Miharu Koshi (Haruomi Hosono) -- Figlio Perduto

By Dick Thomas Johnson via Wikimedia Commons

Recently, I came across a series of YouTube videos from the channel "remain" which has provided recognizable songs with titles that are unknown to a lot of people. The second entry in the first of these videos is a good example. Until a week ago, I hadn't known the title "O Fortuna" by Carl Orff but this 1936 song is something that I have heard often enough to depict some massively epic scenes in movies, TV and commercials. I'd even thought that "O Fortuna" had been the song to accompany the trailer for the original "Cliffhanger" with Sly Stallone back in 1993 but I was totally wrong.

Just a few minutes ago, I finally found out the title for this other classical music piece that I've heard many times in my life. This happens to be "Allegretto", the 2nd movement of Beethoven's "Symphony No. 7 in A Major Op. 92" from the early 1800s, and perhaps not surprisingly, I've heard this being performed as background music in certain pensive scenes in movies. Apparently, a version with lyrics by Chiara Ferraù was made under the title "Figlio Perduto".

Now, one might ask why I am talking about classical music here since I'm not a classical music fan per se. Well, as I've indicated above, I may not be a fan but I have heard my fair share of the genre over the years through public media and the rare concert I've attended. Also, I was informed by an anonymous commenter last night and I'd actually read a "New York Times" article back on Sunday regarding Haruomi Hosono's（細野晴臣）latest album "Yours Sincerely" that was released a mere few days ago. 

According to a review of "Yours Sincerely" on Pitchfork, it seems as if Hosono in his old age has decided to tie up some loose ends in some of his music over the decades, and the products of his tightening up (inside joke here) make up the tracks. Going back to that Beethoven movement, one of those tracks is Hosono's rendition of "Figlio Perduto" which is supposed to be based on Sarah Brightman's approach to the song back in the year 2000. As well, according to the notes underneath the YouTube video, additional lyricists were Hosono himself and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. 

The "Figlio Perduto" here is ancient, intimate and perhaps even tearjerking as if only a very few of us were invited to a tiny salon in Hosono's house thanks to the reassuring plucking of the guitar and the haunting and halting delivery of the lyrics by frequent Hosono collaborator Miharu Koshi（コシミハル）and someone named KuKuKu. But no matter the dramatic change in arrangement, I could instantly recognize the tune and it finally inspired me to find out how it's been identified. 

Yoshie Kashiwabara -- Shiawase Ondo（しあわせ音頭）

 

Listening to music all these decades and handling KKP for the past fourteen years, of course, I know all about those 45" singles and CD singles with their A/B sides and coupling songs. Sometimes though on a singer's J-Wiki discography, I encounter something called the kikaku single（企画シングル）or "planned single". I'm still not 100% on the meaning or purpose of these things, but from my experience, I can glean that they refer to special releases by a singer tackling a genre that's not usually in their wheelhouse.

And thus, we come to Yoshie Kashiwabara's（柏原芳恵）"Shiawase Ondo" (Happy Folk Song). I found this song just recently on YouTube and it took me a little longer than usual to track this down since "Shiawase Ondo" hadn't been included on Yoshie-chan's long single list. It was placed on the...you guessed it...the kikaku single list and it even got its own entry on J-Wiki.

I guess it's because Kashiwabara was covering something that wasn't her usual aidoru stuff. Released early in her career, July 1982, "Shiawase Ondo" is all about the festival minyo, and the dead giveaway was the title's use of ondo which is often used for the traditional folk songs of Japan. She's got quite the adorably cute delivery of Masato Fujita's（藤田まさと）lyrics but the music is also notable not only for the old-style jaunty folk (vocal whoops included) but the fact that it sounds quite Okinawan and technopop at the same time. I started thinking that Yellow Magic Orchestra had been involved, and sure enough, one third of the group, Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）, provided the melody which Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）then arranged into a spacey yet familiar tune that the kids would love to dance to. 

For Yoshie fans, "Shiawase Ondo" must have been quite the rare thing to covet since this kikaku single hadn't gotten onto an original album for years until March 2004 when it was finally included on the aidoru's CD box set "Kashiwabara Yoshie Premium Box"（柏原芳恵 プレミアムBOX）. The single itself peaked at No. 70 on Oricon.

