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.
Probably would have preferred Kayo Grace and Mr. Calico to have stood a little farther away from the number, but in all of the excitement about writing the 2700th City Pop article on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" a few minutes ago, I completely overlooked the fact that the blog itself surpassed the 20 million view mark some time in the last 24 hours.
Thank you, Mr. DiCaprio! And congratulations yourself on "One Battle After Another" winning Best Picture although I'm sorry that you didn't get that Best Actor Oscar.
It's rather amazing that the views are already more than 70,000 deep beyond 20,000,000 so let's get at it with another song. First off, although I have separate articles for Makoto Iwabuchi（岩渕まこと）and the late great Chu Kosaka（小坂忠）, I had no idea that they also worked together as a duo for several years in the 1980s and 1990s, putting out a lot of albums together.
One album, released in 1982, is "Best Friend", and the cover has Iwabuchi and Kosaka looking very chummy. I managed to find one track "Rainbow" which brings in friendly folk and a hint of that Margaritaville AOR into the proceedings. It's just the melodic tonic for a cool and relaxing Sunday drive out in the countryside or the beachside. Not quite ready for that activity here in Toronto yet, but perhaps this time next month, things will have meteorologically improved.
Welcome to another Hump Day when last weekend was a distant memory and next weekend is taking too much of its sweet time arriving. Then again, for a lot of us residing on either side of the 49th Parallel, we're in the temporal tunnel between Canada Day and The 4th of July so perhaps there are many Canadians and Americans enjoying a holiday. If so, I hope you are having fun wherever you are.
But with Hump Day, maybe KKP viewers can do with something nice and mellow to take some of that edge off the stress. I have found something by the late great singer-songwriter Chu Kosaka（小坂忠）which was the B-side to his October 1973 3rd solo single,"Hayaoki Yama kara"（早起き山から...From an Early Rising Mountain）. "Hazukashishouni"(Shyly) was also the title track for his 2nd album from November that same year.
With Kosaka handling words and music along with co-arrangement credits with Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）, "Hazukashisouni" is a sunny and laidback tune adorned with those strings and a Fender Rhodes/electric piano. I couldn't get all of the lyrics but the main line containing the title talks of a girl shyly wrapping her arm around her beau. Hopefully, the beau got a quietly electric response from that contact. Nothing like romance blossoming during a gentle stroll.
The late singer-songwriter Chu Kosaka（小坂忠）who left us a little over three years ago had been involved with a number of groups, beginning with his Group Sounds band The Floral（ザ・フローラル）in the late 1960s. The next decade over, he was associated with Tin Pan Alley（ティン・パン・アレー）. In 1972, he formed a band known as Chu Kosaka & Four Joe Half（小坂忠 と フォージョーハーフ）with drummer Tatsuo Hayashi（林立夫）, keyboardist Masataka Matsutoya（松任谷正隆）, bassist Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）and steel pedal guitarist Hiroki Komazawa（駒沢裕城）.
First though, I felt that I had to give some clarity to that name of Four Joe Half. I believe that it is a humourous translation of the term yojouhan（四畳半）which directly means four-and-a-half tatami mats, basically a small tatami room or even small tatami apartment. From what I've learned, there has been a certain romanticism or nostalgia added to this tiny room since such places were residences for the poor and hungry high school or university student in Japan trying to study but also to make ends meet. It was also a meeting place for the resident and his/her buddies to carouse, drink and play music perhaps. Speaking of which, when a music genre is associated with such humble living back in the 1960s and 1970s, it's usually folk.
The living room in my 2K apartment was probably a yojouhan and true to what I said up above, I did have my friends come over for dinner parties such as hot pot. At one time early in my residency there, I had as many as twenty folks squished in that room. I may as well have called my living room a TARDIS! Well, nowhere near as roomy...
And that's where we come back to the main line here. Chu Kosaka & Four Joe Half were able to release a live album in July 1972 called "Motto Motto"（もっともっと...More and More） and from it, we have the second-last track "Sukinan dakara" (Cause I Love You). Written and composed by Kosaka, it's a Sunday-relaxed tenderhearted ballad about declaring one's love for a live-in partner in what is probably that yojouhan apartment. Maybe things aren't financially resplendent, but as long as the couple are together, then things will work out. Kosaka's soothing vocals, that lovely piano and Komazawa's just-as-soothing pedal guitar keep things very nicely introspective and pleasant.
