Yoko Aso -- Weekend no Koen Douri（ウィークエンドの公園通り）

 

It's usually been the case when I read the more ravenous of City Pop fans' comments of how they wished they could have been in Tokyo back in the late 1970s or 1980s, I often counter that the fans themselves are lucky because they have access to all of this wonderful City Pop material in one go without having to wait for months or years on end for the variety of such songs. However, I have to admit that whenever I hear music such as this, it does make me wax nostalgic for the time of half a century ago in cities such as Tokyo and Osaka as to what urban life was like back then (although I know that during the early 1970s, Japan underwent some hardship due to the Nixon oil shocks).

Yup, there's nothing like bossa nova to act as world music's version of a creamy salve for whatever ails me, and there's plenty of that in Yoko Aso's（麻生よう子）"Weekend no Koen Douri" (Park Avenue on the Weekend). A song about falling in breezy love, I'm pretty sure that the title refers to Koen Douri in Shibuya, Tokyo rather than Park Avenue in New York City, although I think the song is perfect for both settings. By the way, the photo at the top is indeed that of Koen Douri back in 2009. I don't know what the avenue was like in the early 1970s but maybe from the song, perhaps it was already quite the stylish place to be and to be seen.

"Weekend no Koen Douri" was written by Haruo Hayashi（林春生）with music by Hiromasa Suzuki（鈴木宏昌）, and it was a track on Aso's 2nd album "Gozen Reiji no Kane/Touhikou"（午前零時の鐘 / 逃避行） from December 1974. The cheerful blend of bossa nova and sunshine pop reminds me a bit of what the band NOVO was doing at around the same time.

I've walked up and down Koen Douri a number of times when the department stores Parco and Marui were there. For trivia's sake, I discovered that the street got its name from the fact that the Shibuya Parco had opened there in 1972. Parco is the Italian word for "park". The store closed down temporarily for a few years beginning in 2016 due to the need for renovations, but it was back open as of November 2019.

Rumi Asada -- Hakurankai no E（展覧会の絵）

 

I think when it came to the kayo kyoku of the 1970s, I can finally envisage at least two of the popular arrangements. One was perhaps derived from the Group Sounds wave of the 1960s: beefy bass, rollicking percussion and horns. The other one was less assertive and perhaps suited for ballads: what sounded like a harpsichord or celesta accompanied by those wistful strings and maybe a harp.

"Kayo Kyoku Plus" has shown plenty of examples of both over the years and I believe that this particular song is an example of the latter. "Hakurankai no E" (Paintings at an Exhibition) was performed by Rumi Asada（麻田ルミ）from Osaka Prefecture. Released as her 6th single in October 1974, the song is quite the quintessential 70s kayo kyoku by a female singer and it's delivered delicately well by Asada. Haruo Hayashi（林春生）was the lyricist with Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）composing the melody.

Asada has been categorized as an actress on her J-Wiki profile but not as a singer despite the fact that she released a total of nine singles between 1970 and 1979. Well, I guess putting out what basically amounted to simply a couple of songs per year doesn't quite a singer make. Born as Atsuko Asada（麻田淳子）in 1955, she first studied ballet as a child before getting a role in a TV drama in 1970. She then had a steady stream of work in television through shows such as "Mito Komon"（水戸黄門）and "G Men 75" before most likely leaving show business after 1979.

The Edwards -- Cry, Cry, Cry（クライ・クライ・クライ）

 

Well, just a couple of days following an article on the very famous Group Sounds band The Spiders（ザ・スパイダース）, I've got another GS band that is perhaps not all that well known. I wasn't able to discover how this quintet of rock n' rollers got the name The Edwards（ジ・エドワーズ）...I keep thinking that perhaps one of the guys was a British Royal watcher.

Formed in June 1967, The Edwards had apparently wanted to bring back the sound of the early Beatles. However, they only released two singles and broke up in October 1968. Both of those singles were handled by lyricist Haruo Hayashi（林春生）and a young songwriter named Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平） whose legendary run as composer was still way ahead of him. Their debut single from February 1968 was "Cry, Cry, Cry" with Takeshi Maki（麻紀タケシ）as the vocalist and keyboardist. Yup, I can hear an amped-up version of The Beatles in there, although the fuzzy guitar makes me wonder whether The Edwards was trying to aim for The Fab Four around their "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" period.

