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.
Busy morning with the usual grocery shopping along with a banking issue to be resolved. Happily, both were resolved very amicably. The Force was with me or I didn't suffer any jinxes (no ladders, floor cracks or black cats got in my way).
And apparently, neither did singer-songwriter Mami Ayukawa（鮎川麻弥）. Perhaps as her song title states, she truly doesn't believe in jinxes. "Jinx wa Shinjinai" (Don't Believe in Jinxes) is a track from her December 1986 5th album"Chase", and from the upbeat and somewhat updated Motown arrangement, the lass doesn't allow any bad vibes or bad luck to affect her at all. It's quite the catchy melody by Hideo Saito（斉藤英夫）with Keiko Aso（麻生圭子）behind the lyrics.
Touching upon my old amity toward the "Star Trek" franchise, I knew about Brent Spiner's singing ability (heck, I even bought his "Ol' Yellow Eyes is Back" album) and so I enjoyed the above video by Lena Kingsleigh who spliced together a few scenes from the episodes "Data's Day" and "Datalore" from the fourth and first seasons of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" respectively with a scene involving Spiner's turn as nasty cruise director Gil Godwyn in the 1997 movie "Out to Sea".
The thing is though that I don't think it was the above that first got my attention about the song "Oye Cómo Va"originally recorded by Latin jazz great Tito Puente in 1962. I had heard it before though I didn't know of the title and something else led me to the "Out to Sea" scene with Gil's mechanical delivery. However, it was enough to check out its origins.
Then I read that the band Santana blew the doors off with their Latin rock rendition of "Oye Cómo Va" in 1971 on their venerated album "Abraxas".
I'm sure that there have been many other covers of "Oye Cómo Va" over the decades, but I just didn't expect one from Chisato Moritaka（森高千里）. But I heard from KKP co-administrator and friend Marcos V. that the singer-songwriter did her own rendition of the Puente original for her October 1990 album"Kokontozai"（古今東西...All Times And Places）. With Hideo Saito（斉藤英夫）providing the arrangement, I read on J-Wiki that it's supposed to be a bossa nova take but all I can hear here is Moritaka and company basically following the Santana model. In any case, it's been placed on the album just before her "Ame"（雨）.
Just for trivia's sake, although the version on "Kokontozai" was titled "Oye Cómo Va", the song first came to Japanese ears as "Boku no Rhythm wo Kiitokure"（僕のリズムを聞いとくれ）which is a direct translation of the title. In English, it's translated as "Listen how it goes".
I was watching the local news this morning when I found out that apparently today is National Burger Day here in the Great White North. Ah...wonderful...and I'm not going anywhere for lunch or dinner.😞 But those cheeseburgers did look rather sumptuous on television. Interestingly enough, I've heard that within the Japanese gastronomical world, the hamburger in all its different forms (sliders, smashed burgers, etc.) is getting its second wind. I was there for the first big blossoming of the burger there when all sorts of burger shops popped up throughout the Greater Tokyo Area.
After catching that TV segment, I was wondering about any burger kayo out there. The only one I knew was Kirinji's（キリンジ）bubbly "Pizza VS. Hamburger" from the band's "cherish" album of 2019. However, although I'd assumed that I would be lucky to find even one after several minutes, I was able to track down two within just a few minutes. So, for your listening (and perhaps future eating) pleasure, here are the double portions with cheese.
I have to really get better at distinguishing folksy singer Masato Shimon（子門真人）from Tatsuo Kamon（嘉門タツオ）. Shimon was the one behind the biggest-selling single in Japan, "Oyoge! Taiyaki-kun" (およげ！たいやきくん）, also a song about food but nothing to do with lots of protein. Kamon, on the other hand, is an entertainer who started out as the apprentice for a rakugo comedian in the late 1970s before becoming a singer-songwriter of comical novelty tunes from the 1980s.
His 34th single was released in December 1995. "Totsugeki! Hamburger Shop"(Bang! Hamburger Shop) comes across as a comedic country-western tune with Kamon acting in two roles: the grumpiest customer in a hamburger shop dealing with a super-polite employee and the grumpiest hamburger shop owner dealing with a nervous nellie of a customer. Basically, he brought in his old rakugo techniques into this one. Kamon composed the song while Tsuyoshi Sugimoto（杉本つよし）took care of the lyrics.
