Da Capo -- Kekkon Surutte Honto desu ka（結婚するって本当ですか）

 

Once again under the new Jme regime, "Uta Con"（うたコン）was back on at 7 am EDT but the good news is that there are reruns of it at 4:15 and 9:05 pm. Still, that last time won't mean much because it's Major League Baseball season here and we're not gonna miss that in prime time. Anyways, enough about the logistics. This week's episode was focused on all those hits from 1974 and the ones that were covered are probably included in the above video by LydzzxX.

But one which wasn't covered although it had been listed on one of the flip cards held by one of the guests on "Uta Con" was folk duo Da Capo's（ダ・カーポ）"Kekkon Surutte Honto desu ka" (Is It True You're Getting Married?). With a title like that, it's pretty plain that the lyrics by vocalist Hiroko Kubota（久保田広子）are about still pining for that former flame although she's about to be betrothed to another. Kubota's partner in music and then later in life (as of 1980), Masatoshi Sakakibara（榊原政敏）, was responsible for the melody which has been beautifully arranged by Takasuke Kida（木田高介）and Takahiko Ishikawa（石川鷹彦）. The piano, strings, guitar and the vocal harmonies are simply wonderful. And would you take a gander at that cover above with Hiroko and Masatoshi in the 70s threads? Brings back memories of my time in bell bottoms and jean jackets...yes, indeed I was alive at that time.

And I should mention that "Kekkon Surutte Honto desu ka" was released as Da Capo's 4th single in June 1974. It peaked at No. 8 and then became the 35th-ranked single of that year. Scoring sales of over 300,000 records, this became the duo's biggest hit. According to the J-Wiki article on the song, the initial title had been "Ameagari no Asa"（雨上がりの朝...The Morning After the Rain） but at the recommendation of a director at Nippon Columbia, it was switched over to the one that is now known. Incidentally, if I heard the narration in the video below correctly, that is the Sakakibaras' daughter playing the flute alongside her parents.

Da Capo -- Souya Misaki（宗谷岬）

 

Often when it comes to the kayo of Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost main island, the genres revolve around enka and Mood Kayo. I gather that there is something about the striking topography and the climate of the prefecture that lend themselves to the traditional music.

For that reason, I think "Souya Misaki" (Cape Souya) by the folk duo Da Capo（ダ・カーポ）is a bit of an outlier. For one thing, it's actually a relaxing folk song and not an epic enka about Cape Souya right at the northern tip of Hokkaido, and in terms of meteorology, the lyrics by Hiroshi Yoshida（吉田弘）depict the gradual warming-up of the region as spring approaches. 

Another thing is that the melody is composed by the late Toru Funamura（船村徹）, someone that I usually expected an enka from through the songs that Noelle and I have covered over the years. But "Souya Misaki" is as gentle as a children's folksy lullaby as the environment thaws out from the winter. The song was released as a track on Da Capo's May 1978 album "Yuuhodou"（遊歩道...Promenade）.

You can read more about Da Capo including how the duo got their name at my first article about them, "Yuki Moyo"（雪もよう）.

Da Capo -- Sora kara Koboreta STORY （空からこぼれたSTORY）

Yup, a few days ago, I heard of the passing of Roger Moore who had his several years of playing secret agent James Bond 007. Someone once told me that a fan's very favourite Bond depended on when that fan was born, and for me that would mean my favourite 007 is Sean Connery...and that is true. Moore was more in the middle of the pack for me.

I mean, he was fine enough but I thought he just extended himself a little long in the part, especially after catching his final tilt as the British superspy, "From A View To A Kill". Plus, I thought he was a bit too arch(ed eyebrow) for my taste at times. Then again, Moore himself once countered that how could anyone take Bond all that seriously since he was the most recognized secret agent (and therefore worst secret agent) in history. Point taken, Sir Roger.

Still, there were a few of his movies as Bond which thrilled me such as "The Spy Who Loved Me" with the scene of the Lotus Esprit chase and the above opening scene of him falling seemingly forever until that Union Jack parachute opened up to the famous theme song. I heard that audiences in the UK screamed their approval at that point.

I can't remember which character I saw first portrayed by Sir Roger but I vaguely remember seeing him in black-&-white episodes of "The Saint" when he was playing the debonair Simon Templar. Man of adventure, catchy theme song, very British....I'm sure it wasn't too difficult for producers to choose him when Connery decided to finally leave the role.