Another member of The Edwards, guitarist Satoshi Sakakibara（榊原さとし）whose real name was Yoshio Hatano（秦野嘉王）, entered entertainment company Geiei Productions（芸映）once the band broke up, and became the very first manager for Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）. After he and Saijo had split up, Sakakibara set up his own company Office AtoZ where he was instrumental in giving comedy duo Tunnels（とんねるず） their push toward stardom. Of course, composer Tsutsumi made his breakthrough some ten months following the release of "Cry, Cry, Cry" with a totally different kayo kyoku.

The Ventures/Yuko Nagisa -- Nagasaki Bojou（長崎慕情）

 

Over the years on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I've included the legendary instrumental rock band The Ventures and not as part of the Reminiscings of Youth series. If you can take a look at their entries on the blog, they not only had their day in the United States with surf rock but have become stars as well in Japan by providing their own tunes for Japanese audiences that have been sung by Japanese singers. In fact, there is one section in the J-Wiki article for The Ventures which talk about Ventures kayo, some of which are part and parcel of KKP.

Well, it's sad to say but co-founder and guitarist Don Wilson of this very group passed away yesterday morning at the age of 88. As such, I wanted to provide another one of The Ventures' creations in Japan in tribute.

One of the kayo that I wrote about all the way back in 2014 was "Kyoto Bojou"（京都慕情）which was a November 1970 release by The Ventures. Several days later in December, Yuko Nagisa（渚ゆう子）did a cover of the song with lyrics added. In both cases, "Kyoto Bojou" was quite the quietly cheerful affair.

A year later in November 1971, The Ventures then went further west in Japan to provide "Nagasaki Bojou" (Nagasaki Memories) which was a more contemplative and perhaps more melancholy tune thanks to the guitar and what sounds like the electric organ. That rhythm guitar, presumably by Wilson, has a somewhat mesmerizing effect on the ears like a murmuring stream.

Also in 1971 and maybe just after The Ventures' release of the song once again, Nagisa's cover of "Nagasaki Bojou" came out with Haruo Hayashi（林春生）providing the lyrics just as he did for "Kyoto Bojou". It does have more of that kayo feeling with the addition of the soprano saxophone, the thwack-y drumming and the strings although I also hear that electric organ again. 

All of my condolences to Wilson's family and friends. I'm sure that fans in Japan are also mourning the loss but are also celebrating what he has left everyone.

Mitsuo Sagawa & Yukari Ito -- Oh!! Gentle Life

 

Wow! Japan even does Kleenex commercials with style.

Although the above ad has nothing to do with this song, according to one commenter for "Oh!! Gentle Life", this apparently had been used as a jingle for a brand of tissue. To be honest, I can very easily imagine the catchphrase of such a tissue being the title of this duet number between Mitsuo Sagawa（佐川満男）and Yukari Ito（伊東ゆかり）.

What rather solidifies the possibility that the 1970-released "Oh!! Gentle Life" was used for that tissue commercial is that the song doesn't show up in either of the J-Wiki discographies for Sagawa and Ito, so perhaps it was one of those one-off projects that was popular enough to merit a single record being produced and sold. Another point to observe is that when I saw Sagawa's name, I remembered him as that fairly dour fellow in full beard and moustache who sang that sad 1968 ballad, "Ima wa Shiawase kai"（今は幸せかい）.

Well, that cover above shows him completely clean-shaven, happy and awfully close to Ms. Ito. Then I re-read my article for "Ima wa Shiawase kai" and re-discovered that he and Ito would get married the following year for five years before filing for divorce. But getting back to the oh-so-cute "Oh!! Gentle Life", the late legendary composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）was responsible for this melody punctuated by a clarinet that sounds so blandly pleasant and domesticated that I'd assumed that it was a theme song for some half-hour TV home comedy on Wednesday nights (I was close enough, though). Meanwhile, Haruo Hayashi's（林春生）lyrics pretty much describes some of that domestic bliss. To think that tissue may have been the tie that bound Sagawa and Ito, if temporarily.

Yukari Yamamoto -- Komugi Iro no Omoide（小麦色の想い出）

 

Coincidentally enough, a rather certain parallel is popping up here on Tuesday. I just completed an article for a B-side to an aidoru's A-side about an hour ago, and now I'm providing the reverse through this A-side to a B-side for an aidoru whose article I took care of back last year.

Yukari Yamamoto（山本由香利）, in contrast to Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）, didn't have a very long aidoru career. It lasted between 1975 and 1978 with 6 singles and 1 album under her belt, and then she went into a much longer and more successful time as a thespian.