Meanwhile, Chisato Moritaka's（森高千里）"Teriyaki Burger" is one upbeat jukebox-friendly pop-rock track from her October 1990 album"Kokon Tozai"（古今東西...All Times and Places）. The title is the only thing that concerns any patty between two buns; Moritaka just lets loose on her ambitions to take over the world her own way without things such as formal education and borders getting in her way. In a way then, "Teriyaki Burger" could share something with the food-themed title "Sukiyaki" being slapped onto Kyu Sakamoto's（坂本九）classic "Ue wo Muite Arukou" (上を向いて歩こう) by that British DJ decades ago. "Sukiyaki" has nothing to do with the meaning of the lyrics but it's easier to pronounce that particular title. In any case, Moritaka took care of the lyrics while Hideo Saito（斉藤英夫）was the composer.
Now, here's a special video. I don't think I've ever seen Princess Princess and Moritaka collaborate. Cherish it and that hamburger today.🍔
Chisato Moritaka（森高千里）made another appearance on "Uta Con"（うたコン）a few nights ago. As always, it was fine to see her up on stage. This time around, the show decided to give a small retrospective of some of her past hits.
I remember the music video for her 25th single "Futari wa Koibito" (The Two are Lovers) since it got a lot of heavy rotation on the music video shows on TV. Moritaka didn't perform this one on "Uta Con" but on really hearing the song after so many years, it finally got me to write about it. "Futari wa Koibito" was written by the singer and composed by Hideo Saito（斉藤英夫）as this jangly swinging 60s sort of tune regarding a couple who might be in the midst of that period in the relationship where they are having doubts about each other. However by the end of the song, they're still hanging in tough. Personally, although I know that Moritaka is a multi-instrumentalist, I never got to see her perform on other instruments all that much so to see her in the video playing the drums is nice to see.
"Futari wa Koibito" hit No. 5 on Oricon following its release in February 1995. It was also one of the new songs on her March 1995 BEST compilation "DO THE BEST" which hit No. 2 on the charts and ended up as the 10th-ranked album of the year. The song was also the theme for the NTV drama "Koi mo Ni Dome nara"（恋も2度目なら...Love The Second Time Around）.
The last time I heard about singer/actress/model Yuki Uchida（内田有紀）was when she became a late addition to the cop comedy-drama franchise "Odoru Dai Sosasen"（踊る大捜査線）. However, my memories of her are usually restricted to her appearances in commercials, music videos and dramas of the 1990s. In a way, I saw her as the 90s version of Kyoko Koizumi（小泉今日子）: a young, short-haired and sassy woman. The singing part of her career was often paired with the Komuro Steamroller as I like to call it when producer and songwriter Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）was pretty much everywhere in music with a group under him including Uchida, hitomi and TRF for instance.
But with her second album"MI-CHEMIN" which was released in September 1995, initially a lot of the tracks there had no connection with Komuro so that, according to J-Wiki, it probably prompted King Records to add on a couple of those hits by the guy in a bonus track sort of way at the end of the album, one being "BABY'S GROWING UP".
The one song that I was actually looking at for tonight is the track "Getsuyoubi no Asa" (Monday Morning), and yep, it definitely doesn't sound like Komuro. In fact, I'd say that there was some Shibuya-kei (by way of perhaps Bacharach and maybe Swingout Sister) infused into its melody and arrangement by Hideo Saito（斉藤英夫）. Manaho Mori（森真帆）was responsible for the lyrics which tell the tale of life after the end of a romantic relationship as a woman begins her life anew by taking a ride on her bike against the pedestrian flow heading into work. It does sound like the plot for a J-Drama featuring Uchida. As for "MI-CHEMIN", it peaked at No. 3 on Oricon.
Uh, say what now? I get the first three but did you say the fourth was Chisato Moritaka?! The techno aidoru of the late 80s and early 90s? The one who came up with "Benkyo no Uta"（勉強の歌）?
