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.
It's been getting close to forty-four years since I heard my first Higurashi（日暮し）song on "Sounds of Japan" and that was without knowing the name of the folk/New Music band or the title of that song until I finally discovered it after returning from Japan for good in 2011. Furthermore, it's been fourteen years since I posted that splendid song, "Aki no Tobira"（秋の扉）, onto "Kayo Kyoku Plus".
Up until now, I'd seen Higurashi as a band that had its time in the 1970s before becoming a part of Japanese music history. However, I learned recently that the original members got together one more time in 2017 to release "Everlasting -Unreleased & Rare Tracks-". One of the tracks is "Tsukiyo no Highway" (Moon Night Highway) which was written and composed by members Seiichi Takeda（武田清一） and Yukio Nakamura（中村幸雄）, and the jaunty arrangement has that feeling of Higurashi especially with everyone getting in behind the mike including Naomi Sugimura（杉村尚美）, now Naomi Sakakibara（榊原尚美）. However, there is that contemporary freshness with the instruments and the recording which struck me. I especially like the addition of what sounds like a steel pedal guitar; gives the song a really nice accent of traveling smoothly on that titular highway.
It was a dozen years ago, during Year One of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", when I delightedly wrote about my re-discovery of folk/New Music group Higurashi's（日暮し）"Aki no Tobira"（秋の扉）, a song which I hadn't been able to identify on my crackling radio recording of it on "Sounds of Japan" for around thirty years. It still remains one of my favourites among autumn kayo and there are plenty of those tunes in the Great Japanese Songbook because apparently the Japanese have loved to create and sing about the death of romance in the cooler season.
"Aki no Tobira" was Higurashi's 8th and penultimate single released in September 1978. The B-side is "Tabi no Douwa" (A Fairy Tale for a Trip) which was created from a collaboration between Higurashi co-vocalist and guitarist Seiichi Takeda（武田清一）and arranger Katsu Hoshi（星勝）as was the case for the A-side (unfortunately back then being so early in the blog's history, I apparently hadn't made it a custom to mention songwriters in the first few months of KKP😓).
Compared to the feeling of standing on a hill and letting the breeze flow around me when I listen to "Aki no Tobira", "Tabi no Douwa" is very much more of a moving tune (still lots of breeziness though); just get in the car and drive well into the countryside or along the seashore. At first, when I read the title for the song, I assumed that it was going to be some tenderhearted ballad for children since "douwa" can also mean "children's story". However, Takeda's lyrics don't mention any moppets at all, and it's really about someone driving alone wishing that a now-absent passenger seat was still occupied by that special someone but for reasons unknown, the person will no longer be there. Still, the feeling is that time and the driver are moving on in all aspects of the word.
About an hour ago, I completed an article describing what NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）had put out as their seasonally transitional songs, namely from summer to fall. I figured that today being September 1st, it was quite timely. I'd also wanted to include some of my own tunes but noting that Labels would get a little cranky at me, I opted to split it into two parts with this article taking care of my own picks.
Now for those KKP readers with eagle eyes and elephant memories, I did write up "J-Canuck's September Songs" almost a year ago, and yep along with the fact that those tunes all have the month included in their titles, they do have that feeling of fall as well. So I am not including any of those but feel free to check those out. Regardless, there are a few other songs off the top of my head that strike me as showing a change in the seasons, although I know that there are probably many more out there with that theme in mind.
That amazing "Whoooooo" at the beginning may as well lift me off my feet toward the door to autumn as described in the title. As I mentioned in the original article, folk/New Music group Higurashi's（日暮し）"Aki no Tobira" was a long-sought tune since I had no idea of the title or the group when I first heard a very badly recorded version of it off of "Sounds of Japan" decades ago. The whole song can actually induce me to inhale deeply for a relaxing breath of fresh air.
Another "Sounds of Japan" treat from years back, this song can also induce an ASMR response from its opening notes. "Aki no Kehai" also served as my introduction to the laidback sounds of Off-Course（オフコース） and I've never looked back. Although the lyrics are sad, the music feels like a gentle sweep of the arm leading me from summer to autumn.
