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.
Considering that I have a face that is perfect for radio, I really should get rid of all of the mirrors, but that would be rather weird. I can't imagine coming out of the shower or brushing my teeth in the bathroom without having that shiny pane of reflective material there. That area of wall would look awfully barren. Plus, we can always use the mirrors to open up the space a bit.
Interestingly enough, on first listen and first sight, I had thought that "MIRRORMANIC" was one of those Yellow Magic Orchestra songs that slipped through the cracks for me. Maybe it was a single B-side that never made it onto an album. However, I was wrong because the song was actually a track on YMO drummer Yukihiro Takahashi's（高橋幸宏）2nd solo album"Ongaku Satsujin"（音楽殺人...Murdered by the Music）from June 1980.
Written by Chris Mosdell and composed by Takahashi, the drummer's two bandmates from YMO, bassist Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）and keyboardist Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）were helping out in the recording along with Kenji Omura（大村憲司）on electric guitar. Despite the familiar faces though and the technopop genre in play here, there is something not quite YMO about this one. I couldn't help but feel that there was something somewhat Davie Bowie-ish here in the arrangement and vocal stylings. And that's a good thing since Takahashi should have been able to distinguish his solo stuff from his work with the main band.
"Ongaku Satsujin" also has the faster-paced and playful "Kanashiki Blue Colour Worker"（悲しきブルーカラーワーカー）so have a listen to that as well.
Arrangers: Tsugutoshi Goto, Yukihiro Takahashi and Mitsuo Hagita
From Rajie's 1977 album: "Heart to Heart"
The original version of "THE TOKYO TASTE" had been a track on Sadistics' debut album. This version was recorded only some months after, but with an emphasis on a tight groove, it has an even more pronounced City Pop flavour. In addition to the speed of its evolution, I see the passion and fullness of the Tokyo pop scene of that time. The combination of Rajie's（ラジー）translucent vocals paired with Yoshitaka Minami's（南佳孝）quirky voice indeed makes for an exquisite and feel-good experience.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised"(2020).
A sweet soul tune penned by Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）, "Touch Me Lightly" is sung by the gentle high tenor of Masato Uchida（内田正人）which seems to melt into the night sky. Having once composed "DOWNTOWN" for The Kingtones (but to no avail), there was still a connection between the songwriter and the group, and perhaps this was their common denominator of the roots of Black music, most notably doo-wop. But "Touch Me Lightly" comes across as 70s and approaches a sweet and mellow sound.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised"(2020).
J-Canuck here. I'll just jump in briefly to say that sometime last night, the number of views for this blog reached and exceeded the 7 million point. Allow me to give everyone reading "Kayo Kyoku Plus" a hearty thank you for their support over the past dozen years. I would toot my horn even more but considering that the famous YouTube video of Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）"Plastic Love" reached that point in three months...well, meh.😏
Also, we have reached the halfway point in the "Japanese City Pop Masterpieces 100" translations. Another year to go then!
I've heard my fair share of music from the Caribbean, Mexico and Brazil and have enjoyed it all. That also includes Perez Prado's"Mambo No. 5", even if I had never heard of the title until quite recently. As soon as I hear the song, I immediately think of swivel hips and feet trying to trace a complicated series of steps on the dance floor.
Thanks to that multi-record collection "50 Years Of Hits In Stereo" by RCA our family had, I was able to get my education in Prado's music early in life but "Mambo No. 5" wasn't one of the lessons. Still, this particular song is one of the most well-known instrumentals from Cuba that I know. Man, just watching those folks above has got me winded. OK, I'm going back to the buffet table.
Of course, something this catchy will always have cover versions. One from Japan was handled by musician Masayoshi Takanaka（高中正義）as his 2nd single. His even more peppery take on "Mambo No. 5" was released in February 1977 and was also a part of his 2nd album"TAKANAKA" which came out a month later. With the subtitle of "Disco Dango" (ahh...um, no), Takanaka's "Mambo No. 5" indeed has that disco sheen (and his signature guitar riffing) in his arrangement and Chris Mosdell even added some lyrics.
Takanaka must have enjoyed "Mambo No. 5" so much that a few years later, he even created his own "Mambo No. 6" for his 6th original album"T-WAVE" for release in June 1980. Created solely by the musician, this doesn't have the disco anymore but it does have more of a fusion approach.
It's been a pretty melancholy time over these weeks of January 2023 since I've witnessed the passing of many people. Of course, I've noted the deaths of well-known people in the music industry in both Japan and the United States, but in my neck of the woods in the past two weeks or so, we've lost someone who came to our small screens as a popular weather forecaster to become a Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, and one of the feistiest and longest-serving mayors in Canada, Hurricane Hazel McCallion, who ran Mississauga, a city whose name that US President Obama had initial trouble pronouncing one time and whose sister city is Kariya in Aichi Prefecture. Today, we even lost a famous hockey player, Bobby Hull, and even while writing this article, I've learned that actress Cindy Williams from ABC's "Laverne & Shirley" left this mortal coil a few days ago.
Last night, I was writing about the death of David Crosby of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young for a ROY article, and less than twelve hours later, I saw on NHK that rock guitarist and composer Makoto Ayukawa（鮎川誠）of Sheena & the Rokkets had passed away yesterday. He was 74 and suffered from pancreatic cancer. I had no idea that he had been ill but according to the report above, Ayukawa had kept a very tight lid on his sickness from the media.