Indeed, I said so. Now, I don't mean that Moritaka made that full transition into kimono-wearing enka chanteuse; she's still first and foremost a pop singer, but for her 6th album in March 1992, "Rock Alive", she did have one enka/Mood Kayo tune for which she provided words and music, "Yowasete yo Kon'ya dake" (Get Me Drunk for Just This One Night). And yep, not only is her melody perfect for the genre, but her lyrics are the classic love-done-me-wrong kayo of a woman drinking herself into a stupor to forget the love that she's just lost (and not really being successful). The above is her own self-cover from many years later but the atmosphere is apropos with that street of nomiya behind her.
One other singer who eventually made the full shift from teenage pop to enkais Sanae Jounouchi（城之内早苗）, a member of Onyanko Club（おニャン子クラブ）. In 2016, Marcos V. first introduced her to us at KKP through her "Ajisaibashi"（あじさい橋）, her debut single of June 1986. Her 8th single from August 1993 is a cover of Moritaka's "Yowasete yo Kon'ya dake" which became a much-requested song on the cable radio circuit in Japan for the next several months. Hideo Saito（斉藤英夫）provided the arrangement for this tune which peaked at No. 87 on Oricon.
Ooooh! A nice peppy Chisato Moritaka（森高千里）number to finish things up tonight. "Good-Bye Season" (not to be confused with the "Goodbye Season" by pop duo H2O) first began life as the coupling song to her 3rd single"GET SMILE" in February 1988. But I couldn't definitively find that single version and apparently, according to the J-Wiki article on her 2nd studio album"Mi-ha"（ミーハー）, which was released a month later and peaked at No. 17 on Oricon, the album version of "Good-Bye Season" has a different arrangement.
However, that's not too much of a problem for me since I like the "Mi-ha" version of "Good-Bye Season" just fine. It's not exactly the happiest of lyrics by Kanon Kuwa（久和カノン）as it tells of a romance which is down to its last embers after four years; naturally, the breakup is happening at the end of summer, but I can't complain about the music and arrangement by Takumi Yamamoto（山本拓巳）. It contains all of those nostalgic synthesizers getting mixed in with those backing vocals by NANA and Yukari Fujiu（藤生ゆかり）and the main vocals by a slightly softer-voiced Chisato. Of course, having Jake H. Concepcion in there with his saxophone is also very welcome.
Strangely enough, listening to "Good-Bye Season" a few times now, I keep getting reminded of Dreams Come True's 1992 hit"Kessen wa Kin'youbi" (決戦は金曜日）which was inspired by Cheryl Lynn's disco paean "Got To Be Real" from 1978. Yeah, I guess that "Good-Bye Season" has some disco roots as well.
The following year in December, "Good-Bye Season" got a remix version in Moritaka's first BEST album "Moritaka Land"（森高ランド）. Arranged by Hideo Saito（斉藤英夫）this time, this take has more of a pop/rock sound underlying it and it comes across as if someone had been thinking of mixing Chisato with the good ol' boys from TUBE. The album hit No. 3.
Last night on "Uta Kon"（うたコン）, Chisato Moritaka（森高千里）made another appearance and on the stage, she was joined by the adorable Kumamon（くまモン）, the official cute mascot character for Moritaka's home prefecture of Kumamoto. They did a little song-and-dance on the NHK stage, and I remember writing an article 4 years ago about a song that she performed as a tribute to the prefecture's cutest bear.
The song that Moritaka and Kumamon performed last night? It turned out to be "Kono Machi"(This Town) which was the accompanying song for the former's 12th single, the classic "Benkyou no Uta"（勉強の歌）from February 1991. However, "Kono Machi" made its first appearance on her earlier 5th album"Kokon Tozai"（古今東西...All Times and Places） which was released in October 1990.
A catchy Eurobeat-driven tune by Hideo Saito（斉藤英夫）to rival that of his other creation, "Benkyou no Uta", "Kono Machi" was written by Moritaka as a love letter to her old hometown of Kumamoto City. She even provides some of the local dialect during the song.
Considering how catchy it is, this was perfect for a character like Kumamon...only that the big bear didn't come into existence until 2010.
I've mentioned in the past that I did visit Kumamoto City back in the summer of 1991 before heading back to Toronto. However, I have yet to mention that years later, I went with a friend of mine in Tokyo to a restaurant in East Shinjuku to dine on Kumamoto ramen. It was pretty darn good but I believe the chef at that restaurant was very generous with the meat. The pieces were certainly a whole lot bigger than the ones that are featured in the above video. I didn't need any other nutrition for several hours after that meal.