An adaptation of a song from Chu Kosaka's（小坂忠）Apryl Fool days, "Ryuusei Toshi" is a masterpiece about sparkling city life riding on the unique groove of Tin Pan Alley. Beginning with the lyric "...the city fans out from her fluttering skirt...", there is an abundance of riches in Takashi Matsumoto's（松本隆）snappy turns of phrase. In terms of the sound, a highlight is Masataka Matsutoya's（松任谷正隆）keyboard work (particularly at "...check out Captain Nemo's Hammond!").
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised"(2020).
Commenter and then KKP contributor nikala was most likely the first one to relate the music of Chu Kosaka's（小坂忠）great 1975 album"Horo"(ほうろう) with the Philly soul of "Shirakechimauze"(しらけちまうぜ). Listening to that one, I definitely got the feeling that outside of the usual enka and kayo kyoku singers who got their fame on television back in the day, there were artists such as Kosaka pushing the boundaries of truly New Music. In a few months, it'll be two years since Kosaka left this mortal coil at the age of 73.
Right after "Shirakechimauze" which starts off the B-side of the original 1975 LP comes this laidback tune "Ryuusei Toshi". If that title sounds familiar to you, then you must have read last Friday's article on "Ryuusei Toshi" by Original Love and then covered by Junk Fujiyama（ジャンクフジヤマ）. Indeed, it is the same title but a wholly different song as it is written by Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）and composed/arranged by Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）.
To further distinguish Kosaka's song from the Original Love song, I'm actually going to go with the translation that YouTuber Purplesound had provided for "Ryuusei Toshi", and that is "Meteor City" rather than the more romantic-sounding "City of Shooting Stars" I gave for last week's tune. But then again, Kosaka's "Ryuusei Toshi" is in itself a romantic song about a couple languidly enjoying their time in bed while the titular meteors are flying through the sky and burning up. Hosono's arrangement includes some wonderful guitar playing by Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）and keyboard work by Masataka Matsutoya（松任谷正隆）and Akiko Suzuki（鈴木晶子）...who's better known now as Akiko Yano（矢野顕子）. By the way, Matsumoto even includes some references to author H.G. Wells and fictional character Captain Nemo.
As well, Kosaka's "Ryuusei Toshi" will be showing up on Yutaka Kimura Speaks next week.
"Shirakechimauze" is a Tokyo City Soul classic which has been covered by artists including Masahiro Kuwana（桑名正博）and Kenji Ozawa（小沢健二）. Right from its intro, Tin Pan Alley's（ティン・パン・アレー） performance and good humour really brings out the Philly soul, and even though the unbeatable chorus of Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）, Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）and Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）is a highlight to hear, ultimately what gets me right here is Takashi Matsumoto's（松本隆）flair revealed in that throwaway line of shirakechimauze (I'm so apathetic) spoken by a guy who's just been dumped.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised" (2020).
I'm taking a little tangent away from City Pop for this article only to note that it's been close to six months following the passing of singer-songwriter Chu Kosaka（小坂忠）. In 1976, Kosaka and his group Ultra created a theme song for an NTV family drama titled "Kimagure Tenshi"(Capricious Angel) which was notable among other things for having an animated opening credit sequence directed by Tsutomu Shibayama（芝山努）who directed a lot of the "Doraemon"（ドラえもん）series of films. "Kimagure Tenshi" was all about a somewhat goofy employee at a lingerie company who ends up engaged to a young lady working in a different department of the firm.
The theme song, also titled "Kimagure Tenshi", was an October 1976 single for Kosaka, and it has that folksy and comforting arrangement by Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）, the type of music that would welcome a tired salaryman from another 12-hour day at the salt mines. As well, there also seems to be a hint of 1970s soul inhabiting the music. Hiroshi Matsuki（松木ひろし）, who came up with the script for the show, was also responsible for the lyrics.
