I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
Credits
I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.
Showing posts with label Hibari Children Chorus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hibari Children Chorus. Show all posts
Now I didn't forget that March 3rd is Dolls' Day or Girls' Day in Japan but I hadn't been too sure that I could find a song that would befit the Shinto religious holiday. For reference, you can take a look at the above video by GTV Japan to get a primer on Hina Matsuri.
Well, I'm typing this in the last hour before March 3rd becomes March 4th so I'm rushing a bit here. But I was able to find a song that was released all the way back in February 1936. "Ureshii Hina Matsuri" (Happy Dolls' Day) was written by lyricist Hachiro Sato（サトウハチロー）sometime around the time he had given his own daughter a hina matsuri set as a gift and its translation at "Lyrics Translate" pretty much establishes the joy of celebrating the observed holiday. Koyo Kawamura（河村光陽）contributed the melody.
Of course, being a children's song, "Ureshii Hina Matsuri" has been covered by many singers over the decades. For example, the above video has the Hibari Children Chorus（ひばり児童合唱団）performing the song. Their version can be found on the October 2015 compilation album "Uta de Oboeru Nihon no Shiki to Wa no Gyoji ~ Doyou, Shouka, Warabe Uta"（歌でおぼえる日本の四季と和の行事 童謡・唱歌・わらべうた...Children's Songs and Nursery Songs ~ Japanese Seasons and Events Remembered Through Music）. Below we have seiyuu and singer Megumi Hayashibara（林原めぐみ）performing her take on her 2007 album"Hayashibara Megumi: Tanoshii Doyou"（林原めぐみ たのしいどうよう...Fun Children's Songs）.
I'm getting at my blogging quite a bit late today since I had some work-related things to handle as well as having some of the family over for dinner. Plus, there was that latest episode of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" to catch online.
Never heard of this TBS anime titled "Chargeman Ken!" but from the looks of it, it reminds me of the original "Gatchaman"（ガッチャマン）series from the 1970s (although the production studios were different). And sure enough, "Chargeman Ken!" had its time on the airwaves in 1974. From what I've read on the Wikipedia page for the series, it's gotten quite a bit of notoriety for its poor production values due to the fact that apparently, the staff had gotten fed up enough about the low budget given that they decided to hit the beach instead more often than not.
However, in a "so bad it's good" twist, the series received some redemption online in recent years which even led to a Blu-Ray product getting out in late 2021. It's always nice to hear a happy ending for the underdog. Another thing that I discovered about "Chargeman Ken!" is that each episode was only 10 minutes long, and here I thought that this temporally truncated format for anime was more of a recent thing.
Still, I rather like the opening theme song "Chargeman Ken!" by the Hibari Children Chorus（ひばり児童合唱団）since it's got those cute kids and cool, funky and heroic horns and strings that always have me remembering all of those tokusatsu shows and early anime experiences of my childhood. The lyrics were provided by the employees at Knack Productions, the originating studio (so those guys did at least try hard on one element of the project), and the music was by Kunio Miyauchi（宮内國郎）.
As for the much-in-demand Hibari Children Chorus, they were also responsible for the theme song for the world's largest adorable monster turtle as well as a really trippy and cool Akiko Yano（矢野顕子）song.
Nothing like a good kaiju movie on Sunday afternoon, and it was around this time almost 50 years ago that from time to time that one of the Buffalo New York television affiliates would throw on a movie starring Godzilla, Mothra or Gamera battling another gigantic threat to Tokyo. I think Gamera the lovable monster turtle, though, usually showed up on the Toronto channel, CITY-TV during the 1970s. The above is actually a scene from "Dai Kaijuu Kuuchuusen Gamera Tai Gyaos"（大怪獣空中戦 ガメラ対ギャオス...Gamera vs. Gyaos）which was first released in Japanese theatres in March 1967. Actually, I kinda recall seeing the Gyaos movie.
The theme for "Gamera Tai Gyaos" was "Gamera no Uta"(Gamera's Song). Now, back in early 2017, I had already written about "Gamera March"（ガメラマーチ）, which was the first song associated with Gamera that I'd heard as a kid when one of its movies came out, and that was for the 1968 entry "Gamera vs. Viras".
With this earlier "Gamera no Uta", though, this was less a baseball championship march in comparison with "Gamera March", and more of a samba-based dance at the Club Tropicana as performed by the Hibari Children Chorus（ひばり児童合唱団）. I'm not sure whether the big guy was even capable of it, but maybe he could swivel his back legs to this one. Hidemasa Nagata（永田秀雅）, the producer of the movies, wrote the words to "Gamera no Uta", as he did for "Gamera March", while Akira Komachi（小町昭）took care of the music.
Over the past few months, I've been enjoying an anime that had originally been broadcast in early 2011 via its hilarious excerpts on YouTube called "Nichijou"（日常...My Ordinary Life）. It basically involves the craziest hijinks and friends surrounding the sad-sack character of Yuko who always stumbles over herself, cannot order a simple coffee and struggles through school. And I don't think she has ever recovered from witnessing the epic battle between the school principal and a wayward deer.