Getting back to music, I've always wondered about the aidoru group ℃-ute due to that stylized spelling of their name. Well, I finally have my opportunity to talk about them since the Hello Project unit from the Kanto area did their own cover of "Kono Machi". Their version has been changed into a lot more down-to-earth and heartfelt ballad, and I think the Kumamoto dialect speak was switched to the Japanese Standard dialect.
This "Kono Machi" was released as ℃-ute's 24th single (including their early indie releases) in February 2013. It went all the way up to No. 4 on Oricon and also showed up on the group's 7th original album "⑧ Queen of J-POP" from September in that same year. That album peaked at No. 6. As for ℃-ute, they had a pretty long time together between 2005 and 2017 and consisted at the time of their breakup of Maimi Yajima（矢島舞美）, Saki Nakajima（中島早貴）, Airi Suzuki（鈴木愛理）, Chisato Okai（岡井千聖）and Mai Hagiwara（萩原舞）.
The long weekend is almost at an end here in Canada so I'm sure that there will be a lot of people who are beginning to get those post-holiday blues. Back to work on Tuesday!
(28:31)
In any case, I've got "Weekend Blue", a track from Chisato Moritaka's（森高千里）2nd album"Mi-Ha-"（ミーハー）from March 1988 but also the coupling song for her 2nd single"Overheat Night"（オーバーヒート・ナイト）from October 1987. Perhaps it's just me but I find Moritaka's voice especially adorable here and for a Eurobeat tune, it's fairly mellow.
Composer/arranger Hideo Saito（斉藤英夫）and lyricist Hiromasa Ijichi（伊秩弘将）, the same duo behind "Overheat Night", took care of "Weekend Blue", a story of a woman who's still coming to terms over the breakup of a relationship. Her weekends seem to be a lot less interesting now that there is no more boyfriend in the picture. From what I've read for the lineup in the production for the album, Saito may also be providing chorus and guitar work. The above video has been noted as having the album version but not sure if the original single track is vastly different in arrangement.
I was watching Friday's edition of NHK's morning talk show "Asaichi"（あさイチ...Morning Market）, and none other than Chisato Moritaka（森高千里）was performing an old favourite "La La Sunshine"（ララサンシャイン）on location in Fukuoka. Found out that the eternal techno-idol reached the half-century mark on Thursday so many birthday wishes to her.
Therefore in tribute, I'm putting up my first Chisato article in several months with an oldie but a goodie, "The Stress". However, I ought to start things off with the original song itself which was simply titled "Stress" without the definite article. A track from the singer-songwriter's November 1988 3rd studio album"Mite"（見て...Look）, "Stress" was heavier on the Eurobeat and speed, and it's the one that I've heard for the first time ever just within the last few hours. The song was written by Moritaka and composed/arranged by Hideo Saito（斉藤英夫）, and probably had everyone (including myself) who has ever worked in the service industries in their younger years feeling a lot of sympathy and...stress about the not-so-happy aspects of the job. The album itself peaked at No. 5 on the charts.
However, the one version that I've been familiar with all these years is "The Stress" with the added tag of "Stress ~ Chuukintou Version"（ストレス 中近東バージョン...Stress ~ Near Middle East Version）. This was released as a single in February 1989 and has that memorable video showing Moritaka in that waitress get-up getting treated shabbily before she gets a small measure of vengeance. The song has been slowed down slightly with some of those exotic notes and even some more nightmarish sound effects added. Some of the arrangement even reminded me of a certain Frankie Goes To Hollywood song.
The single ranked in at No. 19 and was also included on Moritaka's second compilation of hits, "The Best Selection of First Moritaka 1987-1993". That album got all the way up to No. 6 on Oricon.
From one generation of aidoru to another. Natsumi Abe（安倍なつみ）, one of the original Morning Musume（モーニング娘。）from the 1990s, has had her solo singing career since 2003. In June 2006, she released her 7th single which was a cover version of "The Stress". The arrangement seems to take on more of an early Latin electro-swing beat here, and Abe's delivery has a slightly more high-falutin' elegance. Her take on the Moritaka classic peaked at No. 14 and was placed on Abe's own BEST compilation, "Abe Natsumi~Best Selection~Juu-go Shoku no Nigaoe-tachi"（安倍なつみ 〜Best Selection〜 15色の似顔絵たち...Portraits of 15 Colours）. That got as high as No. 40.