Ayukawa hailed from Kurume City, Fukuoka Prefecture as the son of an American soldier and an employee at a ryotei. He got into the guitar as a Grade 5 student and would eventually get into Muddy Waters, Ray Charles and Elvis Presley for starters. In the 1970s, his region would become known as the Liverpool of Japan for its emerging rock scene and the local music would be labeled Mentai Rock（めんたいロック）, named after the regional delicacy of mentaiko（明太子）or spicy pollock roe. He joined the blues rock band Sonhouse（サンハウス）as a guitarist and composer before forming Sheena & the Rokkets in 1978 with his wife Etsuko "Sheena" Ayukawa（鮎川悦子）. Both bands are examples of Mentai Rock.
My first article on the Rokkets was for "You May Dream" in February 2015, and it was written because Sheena had herself passed away the week before from cervical cancer at the age of 61. However, I'd known about the band for some years before that; one reason was Ayukawa himself who cut a very distinct figure on television with his tall angular features and those sunglasses. In fact, I did put him alongside fellow musician Tomoyasu Hotei（布袋寅泰）as two of the cooler if somewhat intimidating Japanese guitarists out there. To be honest, the first time I saw him in a commercial, I was actually scared of the guy.
In 1981, Ayukawa put out his first solo album titled "Cool Solo"（クール・ソロ）and among the tracks is "JUKEBOXER". Written by Chris Mosdell (who was providing lyrics for Yellow Magic Orchestra) and composed by Ayukawa, the guitarist puts out a good ol' bluesy rock n' roll tune as he sings out about having a great time with his jukebox of 45s while looking pretty darn good.
I hope wherever he is now, Ayukawa has reunited with his wife and they're back making wonderful music together once more. My condolences go out to the Rokkets, the Ayukawa family and friends, and their many fans.
I end this broadcasting day on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" on a sad note unfortunately since there has been another Japanese musician who has left this mortal coil. Scott's "Holly Jolly X'masu"Twitter feed was the first source that I had read about Yukihiro Takahashi's（高橋幸宏）passing at the age of 70 on January 11th, but then I saw that in the last several hours, other accounts were posting their condolences and tributes to the singer-songwriter, drummer and producer. I knew that Takahashi had been suffering from a brain tumour but it was still a shock to hear about his death.
The Tokyo-born Takahashi was involved with a number of bands and other music projects ranging from the Sadistic Mica Band in the 1970s to METAFIVE in the 2010s. Of course, he had his own solo career, coming out with albums such as "Saravah!" in 1978. However, I will always know and cherish him as the drumming and singing member of the legendary Yellow Magic Orchestra which also had bassist Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）and keyboardist Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）. Takahashi was the one who composed "Rydeen" (雷電）, one of the trademark songs if not the trademark song for YMO and perhaps even a musical symbol for 1980s Japan.
In tribute to the man, I found this really happy-go-lucky December 1980 3rd solo single by Takahashi called "Kanaishiki Blue Colour Worker" (Blue Colour Worker). Written by Chris Mosdell and composed by his YMO partner Hosono, it's really a laidback pop duet stroll down the merry lane while it is dressed up in all of those synthesizers and technology. Takahashi's singing partner is none other than Sandii from Sandii & The Sunsetz and the two of them seem to be having a ball behind the mike. Also from Hip Tank Records, I found out that it was Kenji Omura（大村憲司）handling the electric guitar. "Kanashiki Blue Colour Worker" was also a track on his 2nd album"Ongaku Satsujin"（音楽殺人...Murdered by the Music） from June 1980 which peaked at No. 12 on Oricon.
Mosdell's lyrics might be hard to hear due to all of the techno stuff happening to Takahashi's and Sandii's voices, but I did find a YouTube commenter by the name of Arisu who was kind enough to provide them underneath the video. Just in case, though, I will also put them down below. My condolences go to Takahashi's family, friends and fans, and also to Sakamoto and Hosono along with all of those other musicians and singers that he worked with over the decades.
Walls of blue I'm walking through
Blinding my eyes
Flooding in behind
Washing away
The colour I see
The colour in me
The colour I feel
The Blues
Sometimes green carry knives of envy
The Blues
Sometimes see red
Keep it bottled in their heads
The Blues
Sometimes green
The Blues
Sometimes see red
The Blues are colour blind
To all but blue in their eyes
Walls of blue
Surprise you
Out of the blue
(Blue is you) [transcriber's note: not included in the lyric book, going by what I hear]
Naked blue
Is a red letter
Written about you
(Blue is you)
The Blues
Sometimes green carry knives of envy
The Blues
Sometimes see red
Keep it bottled in their heads
The Blues
Sometimes green
The Blues
Sometimes see red
The Blues are colour blind
To all but blue in their eyes
Blue is silent
Blue is golden
The touch of blue
Leaves blueprints on you
[instrumental]
Walls of blue I'm walking through
Blinding my eyes
Flooding in behind
Washing away the colour I see
The colour in me
The colour I feel
The Blues
Sometimes green carry knives of envy
The Blues
Sometimes see red
Keep it bottled in their heads
The Blues
Sometimes green
The Blues
Sometimes see red
The Blues are colour blind
To all but blue in their eyes
Blue is silent
Blue is golden
The touch of blue
Leaves blueprints on you
[instrumental]
Blue is silent
Blue is golden
The touch of blue
Leaves blueprints on you (rep x4)
As a PS, Takahashi was the YMO member that I saw the most on television during those early years in Japan. He used to host a late-night Friday entertainment news series called "AXEL".
There was a running gag on Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show". Whenever anyone complained about the summer temperatures in Los Angeles, Johnny would snidely say "But at least it's a dry heat".😎 We weren't even that lucky in the Tokyo area. Basically from June to late September, we were assaulted with heat and humidity. Many was a day that I woke up leaving a major J-Canuck-shaped sweat stain on my sheets. But I endured. How I endured.