Last May, I wrote about that B-side, "Mou Sukoshi Jikan wo Kudasai"（もう少し時間を下さい）, and now here in February, I will now complete the circle with her A-side "Komugi Iro no Omoide" (Golden Brown Memories) which was released in September 1975. To be honest, listening to both songs on the opposite sides of the vinyl, I initially thought I'd made a mistake somewhere since the two of them sounded alike. "Komugi Iro no Omoide" has that same wistful arrangement with strings and that harpsichord-sounding instrument which seems to have accompanied every innocent kayo looking for that wistfulness during the 1970s. Not surprisingly, as with "Mou Sukoshi Jikan wo Kudasai", the A-side was created by lyricist Haruo Hayashi（林春生）and composer Masaaki Hirao（平尾昌晃）with Ryo Kawakami（川上了）handling the arrangement.

I think the only thing that brought me out of my momentary existential crisis vis-à-vis the two songs was that "Komugi Iro no Omoide" is the one with the trumpet in the intro. Very nice sentimental tunes if similar. 

Yukari Yamamoto -- Mou Sukoshi Jikan wo Kudasai（もう少し時間を下さい）

There's that taste of summer out there. It's sunny and warm but we Canadians all still have to do that social distancing that we've been performing for the past couple of months. Incidentally, my congratulations to Japan for having its restrictions lifted; I really hope that any second wave of COVID-19 there is minimal.

It was an hour's walk all around including 5 minutes within the establishment itself, but for the first time in over 2 months, I actually set foot in a bricks-and-mortar shop that didn't sell food or medicine. My target was an office supplies store not too far from my home where I needed to pick up a printer toner cartridge and some printer paper. Didn't particularly go all starry-eyed when I was inside while remarking "So, this is what a store looks like! It's bigger on the inside than on the outside. It's a TARDIS!". I simply picked up, purchased and went home.

Let's start this final full week of May on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" with a 1970s aidoru who didn't stay on that career track for very long. I present Yukari Yamamoto（山本由香利）from the city of Kobe and Oita Prefecture who made her debut in September 1975 after tutelage from the late songwriter Masaaki Hirao（平尾昌晃）with "Komugi Iro no Omoide"（小麦色の思い出...Golden Brown Memories）.

Actually, though, the song for this article is the B-side for that single, "Mou Sukoshi Jikan wo Kudasai" (A Little More of Your Time). It's a 1970s tune so wistful that it should have adorned the soundtrack for a shojo anime during that decade. Written by Haruo Hayashi（林春生）and composed by Hirao himself, the silky strings and those certain keyboards smack the nerves just right for that relaxing nostalgia flavour.

Between 1975 and 1978, Yamamoto released 6 singles and one album, and at the time, she had been groomed to be that teenybopper singer, but it looks like sometime down the line, she decided that she was better suited for acting. Since then she has appeared in numerous movies and TV shows.

Yuko Nagisa -- Saihate Bojou（さいはて慕情）

I heard this folksy kayo one day on a YouTube video of an old Japanese radio broadcast and thought it would be nice to post this one up.

This is Yuko Nagisa's（渚ゆう子）"Saihate Bojou" (Yearning to the Farthest Reaches), a March 1971 single that came on the heels of her two previous hits, "Kyoto Bojou"（京都慕情）and "Kyoto no Koi"（京都の恋）from the previous year. Along with the fact that both songs share the setting of Japan's ancient capital, they also have the same composer, legendary guitar band The Ventures.

However, this time, Nagisa and lyricist Haruo Hayashi（林春生）, who also provided the Japanese words for the Kyoto kayo, worked with composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）to create this fairly uptempo tune about a woman searching all over the nation for her lost lover and not succeeding. Obviously, there's plenty of nostalgia in the tune and Nagisa's haunting vocals add that extra layer of sentimental sadness as I imagine the poor woman sitting in some cafe wondering where her erstwhile beau has gone. I can even pick up on some sort of Frenchness about it.

Nagisa won a performance prize for "Saihate Bojou" at the Japan Record Awards for 1971 as the song hit as high as No. 6 on Oricon and finished the year as the 39th-ranked single.

The Ventures/Yuko Nagisa -- Kyoto no Koi （京都の恋）

https://www.flickr.com/photos/sebastiantiger/3038474206/

May Day today! Therefore in Japan, it's the middle of the annual Golden Week holidays so once again the world's longest traffic jams are in play, and over here it's been an unseasonably cold start to the fifth month but what else is new in Toronto? I took the parents out to the local Eggsmart (a breakfast/brunch restaurant chain) for brekkie as an early Mother's Day present and I'm back here to hopefully enjoy a quiet Sunday.