Just continuing on from the previous article, Chu Kosaka's（小坂忠）"Yuugata Love"（ゆうがたラブ）from January 1975, and paying tribute following the news of the singer-songwriter's passing last month, I also wanted to talk about one of the songs produced by his old band Apryl Fool（エイプリル・フール）. Also, since neither nikala nor I had mentioned this probably in any of the previous articles dealing with Kosaka, the singer was born Masayuki Kosaka（小坂正行）in the city of Shiki, Saitama Prefecture but was raised in Nerima Ward, Tokyo.
I provided an article a couple of years ago on one of the other tracks from the band's one-and-only self-titled album which came out in September 1969. "April Blues" was an instrumental, but this time, I have Kosaka providing vocals for this track called "Kurai Nichiyoubi" which translates directly into "Dark Sunday" but the official English title is apparently just "Sunday". Written by band members Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）under his other name during his time with Apryl Fool, Rei Matsumoto（松本零）, and composed by Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）, the two future songwriting legends were on drums and bass respectively.
Apryl Fool has been noted as a psychedelic rock band coming out during the waning years of the Group Sounds era, but "Kurai Nichiyoubi" comes across as a very quiet and introspective, even dreamy, song led along by a tender-voiced Kosaka. I could even imagine it as a piece ahead of its time considering the future Shibuya-kei a couple of decades later, and in fact, keyboardist Hiroyoshi Yanagida （柳田博義）and guitarist Eiji Kikuchi（菊池英二）even add a bit of jazz in their solos. "Kurai Nichiyoubi" lasts over six minutes but despite a few listenings to it already, it doesn't overstay its welcome.
There was an announcement on YouTuber Purplesound's channel just before I retired for bed (and many thanks for that) last night, and unfortunately, adding onto the surprise news of singer-songwriter Chika Ueda's（上田知華）death several months prior last September, I now have to state that rock singer-songwriter Chu Kosaka（小坂忠）passed away on April 29th at the age of 73 due to cancer. An article from "The Mainichi" gives a brief account.
Although Kosaka's much-lauded solo album "Horo"（ほうろう）from January 1975 was one of the entries listed in my copy of "Japanese City Pop" that I had bought over a decade ago, it was KKP contributor nikala who provided the first article on Kosaka through one of the tracks from "Horo", "Shirakechimauze"(しらけちまうぜ) back in May 2015. She gave a pretty comprehensive history of the singer and his associations with a number of bands such as Apryl Fool（エイプリル・フール）, and I will be talking about that band later today.
That Mainichi article noted that "Horo" is seen as one of the masterpieces of soul music in Japan, so I don't think that my comments here will quite do any justice to this track from the album, "Yuugata Love" (Sunset Love), but I still wanted to pay my tribute and respects to Kosaka today. Written by Eika Koh（高叡華）and composed by Kosaka with arrangement by good buddy Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）, "Yuugata Love" sounds like a day-in-the-life of a fellow in Tokyo accompanied by gobs of funk, rock and blues in their honky-tonk goodness. The lyrics by Koh seem to be a premonition of the NEET phenomenon in the nation as the guy saves Sunday for his gal, but for half the week, it's hanging out at the cinema while the other half is taken up by his part-time job in a perpetual cycle.
Still, just judging from the strut and shuffle of the melody, it doesn't look like the guy is too troubled by his life. Although it's a bit of a reach, I'd almost say that "Yuugata Love" would be the ideal theme for Snoopy's Joe Cool character if he were living in Japan's capital. Hey, things are Tokyo copacetic with him! In another reach, I'm not sure whether Kosaka had meant it to sound as such, but "Yuugata Love" also sounds like "You Gotta Love".
I can understand the love given for "Horo". Reading through the list of players for the album, that is one impressive group of people behind Kosaka. Hosono (along with Kosaka) not only produced "Horo" but he gave a hand on bass, Tatsuo Hayashi（林立夫）provided percussion, Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）was on guitar, the keyboards were manned by Masataka Matsutoya（松任谷正隆）and Akiko Yano（矢野顕子）, and the background vocals consisted of Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）, Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）and Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）.
My condolences to Kosaka's family, friends and fans.