Maybe singer-songwriter Yumi Murata（村田有美）was luckier than most and she ended up recording her 1983 album"Drywindasian" in Los Angeles with its dry heat. With lyrics by her and music by Masanori Sasaji（笹路正徳）, the opening track "Kanpoo" (Dry Wind) is quite the R&B stomp and the style is pretty reminiscent of some of Minako Yoshida's（吉田美奈子）material back around the same time. It's also got quite the funk in there so there will also be strutting among the stomping at the same time. Love the guitar and the horns, too.
An English version of "Kanpoo" was also made into the B-side for Murata's single"Pigtail" from the same year. For that version, Chris Mosdell provided the lyrics. According to Jisho.org, though, the proper reading for the kanji of the title is karakaze.
Not quite sure where I took this picture but it definitely is a very cute one of a Japanese rice omelet. I don't recall having been to any Maid Café in Toronto (recently) although I think there is still that one down in Chinatown.
Speaking of Heart of Hearts, here is a nice one from guitarist/composer Masayoshi Takanaka（高中正義）,"Straight From Your Heart", a track from his 10th album "Can I Sing?" released in October 1983. Quite the sunny stroll on the pier, music-wise, this Takanaka treat seems to infuse some Margaritaville with a bit of Tin Pan Alley. I get images of cocktails served in pineapple shells while sitting in some Tiki bar.
Keeping on with the connections, "Straight From Your Heart" was given lyrics by Chris Mosdell who had a working link with Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）during their Yellow Magic Orchestra days in the late 1970s going into the 1980s. Hosono was also a member of Tin Pan Alley back in the 1970s. Then again, I think Takanaka also had his own relationships with that band as well.
I don't think that I ever mentioned Takanaka's choice in guitars but since I've got my anime buddy who's also a hardcore guitar enthusiast, I can relate that he has an affinity for the Yamaha SG, the Fender Stratocaster and the Mosrite, according to hisJ-Wikiprofile.
Commenter Michael pointed it out to me earlier this morning and I had also read an article about it on the Mixi news feed a day before, but a few weeks ago, singer/musician/songwriter Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）, famous as one-third of the technopop group Yellow Magic Orchestra had to go into surgery to get a brain tumour removed. I did find an article at "Arama Japan", in which apparently he had the operation in which the tumour was successfully removed on August 13th, and according to the man himself, things are looking pretty good, although there is currently no timeline for his return to music. I would tell him to take things easy and smell the roses and coffee really deeply.
As such, I wanted to provide a tribute to Takahashi tonight and so I'm going with his second solo single and the title track from his second album"Ongaku Satsujin" (Murdered by the Music), both of which were released on June 21st 1980.
First off, I want to offer my apologies to anyone who may think, considering the contents from that initial paragraph, that it may be a little tasteless and a little too soon to go with a Takahashi song with that title, but for one thing, the prognosis for Takahashi is good, and for a second thing, "Ongaku Satsujin" is pretty darn good as well, and it was the song that caught my ear hard as I was searching for a new Takahashi number to cover.
I have yet to listen to the rest of the album but Wikipedia has an article devoted to "Ongaku Satsujin", and his YMO bandmates, Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）, Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）and collaborator Hideki Matsutake（松武秀樹）were involved. Additionally, vocalist Sandii of Sandii & The Sunsetz and guitarist Makoto Ayukawa（鮎川誠）of Sheena & The Rokkets also gave their contributions to "Ongaku Satsujin". As I said, YMO was basically in the house on this album, but just from the title track, this isn't the usual technopop although synthesizers are indeed involved. Aside from the intro, the single "Ongaku Satsujin" is some jolly New Wave about a fellow who got a little too far into his radio-listening hobby and ended up dead in that "pool of sound".
Chris Mosdell provided the lyrics of overindulging the FM while Takahashi and the aforementioned Ayukawa came up with the music that had me thinking of "Pump It Up" by Elvis Costello & The Attractions and "Shake It Up" by The Cars. A lot of skinny guys in their skinny ties and skinny slacks there. I think it's also Mosdell playing the victim who sounds like Mr. Bill getting attacked by water. Also, some great solo guitar work there perhaps by Ayukawa.
The album "Ongaku Satsujin" peaked at either No. 12 or No. 14 on Oricon according to the J-Wiki article. Once more, I'm extending my good wishes to Takahashi on an excellent convalescence and if he ever encounters this article, this was never meant as an unfunny poke at his situation.
I was watching the concert video of Yellow Magic Orchestra at the Budokan around 1980, and of course, the guys played all of the favourites such as "Rydeen" and "Technopolis". YMO also had their cadre of musicians along to help them on their tour which included singer-songwriter Akiko Yano（矢野顕子）, synthesizer whiz Hideki Matsutake（松武秀樹）and the late guitarist Kenji Omura（大村憲司）.
Speaking of Omura, he got a chance to perform a solo during the Budokan concert and at first, I'd thought that he was singing a YMO tune that I had never heard before...which is pretty difficult nowadays. But as it turned out, it was actually Omura's own tune, "Maps", from his 1981 album"Haru ga Ippai"（春がいっぱい...Spring is Nearly Here）. Maybe he was trying it out in concert before recording it for the album.
