Lionel Richie -- Love Will Find a Way

 

With "Love Will Conquer All" and "Love Will Find a Way", I swear that singer-songwriter Lionel Richie could have opted to become one of America's most reassuring therapists. Incidentally, I have already brought the 80s crooner onto KKP through a ROY article on the former song from 1986 which I dearly loved and listened to as a high school kid back then.

But then I stumbled across his earlier "Love Will Find a Way" which is a track on his Grammy-winning October 1983 album "Can't Slow Down" and fell in love with this Quiet Storm ballad, too. This album certainly didn't slow down, not only winning Album of the Year but sprouting five hit singles, not one of which is "Love Will Find a Way" and strangely enough, it's the song that is my favourite out of all of the tracks (I finally did get my own copy of the album) and it's my favourite Richie song, period. Created by Richie and Greg Phillinganes (a name that I will always pay attention to), it may go on a bit long at over 6 minutes, but man, it is one of the grooviest soul songs about trying to get out of the doldrums. Phillinganes himself is on the keyboards and Nathan East is on bass so they are the groove masters, and I had no idea that singer Richard Marx was helping out on backing vocals. This is the type of tune that you want to hear at night with some sherry and maybe that significant other.

Because "Love Will Find a Way" wasn't ever released as its own single, it didn't get onto the radio all that much but when it did, I quickly heard its merits. It wasn't easy at first because I had the bad luck of missing out on the DJ announcing its title but when I finally figured it out, I made sure that the title stayed within long and short-term memories.

So what was being released as singles in October 1983?

Chiemi Hori -- Yuugure Kibun （夕暮れ気分）

Kiyotaka Sugiyama & Omega Tribe -- Asphalt Lady

Seiko Matsuda -- Hitomi wa Diamond （瞳はダイアモンド）

Michael Jackson -- Thriller

 

A couple of years ago, I posted Ray Parker Jr.'s "Ghostbusters" as a Halloween Reminiscings of Youth piece, so I figured that it was time for this one as well. Now I am well aware that Halloween is not a statutory holiday but merely an observed fun tradition but I'm still going to continue our KKP tradition of coming up with something spooky on the 31st or thereabouts.

I've known Michael Jackson's "Thriller" more for the epic video of around 15 minutes in length than for the original single that was released in the United States in January 1984. Never bought the album "Thriller" in my youth so the video was my introduction to the song by Rod Temperton which was produced by Quincy Jones.

The video was released in early December 1983 and the hoopla surrounding it was incredible to say the least. Even now, I don't think music videos that are a quarter of an hour in length are all that plentiful so you can imagine how the excitement was like back forty years ago. After all, this was the King of Pop Michael Jackson doing a horror-based music video with all of the special effects trimmings under the direction of John Landis of "Animal House", "The Blues Brothers" and "An American in Werewolf in London" fame, and yep, some of "Thriller" was inspired by that final movie. Anyways, folks were really excited to see the world premiere of the video on MTV, and we here in Canada were able to view it as well, probably via MuchMusic. 

Because of the plot line of the werewolf and MJ taking home Ola Ray being interwoven into the song and dance, I'd say that "Thriller" could have even been called a very specific mini-musical around one tune, and man, that was some choreography. Now if zombies ever dance again anywhere in media, they would have to follow Michael. Of course, I can't ever forget Vincent Price's appropriately ghoulish narration and his gleefully evil laughter at the end.

Once the single came out, I remember that "Thriller" kept getting onto the top of the request charts for weeks upon weeks. Putting aside all of the Halloween sound effects, Price, and even Temperton's lyrics, the song is just one funky disco song released years after disco was supposed to have been exorcised from pop culture. The musicians supporting the song were all top-notch: Jerry Hey, Gary Grant, Larry Williams, and Bill Reichenbach on horns (all who have played on Japanese pop albums, too), along with Temperton and Greg Phillinganes on keyboards.

In Canada, "Thriller" the single made it up to No. 3 while hitting No. 4 in America. The countries where it actually topped the charts were Belgium, France, Portugal and Spain.

Now, what was coming out as singles in December 1983?