Last week, I translated the liner notes of Hiroshi Sato's（佐藤博）classic "Awakening" album from 1982 for Rocket Brown from "Come Along Radio" and he has put it up on his blog in the last few hours so if you're interested in giving that a gander, please do so. As I let Rocket know when I handed him the translation, my work is admittedly just 90% accurate by my reckoning, so if any of you think that there are errors in there, please let me or my friend know. The liner notes consist of an interesting interview with the late keyboardist and songwriter about what went into the making of this album.
I can't quite remember whether it was Rocket who led me to this video or if it was somebody else or I just stumbled upon it by accident. However, I am very grateful to the uploader, Masahiro Seto, since it shows a 1975 concert with the iconic rock and pops band Tin Pan Alley（ティン・パン・アレー）and singer-songwriters Chu Kosaka（小坂忠）&Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）. I think that I can say that it's pretty rare to discover early concert footage of either Tin Pan Alley and/or Yoshida, so to come across this video is indeed a precious find.
The song here is "Apple Knocker", a funky instrumental composed by the aforementioned Sato who was a later recruit to Tin Pan Alley, and it's a marvel and a delight to see this lineup of Japanese contemporary music (of the time) royalty up on the stage jamming away. And just before vocalists Kosaka and Yoshida toot (and strut) away, the former graciously introduces the members: Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）on the beefy bass, Tatsuo Hayashi（林立夫）on drums, Motoya Hamaguchi（浜口茂外也）on flute and percussion, Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）on guitar, and John Yamazaki（ジョン山崎）and Sato on keyboards. Kosaka looks especially adorable looking like a preppie university student.
Listening away to "Apple Knocker" for the second or third time, I tried to search for whether this song, which sounds like the perfect accompaniment for a New York City-based comedy scene from that same decade, was actually an official song for a single or an album or just something that Sato whipped up for concert play. It took some minutes while I looked up Sato's and Tin Pan Alley's discography but as it turned out, the song is on Yoshida's live album"MINAKO II –Live at Sun Plaza Hall October 3,1975–" which was released in December 1975.
Strangely enough, according to what I see on the Discogs website, in addition to "Apple Knocker" written in katakana that is Track 8 on "MINAKO II", there is also the final track which is "Apple Knocker" written in romaji, but the music is supposedly by Jun Sato（佐藤準）. Not sure if that is a totally new song.
Kinda figured that with it being April 1st today and all, I had to find something appropriate, and I recollect that there was a band connected to this day. Sure enough, there was the rock band Apryl Fool (yes, with a Y) which existed only in the year 1969. For kayo fans, some of the members will be rather familiar to you: Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）, Chu Kosaka（小坂忠）and Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）along with Eiji Kikuchi（菊池英二）on guitar and Hiroyoshi Yanagida （柳田博義）on keyboards. Of course, the following year Hosono and Matsumoto would start up Happy End（はっぴいえんど）. Another tidbit of information is that during Apryl Fool's reign, Matsumoto took on the name of Rei Matsumoto（松本零）.
Via J-Wiki, the September 1969 edition of "New Music Magazine" stated that the initial incarnation of the band was The Floral, a Group Sounds band that had formed in 1968 when Group Sounds was actually on its way down in popularity. Then with the changes in the bassist and drummer, the name of the band itself changed over to Apryl Fool since according to one of the members, the name would allow a measure of freedom in what they could do. Yanagida, who seemed to have been the central member, wanted to take Apryl Fool into more of an art rock or psychedelic rock direction such as was the case with The Doors and Iron Butterfly, and as a result, the band was seen as one of the pioneers for the new Japanese genre of New Rock.
In September 1969, Apryl Fool released their sole self-titled studio album, and the track that I have here is the instrumental "April Blues". It's got the psychedelic rock to be sure, but I think Yanagida's relentlessly rolling piano takes things down the jazz vein. With both rock and jazz in there, I would have remarked that this could have been one of the first cases of a fusion song, but I don't think the jazz and rock are fused here. It's more of a collaborative effort between two genres. There is also that feeling of rawness with all of the background noises and blurting of voices here and there.
Also, you can take a listen to the full album below. Plus, this time, you can also get to listen to Kosaka singing away.