Ayumi Ishida & Tin Pan Alley Family -- Bye Bye Jet（バイバイJet ）

Wikimedia Commons
by Inunami

Welcome to Urban Contemporary Friday on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" as usual. I wanted to continue my tribute to actress and singer Ayumi Ishida（いしだあゆみ）who sadly passed away almost a couple of months ago on March 11th. 

Leafing through the original "Japanese City Pop" guide by Yutaka Kimura, I was surprised to find out that kayo kyoku singer Ishida had also dove into the new pond of the groovy uber-genre City Pop in the late 1970s via her collaboration with the band Tin Pan Alley in their one-and-only album together "Our Connection"（アワー・コネクション）from April 1977. I posted on the first track "Watashi Jishin"（私自身）back in 2018 and noted her light and feathery vocals flying over the burbling and funky notes of city life.

Well, I'm here today to talk about the final track "Bye Bye Jet" also created by lyricist Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）and composer Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）with Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）providing an interesting arrangement of a laidback reggae rhythm in the beginning before the melody gives way to something with a romantic twist. Meanwhile, Ishida sings about being at Haneda Airport in the early evening to see if she can spot her old flame with his new bride as they head off on the next jet. She doesn't seem to be too perturbed and in a way, she is gallantly if perhaps surreptitiously seeing the newlyweds off with her blessing. Love the background chorus, by the way.

Considering the release year of 1977, I thought it was rather poignant that "Bye Bye Jet" is set at Tokyo's Haneda. Maybe it was one of the last songs to feature the downtown airport because by that point, Narita Airport in Chiba Prefecture had probably already been open and gaining in prestige while Haneda shrank over the decades.  Happily though, Haneda was back in the ascendant over the last ten years as a boffo international airport.

Yutaka Kimura Speaks: Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）

Wikimedia Commons
YMO2008.jpg

 

Three out of the four solo albums that Haruomi Hosono put out in the 1970s, "Tropical Dandy", "Bon Voyage Co." and "Paraiso", were set in Tokyo, but they were also notable for greatly absorbing a plethora of musical rhythms from all over the world. I am well aware that there is no point in forcibly categorizing them as City Pop, but if musical adventure has driven the evolution of Japanese pop, and the works introduced in this book are part of that, then there is no doubt that Hosono's bold challenge has become one of the guiding principles of City Pop. He truly is the King of Music in Japan.

The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised" (2020).

Ayumi Ishida & Tin Pan Alley Family -- Hitori Tabi（ひとり旅）

 

A few days ago, I mentioned the passing of veteran actress and singer Ayumi Ishida（いしだあゆみ）. She was definitely one representative of the kayo kyoku era, but I was later surprised by the fact that even she had her dalliance with the emerging wave of City Pop in the late 1970s. Through leafing through my first issue of Yutaka Kimura's "Japanese City Pop", I discovered that she was involved in a collaborative project with the band Tin Pan Alley which resulted in the April 1977 album "Our Connection"（アワー・コネクション）.

It was back in 2018 on KKP when I wrote on the first track of that album which was also her first single under the name Ayumi Ishida & Tin Pan Alley Family, "Watashi Jishin"（私自身）. For some reason, "Watashi Jishin" doesn't show up anywhere on Ishida's discography in her J-Wiki profile but from the thumbnail above, the B-side is also the second track on "Our Connection", "Hitori Tabi" (Traveling Solo).

As with "Watashi Jishin", "Hitori Tabi" was made by lyricist Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）and composer Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）, and just from the title itself, I could make out that this was a post-breakup tune as the protagonist heads out alone to the more rural areas by train in late winter or early spring to forget about a now-dead romance. The uncanny thing about "Hitori Tabi" is how the intro at least sounds a lot like the one for Steely Dan's "Black Cow" although their legendary album "Aja" didn't actually get released until September 1977. Things that make me go Hmmmm. But in any case, despite Hashimoto's lyrics, Ishida's delivery sounds footloose and fancy-free, and Hosono's melody is filled with slow funky licks and still-romantic strings shimmering in the wind. It would seem that the lady on the train isn't lamenting a broken silk rope but is celebrating fallen shackles.