If I recall correctly, I have been to the ancient capital of Kyoto three times in my life with the first time being in 1972 that I have no memory of. The second time was in the summer of 1981 and I remember being really deep in the crowds watching a parade of mikoshi (portable shrines) trundle by during the city's annual Gion Festival. And being July, it was tremendously hot and humid so it was a minor miracle that I actually survived the experience. I also recall being completely conked out in my bed in the hotel for most of the afternoon afterwards. My love for vending machines continued to grow.

Last week's "Utakon" (うたコン) featured an old kayo associated with the city called "Kyoto no Koi". Although literally translated as "Kyoto Love", the official English title is "Kyoto Doll" for some reason. This was another song contributed by The Ventures for Japan along with "Kyoto Bojou" （京都慕情）and the earlier "Futari no Ginza"（二人の銀座）. Released by the band in February 1970, although it goes along at a fairly brisk pace, there is that certain melacholy wa-fu feeling to it. It peaked at No. 19 on Oricon. What is also notable about that The Ventures created the song in commemoration of the 1970 Expo in Osaka.

However, the version that I like even better is the cover by Yuko Nagisa（渚ゆう子）with the lyrics by Haruo Hayashi（林春生）, both of whom would also cover "Kyoto Bojou" a few months later. Nagisa's version came out 3 months after The Ventures' original, and what I like about it is that although it basically has that same dramatic pace, there is a certain appealing tenderness in the sung version thanks to Nagisa's vocals. Of course, Hayashi's lyrics about the heroine mourning the loss of what seemed to be the love of her life certainly adds to the sadness. Compared to the relatively lighter feeling of "Kyoto Bojou", "Kyoto no Koi" is bittersweet at best.

Nagisa's "Kyoto no Koi" was a huge hit. It got to No. 1 and stayed there for 8 consecutive weeks, selling more than 850,000 records. And along with the fact that it won a Grand Prize at the Japan Record Awards, it was No. 10 in the annual singles rankings for 1970 and still hung on in 1971 to become the 27th-ranked single. All those accolades and apparently it didn't get onto the Kohaku Utagassen that year.

The Ventures/Yuko Nagisa/Akiko Yano -- Kyoto Bojou （京都慕情）

On the right side of the Pacific Ocean, when the band The Ventures is mentioned, the fans may remember them for their renditions of songs like "Walk, Don't Run" and one of the best American TV themes in history, "Hawaii Five-0" (if anyone mentions the Aloha State to me, that's the song that gets into my head immediately). But unless someone can correct me, The Ventures are seen here in North America as a musical product of a bygone age who might sometimes pop up whenever a nostalgia tour is advertised on the telly.

However in Japan, just like The Carpenters, The Ventures have been nothing less than music gods for over 50 years. After the band's start in 1959, it didn't take long for Don Wilson, Bob Bogle and the rest of the guys to come over to the left side of the Pacific in 1962 for the first time and pretty much stay there in spirit. For years, whenever I watched TV in the country and heard that The Ventures were coming over for their umpteenth tour, the announcers would always talk about the "teketeke" （テケテケ）sound which was the chromatic run that was the characteristic of the guitar playing. I gather that a lot of teenagers there became rock acolytes from that.

The relationship between The Ventures and Japan wasn't just a one-way thing from fan to entertainer. The band also had their love for the country and also created songs in tribute. One of their earliest creations was "Futari no Ginza"（二人の銀座...Ginza For Two）, a Mood Kayo duet from 1967. Then a few years later, they moved their focus to the ancient capital of Kyoto with "Kyoto Bojou" which translates as Kyoto Yearning although the official English title was the more romantic-sounding "Reflections In A Palace Lake".

Released on November 25 1970, "Kyoto Bojou" was an instrumental piece which was a cheerful mix of Ventures and kayo kyoku (although I can imagine a scene in Honolulu as much as a scene in Kyoto). I can easily hear this being played on a koto. On Oricon, it went as high as No. 48.