Kyu Sakamoto（坂本九）sang it at the 12th Kohaku Utagassen and Hey!Say!JUMP sang it just a couple of days ago on the 70th Kohaku, and that would be "Ue wo Muite Arukou", aka "Sukiyaki". Always an evergreen favourite kayo, it's probably been covered a number of times even on the Kohaku editions in between those two shows over the decades.
Found this laidback version some time ago. Chu Kosaka（小坂忠）covered "Ue wo Muite Arukou" in his July 1977 album"Morning"（モーニング）, and thanks to that familiar 1970s atmospheric keyboard, it feels like the version that is indeed perfect for waking up to in the morning. It's a nice slow strut take on the classic, and it might be worth taking that cheerful morning walk outside after listening to it. Plus the marimba adds a certain jazziness.
Kosaka's cover even came out as a single in the same year. Just as a reminder, Rokusuke Ei（永六輔）and Hachidai Nakamura（中村八大）were behind the creation of the song.
Happy Monday! Thankfully, the torrid heat and humidity have decreased noticeably over the past 48 hours. A lot of people appreciated the summer weather but even the most ardent sun worshipers were admitting that Saturday was just a tad too hot. Well, that wasn't certainly not the case today.
Y'know...I had thought that one of us here at "Kayo Kyoku Plus" already provided his or her article on "Horo", the title track from Chu Kosaka's（小坂忠）4th album from 1975. But actually such was not true. I guess it was because that some of us often referred to the album in other articles and correspondence concerning Kosaka.
Then, allow me to rectify this situation. "Horo" was written and composed by Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）, Kosaka's old bandmate from Apryl Fool（エイプリル・フール）which had its days in 1969. Now, I'm not sure whether the above video is the original 1975 recording or the remake that Kosaka made for his "HORO 2010" album in March of that year, but this is a nice funky and bluesy number with great vocals by him that I could imagine the late great Ray Charles swaying back and forth to. "Horo" means "wandering", and considering that another track from the 1975 album, "Fuuraibou"（風来坊）, also referred to "wanderer", I'm kinda wondering if the singer-songwriter and his fellow musicians including Hosono did think of themselves as somewhat vagabond-ish Japanese New Musicians in their existence in the music industry back then.
Listening to "Horo", I think the best setting for this in a live session wouldn't be in a huge arena such as Tokyo Dome, but a small basement club in a bohemian neighbourhood such as Shimo-Kitazawa. To be specific, it would be Kosaka and his small group headlining on a tiny stage in front of a stylish brick wall.
"Horo" has gotten its cover versions. In fact, Akiko Yano（矢野顕子）provided one such cover on her 1977 album"Iroha ni Konpeito"（いろはにこんぺいとう）. Yano takes things just a bit slower and provides some of those silky and kittenish vocals, but the original funkiness and bluesiness aren't lost here.
Now, the reason that I decided to write this article in the first place was that I listened to Haruko Kuwana's（桑名晴子）1982 "Moonlight Island" album of cover songs, and felt that it was time to take a look at one of the tracks there that I hadn't written about in my original article on the album. Plus, Come Along Radio has given his own thoughts on "Moonlight Island" on Reddit, so you can take a look at it right here.
"Horo" is the first track on "Moonlight Island" for the video of the album above, and Kuwana ramps up the funk right from the get-go with that joyful "ALL RIGHT!". There is much more of a proud strut down the main street with this version, further emphasized by an electric guitar solo by either Fujimal Yoshino（芳野藤丸）or Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）. In fact, according to the liner notes, it looks like the entirety of AB'S helped out in the recording of the album.
A couple of days ago, Jerry from Come Along Radio let me know that Spotify had a copy of singer-songwriter Chu Kosaka's（小坂忠）"Chew Kosaka Sings" (and yup, apparently that is how the name is spelled in the title) from 1976. I don't have much information on that album as of yet, but the message from my friend sparked me to take another look at one of the pioneers in the New Music age of kayo kyoku during the 1970s.