Written by Chris Mosdell and composed by YMO drummer Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）, "Maps" has got its share of synths in there, but I think that it's more of a New Wave tune that had me thinking of David Bowie at that time. There are also hints of The Fixx in there, too. I don't think that Omura is a particularly great singer, especially when it comes to concert performances, and in the above Budokan video, he sounded rather muddled. However, "Maps" makes for a nice little trip into nostalgia land with all of those spooky synths and spangly guitar work. Still, if push comes to shove, I will probably always go with Omura's fusion fare with his previous album in 1978, "Kenji Shock".
Oh, how I would have loved to have gotten one of those YMO shirts as you can see in the Budokan video, though. I did have an opportunity once, though, but I let it go. Just as well...considering how slim those guys were back then, that shirt on sale would have been screaming in horror at the prospect of trying to encompass my girth.😖
Having this song reach either No. 8 or No. 11 on the Australian pop charts depending on whether you read the Wikipedia article on the band or the Hip Tank Records summary, this is something that can go into the same territory as Kyu Sakamoto's（坂本九）"Ue wo Muite Arukou"（上を向いて歩こう）.
Sandra O'Neale had released a number of singles in Japan since the mid-1970s, but "Sticky Music" was the first single as the vocalist of Sandii & The Sunsetz, the configuration that I've always associated the singer with. Even with the release year, there was some initial confusion but I can now safely state that it was released in 1984, according to the liner sheet photographed onto that Hip Tank Records page.
Written by Chris Mosdell and composed/arranged by Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）, both from Yellow Magic Orchestra, this is considered to be New Wave but I think that it can also go into the straight pop genre just from how laid back it sounds. Hosono even pops up in the very first scene from the music video. I gotta add that Sandii looks great in that black-and-red outfit as she silkily struts her stuff on the floor and through the mike.
According to the Wikipedia article on Sandii & The Sunsetz, the band probably got a lot of support and recognition due to their time in the UK with artists such as David Sylvian and then later touring with bands like Eurythmics, INXS, Blondie and the legendary David Bowie. Then, came their appearances in Australia which got "Sticky Music" high on the charts over there. Not sure how well the song did in Japan, though.
Speaking of that title, I had been wondering about how it came about. Then, I saw the official music video in which Sandii is providing some breathy commentary midway during the song. The sticky in "Sticky Music" is a pun on suteki（素敵）meaning wonderful or marvelous.
I figured that after getting a number of albums by the technopop pioneers Yellow Magic Orchestra and gradually knowing about the past material by members bassist Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）, keyboardist Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）and drummer Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）, I ought to make it a small project to get some of their solo work as well. And after listening to and writing about a couple of tracks, "La Rosa" and "Sunset", from Takahashi's June 1978 first solo effort, "Saravah!", I decided to make that my first acquisition.
However, my acquisition is the 40th anniversary version of the original album "Saravah Saravah!" released in March 2009. According to the J-Wiki article, the vocal parts were given a bit of a new polish in this new release. As for the arrangement, Takahashi's bandmates from YMO, Hosono and Sakamoto, were right in the performing booth with the latter providing arrangement on almost all of the instruments while Takahashi took care of the rhythm. There were also plenty of special guests helping out on "Saravah!" as an album that Takahashi wanted to base on French pop music.
The first track on "Saravah!" gave me a bit of a giggle."Volare!" may have been an Italian pop song released in 1958, but for a lot of folks growing up in my generation, it was also the commercial song for the Plymouth Volare in the 1970s. Apparently, despite the bravado and the famous tune, it wasn't the most stable of vehicles.
Takahashi, the fellow behind the technopop classic "Rydeen" and often the lead vocal for any of YMO's sung songs, also gives good brio with "Volare!". His version of the Franco Migliacci & Domenico Modugno original has that sunny pop of the Riviera and there's something about that arrangement that had me thinking of that lounge music fad of the 1990s. Singer-songwriter Rajie also lent her voice as background chorus; Takahashi had also produced her first album, "Heart to Heart", the previous year.
The wonderful thing about "Saravah!" was how it was not just about Takahashi covering old standards. He also created his own songs and they fit hand-in-glove with the classics such as "Volare!". For example, there is the title track written and composed by Takahashi himself which comes across as if it could have been created a few decades prior. There's nothing like a crisp trumpet and shimmering strings to bring that feeling of the exotic good life of years past. The late singer-songwriter Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）, who also provided the music for "La Rosa" mentioned above, was on acoustic guitar while Nobu Saito（齋藤ノブ）provided the percussion.
Another observation of the title track was that although the album itself was titled after French composer-singer Pierre Barouh's record label, Takahashi's lyrics talk of that sweet sorrow of parting while anticipating a reunion in the future, so I'm wondering whether the YMO drummer was actually going for a homonym of saraba（さらば）or farewell in Japanese.
"C'est si bon" is a cover of the 1947 French pop song created by Andre Hornez and Henri Betti with Japanese lyrics by Junichi Nakahara（中原淳一）. Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）was contributing on electric guitar for this one whose arrangement actually had me remembering not French music but some of the soundtracks that were used on those Italian comedies that the local multicultural channel past midnight on Saturdays when I was a kid. Yeah, the ones that I wasn't supposed to watch...kept the audio real low, too.😈
"Elastic Dummy" is truly a fascinating animal...a gryphon, to be exact. A 5-minute instrumental by Sakamoto, it starts off incredibly with a groove foretelling some of the soulful stuff to be sung in Japanese pop music in the early 2000s, then there are Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）and Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）scatting away to a Latin disco beat. Right after that, Sakamoto really turns on the disco to the extent that memories of "The Hustle" and "Disco Inferno" were raging away. There are even hints of Japanese cop drama soundtrack, too. Couldn't help but shimmy away in my chair.
Yamashita and Yoshida also back up Takahashi when he sings "Back Street Midnight Queen", with Chris Mosdell co-writing the lyrics with Takahashi. It's the one track that hits me as being the truly pure City Pop number on "Saravah!".
"Mood Indigo" is a cover of the Duke Ellington, Barney Bigard and Irving Millsjazz song from 1930. And it sounds like Takahashi had been one of the first pop musicians to bring together technopop and jazz. Once again, that Tatooine double sunset is coming to mind as I hear this snazzy version.
The final track "Present", written and composed by Takahashi as a tribute to that special someone, has that wistful final track feeling with that soul of City Pop balladry, Rajie's backup, and even a perky Sakamoto keyboard that could belong to a YMO song. It's got a bit of everything.
And "Saravah!" has a little bit of everything overall. I actually tried to look the album up in my guide "Japanese City Pop" but it wasn't there. Perhaps it shouldn't be because of the various mix of genres. For me, that's not a bad thing at all since I was given a showcase of not only Takahashi and his YMO buddies outside of what I had gotten accustomed to hearing with them together, but I was also provided an album that brought together some of the big names when it came to New Music and general Japanese pops back in the 1970s.
I can definitely recommend "Saravah!" for folks who are just coming into Japanese pop music as something revelatory. It wasn't all about enka and cute teenybopper singers, and even for YMO fans like myself, Takahashi, Sakamoto and Hosono weren't all about the analog synthesizers. They had plenty of other types of music in their wheelhouse for the past and future.
December 1st and right on cue...we've been getting hammered with freezing rain, ice pellets and perhaps some snow all day. Weather folks are telling us just to stay home today and I can believe it. I only stepped out to get the newspaper and it felt like I was marching through the wastes of the planet Hoth.
For your "Eating Pleasure" indeed. The band Sandii & The Sunsetz were just getting themselves together and off the ground, changing from The Sunset Gang of blues and West Coast rock into a synthpop act at the end of the 1970s. But before they started putting out records in this new form, Sandii released a solo album called "Eating Pleasure" in 1980.
The first time that I heard Sandii was through the catchy and chirpy Yellow Magic Orchestra"Absolute Ego Dance" in which she contributed some of the vocal effects alongside "R2-D2". So when I heard this lead track on "Eating Pleasure", "Idol Era", for the first time some months ago, the song right away smacked of YMO arrangement. And sure enough, looking up "Idol Era" on the JASRAC database revealed that it had been written by Chris Mosdell and composed by Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）.
With that old glompy techno beat, the rock guitar and Sandii's sultry vocals, I couldn't help but get that feeling of American band Blondie after listening to "Idol Era" a few times now.
After all of the excitement from last night's final game of the NBA season, thanks to the Raptors, perhaps tonight should be a mellower affair.
(cover version)
Nothing like a song of seductiveness and style, and who better than the master himself, Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）? His "Touch Me Lightly" from his October 1979"Moonglow" album is the perfect make-out tune for those couples who like that City Pop/J-AOR with their romancing. Take it nice and slow here.
"Touch Me Lightly" provides a nice contrast with the summery "Let's Kiss The Sun" and the shuffle-happy "Funky Flushin'" from the same album. It's good to have that cool-down track amidst all of the uptempo fun.
Originally, though, "Touch Me Lightly" was a Tats song given to The Kingtones（ザ・キング・トーンズ）for their 1978 album"Resurrect ~ Ginga kara no Kikan"（レゼレクト 銀河からの帰還...Return from the Galaxy）, and I have to admit that having listened to the original version, it's awfully difficult to decide which one is the definitive take. That arrangement which starts out sounding like a 1970s soul song with an addition of a French accordion and bluesy sax along with Masato Uchida's（内田正人）vocals is simply irresistible. It makes it all the more poignant since Uchida passed away at the age of 82 earlier this year in February.
A soulful lullaby is what I would consider this song. I've referred to "Resurrect" last month as well because of another track "Let's Dance Baby" which is another one penned by Yamashita.
Pure literature. That's how DJ and businessman Takayuki Fujisawa（藤沢隆行）described Makoto Matsushita's（松下誠）2nd album from April 1982, "The Pressures and the Pleasures" in his review in "Japanese City Pop". Fujisawa was probably referring to the four songs/stories contained within this Matsushita magnum opus. Yup, there are eight tracks in "The Pressures and the Pleasures" but according to the singer-songwriter himself in the liner notes, those eight make up four large songs. To clarify from the back of the album:
1. The Pressures and the Pleasures (10:13) 2. Pretender and the Truth a) Business Man, Part 1 (3:46) b) The Bridge (3:21) c) Business Man, Part 2 (3:06) 3. Night Visions a) The Garden of Walls (7:33) b) Carnaval (5:21) 4. The Dawn a) The Quiet Storm (2:06) b) Morning Blue (6:15)
Now, I gave my first article on "The Pressures and the Pleasures" back in 2016. There, I wrote about Song 2, "Pretender and the Truth" which has most of the City Pop section of that most intrepid businessperson strutting across Tokyo with a much-needed break time in the lounge via "The Bridge". Although at the time, I didn't know but it turns out that middle section in "Pretender and the Truth" was not only performed by Clara but it was also written by her and Lilika, who I believe are two of the sisters in the vocal group EVE. Matsushita himself provided the music for all of the songs, and wrote the lyrics for both parts of "Business Man".
I've listened to the album twice now since finally acquiring it last week. And true to what Fujisawa was saying, I think that there is literature in there in the form of a day in the life of a fellow separated into different times of those 24 hours plus.
What I've found out is that the whole "Business Man" opus consists of the only really uptempo tracks in "The Pressures and the Pleasures". Almost all of the other tracks are fairly to very introspective. Take that first song, for example, the title track itself. If "Pretender and the Truth" is the protagonist's search for business in broad daylight, that first song could be the dream getting ready to kick start him out of bed. According to the album's liner notes, Matsushita is a huge fan of progressive rock band King Crimson and that's how he tried to create that title track with lyricist Chris Mosdell's help. It's definitely not City Pop in sound (there are parts that even have a nightmarish quality), and the lyrics bring together all sorts of opposing concepts, perhaps to prepare the hero for another day of life in the megalopolis.
Song 3, "Night Visions" starts off with the mysterious and sultry opener "The Garden of Walls". Mosdell also provided the lyrics here and they are all very esoteric. Apparently, Matsushita had been inspired by Miles Davis' live performances to create this song of emotional instability and cries from the heart, punctuated by wailing and screeching guitars. My interpretation of "The Garden of Walls" is that the businessman may be in a bar or nomiya drowning another day's worth of stress in copious drink until he reaches his happy place.
The ender is "Carnaval". Maybe the businessman has gotten his second wind all on his own or his drinking buddies have come by to pick him up for some more carousing out on the town. I think that this would be the one other City Pop tune in the album. The opening verse has some suspense with a boppy bass but then as "Carnaval" progresses, a bright optimistic keyboard enters the fray before the key changes into something happier as if the alcohol is finally kicking in. Then, the guys finally hit the true carnival with that infusion of Latin rhythm and chanting when the good times are at their peak. Mimi Yokosuka provided the lyrics here.
And finally, we come to Song 4"The Dawn" which starts with the shorter piece by Matsushita in this tandem, "The Quiet Storm". With a dreaminess and Matsushita's echoing vocals along with some uncertainty in the tones, perhaps the businessman is going through some deleterious effects from the night before. Regrets and tee-totaling may be sludging through his thoughts right now.
The longer piece in "The Dawn" is "Morning Blue". Again, a collaboration between Matsushita and Yokosuka, the entire six minutes and change are dedicated to the coming of a new morning in sound and image as the businessman groggily gets up, hopefully wiser and more sober, and perhaps on a morning that is the beginning of a day off for him.
Compared to his debut album"First Light" the previous year which was Matsushita's tribute to American urban contemporary and AOR through folks like Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers, "The Pressures and the Pleasures" is an even more ambitious venture involving the every man doing his everyday in sights and sounds. He goes through some good and some bad, but he keeps on plugging away, and to quote directly from the lyrics, "....always does his best".
In all these years of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I've mentioned here and there and now and then that I did have my disco phase during my life at the University of Toronto. Whether it be the Copa, the Diamond, RPM and even Sparkles which had been billed as the highest dance club in the world due to its position in the observation lounge area of the CN Tower, we all painted the town red deep into the night and early morning.
All of that carousing stopped for the most part when I graduated and headed to Japan at the end of the 1980s. Mind you, some new friends and I did stop off in Tokyo places with weird names such as Bar, Isn't It? that had a dance floor. I think I had also mentioned in a past article that in the city of Numata, Gunma Prefecture, we even went to an emporium which had a split personality as a karaoke bar for two-thirds of an hour before it became a disco for the remaining twenty minutes, completely with dry ice gas injectors for the dance floor.
From the late 1980s to well into the 2000s, there were a couple of dance clubs that held the young in thrall in the Tokyo area. First, there was Juliana's (above) which was famous for the raised stage, the women in their tight bodicon dresses and those huge feathery fans that were rhythmically waved about. The club represented those good times of the Bubble Era.
The video at the very top of the article here shows Maharaja Roppongi, a place that even me, some of my fellow teachers and several students visited once one Saturday night since one of the students knew a manager working there who could get us in. My opinion was that the Maharaja had already peaked since it seemed like most of the folks inside were teenagers or early-twenties types in T-shirts and jeans. Standing at the edge of the dance floor, I felt like a father-of-the-daughter chaperone (KIDS! What did I tell you about French kissing?!).
But even before those two legendary establishments, I had heard about one other dance emporium while I was either in high school or university. One time when I was in the Toronto Reference Library downtown, I was leafing through the pages of a guide to Tokyo (which I really wanted to visit again after my summer trip there in 1981) and found out that there was this place called the Lexington Queen, which was perhaps equated with the (in)famous Studio 54 in New York City. Situated in Roppongi, I never quite made my way there so I always wondered what that place was like.
In any case, all that prior rambling was put out there so I could introduce Ryuichi Sakamoto's（坂本龍一）solo debut single, "War Head/Lexington Queen" which came out in July 1980. Now, you may notice that in the title line, I've placed "Lexington Queen" before "War Head" although the former song was actually the B-side. That is because "Lexington Queen" is the slower original version with Sakamoto composing and arranging while Chris Mosdell wrote the lyrics and provided the smoky and snaky vocals. For "Star Trek" fans, you may pick up on the sampling of what sounds like the whoosh of those doors on the USS Enterprise. According to the J-Wiki article for the song, the actual Lexington Queen had opened for the first time just a few months prior.
Listening to "Lexington Queen", I could pick up on those synths as being quite Sakamoto-esque. I'm not sure whether the song was played in the disco, though.
The A-side, "War Head" is a faster version of "Lexington Queen" with Mosdell mixing in some megaphone declarations with his whispers. Perhaps this could be the result of several swallows of a cocktail named the War Head at the Lexington Queen bar. Just speculating.
I found out that the Lexington Queen is still providing the goods after so many years, but under the name of New Lex Tokyo.