Akiko Yano/Haruomi Hosono/Takahiro Saito -- Owari no Kisetsu（終りの季節）

 

Along with "Never forget those B-sides!", another trope that I've come to cherish as I've added onto the blog over the past thirteen years is the discovery of a song that actually has quite a lot attached to it. I found another one recently.

I'm going to go backwards in time here because the Akiko Yano（矢野顕子）cover was the first one that I found. "Owari no Kisetsu" (The Ending Season) is a smooth and relaxing track from the singer-songwriter's June 1984 album "OSOS"（オーエス オーエス）. Written and composed by Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）, it's indeed a chamomile tea-friendly song with that hint of country and some of the remaining technopop feeling from her early 1980s material. I just love some of those piano chords laid down here and the languid way that Yano delivers the lyrics.

As I said, Yano's "Owari no Kisetsu" is a cover of what Hosono himself performed way back in 1973 on his "Hosono House" album. With this version, there's more of a frisky Margaritaville vibe in Hosono's arrangement although it's still plenty languid. The lyricist is identified as Mondo Uno（宇野もんど） although that is a pseudonym the singer used. 

But even Hosono's version is a self-cover of the original song that he provided to Japanese country singer Takahiro Saito（斉藤任弘）. "Owari no Kisetsu" was a track on "Country Pumpkin"（カントリー・パンプキン）, a January 1972 album that was a collaboration project among Saito and fellow country artists Jimmy Tokita（ジミー時田）, Keiichi Teramoto（寺本圭一）and Yoshio Ohno（大野義夫）. Hosono played a number of instruments on this one including his regular bass as Saito gives a wonderfully woodsy performance that reminded me of a Japanese Johnny Cash. 

Interestingly enough, Saito did appear on Cash's old variety show on ABC in America back in 1971 according to the Japan Popular Music Association website. What other information I could glean is that the singer first got into country music during his junior high school days via his elder brother who had been listening to radio station WVTR with its country-and-western lineup. Hosono's lyrics regard an early-morning goodbye to a dear friend.

It would frankly be a toss-up of a three-sided coin as to which version I prefer. Each take has some of its own lovely charms.

Yutaka Kimura Speaks ~ Japanese City Pop Masterpieces 100: Chu Kosaka -- Ryuusei Toshi（流星都市）

 

Number: 093

Lyricist: Takashi Matsumoto

Composer: Haruomi Hosono

Arranger: Haruomi Hosono

From Kosaka's 1975 album "Horo"

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).

Chu Kosaka -- Ryuusei Toshi（流星都市）

 

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.

Towa Tei -- GBI (German Bold Italic)

 

When I threw in the term "German Bold Italic" into the Bing AI art generator just now, the above is what I got. So, does that mean if I'd thrown in "British Bold Italic", I would have gotten Henry Cavill?

YOU WILL LIKE MY SENSE OF STYLE!

Well, uh, yeah. To be honest, I didn't even realize that it was Kylie Minogue in that skimpy bikini swishing around in the bubble bath above, pretending to be the personification of the supposed typeface. I've seen her more in the occasional guest appearances on TV/movies such as "Doctor Who" and that earthquake disaster movie with The Rock, but of course, the first time I heard of her was back in the late 1980s when she was a teen Eurobeat singer with hits such as "I Should Be So Lucky". In fact, I was talking with commenter Spooky under Marcos V's Alyssa Milano article the other day about Kylie and mentioned that I was planning to write up an article on this particular song in the coming days.

Spooky's no fan of Kylie and I really only know her for "I Should Be So Lucky" so it was with some surprise that I discovered this "City Limits"-worthy music video of her September 1997 collaboration with musician Towa Tei called "GBI (German Bold Italic)". And as Kylie in a kimono does a walkabout on the streets of Tokyo and New York City, she makes her best impression of Marilyn Monroe (as HAL 9000) breathily expressing her advantages as a brand spanking new typeface. To add to her feathery vocals, there is the weightiness of Haruomi Hosono's（細野晴臣）gravelly voice to the all-round swinging and minimalist technopop arrangement. If the Australian singer wanted to break away from Eurobeat, she did it here.