Now, folks, before I completely go over the line and turn this article into the blog's first 007 entry, I would like to say that in the Japanese-dubbed version of Moore's Bond movies, he was voiced by the late seiyuu and narrator Taichiro Hirokawa（広川太一郎）. Hirokawa, of course, didn't make Bond his sole bread-and-butter. He took on a lot of roles including that of another British crime-busting legend, Sherlock Holmes.

The thing is, though, that his Holmes was a dog. In fact, all of the characters in the anime "Meitantei Holmes"（名探偵ホームズ...Sherlock Hound） were dogs. If the style of the 1984 anime looks rather familiar to you, it may be because that the first handful of episodes were directed by Hayao Miyazaki（宮崎駿）. The above is the English-dubbed version.

The opening theme for "Meitantei Holmes" is "Sora kara Koboreta STORY" (The Story That Spilled From The Sky), performed by the folk-pop duo Da Capo（ダ・カーポ）. Man, they sure don't make anison like that anymore (I kinda miss that relaxing style). Created by lyricist Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）and composer Ken Sato（佐藤健）, the song sounds perfect for a Miyazaki flick! Plus, the duo did their best to bring in the British flavour into the arrangement. It kinda straddles between what I would imagine the soundtrack for an animated Sherlock Holmes for kids would sound like and a bouncier contemporary beat. It's certainly different than any of the themes for "Meitantei Conan"（名探偵コナン...Case Closed）.

Try as I might, I couldn't find Hirokawa voicing Moore anywhere but perhaps he is represented in this Japanese ad for the DVD-BOX set for the 007 movies.

Da Capo -- Yuki Moyo （雪もよう）

The annual Santa Claus Parade is coming to Toronto tomorrow which means that the Xmas season will begin. Actually, it's already begun in my neighbourhood shopping mall since the Santa Claus exhibit with Santa's chair is all built. Furthermore, the temperatures are about to plummet so that the high will be a mere 0 degrees Celsius on Sunday and there will be a fairly good possibility that snow will be making its first official appearance. Nothing more Xmas-y than that.🎅

(The video has been taken down but you can check out the very brief Amazon

sample in Disc 2 of Da Capo's "Single Collection" here.)

So in honour of that meteorological possibility, I bring you a song with that feeling in mind: "Yuki Moyo" (Patterns in the Snow). Performed by the duo Da Capo (ダ・カーポ), this was released in February 1979 as their 17th single, and I found the date a bit interesting since the song sounds as if it had been released the better part of a decade before. I mean, the arrangement has that feeling of an early 1970s kayo (in fact, that opening note sounded like the beginning of an enka tune). And then there's the harmony generated by Hiroko Kubota and Masatoshi Sakakibara（久保田広子・榊原まさとし）that reminded me of some of those sweet-singing duos from that era and before. Usually when I think of the late 1970s in kayo kyoku, genres such as City Pop, chart-topping pop-rock and YMO technopop come more to mind.

"Yuki Moyo" was composed by Sakakibara and written by Akira Ito（伊藤アキラ）as a lovely lament about a lost opportunity in love in which a young lady admonishes herself for being so cold to a potential suitor and only discovers his worth too late. She compares herself to the snow that would have melted if it had touched his heart and compares him to the snow that she would have gladly endured if it had fallen on her. Oooh...that sweet-talkin' Ito! But ach, it's too late.

However the story of Da Capo progressed a lot more fortuitously. I've heard the name of this duo before and I just thought for some reason that they wanted to name themselves after some expression from "The Godfather". Ah...well...actually da capo is the musical term meaning "from the beginning". The duo opted for this name as a way to never forget where they came from.

And where they came from was a supermarket in Yokohama in 1971 when Kubota went over there to get training in preparation for taking over the family operation in her native Tochigi Prefecture. One day, she saw a poster asking for folks who were interested in music and friendship. Deciding to give it a try, the lady joined the Sakaki Music Lab which was run by Sakakibara's brother and she met her future partner. A couple of years later at a party, Kubota and Sakakibara then decided to form a singing partnership with their debut single "Natsu no Hi no Wasuremono"（夏の日の忘れもの...Something Forgotten from That Summer Day）in August 1973. For the rest of the decade, their popularity would grow as they sang tunes that ran across the genre spectrum from anison to folk.

Their partnership also evolved into a romantic one so they got married in 1980 with Kubota retiring for a few years while Sakakibara continued his career. However, Da Capo came back to sing some more from 1983.