Considering that she may not be all that well known anymore, I was not only surprised to find out last month that there was indeed a Rajie BEST album but that it had been released only in February of this year. Not that I'm complaining at all. I think of Atsuko Souma（相馬淳子）as one of the hidden unsung gems of the classic City Pop era, and now that I've got this compilation, I can get to know some of the other songs that I've yet to discover outside of the albums that I've already gotten by her, "Heart to Heart" (1977) and "Quatre" (1979).
The 2-disc set of "Rajie All Time Selection" doesn't have Rajie's best songs scattered all over the place or categorized into some arcane order. It just starts from her early years on Disc 1 and goes to her final album in 1985 "Espresso" by the end of Disc 2.
First off, let me introduce her albums: a) Heart to Heart b) Love Heart (1978) c) Quatre d) Mahiru no Hodou (真昼の舗道...1980) e) Acoustic Moon (1981) f) Gogo no Relief (午後のレリーフ...1984) g) Espresso (エスプレッソ)
As I said at the top, I've got a) and c) while nikala who gave her opinions on "Mahiru no Hodou" has d).
Now here is the lineup for the first disc of "Rajie All Time Selection": 1. Hold Me Tight 2. It's Me...It's You (a) 3. Ai wa Tabun（愛はたぶん） 4. The Tokyo Taste 5. Suteki na Feeling（素敵なフィーリング）(a) 6. Kibun wo Dashite Mou Ichido（気分を出してもう一度） 7. Heart to Heart 8. Kaze ni Yosete（風によせて） 9. Cool Down（クール・ダウン） 10. Love Heart（ラヴ・ハート） 11. Fuyu no Shouzou（冬の肖像） 12. Last Chance（ラスト・チャンス） 13. Just in the Rain（ジャスト・イン・ザ・レイン） 14. Quatre（キャトル）(c) 15. Tokidoki Mahou（ときどき魔法）(c) 16. Watashi wa Suteki（わたしはすてき） 17. Kaze no Michi（風の道）
Tracks 1~7 are a), 8~13 are b), 14~17 are c). Also, if the particular track above is linked, it has its own article, and if a track is lettered, it means that the album article features that song.
"Ai wa Tabun" (Love is Probably) is one of the songs from "Heart to Heart" that hasn't been covered at all so allow me to rectify this. It's quite the breezy pop tune by Keisuke Yamakawa and Nobuyuki Takahashi（山川啓介・高橋信之）, and that is probably because it was used as the campaign song for the Nissan Skyline back then. Nice for a drive. Incidentally, "Ai wa Tabun" was also the B-side to Rajie's debut single of "Hold Me Tight".
I never got to the title track for the album "Heart to Heart" so I have a chance to write about it here. Very pleasant song thanks to Rajie's vocals and creamy arrangement by Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）with all of the instruments on languid mode. Yukihiro Takahashi and Chris Mosdell（高橋幸宏・クリス・モズデル）took care of the lyrics while Takahashi created the melody. I could drink a glass of wine to this.
Have yet to get "Love Heart" so I'm glad that I've got the opportunity here to talk about at least some of the tracks represented on this BEST disc. If the tracks there all sound like "Cool Down", then I can be enticed to invest in that one as well. As the title hints, it's the relaxing mid-tempo to bring a person down from a hard or overly exciting day. Yoshitaka Minami（南佳孝）, who duets with Rajie here once again, composed the music with Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）providing the words. "Cool Down" is a bit of a sangria of a song with some bluesiness, AOR and a hint of Latin.
Yeah, I think I will get that "Love Heart" now, especially when "Last Chance" sounds so good. Takahashi took care of words and music and he knows how to weave a cool City Pop number along with co-creating those technopop hits as one part of the Yellow Magic Orchestra. Speaking of YMO, Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）was on the electric piano and rumbling bass synthesizer. For those listeners who have only heard of The Professor through his later solo works and his Oscar-winning soundtrack for "The Last Emperor", I would be happy to introduce "Last Chance" to show some of his cool funky chops.
My last paragraph here will be devoted to "Fuyu no Shouzou" (Winter Portrait) with Goto providing a melody that initially, at least, reminded me of something Eagles-ish or perhaps something poppy from the West Coast. Rajie's vocals are especially soaring in this power ballad. Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）wrote the words.
I will see about getting an article on Disc 2 sometime in the next 24 hours.
Happy sweltering Monday! We're just some days away from October but I think we may have a Humidex of 40 degrees Celsius right now. I don't think we're gonna get relief from the July heat until Thursday at the earliest.
I'm surprised that I didn't cover this before. However, I remember "La Femme Chinoise" by YMO as being the 2nd song on Side B following "Tong Poo"（東風）on that old Alfa audiotape of the band's first self-titled album from 1978.
Both "Tong Poo" and "La Femme Chinoise" have that exotic Asian mood imbued into them but whereas the former has that dreamy feeling with a light funky City Pop centre later added with Minako Yoshida's（吉田美奈子）silky ruminations, "La Femme Chinoise" has this eager-beaver bounciness as if a tourist is rabidly exploring the Jiufen district of coastal Taiwan (also visited the area and it's worth the trip). I'd probably end my analysis and compare the two songs as two sides of the same coin.
Drummer Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）and lyricist Chris Mosdell created the song, and although I have described "La Femme Chinoise" in the previous paragraph as this example of exotica, it's got plenty of those technopop bleeps and bloops. As for those sexy-sounding female French vocals, according to J-Wiki, Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）got the brainwave to recruit the secretary to the president of Alfa Records; not quite sure how she felt about adding her voice to what is now one of the classic YMO tunes.