"GBI" is a track on Tei's 2nd studio album "Sound Museum" which also has his take on Hall & Oates' classic "Private Eyes".

On that Wikipedia article for "GBI", I read that the sample used in the intro comes from "The Art of Belly Dancing" (1969). If I'm not mistaken, it was also used for Tei's old trio Deee-Lite's "Groove is in the Heart" from several years back.

Tomoco Yasuno -- flower bird wind moon

 

I sometimes get a tad irritated when a singer or band gets a little cute with their name. I was looking for Tomoko Yasuno（安野ともこ）for a while but not finding her on the usual list. I swore that she had been included onto KKP years ago but couldn't find any hint of the lass when I realized from other sources that I took down her name as it was stylized back in the 1980s: Tomoco instead of Tomoko.

Well, I did eventually find the article for her 1985 "Mysterieux", a French pop-sounding technopop confection helped out by lyricist Michio Akiyama（秋山道男）and composer Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）. The music side of her career was very brief and she's mostly been in the design of fashion and jewelry. From her J-Wiki profile, in fact, I did discover that she had actually designed the outfit for award-winning figure skater Mao Asada（浅田真央）when she competed at the Sochi Olympics a decade ago.

But getting back to her music, it's apparent that Yasuno and company were still in thrall to their Gallic technopop. In November 1984, she released the album "La Musique Exotique" with one track being "flower bird wind moon", designed by the same Akiyama and Hosono. The first third of this six-minute-and-change song consists of burbling sounds as if the microphone had been traveling through a silver jungle of chromic life before Yasuno finally makes her voice heard. The tempo is more measured here and the atmosphere changes into some romance-mystery in a small town in France.

Yukako Hayase -- Tsubaki Hime no Natsu（椿姫の夏）

 

Yukako Hayase（早瀬優香子）is a singer that I discovered because of the work on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" over the past dozen years. So far, although there are only a few of her songs on the blog, I've gotten the impression that she's been able to gain her own loyal group of followers for her appealingly quirky brand of technopop.

Case in point: her April 1987 single "Tsubaki Hime no Natsu" (The Summer of the Lady of the Camellias). Written by Yukinojo Mori（森雪之丞）and composed by Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）, even going late into the 1980s, Harry still had some of that remaining YMO magic spinning around in his head when he made what sounds like some happy techno cabaret for Hayase. I can imagine two professional tango robots tripping the light fantastic on the dance floor here.

"Tsubaki Hime no Natsu" also got a slight re-arrangement when it was placed on Hayase's July 1987 album "Polyester". It still keeps its techno sheen but it then maintains things a little more intimately as if the cabaret club got a little smaller and at the same time, it gains a bit more of that old Tin Pan Alley（ティン・パン・アレー） Tiki bar style. Incidentally, the single version was used for a Shiseido cosmetics campaign.

Yutaka Kimura Speaks ~ Japanese City Pop Masterpieces 100: Bread & Butter -- Nagisa ni Ikou （渚に行こう）

 

Number: 059

Lyricist: Ayumi Date

Composer: Fuyumi Iwasawa

Arrangers: Shigeru Suzuki and Haruomi Hosono

From Bread & Butter's 1979 album: "Late, Late Summer"

"Nagisa ni Ikou" is a wonderful melodious song infused with Fuyumi Iwasawa's（岩沢二弓）distinctive flavour. With the combination of Haruomi Hosono's（細野晴臣）rhythm arrangement and Shigeru Suzuki's（鈴木茂）arrangement with the strings, there is that whole connection of Tin Pan Alley taking part in the song, and in terms of the sound, there is an impeccable finish. This is a hidden masterpiece among the Bread & Butter classics which can be fully enjoyed for its comforting vibe that feels just like being enveloped in the sea breezes of Shonan.

The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised" (2020).

Masako Oka -- Yume Zaiku（夢細工）/Masako Oka & Noriko Ishiwatari -- Mako to Nonko no Gokigen Ikaga 1-2-3（マコとノンコのごきげんいかが1・2・3）

 

Happy Monday! It's just the start of another regular work week here in the Greater Toronto Area although we will be getting our first major holiday weekend for the summer season in a few weeks with Victoria Day. It is the beginning of the Golden Week holidays in Japan, though, and as a result, it feels that way in my household, partially because Jme has gone onto holiday programming with the regular shows going on GW hiatus.