Yutaka Ozaki -- Juu-go no Yoru （15の夜）

Tatsuro Yamashita -- Christmas Eve

Warabe -- Moshi mo Ashita ga （もしも明日が）

Lionel Richie -- Love Will Conquer All

 

I knew that I had mentioned the great 80s soul crooner Lionel Richie in a past article on KKP years ago but not given him that Reminiscings of Youth attention for that particular song (at least, not yet anyways), but it was still a surprise to realize that after a few years of regular ROY articles as this is, Richie still hadn't made his debut here. Well, that ends right here and now.

Of course, for all those Richie fans, there is "All Night Long", "Running with the Night" and "Dancing on the Ceiling" as those huge hits for the singer from Alabama. However for me, there was one single that came out in September 1986 that perhaps didn't become a classic like the ones above, but it still hits me as one of my favourites. I first heard "Love Will Conquer All" on the radio ranking shows on the Toronto stations as a university student and it has stuck with me ever since. It's got the Quiet Storm vibe along with the feeling that this is a content soulful stroll as illustrated by Richie and his co-vocalist Marva King. 

Created by Greg Phillinganes, Cynthia Weil, and Richie, "Love Will Conquer All" just has those amazing keyboards and whenever I hear those "Ooooohs" in the intro by the singer and King, I know that I'm going to be in a world of aural good. I always waited in anticipation for those "Ooooohs" on the ranking shows and then once I really started to appreciate this song, I always wanted to hear the longer version at 6 to 7 minutes. Several years would pass until I realized that there was a music video for "Love Will Conquer All" in which Richie drove hundreds of miles up California to make amends with his girlfriend. It certainly looked like love conquered all although maybe distance may have also conquered the car tires.

All joking aside, it still remains one of my favourite R&B tunes from the 1980s. Plus, "Love Will Conquer All" didn't do too shabbily on the rankings either since it hit No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the States while it reached No. 19 here in Canada. The song was also a track on "Dancing on the Ceiling" the album. And so what was also doing well on the Oricon charts when this song was released? I have Nos. 1, 3 and 5.

1. Akemi Ishii -- Cha-Cha-Cha

3. Miho Nakayama -- Tsuiteru ne, Notteru ne（ツイてるねノッてるね）

5. Momoko Kikuchi -- Say Yes!

Donald Fagen -- I.G.Y. (What A Beautiful World)

 

Approximately two weeks ago, I contributed a ROY article for Steely Dan's wonderful "Peg" from the band's 1977 "Aja" album. Without going into the whole hullabaloo about how I got into the works of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker again, allow me to say that it was the beginning of my exposure to this demanding and resultingly amazing duo.

Some years later, I then started hearing "I.G.Y." by Donald Fagen on AM radio and that time, I thought that it was one of the weirdest pop songs that I had ever heard. A horn section shuffling to a reggae beat? The singer trying to reach those falsetto heights? And why would a song ever be called "International Geophysical Year", for heaven's sakes?

It would be years before I finally saw the light about "I.G.Y." and its album by Fagen, "The Nightfly". Before that point, I hadn't known that Fagen was part of Steely Dan, and although I did remember seeing that iconic cover for "The Nightfly" with the old-style radio DJ in the booth, I had no idea that it was Fagen as the disc jockey. In fact, I didn't even know that Steely Dan breaking up for a while partially led to the birth of this classic album.

My thanks will strangely go to IBM. As I mentioned in the "Peg" article, there was an IBM commercial played in Japan with a popular model/actress being featured alongside the ThinkPad and "I.G.Y." was the song in the background. My engrams were firing once more with a bit more affection for the Fagen single. At the time, I was teaching at my second school in Tokyo, and a fellow teacher who had been doing his own DJ'ing and recording recommended "The Nightfly" to me as one of the albums everyone had to own.

Indeed, I did buy it and it has become a heavy-rotation album. As was the case with that subtitle for "I.G.Y.", what a beautiful world! All of the tracks are splendid and I gradually got to know the story behind the concept of "The Nightfly" and Fagen's personal connection to it. Of course, you can take a look at the Wikipedia article for the album for starters.

The part of the story where Fagen related how much he relied on those 1960s late-night radio shows as a kid in what he called his bland neighbourhood did hit me somewhat. I had my decade of listening to various stations across the dial and especially during my university years, I relied on those radio DJs to keep me amused, entertained and awake as I pulled off those all-nighters to get the essays done and exams studied for. Certainly, I was interested enough to track down this video of a 1964 broadcast of a radio show from Boston.

As for "I.G.Y.", I now consider it to be one of the most appealingly quirky pop songs that my ears have had the privilege of being exposed to. Once again, it was all about those horns, keyboards, Fagen's vocals and that melody now paired with lyrics that sardonically talked about the wonders of futuristic living. And yet, I still get one of those rare moments of optimism in my head (my persona really usually wavers between cynicism and pessimism) whenever I play "I.G.Y." on the stereo, hoping for those gleaming trains, hypersonic planes and driverless automobiles going to and from those smart homes. Not surprisingly, my mind goes to certain areas in Tokyo such as Odaiba and even further afield in nations such as Dubai.

"I.G.Y." was released in September 1982 with "The Nightfly" coming out a month later, so I figure that I can provide what were in the Top 3 of Oricon in October 1982.

1. Aming -- Matsu wa  (待つわ）

2. Ippu-Do -- Sumire September Love (すみれ September Love)

3. Masahiko Kondo -- Horeta ze! Kanpai（ホレたぜ!乾杯）

Yellow Magic Orchestra -- Behind The Mask

I don’t wanna talk about it (Let’s talk about it).

Actually, Yellow Magic Orchestra is a silly name, admitted Ryuichi Sakamoto to Daily Telegraph in 2011. But he liked it. “It’s half way between black magic and white magic, and we’re Asian musicians, so yellow is about right, no? And we liked the idea of an orchestra with only three people. I was the composer and the brains. They called me the professor.” 

For a professor it was difficult to suddenly meet screaming teenage girls wherever they played. It didn't help that in the beginning of 1980's artists were required to wear make-up and Sakamoto was supposed to sing his own songs. “It was very hard to adjust,” sighed Sakamoto, “because I never wanted to be centre stage. I love to be anonymous.”

Anonymous, or better… behind the mask?

Behind The Mask, the probably most famous composition by Ryuichi Sakamoto, was in repertoire already during the first YMO live recording at Yubin Chokin Kaikan in October 18, 1978. The ticking sound of the song fitted perfectly to Seiko quartz watch commercial that made it known before it was officially recorded.

When we look closer, the song is almost ridiculously simple, as pop classics often are. However, the chords Sakamoto used [F-Db-Eb-Cm] were not common at all and gave the tune an ambiguous character. It’s an ambient composition with many sides and many possibilities. During the next decades all the possibilities were mapped by various artists.

Haruomi Hosono (細野 晴臣) raises his hands up. “We didn’t recognise at all that it was to become a classic! We considered it a failed production.” The recording for album “Solid State Survivor” took five days. In his book Hideki Matsutake revealed that the recording was made in the following order: 1. Base, 2. Arpeggio, 3. Kick (MOOG III-C), 4. Snare and hi-hat (Yukihiro Takahashi 高橋 幸宏), 5. Melody, 6. Vocoder (Ryuichi Sakamoto 坂本 龍一).

English lyrics to the song were written by Chris Mosdell. Sakamoto already had the melody line when he asked poet and lyricist Mosdell to write lyrics. He based it on the imagery of a Japanese traditional Noh mask, combined with a Yeats poem The Mask. On Mosdell homepage is stated "Having recently seen Yeats’ Noh play At Hawk’s Well in Tokyo, Chris sat down and wrote lyrics based on a premise that was similar to that of the poem. But he gave the wearer of the mask an inert nature, in keeping with his image of a depersonalized society in a technological time."

(Tokyo Dome 1993)

I like the above 1980 Nippon Budokan version most, because of Akiko Yano’s cute little crouches. Unfortunately we can’t see much of them, because video director couldn’t resist brand new editing technology, and he using it a lot. Something against radio junk, I suppose. Stylish shirts, though.