This
song, plus the video, is pure gold... well, at least for someone like me who
loves trashy pop songs.
“Sonogo no Watashi
(Moritaka Connection)” is a song included in Chisato Moritaka’s (森高千里)
fourth studio album, “Hijitsuryokuha Sengen” (非実力派宣言), which was released
in July 1989. Yes, I have talked about some of its songs before, here and here.
Back to “Sonogo no Watashi”, it’s simply a very fun Eurobeat song. It
will not take you to the moon, but it’s so bouncy (that bass), bubbly (that
main synth line) and catchy (that chorus) that you will probably be a little
happier just by listening to it. Also, it surely was a concert favorite from
1989 to 1991 (it was generally performed next to hit singles like “17 Sai” [17才] or “OVERHEAT NIGHT”
[オーバーヒート・ナイト]).
And
what about that particular performance posted above? It’s pure Chisato
extravaganza, and that’s why I love it. Everything from the dancers dressed
like stereotyped Middle Eastern people, Chisato’s little “u-hu” shouts, the easy-but-fun choreography, and, of
course, her micro-skirt, is just amazing and ridiculous at the same time. I
almost feel in a crazy and fun party every time I watch this concert, which, by
the way, is part of her "Moritaka Land Tour", from early 1990 (although from
1990, this concert was released for the first time in late 2013).
The “Hijitsuryokuha
Sengen” album sold 215,090 copies. Lyrics for “Sonogo no Watashi (Moritaka
Connection)” were written by Chisato herself, while music and arrangement were
done by Hideo Saito (斉藤英夫).
During the early 90s when I was living in Toronto, I decided to pick up Chisato Moritaka's（森高千里）7th album, "Pepperland"（ペパーランド）from November 1992 via "Eye-Ai" money order. I was rather intrigued by the cover since it had the lovely Moritaka just wearing regular clothes instead of the star-spangled pseudo-military outfits we were accustomed to seeing her wearing on stage and on past CD covers. Plus, the cover for "Pepperland" itself was drained of any colour. I was wondering whether if this signified a new direction for the singer-lyricist.
Sure enough, there wasn't any of the bubblegum techno synths or the sampling. The music, much of it provided by Moritaka herself on guitar, piano, bass and drums, seemed like straight-ahead pop with an older flavour.
Case in point, one of the tracks from the album is "Gokigen na Asa" (A Merry Morning) which was composed by Hideo Saito（斉藤英夫）. It launches with a riff that sounds a little like the intro for the original "Venus" by Shocking Blue but instead of speaking about a hot girl who's got it, Moritaka's lyrics features a whole lot more innocence in this girl who is so giddy about her very first date that she couldn't sleep the night before and insists on making breakfast to bleed off some of her nervous energy. It's a cute song but not the same kind of cute from her earlier stuff as a techno aidoru. It's more of a down-to-earth, girl-next-door cute. The above version in the video has a slightly different arrangement but basically the sound is there intact.
Considering that older, somewhat more acoustic sound of the album, I had initially thought that the title "Pepperland" was somehow connected to The Beatles (Sgt. Pepper's and all that). But as it turned out, according to J-Wiki, the title referred to the name of a live house in Kumamoto Prefecture that she had performed in as part of her old band. Also, another point is that there were no singles issued from this album. I think for Chisato fans, "Pepperland" was a turning point for their heroine's music.
I stumbled upon Kayo Kyoku Plus more than a year ago when I was searching for Akina Nakamori (中森明菜)and Midori Karashima (辛島美登里), to find out how various people write about her songs. What a huge discovery! Since then, I've been following this blog regularly and at times commented on some of the posts. During a recent conversation with owner J-Canuck, he extended his warm invitation and asked me if I'm interested in contributing to this blog. So, here I am writing my first blog post on Kyo Kyoku Plus. Thank you so much, J-Canuck. It's been an honor.
Watarasebashi (渡良瀬橋), or The Bridge of Watarase, was Chisato Moritaka's (森高千里) 17th single, and it was also included in her 8th album "Lucky 7". It was released in January 1993. Hideo Saito (斉藤英夫) composed the song while Chisato wrote the lyrics herself. According to Orion, the highest place it reached was 9th on its chart.