Well, whichever side of the International Date Line you are on, let's proceed with this week's crop of kayo kyoku/J-Pop delights with a fairly unusual single. Masako Oka（岡雅子）doesn't have a particularly long J-Wiki file but she is a seiyuu, singer and radio personality although there is no discography listed there for her music. However, there is at least one of her singles up on YouTube titled "Yume Zaiku" (Dream Work) which was released in August 1981. Written by Man Kuroki（くろき漫）, composed by Koji Shiba（柴公二）and arranged by Tadashige Matsui（松井忠重）, it's a very polished piece of down-home City Pop with a touch of bossa nova, reminiscent of Keiko Maruyama's（丸山圭子）classic "Douzo Kono Mama" (どうぞこのまま）from several years back, and the cover of the single revealing an intentionally foggy photo of the singer giving that thousand-yard gaze seals the deal. 

Now, the unusual part happens with a flip of the 45". The B-side is "Mako to Nonko no Gokigen Ikaga 1-2-3" (Mako and Nonko's How Are You 1-2-3) is a wholly different animal as Oka and Noriko Ishiwatari（石渡のり子）, another radio personality, make their tongue-in-cheek debut as rappers, some months following Blondie's "Rapture". Listening to it, I can't really take this song too seriously compared to the straightforward "Yume Zaiku". But it was indeed Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）of Yellow Magic Orchestra at the time behind its composition with Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）and the comedy group Snakeman Show behind the weird lyrics. In fact, I'd say that the melody and at least some of the words sound rather familiar to me as I suspect that Snakeman Show may have done a cover of their own work.

Maybe one clue as to how Oka and Ishiwatari got together was the observation that both of them had their time as hosts on different nights for the April 1976-September 1977 TBS radio late-night show "Five Sweet Cats"（5スイート・キャッツ）. 

Yutaka Kimura Speaks ~ Japanese City Pop Masterpieces 100: Chu Kosaka -- Shirakechimauze (しらけちまうぜ)

 

Number: 044

Lyricist: Takashi Matsumoto

Composer: Haruomi Hosono

Arrangers: Haruomi Hosono and Makoto Yano

From Kosaka's 1975 album "Horo"

"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).

Susan -- Ah! Soka

 

Neither having watched a lot of the animated or CG representative programming for the "Star Wars" franchise over the past few decades nor caught "Ahsoka" on Disney+ (aside from what I've glimpsed through YouTube) since I'm not subscribed to the service, I've only had glimpses of the Jedi Knight Ahsoka Tano. 

From what I know of the character, she was Anakin Skywalker's Padawan learner until he had that drastic change of faith but apparently the lady has been able to hold her own for a while...at the very least, to be able to get her own TV show. Remembering how George Lucas loved to lift aspects of Japanese culture to adapt into his beloved "Star Wars", I had naively assumed that he got the name for Ahsoka from the common expression "Ah, soka"（あ、そうか。）meaning "Oh, is that so?". As it turns out, Lucas adapted the name from that of the ancient Indian emperor Ashoka.

Today's preamble ramble was brought to you by singer Susan and her tune "Ah! Soka". I'd introduced the lass back in early December last year because of her "My Love" which was the final track on her 2nd album "The Girl Can't Help It" in 1981. "Ah! Soka" was actually the B-side to her July 1981 single "Do You Believe in Magic?"  (a Susan album with the same title was released in 1980).

Written by Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）and composed by Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）, both fellows from the legendary Yellow Magic Orchestra, "Ah! Soka" is a bit more languid if also a little more playful through the singer than "My Love". It's got the techno in there for sure but the synths also share space and time and energy with some twangy guitars. Ah, yeah...those early 1980s! 

My Fantasy Pub Dinner

 

There was an article on December 12th provided by Noelle Tham titled "Noelle's Favourite Artists 2023" (我が推し達) in which KKP's resident expert on the early Showa era music spoke happily on her favourite artists from that time period. In the comments section below, she even half-jokingly challenged me to come up with something similar.