The next chapter was the most surprising one. Michael Jackson used his magic touch and wrote additional lyrics to the beginning of song. The reason was simple: his producer, famed Quincy Jones, loved the track. During Jones' trip to Japan he was introduced to the song by Kuni Murai, the president of Alfa Records. "Jones thought it was a perfect vehicle for the new album of Michael Jackson that he was producing, so he took it back to Los Angeles and presented it to Michael", Mosdell remembers. Jones and Jackson turned the techno piece into a funky R&B disco hit.

Behind The Mask was supposed to be released in Michael Jackson’s album Thriller in 1982. As you recall, Thriller still is the most sold music album in the history. However, Michael Jackson’s Behind The Mask never progressed further from demo version.

We will never know what really happened,  The known “facts” have some discrepancies. One theory says Michael Jackson requested 50% of credits, copyright and royalties for his massive input of 10 extra lines. YMO refused. Another story claims that the track was already completed (questionable) and YMO wanted to review it, but Michael refused. On the other hand there is indeed a thematical and conceptual dissonance between Behind The Mask and the rest of the songs of Thriller. It is easy to see why Behind The Mask was shelved.

Actually, making Thriller was a mess. "After editing the final cut I took Michael home, and he went to sleep on the couch," said Jones to Rolling Stone magazine. "Three hours later we went back to the studio and listened to the acetate. Biggest piece of shit in life! We were horrified. So we took two days off, then spent the next eight days remixing. One song a day. We put those babies in the pocket." During these circumstances there was no time to pay any attention to the over 100 candidate songs. They were too busy trying to salvage the damn album.

Michael Jackson’s Behind The Mask remained unreleased till his death. The unreleased tapes were dug out from Sony’s vault and published in 2010 as a posthumous album “Michael”. Instruments were added to demo and thus the world heard for the first time the Michael Jackson version. Please note that this is definitely not the Jones/Jackson version, if it ever was finished in the first place. It's more a "Bad" Jackson with dry sounds.

So, after the Thriller sessions, there existed an unused song with Michael Jackson lyrics waiting for somebody to pick it up. That one happened to be Greg Phillinganes, a keyboard player and a trusted session musician. Rumours have said up to this day that it was Michael Jackson himself who was singing backing vocals on Phillinganes’ version. Arrangement is pure Michael Jackson: a sharp dance hit that was seen rising on European charts in summer 1985. Greg Phillinganes’ version must be the closest idea to how MJ’s Behind The Mask had sounded like, if it ever was to be included on Thriller.

It is very suitable that this video shows the Japanese issue of Phillinganes’ album. Does it really say “Super Premium Black” on cover?

The story doesn’t end here. A chap called Eric Clapton was recruiting musicians to assist him during his “August” album session and the following world tour in 1986. Here comes to the picture a keyboard player from Los Angeles called Greg Phillinganes, who happened to play one of his recorded tracks and Clapton became interested. Clapton was recovering from his addictions and wanted to announce in his album that he is back and open to modern sounds.

The following clip (sorry but the clip has been erased by YouTube; I've left something else in its place) features a real All-Star Band. Jools Holland (keys), Mark King (bass), Phil Collins (drums), and Eric Clapton (solo guitar). You can never guess that the song is Behind The Mask. No, I am serious. During all these transformations a Sakamoto techno piece had become a funky R&B hit, and Clapton recreates it once again into something new: a solid and angry rock number with stinging guitar solos.

See how the world goes around.

So, what was left to Sakamoto? He re-recorded Behind The Mask in 1987 with Michael Jackson’s added lyrics. In the next century Sakamoto went acoustic and shaped his old song into a mixture of classical concert music and jazz. His live concerts in Seoul in 2011 were delivered to 288 000 viewers via Ustream. The lucky viewers who weren’t lagging or pulled off line had an opportunity to hear this arrangement for two pianos. It’s a Behind The Mask by Debussy.

The mysterious mask has been wandering from hand to hand amongst musicians for decades and it has appeared in multitude of magical shades, yellow, black and white. We still don’t know who or what is really behind the mask, but perhaps it’s not an important question at all. As Yeats said in his poem "O no, my dear, let all that be; What matter, so there is but fire, In you, in me?"

Heaven must be pleased.