Anyways, listening to Akiko Yano's（矢野顕子）"Itsuka Oji ga"(Someday My Prince Will Come), I felt that this was the ideal theme song for Yuko. First off, I just discovered the song a couple of days ago and it was pretty much love at first listen. It's a track from Yano's 5th studio album"Tadaima" (ただいま。...I'm Home) from May 1981, and I heard that this album is even more technopop and more highly regarded than her previous release of "Gohan ga Dekita yo"(ごはんができたよ) in 1980 and I'm a huge fan of that one.
"Itsuka Oji ga" (and no, it has nothing to do with the Disney ballad) was written and composed by Yano. What I have loved about it so far is the innocent and whimsical arrangement especially when the synths toodle about in the middle of each verse. The J-Wiki article for the album states that Yellow Magic Orchestra had a good hand in the recording and I can believe it. Plus, there is the inclusion of the Hibari Children Chorus（ひばり児童合唱団）which also participated in the recording of a few songs on "Gohan ga Dekita yo", and in my opinion, gave them a strangely cool dimension. It's no different with "Itsuka Oji ga".
(Sorry but the video has been taken down.)
The above is a live performance of the song and although the arrangement is there, my impression is that it slightly suffers from the fact that the Hibari Chorus is not in there with Yano. As for why I believe "Itsuka Oji ga" makes for a fine theme song for sad sack Yuko in "Nichijo" is that Yano's lyrics seem to describe the character's feelings about why she just can't get it together when it comes to her looks and her marks in school. But just like Charlie Brown in the United States, Yuko is also blessed/cursed with a plow-ahead optimism.
I don't have "Tadaima" yet. Perhaps that will change over the next few weeks in which case I will be more than happy to greet it with "Yokoso" once it arrives in the mail.
My days teaching in Tsukiyono, Gunma Prefecture usually started at 6:30 to 7:00 am, and one of my rituals getting up was reaching out from the futon to switch on the television. For whatever reason, the telly would be on TV Tokyo for the morning business program to drone on about the usual ups and downs in the economy (considering I arrived in the country after the end of the Bubble Era, most likely the latter) before the first commercial.
Ah, and speaking about that first commercial, this is what I heard and, sometimes if I were willing to open my eyes early enough, saw:
It was an ad for Nippon Express, and at the time I had thought that Nittsu put out a particularly cute commercial with a bunch of old-style puppets. Give Marketing that extra bonus!
Little did I know at the time that the jingle I heard morning after morning was actually not a jingle at all, but a theme song for a beloved 1960s afternoon children's show titled "Hyokkori Hyotanjima"(Island of Unexpected Contradictions) with those old-style puppets. Debuting in 1964 for a 5-year run, Yoko Maekawa and the Hibari Children Chorus（前川陽子とひばり児童合唱団）sang the chirpy theme for the NHK program. It was written by the creators, Hisashi Inoue and Morihisa Yamamoto（井上ひさし・山元護久）, and composed by Seiichiro Uno（宇野誠一郎）.
My interest in the music of Morning Musume（モーニング娘。）had already waned by 2003 with my last purchase of an MM single being the snazzy and jazzy "Mr. Moonlight" in 2001. Still I was reminded of my Gunma morning ritual when the girl group went ahead to give their own longer and more revved-up version of the theme song titled "Morning Musume no Hyokkori Hyōtanjima" as their 17th single in February of that year. The video was appropriately adorable with the usual choreography and camera close-ups of every member. And I just thought that petite Mari Yaguchi's voice dropped down a fair bit to speak her English at the beginning.
The single went Gold and peaked at No. 4 on Oricon.
Some time after the 2011 earthquake, this heartwarming ad for Toyota came on TV featuring SMAP member Takuya Kimura（木村拓哉）, comedian Tsurube Shofukutei（笑福亭鶴瓶）and director Beat Takeshi（ビートたけし）with "Hyokkori Hyotanjima" as an overarching theme. The gimmick had the three being re-born versions of famous figures from Japanese history.
Reading the J-Wikiarticle on Akiko Yano's（矢野顕子）4th album (and her first under the Tokuma Japan label), that is the impression I got. "Gohan ga Dekita yo" (Dinner's Ready) came out in October 1980 and it is my 3rd purchase from her discography, and it happens to be the earliest album I've now got compared to her BEST album from 1996 and "Oui Oui" from 1997. Aside from the tracks from her output in the 70s that are included in her BEST compilation, I don't really have that much knowledge about those early years. However, the way the J-Wiki article read, it certainly felt like Yano was taking on a new layer in terms of her music as she entered the 80s.
That layer included just about everyone in the Yellow Magic Orchestra: Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）, Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）, Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）, and Hideki Matsutake（松武秀樹）. And heck, she was touring as a keyboardist with YMO during that time so she was basically a member (got the wicked YMO shirt and a husband!). Yano still had her elegant piano-playing and her vocally flexible style but this time forward, she also had some of that cool technopop backing her up as well.