Also, sticking with Hosono, (according to some interview in the Japanese journal "Aspect" in 2007) the bassist/keyboardist felt that "La Femme Chinoise" was an important entry in the mighty YMO discography since it opened up the opportunity for the band to be seen not just as an instrumental group but a vocal one as well. And it cemented Takahashi as the main vocalist with his somewhat droning delivery of "...Suzy Wong and Shanghai dolls". Not sure how the thrashing punk guitar fit into all of this, though.
I already identified the pop singer Rajie as Atsuko Souma（相馬淳子）right in the very first article for "Hold Me Tight" some years ago. But what I didn't do back in that very brief June 2012 piece was how she came by her nom de guerre. According to J-Wiki, her name of Rajie came from a character named Raji (played by Sajid Khan) from the 1966 movie "Maya".
One of my other recent acquisitions from Tower Records Japan was indeed her debut album"HEART to HEART" from September 1977. I've listened to the album twice now and I am enjoying it. Two other albums by Rajie have already been covered in the blog: her 1980 "Mahiru no Hodou"（真昼の舗道）by nikala and "Quatre" from 1979 by me.
My overall impression of the album (and nope, I realize that two listenings are not going to provide the deepest insights) which was produced by Yellow Magic Orchestra'sYukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）is that unlike those two later albums, there isn't any sign of the technopop which would come out in varying degrees among the tracks in "Mahiru" or "Quatre". However, I'm starting to think that there was an interesting parallel between Rajie and singer-songwriter Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）. I mentioned it in "Quatre" and nikala also hinted at it in "Mahiru".
"Shizuka na Hitomi"（静かな瞳...Quiet Eyes） is a bluesy ballad written by Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）and composed by Takahashi. It's a bit of musical introspection about a woman who is trying to figure out the man in her life since he's an unreadable fellow. The song reminded me of Ohnuki's output from her first two solo albums "Grey Skies" and "Sunshower"which were very much in the New Music genre. In fact, listening to "HEART to HEART" and then knowing what she did since then, her vocals and career direction has me thinking that she could have been Ohnuki if she hadn't veered that far into technopop and that European mood going into the 1980s.
"It's Me...It's You" sends my above point even further with its galloping melody and the chorus work. I actually thought it was Ohnuki lending backup vocals here but according to the liner notes, Rajie was responsible for those. And even though, Ohnuki doesn't provide any songwriting for any of the songs, I personally get a few echoes of her in Rajie's delivery and the surrounding music. Takahashi and Chris Mosdell took care of the lyrics here while Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）came up with the melody. The other point on this parallel between Rajie and Ohnuki is that the backup musicians and songwriters assisted both singers for their albums.
Along with "The Tokyo Taste"which has already been covered in a recent article, "Sarasara no Machi"（さらさらの町...Smooth Town） is my other standout favourite in "HEART to HEART". But unlike the former song which is quite the slick downtown City Pop tune, "Sarasara no Machi" is a much more whimsical non-City Pop happy-go-lucky song about life in the burg. I'm not quite sure where Rajie was referring to but I would like to know. I bet the residents skip to and from work there. Still, my old home in Ichikawa was a decent neighbourhood as well. Kisugi and Goto took care of the songwriting in this case.
My final track for tonight is "Suteki na Feeling"（素敵なフィーリング...Wonderful Feeling） which has Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）providing lyrics about a woman head-over-heels in love. There is even a shoutout to Cinderella in there. Composer Goto starts things out with a very 1970s atmospheric ballad feeling but it quickly switches to a pleasant Latin number.
There are a few more tracks in "HEART to HEART" but I will leave them for future articles. However, suffice it to say that Rajie's debut album has a little bit of most everything in terms of straight-ahead pop since quite a few top songwriters came and helped out. I'm a bit surprised that this album and Rajie herself didn't get more notice in the world of Japanese music, but then again, the situation lends a bit of attractive exclusivity as if I've come across a previously unknown delight that I'm sharing with a few others.
Another wonderful day out there. Quite reflective of the late spring and early summer. It's just like that photo above with the blue sky shining off that skyscraper in West Shinjuku there. I will be heading off in a couple of hours to a friend's place up in Richmond Hill for a nice little dinner party but still wanted to get this one article peeled off before I go.
Last night, I pulled the trigger again and purchased a few City Pop albums including this one, "Heart to Heart"(1977) the debut release by the relatively unknown Rajie. Part of the reason that I got it was I have enjoyed her brand of music especially this one track, and the album itself makes quite a contrast with her 3rd album"Quatre" (another acquisition) from 1979 which has more of a technopop flavour.
"THE TOKYO TASTE" wasn't only a track on that first album but also the B-side to Rajie's 3rd single, "Cool Down" from December 1978. And although the song says "Rajie featuring Yoshitaka Minami", I think the mellow Minami（南佳孝）shares equal billing with his duet partner in this one. They would get together again in the aforementioned "Quatre" for one number "Tokidoki Mahou"（ときどき魔法...Sometimes Magic）.
The song itself is a cool and light funk piece that actually didn't have Minami creating it. Minami was just the singer here. Instead it was YMO drummer Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）and YMO associate Chris Mosdell taking care of the lyrics while Takahashi also provided the music alongside Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）. It's quite nice to listen to while strutting down the hotel-laden streets of West Shinjuku around sunset with the slightly loopy lyrics describing some cool and light fun downtown. Considering the title and how I have described it here, I would think "THE TOKYO TASTE" would have made for the ideal jingle for a menthol cigarette commercial.
In any case, I am looking forward to getting my copy of "Heart to Heart" in the next few weeks.