Less than a week after The Ventures' release of "Kyoto Bojou", singer Yuko Nagisa（渚ゆう子）released her lovely cover from December 1, complete with lyrics by Haruo Hayashi（林春生） and a classic kayo kyoku arrangement with an orchestra. And it wasn't her first time covering a Ventures number. Earlier in the year, she had also given her version of the band's "Kyoto no Koi"（京都の恋...Kyoto Doll） which stayed at No. 1 for 8 straight weeks and is her most successful hit. "Kyoto Bojou" was almost as successful with the song peaking at No. 2 and ending up as the 15th-ranked song of 1971.

https://itunes.apple.com/jp/album/oui-oui/id671520554

Actually, the first time I heard "Kyoto Bojou" in any of its incarnations was through Akiko Yano's（矢野顕子）funky & fun version from her 1997 album, "Oui Oui". With all of the geographical hopping I've hinted at in the article, I can say that Yano's version, which is titled "Kyoto", has more of a grounding in The Big Apple. It shares the album with "Cream Stew".

Feifei Ouyang -- Ame no Midosuji （雨の御堂筋）

Tonight, there was an NHK special titled "Osaka no Melody" in which a number of enka and pop singers (including NMB 48) came together to pay tribute to Osaka through song.

One of the songs I heard had the title that I'd mentioned for Taiwanese singer Feifei Ouyang （欧陽菲菲）when I wrote an article on her "Love Is Over". Now to be honest, that title didn't ring a bell, but the melody sure did, especially when it came to the line "Anata....anata wa doko yo"（あなた。。。あなたは何処よ....Where....where are you?）. And I hadn't realized that this was Ouyang's debut number. But it was a song that I have heard over and over through the years.

"Ame no Midosuji" (Rainy Midosuji) talks about that girl who is pining for that guy while walking the titular main street in Osaka. When I heard it again, I should've gone "Ahhh...naruhodo". That smoky voice is vintage Feifei. But I was quite surprised listening to the recorded version (I'd only heard it through her performances on TV); although a part of the arrangement has that unmistakable 70s feeling to it, there is also a part (perhaps it's the guitar) which makes it sound almost a decade ahead of its time when it was released in September 1971. The surprise didn't stop there, though. I found out that the people who composed this hit debut for Feifei were none other than The Ventures. The band apparently created the song specifically for Japanese ears, and I would never have and never did guess it was the same group which recorded the iconic theme for "Hawaii Five-O". I gather that considering the love that poured from Japan toward the members (and it still continues), The Ventures just had to provide some love back through a song or two. Haruo Hayashi （林春生）provided the lonely lyrics.

In any case, what a way to start a career in Japan for Ouyang. The dynamic "Ame no Midosuji" all in all sold over a million copies and got the singer a Japan Record Award for Best Newcomer. For the yearly Oricon rankings, despite the late debut, it ranked in at No. 18 and a year later in 1972, the song went even higher coming in at No. 12. Although Ouyang would make her debut on the 1972 Kohaku Utagassen, she performed another song instead. But with her presence on the special, she became the very first non-Japanese solo artist to appear on the program.

Yuko Uno -- Sazae-san (サザエさん）

For me and a lot of other families in Japan....we all know that the weekend is just about over when we see the following:

Well, for me only, the 6 p.m. hour on Sundays is the big signal for me that we're heading out of the weekend and back into Blue Monday. On Fuji-TV, there is Chibi Maruko-chan（ちびまる子ちゃん）, the anime about the cheeky if basically good-hearted little girl living out in a small prefectural town, and then at 6:30, there is of course "Sazae-san", the long-running show about the eternally young woman and life with her family in a neighbourhood of Tokyo. If I were at home on Sundays, I would always be having dinner in front of the TV watching the two cartoons. It's almost a Japanese obligation.

"Sazae-san", created by Machiko Hasegawa（長谷川町子）in 1946 as a 4-frame newspaper comic strip, took its success to television for the first time in October 1969 (in fact, it was the 5th of October, meaning that the anime has just passed its 43rd birthday), and its famous Sunday opening theme has remained intact. One of the characteristics of the opening for the show is during the song, Sazae gets to visit a number of famous tourist sites throughout Japan.

The theme was written by Haruo Hayashi（林春生）and composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）. Simply titled as " Sazae-san", the brass and strings just bring tons of nostalgia from those days....just like the anime has. Life in Sazae's world is always ideal with no problems that cannot be solved in less than 10 minutes....no matter how naughty her younger brother is. The vocalist has always been Yuko Uno（宇野ゆう子）, a chanson singer.

I guess whenever the ending theme for the show finished, it was time to wash the dishes and then get those lesson plans done....sigh. But during those 30 minutes of "Sazae-san", I got to see a slice-of-life Tokyo that probably never existed in real life but still brought a nice measure of domestic comfort.

Oops....did forget. Here's the full version of the theme: