I don’t have a problem with that at all, since it’s
so well done and cute. The original video (which I’ve found with English and
Portuguese subtitles on the link above) is also a treat, so let’s just ‘mawasu,
mawasu, mawasu, mawasu, mawasu’ with these girls forever and ever.
Gilberto Gil – Toda Menina
Baiana
To finish, here's a song by Gilberto Gil, one of Brazil’s
legendary singer-songwriters. This is a thrilling forró version (forró is a
music genre from Brazil's northeastern region) of “Toda Menina Baiana” (which
can be translated as “Every Bahian Girl” or “Every Girl from Bahia”), one of
his many hit songs, which was originally included in the album “Realce”, released in1979. I almost need to get
up and dance every time I listen to this song.
Ooooh! A nice peppy Chisato Moritaka（森高千里）number to finish things up tonight. "Good-Bye Season" (not to be confused with the "Goodbye Season" by pop duo H2O) first began life as the coupling song to her 3rd single"GET SMILE" in February 1988. But I couldn't definitively find that single version and apparently, according to the J-Wiki article on her 2nd studio album"Mi-ha"（ミーハー）, which was released a month later and peaked at No. 17 on Oricon, the album version of "Good-Bye Season" has a different arrangement.
However, that's not too much of a problem for me since I like the "Mi-ha" version of "Good-Bye Season" just fine. It's not exactly the happiest of lyrics by Kanon Kuwa（久和カノン）as it tells of a romance which is down to its last embers after four years; naturally, the breakup is happening at the end of summer, but I can't complain about the music and arrangement by Takumi Yamamoto（山本拓巳）. It contains all of those nostalgic synthesizers getting mixed in with those backing vocals by NANA and Yukari Fujiu（藤生ゆかり）and the main vocals by a slightly softer-voiced Chisato. Of course, having Jake H. Concepcion in there with his saxophone is also very welcome.
Strangely enough, listening to "Good-Bye Season" a few times now, I keep getting reminded of Dreams Come True's 1992 hit"Kessen wa Kin'youbi" (決戦は金曜日）which was inspired by Cheryl Lynn's disco paean "Got To Be Real" from 1978. Yeah, I guess that "Good-Bye Season" has some disco roots as well.
The following year in December, "Good-Bye Season" got a remix version in Moritaka's first BEST album "Moritaka Land"（森高ランド）. Arranged by Hideo Saito（斉藤英夫）this time, this take has more of a pop/rock sound underlying it and it comes across as if someone had been thinking of mixing Chisato with the good ol' boys from TUBE. The album hit No. 3.
Last night on "Uta Kon"（うたコン）, Chisato Moritaka（森高千里）made another appearance and on the stage, she was joined by the adorable Kumamon（くまモン）, the official cute mascot character for Moritaka's home prefecture of Kumamoto. They did a little song-and-dance on the NHK stage, and I remember writing an article 4 years ago about a song that she performed as a tribute to the prefecture's cutest bear.
The song that Moritaka and Kumamon performed last night? It turned out to be "Kono Machi"(This Town) which was the accompanying song for the former's 12th single, the classic "Benkyou no Uta"（勉強の歌）from February 1991. However, "Kono Machi" made its first appearance on her earlier 5th album"Kokon Tozai"（古今東西...All Times and Places） which was released in October 1990.
A catchy Eurobeat-driven tune by Hideo Saito（斉藤英夫）to rival that of his other creation, "Benkyou no Uta", "Kono Machi" was written by Moritaka as a love letter to her old hometown of Kumamoto City. She even provides some of the local dialect during the song.
Considering how catchy it is, this was perfect for a character like Kumamon...only that the big bear didn't come into existence until 2010.
I've mentioned in the past that I did visit Kumamoto City back in the summer of 1991 before heading back to Toronto. However, I have yet to mention that years later, I went with a friend of mine in Tokyo to a restaurant in East Shinjuku to dine on Kumamoto ramen. It was pretty darn good but I believe the chef at that restaurant was very generous with the meat. The pieces were certainly a whole lot bigger than the ones that are featured in the above video. I didn't need any other nutrition for several hours after that meal.
Getting back to music, I've always wondered about the aidoru group ℃-ute due to that stylized spelling of their name. Well, I finally have my opportunity to talk about them since the Hello Project unit from the Kanto area did their own cover of "Kono Machi". Their version has been changed into a lot more down-to-earth and heartfelt ballad, and I think the Kumamoto dialect speak was switched to the Japanese Standard dialect.
This "Kono Machi" was released as ℃-ute's 24th single (including their early indie releases) in February 2013. It went all the way up to No. 4 on Oricon and also showed up on the group's 7th original album "⑧ Queen of J-POP" from September in that same year. That album peaked at No. 6. As for ℃-ute, they had a pretty long time together between 2005 and 2017 and consisted at the time of their breakup of Maimi Yajima（矢島舞美）, Saki Nakajima（中島早貴）, Airi Suzuki（鈴木愛理）, Chisato Okai（岡井千聖）and Mai Hagiwara（萩原舞）.
The 80s to 90s shift was too big for most of the
bubble era superstars. Shizuka Kudo (工藤静香) probably didn’t feel it right away, but, by 1991~1992,
she had to try harder to release a timeless classic that could rival with her
string of successful singles from the late 80s. She did hit it big in 1993 with
“Doukoku” (慟哭), but the following one, “Watashi wa Knife”, just
skipped the mark entirely, turning, in retrospect, into one of her most obscure
and underrated singles (the song wasn’t included in any of her original albums,
only appearing in a couple of compilations over the years, and, besides the
usual TV performances, was performed only in one of her major tours).