Through YouTube, I was able to find this one called "Fuuraibou" from Kosaka's January 1975 album"Horo"（ほうろう）. Unlike the kanji that I put up in the title line above which was the original writing of the song in an album by the band Happy End（はっぴいえんど）, officially on this album, it's been put in as 「ふうらい坊」. In either case, the meaning is "wanderer" or "vagabond".
With such a word that has been used in a number of enka and perhaps even folk tunes, I had been expecting Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）, who had written and composed "Fuuraibo" (and who had worked with Kosaka earlier in the late 1960s in the band Apryl Fool), to concoct some tale of a lone wolf wandering the highways and byways with no particular destination in mind but trying to get away from some place or situation. Instead, most of the song merely consists of the title itself and a lot of "la, la, la". And yet, Kosaka's cover of "Fuuraibo" has some cool funk added to the surprisingly delectable sing-song delivery of the lyrics. From what I read in "Japanese City Pop", Kosaka has some big guns backing him up including Hosono's Tin Pan Alley（ティン・パン・アレー）and a chorus including Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）, Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）and Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）(the latter two being part of Sugar Babe). I could pick up on Yoshida's voice immediately.
As I mentioned earlier, "Fuuraibou" with the completely kanji title was originally performed by Happy End in their third album from February 1973, "HAPPY END". Hosono is also the vocalist here and this original version here is more laid-back and stately with a trumpet added. The sing-song nature of the song is there as well and I found myself swaying myself as I mouthed the title. The relentless repetition of the title and the melody makes it sound almost like a children's song.
I've listened to the song several times since last night and there was something that reminded me of another old song...actually a couple of old songs. The first song that it reminded me of was a Disney tune, "Who's Afraid of The Big Bad Wolf?", and crazily enough, when I checked the J-Wiki article for "HAPPY END", it turns out that Hosono did base it on the song that he had heard in "The Three Little Pigs" and the whole lyrical structure was created from what he thought he had heard from "Who's Afraid of The Big Bad Wolf?" when he was just a kid. This information originally came from the liner notes for the album, by the way.
As for the other song, well, in both the Happy End original and Kosaka cover, there is that keyboard tootle followed by some gently sweeping introspection which reminded me of Cat Stevens'"Wild World" from 1970. I like both versions but with the original, I envisage a quiet Sunday afternoon in some cabin while with Kosaka, it's more of a nice brisk walk through the city on that same afternoon, although I'm still not sure whether I would say that "Fuuraibou" is a City Pop song.
Wish things today were as calm as that photo above. That is a shot of the Ito harbour in Shizuoka Prefecture at dusk. To be honest, the temps in Toronto have actually improved from the deep freeze that plagued us over the weekend but we are getting hit with a few centimetres of snow right now. We'll be a couple of more months before the weather becomes more spring-like.
About a couple of years ago, nikala provided some insights about singer-songwriter/Christian pastor Chu Kosaka（小坂忠）through his song "Shirakechimauze"(しらけちまうぜ) which is probably easier to listen to than pronounce for a lot of us. When I listened to it, I found it to be a fascinating example of what the New Musicians were providing music fans who wanted more than just enka and other Oricon Top 10 hits. It wasn't disco at all but some very sunny 70s City Pop to be enjoyed whether one was strutting down Chuo Dori in Tokyo or Madison Avenue in Manhattan back in the day (although I'm not sure whether folks still had to put on the masks in the Big Sushi to avoid inhaling the smog in that decade).
Anyways, I found another song sung by Kosaka and created by Haruomi Hosono（(細野晴臣）called "Bon Voyage Hatoba" (Bon Voyage Wharf). This was actually on the flip side of the single "Shirakechimauze" released in 1975 and was also on the album "Horo" (ほうろう) that nikala had mentioned in her article. "Bon Voyage Hatoba" makes a nice counterpoint with its overall dreamy sunrise character. I could imagine Kosaka singing this on one of the many tetrapods by the harbour as the sun broke up from the horizon; perhaps the singer was out on an all-nighter and stopped by for a "wake-up-and-smell-the-coffee" moment.