Well, I did give it the old college try over the past few weeks but the fact is that I believe I had come up with a number of my own favourite lists over the nearly dozen years that "Kayo Kyoku Plus" has been in service, so I had to be somewhat unconventional this time around. A few days ago, as I lay in bed, I did come up with one brain wave. There is a thought exercise which involves who one would invite to dinner, dead or alive but famous which could provide some insight to observers on what kind of person the thinker was.

Considering that this article is being typed on the final day of the year, I think I can afford to be a little more whimsical than usual. Initially, I had planned on making this a fairly big dinner in a proper dining room with a total of ten guests, but then I came to the conclusion that was simply not me because I've never been in that situation of a formal dinner outside of wedding receptions. Nope, my thing was simply having a few buddies and me head out to an informal place for brewskis and hearty pub fare. So my venue would be the Madison Avenue Pub right by the University of Toronto. I've been going there with friends since my days at U of T even before my first stint in Japan and although the place has gotten a bit frayed in the furniture department, I still enjoy going there. In fact, I went there back in late November to have lunch with a friend and I had those Chicken Parmigiana sandwiches, fries and gravy that you see at the very top. Yes, the potential cost was my cardiovascular system.

Anyways, I'm also keeping the number of guests small at the Mad, just three people and myself.

from Wikipedia

I'd first have music legend Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）since he looks like a beer-at-a-izakaya guy. Most likely, he would drink me under the table which admittedly wouldn't be too difficult for him to do. But the man since the 1960s has had his finger in just about almost every music genre pie in Japan. Obviously, his time with Yellow Magic Orchestra would especially be interesting but of course there are his experiences with Happy End and Tin Pan Alley in the 1970s and even his partnership with Miharu Koshi（越美晴）in Swing Slow in the 1990s among other projects.

Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）would also be welcome at the table. She's been around for half a century, providing listeners with a myriad of styles of songs, a lot of which have purportedly been inspired by her own listenings to other women on their triumphs and tempests. As with Hosono, I'd also be curious about her own thoughts on how music has changed around her over the past fifty years. Hey, and if she wants to bring her husband Masataka（松任谷正隆）, that would be fine, too. She doesn't have to worry, worry (inside Yuming joke).

Try as I might and I think Noelle will once again never let me live this choice down, but I just gotta have Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）at the table. She also loves her drink although I may have to dissuade her from pulling out a cigarette (as is the case in all restaurants in Canada, The Mad has no smoking). She can certainly give us the lowdown on what the aidoru scene was like in the 1980s and how she felt about making the transition from teenybopper idol to pop superstar. I saw her in some YouTube footage on a show with popular comedic duo Downtown and it looked pretty recent by all accounts. She looked completely fine and talked up a storm. 

But that is my modest little dinner. I may come up with another larger and younger guest list in the future, but let me ask everyone else about what their fantasy dinner would look like. Of course, what I really hope for is actually meeting up with all of my fellow bloggers here on KKP somewhere someday.

Kilala & Ulala -- Tuxedo Moon de Yuushoku wo（タキシード・ムーンで夕食を）

 

Over a decade ago, former KKP writer nikala introduced this 1980s aidoru duo named Kilala & Ulala（キララとウララ）who specialized in their own brand of techno kayo, the sub-genre of synthpop-laden tunes covered by various singers and bands during the decade as inspired by acts such as Yellow Magic Orchestra. So, we got examples such as their 1984 debut single "Senti Metal Boy" (センチ・メタル・ボーイ) and "Yume, Fushigi Ikaga" （夢・不思議いかが） from their lone 1985 album "Double Fantasy"（ダブル・ファンタジー）.

Well, I found another track from "Double Fantasy" which is "Tuxedo Moon de Yuushoku wo" (Dinner Under the Tuxedo Moon), written by Yuuho Iwasato（岩里祐穂）and composed by YMO's Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）. Seeing that title for the first time, I was wondering whether there was some sort of "Sailor Moon" connection, but I think the song had come out several years before Naoko Takeuchi's（武内直子）magnum opus was revealed to the world. Perhaps the song was a tribute to the experimental New Wave group Tuxedomoon from San Francisco which formed in 1977, and maybe the ladies were seeking a fantasy date with the band members. Regardless, it's a bubbly and blippity-bloppity number that I think could have gotten a bit more love and fame.