Curious as it is, “Watashi wa Knife” is my favorite
among Kudo’s 90s singles, even though I agree it’s far from being her best.
However, there’s something about the lively synths and horns that always get
me, and I like how she had already matured into a sexy 90s aidoru both in the
vocals and image at the time of its release.
Alessandra
Mussolini -- Tokyo Fantasy / Amai Kioku
Yeah, we’re talking about Benito Mussolini’s granddaughter
here, Alessandra Mussolini, who is now a politician in her country, Italy. However,
during the 80s, she ventured into modeling, acting and, of course, music. Also,
if it wasn’t enough, the whole story becomes even more unusual when we learn
that her first and final album, “Amore” (1982), was sold only in Japan, and
that she sang a couple of songs in Japanese as well, with “Tokyo Fantasy”, probably
the main single, being the best example of it.
A melancholic disco song that can even be labeled City
Pop by the most enthusiasts, “Tokyo Fantasy” is, surprisingly, a very
solid song. The whole atmosphere, drenched in this strange mix of dreamy
romantic naivety with bits of sadness (the sharp keyboard notes after the
chorus), coupled with the sexy early 80s disco beat, is something hard to
absorb, but it’s kinda rewarding. And the coupling song, a melancholic tune
called “Amai Kioku”, deserves a listen as well.
Recently, Alessandra suddenly became known to the
English-speaking world, but not because of her almost forgotten music career.
Apparently, Jim Carrey posted something regarding her grandfather on Twitter
and she became angry about it, resulting in a quick discussion or something
like that. As a Brazilian, well…, let’s say I already have my own right-wing problems
here in my country right now, so I will not try to understand how Alessandra keeps her grandfather’s
political history alive in today’s Italy. The only thing I can say is that I quite
like the Alessandra Mussolini who sings sad love songs in Japanese atop of a
light disco beat. She seems like the queen of this alternative universe where it’s
totally okay to have the granddaughter of a famous fascist dictator trying to
be a songstress in Japan. Not strange at all.
Chisato Moritaka -- SO BLUE
When it comes to Chisato Moritaka (森高千里), I
like her 80s and very early 90s songs way more than the mid-to-late 90s stuff. The exception to
this rule is “SO BLUE”, which was released as a single in 1996, and reveals one of Chisato's main influences aside from the Euro/Aidoru stuff: 60s pop-rock and, more specifically, The Beatles.
In “SO BLUE”, we can easily hear some nods to “Hey
Bulldog”, one of the songs released by The Fab Four in the “Yellow Submarine”
soundtrack back in 1969, and considered a throwaway by John Lennon.
I’m no Beatles fan (but my father is a huge one, by
the way), but if I had to choose one of their songs, “Hey Bulldog” would be the
one, just because of how funky and cool it sounds. Now, in the case of “SO BLUE”,
I like how Chisato creatively uses parts of a song from one of her favorite bands and
turns it into something else. The addition of strings is also a big plus, and
combined with the constant piano, it helps creating the whole classic European
feel, yet with a rock-y twist.
Misaki
Iwasa -- Koi no Owari Sangenjaya (恋の終わり三軒茶屋)
About
a month or two, when I was watching an episode of NHK Nodo Jiman (NHKのど自慢) on TV, ex-AKB48-member-turned-into-Enka-singer
Misaki Iwasa (岩佐美咲) was the female guest on the
show. At the end, as usual
for the guest singers, she sang one of her own songs, which happened to be the
latest single “Koi no Owari Sangenjaya”.
Released back in early 2019, “Koi no Owari Sangenjaya” is
not that heavy and more traditional Enka song we are all familiar with, being
rather a Showa-Era ballad with a gorgeous arrangement and a slightly Latin feel
in the background. The melody is quite romantic and I like Iwasa’s vocals since
I first listened to her rendition of the classic “Ringo no Uta” (リンゴの唄) a
couple of years ago, so this song is a big winner in my book.
Hitomi Tohyama -- Goodbye~Sharp ni Daite (グッバイ~シャープに抱いて)
I wanted to finish this kinda eclectic collection of
songs with something mellower, and, from what I’ve selected before writing the
post, Hitomi Tohyama’s (当山ひとみ) “Goodbye~Sharp ni Daite” seemed like the obvious
choice here.
My first time listening to Penny was five years ago, thanks
to J-Canuck here, and, since then, some of her songs have become an
integral part of my oldies playlists, with my favorite being “Instant Polaroid”,
taken from the first album “Just Call Me Penny”. Another personal highlight, and
the one being introduced here, is called “Goodbye~Sharp ni Daite”, which was
released in 1983 as a part of the “Next Door” album.
A typical mid-tempo and groovy City Pop ballad with
some nice jazzy bits, what I like the most here is the chorus and how she
intonates the word goodbye in many different ways. I don’t really know what she
wants when she sings ‘sharp ni daite’, but it seems like she wants to be hugged
in a passionate way before parting away with her lover. I don’t know, since I
didn’t take my time to carefully translate the song, but that’s how I like to
feel it anyway. Other than that, the song is beautifully arranged, and Penny’s soulful
rendition makes it even more special. A great night listen, in my opinion.
Just a PS on my (J-Canuck) comment on Alessandra Musolini's"Amai Kioku"...I actually did find a Vaporwave version.