I've already talked about some of the tracks on "Gohan ga Dekita yo" over the years this blog has been in existence: the funky "Zai Kuntong Shonen", Yano's silky take on "Tong Poo", and even the title track with the singer sounding like a particularly welcoming Mama armed with a hot pot of soup. I hadn't been sure about whether I would get the album but then when I came across her cover of "Tong Poo" and the amazing first track of "Hitotsudake", I knew that I had to place it on my Must Get list when I went to Japan in October. And sure enough, it was the first CD I got during my trip at Recomints in Nakano Broadway.
Speaking about "Hitotsudake" (ひとつだけ...Just One), those first few bars of music on the first track made it abundantly clear of the YMO influence. Knowing that "E.T." was still 2 years away from release at the time the album came out, the song still sounds like a fun first trip by the Reese's Pieces-munching Extraterrestrial as he descended slowly into Earth's atmosphere before starting a thrilling adventure over the oceans and continents. And then there was the wonderful collaboration between Yano's piano and Sakamoto's synths...I still feel a wind whizzing past my neck as they take over from the singer's initial innocent lyrics. It was the right song to mark the switch in studios and musical style (although I probably wouldn't use "switch" for the latter item...perhaps "technopop enhancement" is better).
Now I have to prepare to eat some crow here. All of the time that I've mentioned "Hitotsudake" here and there, I didn't know that Yano's version was actually the cover version for the Agnes Chan（アグネス・チャン）original which was included on her 1979 23rd album, "Utsukushii Hibi"（美しい日々...Beautiful Days）. I guess I was afflicted with selective sight when it came to the J-Wiki article. In any case, it was interesting listening to this original version with Agnes' just-as-sweet & high vocals and the 70s aidoruarrangement by Masaaki Ohmura（大村雅朗）.
Back to our regularly scheduled album. The second track, "Les Petit Bon Bon" seems to address a lot of folks, including me, when it comes to not being able to stop at one peanut. I'm not sure whether Yano was referring to the unstoppable need to grab that one last candy or just the concept of greed in general, but the song showcases that playful side to her as if she were reverting back to her childhood and getting that urge to sneak one more cookie out of the jar.
"High Time" is one of two English-language tracks, and it's one of the few songs whose lyrics weren't provided by Yano. Instead, Fran Payne wrote this ode to a lover coming back into the protagonist's arms after a time away. Yano's delivery and the airy music seem to reflect the soaring feelings of someone back in love.
Another angle that Yano explores in "Gohan ga Dekita yo" is her interpretation of some of the old kayo kyoku. In this case, she performs a cover of Ichiro Fujiyama's（藤山一郎）"Aoi Sanmyaku"（青い山脈...Blue Mountain Range） in her inimitable way with some of that YMO boppiness. Along with her loopy vocal style, what else is notable is how she manages to make her version sound like a suspenseful adventure through the forest at the bottom of those blue mountains.
The kayo kyoku interpretations also include children's songs. For example, the above is "Genkotsu Yama no Tanuki-san"（げんこつやまのたぬきさん...The Raccoons of Genkotsu Mountain）which was written by Yoshiko Koyama（香山美子）and composed by Akihiro Komori（小森昭宏）in 1973, and features a mother-and-child raccoon duo.
Then, there is "Onigiri Kororin"（おにぎりころりん...Rolling Riceballs）which was also created by Komori with Michio Mado（まど・みちお）providing the lyrics about all those rolling rice balls. Love my onigiri...especially when it has either salmon flakes or bonito flakes soaked in soy sauce!
So, from those two children's songs arose the epic "Genkotsu Yama no Onigiri-sama"（げんこつやまのおにぎりさま...The Riceballs of Genkotsu Mountain）. And here I thought that "Zai Kuntong Shonen" was the centrepiece of the album. "Genkotsu Yama no Onigiri-sama" not only beats that song by over a minute but it's truly a crazed roller coaster ride combining Yano's inventiveness, YMO's bleeps and bloops, the eerily amazing work by Hibari Jido Gasshodan（ひばり児童合唱団）and the guitar of Makoto Ayukawa（鮎川誠）from Sheena & The Rockets. I think out of all the tracks on the album since I purchased it, this has been the one that's gotten especially frequent attention by me. Usually when I think of children's choruses, tokusatsu hero theme songs come to mind, but here, the Hibari Children Chorus is more than happy to keep up with Yano through all of the musical zips and dips and their contribution is one of the reasons that I love this one. The other reason is how she is able to ecstatically steer this 7-minute-plus song through all of the happy technopop, prog rock, relaxing piano passages and funky excerpts of the two kids' tunes, especially the way she delivers that latter song almost like a hip-hop line.
Here is a concert version of my favourite new song on the album.
And for that matter, "Gohan ga Dekita yo" has quickly become a favourite disc. It is that fortified package of what my image has been of Akiko Yano no matter what she did in the 70s and what she has done since the early 80s. Soaring, introspective, techno-cool, welcoming!