I didn't listen to Chisato's original version first. Instead, it was Aya Matsuura's (松浦亜弥) cover version that I first listened to. She covered it in 2004, 11 years after the original was released. According to J-Wiki, there've been 8 Japanese singers who have covered the song.
Watarasebashi was a sad song about 2 lovers. The stage was set in a small town/village where the woman lived. Her lover was living in the city and regularly came to see her. Even though he loved the countryside, it's unreasonable for him to move to the village. Unfortunately, the woman could not leave her hometown either. At the end, they parted. But she could not forget him though. Every time she went to the shrine, she would pray for his wellness. When she came across the public telephone booth outside the barber shop, she couldn't help but pick it up. However, she didn't have the courage to call him. From time to time, she would return to the bridge of Watarase in the evening, where they once watched the sunset together.
Personally, I like Aya's version more. It has a slower tempo and the arrangement seems more appropriate for a sad love song. It has this slow piano introduction that somehow puts me into the mood of the song. To me, Chisato's introduction is a bit short and it feels a bit rush when it comes to the tempo. I also like Aya's voice more. Most Asian female singers, especially Japanese singers, have what we called in Cantonese "voice of a small chicken" - a high-pitched but soft and seeming fragile singing voice. I think Aya was once criticized for that too but in my opinion, Chisato possesses a truly "small chicken voice". What I found most fascinating is the story behind the song though. The bridge, Watarasebashi, which is the title of the song, exists in real life. It's in a small town called Ashikaga (足利) in the Tochigi Prefecture (栃木県). It's north of Tokyo and around 1-2 hours by train. Here's its google map location if you're interested: https://www.google.com/maps/place/渡良瀬橋/@36.334096,139.444405,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x601f21885136e723:0xfc174907a73dd9e6
When Chisato began to write the lyrics, she set out to write about a bridge. So she laid out a map on the table and searched for any bridge or river whose name resonates beautifully. It was the name Watarasebashi that caught her attention. In fact, back in 1989, Chisato had a live performance at Ashikaga Industrial University. She remembered crossing some bridge that day. "Was it really the bridge of Watarase?" She wondered. With her mind set, she once again went to the town of Ashikaga to research on her lyrics. It was Fall 1992. Here's a documentary featuring Chisato herself, who returned to Ashikaga in May 2012, 20 years after the song was released.
Continuing with the story, soon after the song was released, Chisato's recording company got a call from the city hall of Ashikaga, asking if the title of the song was referring to the bridge in their city. Chisato and her staff were scared. "Did we anger them by not informing them beforehand?" "Are the residents going to blame us for inappropriately portraying the city of Ashikaga?" "After all, what does someone from Kumamoto (Chisato's hometown) know about Ashikaga anyway?" Chisato wondered what the residents would say. It turned out, what Chisato and her staff learned from the city hall, that the Sunset from the Bridge of Watarase was chosen to be among Ashikaga's top 100 sightseeing spots. The city of Ashikaga and its residents were extremely glad that Chisato wrote about that in her song! There was a reference to a shrine called Yakumo Shrine (八雲神社) where the woman prayed for her lover. Fans wrote her letters and asked her which Yakumo Shrine she was referring to. In the documentary, Chisato said when she opened the map of Ashikaga, she immediately noticed the Yakumo Shrine. "The name rhymes very well with the melody, and so I decided to use it," she said. At that time, she knew there're 3 shrines named Yakumo within Ashikaga. She was not referring to any particular one. Later on, the city hall told her that they found 8 Yakumo shrines, and there might be more! Also in the song, there's a reference to a telephone booth outside of a barber shop. Similarly, the residents of Ashikaga flooded her with photos asking her if she was referring to the one in their photo. Both the telephone booth and the barber shop exist as well! According to Chisato in her documentary, she got the idea from Beatle's Penny Lane where barber shop and fire station appear in the song. "I can use this," she thought as she noticed the telephone booth from her car during her research trip. She was totally surprised that some residents actually found it. There's one final story about this telephone booth though. As more and more people are carrying mobile phones, the need for public telephone diminishes. Consequently, in 2008, NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone) wanted to demolish this phone booth in Ashikaga. The residents protested and eventually the telephone booth stayed. In 2007, the city erected a monument around the Bridge of Watarase to commemorate the song. During the day, the song is played continuously at the monument.
