Dr. Dragon and Oriental Express/Duke Aces/Pedro and Capricious -- Carib no Yume（カリブの夢）

 

Welcome again to Urban Contemporary Fridays on "Kayo Kyoku Plus". I was searching around for another song by 1970s disco soul band Dr. Dragon and Oriental Express（Dr.ドラゴン&オリエンタル・エクスプレス）to post up here. Just to remind readers, the band was led by Dr. Dragon himself, composer and arranger extraordinaire Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, and it had Akiko Yano（矢野顕子）on keyboards, Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）on bass, Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）on guitar, Tatsuo Hayashi（林立夫）on drums, Kentaro Haneda（羽田健太郎）on piano and Michiru Maki（槙みちる）as background chorus (which was also shared by Yano). Maybe in the mid-1970s they hadn't been quite as famous but of course later on, all of them would get their share of fame in the music industry.

In June 1976, Dr. Dragon and Oriental Express put out their album "The Birth of a Dragon" and the last track on Side A was the instrumental "Carib no Yume" (Caribbean Dream) which was composed by Dr. Dragon. Although there is a feeling of some tropical tempest, I think most of "Carib no Yume" makes the song an ideal theme tune for a Japanese drama regarding a private detective or a branch of police. Yup, it all takes place in Tokyo with a stentorian narration describing the hard streets of the metropolis which can only be tamed by even harder law enforcement officers. I can easily imagine the LEOs running all over Shinjuku to the rhythm of this one.

Now, I would have ended the article right then and there, but I then found out that cover versions of "Carib no Yume" had been created, starting with the one by the long-running vocal group Duke Aces（デューク・エイセス）. It was a surprise realizing that this kayo kyoku group had ever tackled a high-energy disco number but they did record it as their 61st single in 1977. And of course, this time they got lyrics by Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）. Slightly shorter in length than the original, the Duke Aces' version was tweaked a little bit to fit their style but hey, it's still disco.

What hasn't surprised me is that the band Pedro & Capricious（ペドロ&カプリシャス）covered "Carib no Yume" as their 15th single in 1978. The band was already showing signs that it was growing beyond its original folk roots and trying other genres far afield, and for those fans of hers, yep, it's indeed Mariko Takahashi（高橋真梨子）behind the mike. And since I see his name in the thumbnail, I will assume that Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）gave his own arrangement. In terms of length, this version falls nicely in the middle between Duke Aces' take and the original by Dr. Dragon and company. I can also see P&C's version being used as a special ending theme for my imagined police drama that I whipped up in the paragraph talking about the original.

Dr. Dragon and Oriental Express -- The Birth of a Dragon

from Good Free Photos

 

2024 is the Year of the Dragon and as such, I was wondering what I could post on here to commemorate this observation. Well, it didn't take too long because my mind was able to pop out the late great composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）. You see, he had a couple of nicknames, one of which was Jack Diamond and then the other was Dr. Dragon.

In gradually learning more about Tsutsumi, I realized that he had quite a sweet tooth for disco and R&B back in the day, and in fact, under his Dr. Dragon name, he even released a June 1976 album titled "The Birth of a Dragon". Well, the band's full name was Dr. Dragon and Oriental Express and it was quite the band with Shigeru Suzuki/鈴木茂 (guitar), Tsugutoshi Goto/後藤次利 (bass), Tatsuo Hayashi/林立夫 (drums) and Akiko Yano/矢野顕子 (keyboards).

Dr. Dragon was responsible for the composition and arrangement of all of the songs, and arguably the most famous track is the oddly-titled "Sexy Bus Stop" which was originally an instrumental but then given lyrics by Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）and then given over to then-70s teen aidoru Yuko Asano（浅野ゆう子） to be made into a hit. It has its own article and when I posted it over ten years ago on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I even gave viewers a glimpse at another track, "The Theme of Dr. Dragon" which is now above this paragraph. It starts out with a bit of a brass explosion, sounding like the intro to a Bruce Lee movie (remember "Enter the Dragon"?) before it gets into the funk underlain by a rumbling rhythm which reminds me of something similar from the American cop show "SWAT". The urgency gives way in parts for an upbeat Asian riff.

Hashimoto would provide lyrics to some of the tracks including this one, "Peanuts", although he never got credited for his work on the album. Yup, "Peanuts" goes heavy into the disco, rather like Van McCoy, as the vocalists (perhaps EVE?) give their full-throated love for the goobers. It's all rather light-hearted though overall and I could even imagine the aidoru trio The Candies tackling this one.

One more tune that I'll provide here is "Hustle Jet" which has Goto going hard into the bass and once again, the happy-go-lucky nature of the disco here makes it friendly for any aidoru and even any soundtrack for a television drama or comedy. Hashimoto once again gives his few lyrics to "Hustle Jet". I've yet to hear the remaining tracks but I gather that they will also sound like disco with some of that added kayo kyoku-ness, thanks to Dr. Dragon.

Dr. Dragon and Oriental Express/Yuko Asano -- Sexy Bus Stop（セクシー・バス・ストップ）

It's amazing what one can find out about an old tune.

I first heard this song with the "only-in-Japan" title of "Sexy Bus Stop" when EPO did a cover version on her "Poptracks"album of 1987. The melody instantly got me thinking of funk-n-disco (pardon my French...ahem). I would later find out that it was originally performed by actress Yuko Asano（浅野ゆう子）, one of the most popular trendy drama stars of the 80s and 90s, when she had started out in show business in the early 70s as a young starlet and aidoru. "Sexy Bus Stop" was Asano's 8th single and her biggest hit. When I discovered this fact, I frankly went "She actually sang?" which kinda shows how far her acting career has eclipsed her singing one although she continued to release singles off-and-on until the late 90s.

The above video is just 30 seconds long but it has a teenage Asano (nee Yuko Akazawa...赤沢裕子) bopping about on the stage looking fairly tomboyish....quite a far cry from my image of her as the sultry, sweet and sassy characters she played in those dramas over a decade later. "Sexy Bus Stop" peaked at No. 12 on Oricon.

But the story is not over. I found out that Asano herself was doing a vocal cover of the song which had originally been an instrumental. When I came across the name of the band, Dr. Dragon and Oriental Express, I first assumed that it was an American disco group. Its "Sexy Bus Stop", which had been released just a month before the Asano version, certainly sounded American enough. Then, I dug a little deeper.

Apparently, it was Japanese after all. And it had quite the lineup. Dr. Dragon and Oriental Express started life in 1976 and starred these folks: Shigeru Suzuki (guitar), Tsugutoshi Goto (bass), Tatsuo Hayashi (drums) and Akiko Yano (keyboards). "Sexy Bus Stop" was the debut for this group, and they even released one album, "The Birth of a Dragon". The producer for the whole disco project was Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平） who also composed "Sexy Bus Stop" under the name of Jack Diamond, while Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）provided the lyrics for the Asano version.

Just to give another example of this band's output, here is their theme song.

All I can say is "BOOGIE!!"