"Bon Voyage Hatoba" was also the first track on a later album "Morning" (モーニング) which came out in 1977. This version didn't undergo too much of a change but the tempo was slightly raised and was given a bit more of a City Pop arrangement. Perhaps this self-cover could be experienced from the balcony of an apartment overlooking that harbour instead. In either case, "Bon Voyage Hatoba" is one nice tune to wake up to.
I also found an article which gives a slight mention about Kosaka in his role as a pastor right here.
I've come across that striking red cover of Chu Kosaka's (小坂忠) "Horo" (ほうろう...Wandering) album pop up in a number of critics' lists featuring important Japanese releases of yesteryear, so eventually I decided to find out what this piece of work is all about. I first found out about it through "Japanese City Pop" and then read some more in "Record Collectors' Magazine" Special Issue about Japan's top Pop/Rock/Folk albums from 1960-1989. I ended up acquiring the actual album last year shortly after leaving Japan.
One of the reasons why "Horo" is considered important is because of the position it occupies in the development of Japanese pop music in the 70's, namely with how it successfully bridges the Western pop and R&B traditions that local songwriters started embracing at the time. Yuming, the originator of New Music, really pushed this trend forward in 1973 when she teamed up with Caramel Mama (who renamed themselves to Tin Pan Alley the following year) to record the founding albums of the genre. In January 1975, Tin Pan Alley would then contribute to Kosaka's "Horo" to bring forward another self-coined genre Wasei R&B (和製R&B). A number of early magazine and radio adverts for the album mention that term, though in the modern days it's referred to as an example of early City Pop, though we would wait another three months before Sugar Babe would fully embrace urban sounds through "Songs". Speaking of Sugar Babe, Tatsuro Yamashita (山下達郎) and Taeko Onuki (大貫妙子) both participated in the backing chorus for "Horo", joined by Minako Yoshida (吉田美奈子), who would also embrace her R&B side later that year with "Minako". And as an icing on a cake, the strings and horn arranger on "Horo" is Akiko Suzuki (鈴木晶子), who debuted in 1976 as Akiko Yano (矢野顕子) when she married Makoto Yano (矢野誠), also a member of this album's personnel.
As for Kosaka himself, he's been an old friend of Haruomi Hosono (細野晴臣) since 1969 when they were band mates in Apryl Fool (エイプリル・フール). Once the band split up and Kosaka went solo in 1971, Hosono would support his music by inviting fellow musicians to play on his albums: Happy End for the first two and Tin Pan Alley for "Horo". Kosaka does look rather intriguing on that cover, a bit like an established middle-class immigrant in 1940's America. "Horo" was one of the last secular releases he put out, as later that year he decided to convert to Christianity after his daughter survived a massive burn. So for much of his career, Kosaka has associated with the Gospel side of things, but because of a revived critical interest in "Horo" over the last decade or so, he recently re-recorded the album in the form of "Horo 2010", this time with blue cover art.
After all this extensive background information, perhaps I should actually provide an example of this singer's music. I decided go with the cool "Shirakechimauze" (しらけちまうぜ), a lushly crafted tune with breezy strings, slightly jazzy piano and laid-back groove that were arranged by Hosono and Makoto Yano. According to the article in "Record Collectors", a number of album's tracks including this one were inspired by then-emerging Philadelphia Soul genre. I can hear the influence thanks to the light disco feel, though the song still retains Kosaka's folksy roots, especially with that distinct delivery of his. The train whistle-like vocals of Yoshida, Yamashita and Onuki in the refrain also contribute to that impression because they make me think of a smaller town rather than a glowing urban centre. I think that's what the critics meant by "Horo" bridging the gap between folk-influenced New Music and urban City Pop. Hosono was responsible for composing the carefree melody that perfectly matches Takashi Matsumoto's (松本隆) lyrics about the protagonist's apathetic attitude towards his recent break-up where he casually sends off his guilt-driven ex and admits that he's bad at crying. The melody makes you picture him strolling through the neighborhood and enjoying everyday life regardless of what has happened.
Kenji Ozawa (小沢健二) provided his own take on "Shirakechimauze" in 1995 through a guest appearance track on Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra's "Grand Prix" album. This version is pretty jazzy with the added brass section and also has more pronounced drums. I especially like the trumpet solo in the opening.