It's just a fascinating story that I could not help but share with all of you! I hope you enjoy my first post on Kayo Kyoku Plus.
It's just one of those songs that you want to hug....it's so cute. Chisato Moritaka's（森高千里） 16th single, released in June 1992, is a half-teasing, half-joking joust that a steady girlfriend/fiancee would throw out at her beau. "Watashi ga Obasan ni Natte mo" (Even If I Become Middle-Aged) was written by Moritaka and composed by Hideo Saito（斉藤英夫）, and was initially a track on her March 1992 6th album"Rock Alive" before getting its own release.
The lyrics go as so:
The winter comes as soon as autumn ends, time really flew by We went together to Saipan during summer vacation I still got that tan, it was an enjoyable memory I wanna go to Saipan again next year and go swimming You're a kind guy, hold me When we were like this, you kissed me Even if I become middle-aged, will you take me swimming? The bright swimwear will be impossible, I'd lose out to the young girls Even if I become middle-aged, will you really not change? I'm really worried since you like the young girls You said such talk is ridiculous But you said that women go downhill from 19 But you looked at me with an innocent face and said that was a joke and kissed me Even if I become middle-aged, will you take me to a disco? A mini-skirt will be impossible, I'd lose out to the young girls Even if I become middle-aged, will you take me on drives? Take the top down from that convertible and drive like a cool guy When I become middle-aged, so will you You can keep on saying just the cool things but you are gonna get a paunch Even if I become middle-aged, will you really not change? I'm really worried since you like the young girls
Not surprisingly, this song has become a popular one to play at the wedding receptions...just that little love jab from the bride saying that youth is not gonna be around forever. Ah, c'est la vie! And especially now that the average age of marriage has slowly gone up, perhaps Moritaka's ode to matrimony has taken on an even deeper meaning. According to J-Wiki, as the years have gone by, the singer has made one tiny change to one line; she changed the age that women go downhill at from 19 to 29. I'm not sure if she's made further upgrades since that time. And I'm not sure if that song even made it onto the playlist at her own wedding.
"Watashi ga Obasan ni Natte mo" peaked at No. 15 on the Oricon weeklies, but I think it has become one of the big Chisato favourites at the concerts and just overall. And it still got her a place at that year's Kohaku.
Today I’m going to talk about “OVERHEAT NIGHT”, the
second single released by Chisato Moritaka (森高千里), in October 1987. After talking
specifically about the song, I make some considerations about the fashion style
portrayed by Moritaka and some other sexy idols that were active during the
late 80s/early 90s.
In general, “OVERHEAT
NIGHT” is a disco inspired song with some eurobeat elements. We can find three different
versions of the song in Moritaka’s discography. The single edit version, the
full album version found in the “Mi-Ha” album (ミーハー) and the “new recording” version
found on the “Moritaka Land” best album (森高ランド). The version presented in the beginning
of the article is the single edit and its video features a young and not-very-sexy Moritaka. My favorite one, however, might be the “Moritaka Land” version. Therefore, I decided to share the version
performed on the “Mite Special Live” (見て ~スペシャル~ ライヴ) from 1989 (one of my favorite
idol concerts ever) because it is similar to the one found on the “Moritaka
Land” compilation. This specific recording of the song is even more disco
inspired, with a groovy bassline and some nice synth work. Also, we can note
that Chisato, during the “Mite Special Live”, makes use of her typical and
famous sexy/pin-up persona.
Making some comparisons, we can relate Moritaka’s music
to Minako Tanaka (田中美奈子),Aya Sugimoto (杉本彩) and Reiko Katou (かとうれいこ), three idols that were relying heavily in disco/eurobeat
inspired songs at the time. About Minako Tanaka, I remember that when I first watched
her singing in a TV show, she was almost a replica of Chisato Moritaka: the
long/straight/black hair, the up-body outfits, the mini-skirts and, of course, THE
LEGS (in my humble opinion, Moritaka’s were better). Aya Sugimoto and Reiko Katou, on the
other hand, were overly sexual examples of late 80s/early 90s idol. So, based on
these four girls (Chisato, Minako, Aya and Reiko), we can see that adifferent kind of idol, not focused just
on the cute look, was emerging in Japan around the late 80s/early 90s. Therefore, it’s quite
suggestive that during the so-called “winter era of idols” or “idol cold age” (Idols and Celebrity in Japanese Media
Culture. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN, 2012, p. 24), this new kind of feminine
representation came to light in the Japanese idol world.