Kuniko Yamada -- Tetsugaku Shiyou（哲学しよう）

 

When it comes to veteran comedienne Kuniko Yamada（山田邦子）, who I saw as the Japanese version of America's Carol Burnett, I mostly remember her time spearheading her own Fuji-TV Wednesday night show "Kuni-chan no Yamada Katsutenai Terebi" (やまだかつてないテレビ....Kuni's Yamada Unprecedented TV) during my days and nights living in the mountains of Gunma Prefecture in the late 1980s going into the 1990s. However, I also remember that in the early years of that decade, Yamada had gotten her start on the popular comedy-variety program, "Oretachi Hyokinzoku" (オレたちひょうきん族....We Are The Wild and Crazy Guys) , also a Fuji-TV property and one that included EPO's cover of "Downtown" as a theme song. Specifically, she had one of her own segments called "Hyokin Ekaki Uta"（ひょうきん絵かき歌...Wild and Crazy Illustration Song） in which she drew some amusing minimalist pictures with a sly twist while a chorus backed her up. I think the above set though was one of the more modest segments. Man, was she a fast talker!

Yamada was also a singer and again, it was mostly on "Kuni-chan no Yamada Katsutenai Terebi" that I saw her perform these somewhat tongue-in-cheek parody tunes, taking affectionate shots at the current hits or even genres. What I hadn't been aware is that she'd been releasing music from time to time since basically her debut in 1981. 

Although, Yamada's day job remained in the comedy field, she had the big-name composers helping out in her tunes such as the late Eiichi Ohtaki（大滝詠一）and Spectrum bassist Naoki Watanabe（渡辺直樹）. In December 1982, Yellow Magic Orchestra's Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）wove a simmering synthpop number called "Tetsugaku Shiyou" (Let's Philosophize). Yamada, as she did with her other songs, created the lyrics about being a little over-the-top in trying to seduce a fetching young man. I'm not quite sure at this point how serious or ironic she was being with "Tetsugaku Shiyou", although if I'm going to use the Burnett analogy once more, it would be as if America's veteran comedienne attempted a Carly Simon-type pop song.

Yutaka Kimura Speaks ~ Japanese City Pop Masterpieces 100: Haruomi Hosono -- Koi wa Momo Iro（恋は桃色）

 

Number: 027

Lyricist/Composer/Arranger: Haruomi Hosono

From Hosono's 1973 album: "Hosono House"

"Koi wa Momo Iro" is a masterpiece with a country rock flavor, recorded at Hosono's house in Sayama at the time, in the style of The Band's "Big Pink". "If rain falls/Inside of you/I wonder whether I'll get wet when I close my umbrella" is a splendid phrase and "Koi wa Momo Iro" is a wonderful title. At this point, this is a precious legacy by the quintessential singer-songwriter known as Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）.

The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised" (2020).

Haruomi Hosono/T Jiros -- Koi wa Momo Iro（恋は桃色）

 

I think the last time I posted a Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）article on KKP, it was back in January for his jazzy and tropical AOR for "Jamaica Ginger" from 1979.

Well, let's go further back to the early 1970s when Hosono came up with his first solo album following the breakup of Happy End（はっぴいえんど）. "Hosono House" was released in May 1973 and though it's been pegged as a rock album, at least one of the songs on the album doesn't quite strike me as rock.

"Koi wa Momo Iro" (Peach is the Colour of Love) was written and composed by Hosono, and it's a laidback Sunday of a song with a friendly and contented country arrangement. The lyrics tell of a man who's found himself in his piece of paradise which may indeed be along the Iruma River cutting through the city of Sayama in Saitama Prefecture, according to the notes for the song on J-Wiki. I recall that there is a famous brand of green tea from that city.

There have been covers of "Koi wa Momo Iro" by artists including Akiko Yano（矢野顕子）and the band T Jiros（T字路ｓ）. T Jiros' take on the song can be found on their first full album "T no Sanka"（Tの讃歌...T's Songs of Praise） from June 2015.