Take a look at the videos below. The songs are,
respectively, “Tell Me” (1989) by Minako Tanaka, “B&S” (1989) by Aya Sugimoto and "Listen To Your Heart" (1990) by Reiko Katou. In
general, they are good pieces of late 80s dance-pop music, so enjoy the songs and
the girls’ charms.
Although I’m not a late80s fashion expert, I noticed that
Chisato and Minako were influenced by some outfits used in England during the
SAW (“Stock Aitken Waterman” production team) heyday. I selected, for example,
a performance by singer Sinitta. The name of the campy/cheesy song is “Toy Boy”
(1987) and the male dancers’ choreography/outfits are creepy as hell, so forget
them and focus on Sinitta, please. Basically, we can see that her clothes are
not so far away from the outfits used by the two sexy Japanese idols mentioned
above.
Curiously, I remember watching a 2007 Japanese
comedy/sci-fi movie called “Bubble Fiction: Boom or Bust” (バブルへGO!! タイムマシンはドラム式) and, as the title
reveals, the movie is passed in 1990, when the bubble economy times were going
down of the roof. The plot is kinda cheap and is not very interesting for this
article, but the hairstyle and outfits used by the actresses (not Ryoko Hirosue [広末涼子],
the main one, because she was a time traveler from 2007) were very similar to
the ones used by Chisato Moritaka and Minako Tanaka. As I didn’t live/visit
Japan at the time (I couldn’t as I was born in 1990), I can’t really tell if
that kind of look was trendy, but based on Chisato, Minako and this particular
movie, I created some sort of image of Japanese girls fashion during the late
80s/early 90s. Also, I don’t know if this fashion style was common in the
United States as well. I need to check this better someday. But take a look at
one scene of the movie below. The song playing in the background is, of course, "Diamonds" by PRINCESS PRINCESS (プリンセス プリンセス), the number one song of the year 1989.
As I said earlier, “OVERHEAT NIGHT” was Moritaka’s
second single, released in October 1987. The single reached #24 on the weekly
Oricon chart and sold around 22,000 copies (source: generasia). The song was placed in a full format in her second album “Mi-Ha”, released in March 1988.
It was later included in three compilations: “Moritaka Land” (1989), “The Best
Selection of First Moritaka 1987-1993” (1999) and “The Singles” (2012). The
song was written by Hiromasa Ijichi (伊秩弘将) while the music and arrangement were made
by Saito Hideo (斉藤英夫).
Even though “OVERHEAT NIGHT” isn’t Moritaka’s best, I
enjoy it a lot, and it was one of her first songs that hooked me. So I consider
it a special song.
To end this article,
here’s a photo of my own copy of “The best Selection of First Moritaka
1987-1993” compilation. “OVERHEAT NIGHT” is the second song from the first
disc.
Three things come to mind when I think of Chisato Moritaka（森高千里） in the early part of her career: her cool beauty, the minimalist song titles (The Stress, The Mi-Ha), and the Eurobeat arrangements.
Ahhhh....oh, yes, and one more thing:
HERE!
Legs that come up to
Anyways, "Benkyou no Uta"(The Study Song) is another one of her infectiously catchy tunes delivered in her high-pitched nasal voice. She frenetically exhorts the kids that it's much better to study than not to study....wow, a truly binary message! It does help that if she actually came into the classroom as a teacher, half of the class at least would listen to her every word.
If "Benkyou no Uta" sounds like it was made for the kids, that's because it was made for the kids. Specifically, it was the opening theme for the anime "Ochame na Futago"(おちゃめなふたご....The Impish Twins).
The song was first included on her 1991 Best album, "The Moritaka" (ザ・森高）; she just loves those definite articles. The single went as high as No. 4 on Oricon.
Nowadays, Moritaka is enjoying life as a still-youthful middle-aged wife (to actor Yosuke Eguchi), mother and pitchwoman for everything from detergent to video cameras. No more high legs, though.