Provided that the above video stays up, that thumbnail photo of an Eizin Suzuki illustration is the perfect shot of what "Natsu no Claxon" means to me. Maybe the only thing that could better it is more of a sunset sky signifying the end of the summer season. As with the above two selections, the background chorus just adds to the wistfulness of it all.
To be honest, until recently, I hadn't thought about "Seasons of Change" as a tune to mark the transition from summer to fall. However, Sing Like Talking is a great band, they make great music, and "Seasons of Change" just from the title alone kinda sparked off all sorts of alerts in my head when I was thinking of this particular list. It is quite a bit more dramatic than the above three, to be sure. Very TOTO and early Supertramp, perhaps.
If you have any particular choices of your own, please let me know.👍
For "Kayo Kyoku Plus" readers checking in on the blog (and I thank you very much for that) over the last several days, you may have noticed an uptick on the rate of articles that have been going up. Personally, I usually put up a couple of articles a day though for Reminiscings of Youth Thursdays and City Pop Fridays, that has gone up to three and four articles a day respectively. But for the better part of last week, I've been going for about four a day regardless of the day of the week, and that is simply because I wanted to see if I could achieve the following.
With this article, I have. For the first time in "Kayo Kyoku Plus" history, the other contributors and I have managed to put up 100 articles in 1 month on the blog (your round of zesty indifference makes me so happy). The last record that we achieved was 94 last December and then there was 92 for the months of May and September this year so that record is now busted. And the crazy thing is that it wasn't too difficult since I've enjoyed doing the blog so much that taking things into slipstream drive from conventional warp was as easy as asking Lt. Tom Paris to make it so.
Moving on, I was thinking about which song in the backlog I would use to commemorate the 100th article for October 2021 but I couldn't really find anything that hit me too hard. Therefore, I've decided to make this into an Author's Pick and just insert some of those songs that I used to hear on my beloved "Sounds of Japan", that radio show on Toronto's multicultural station CHIN-FM from the 1980s which helped introduce me to new aural worlds in kayo aside from the enka, aidoru and Yellow Magic Orchestra that I'd already flown into.
For your information, all of the songs that are going to be inserted here are ones for which I've already written individual articles. Almost all of them ended up being the first songs for their KKP files and all of them were recorded and released in those three years of 1977, 1978 and 1979. In addition, I'm combining my memories of two episodes from "Sounds of Japan" which had the themes of "Rain" and "Fall" because I can't remember the full lineup for either show, so basically I'm smashing the two together (rainfall...hmm, kismet).👍
Anyways, enjoy the music below, check out any information through the links, brush your teeth, and I'll see you in November!
I only visited the Tora-san Museum in Shibamata, Tokyo once near the end of my days in Japan. Having watched many of the movies in the long-running "Otoko wa Tsurai yo"（男はつらいよ...It's Tough Being a Man） series as a boy at the Japanese-Canadian Cultural Centre, I figured that I had to go there at least once and I wasn't disappointed. I got to see a lot of the mockups of the various sets used in the movies, including the one for Tora-ya, the confectionary that is home and workplace for Torajiro's family as you can see above.
When it comes to the folk and down-home New Music songs in Japan back in the 1970s, I always envision settings such as Tora-ya since similar places popped up in the various television dramas and often such songs were used as the themes. Mind you, I don't think band Higurashi's（日暮）May 1978 single"Kokoro no Yane" (Roof of the Heart) was ever used as a theme song for a home drama but once again the hominess of the melody reminds me of those comfortable touch-base restaurants and old-fashioned houses back then.
The lyrics were provided by Higurashi guitarist/vocalist Seiichi Takeda（武田清一）and Naomi Sugimura（杉村尚美）tenderly sings about a woman openly willing to share her heart with the one that she has feelings for. As that wonderful cover for the single shows, there was at least one television drama that had the characters ending up on the roof of their house for that heart-to-heart talk, and I guess that was perhaps an inspiration for the song. I love Sugimura's singing and the chorus coming in during the refrain along with the electric guitar.
Katsu Hoshi（星勝）about whom I mentioned just last week as part of the Flying Kitty Band was responsible for the light and happy music and arrangement. He also had a part to play in the success of 80s rock group Anzen Chitai（安全地帯）in the next decade.
This is a rare ROY article on a Monday but seeing that I not only got my quota two articles published earlier this afternoon but I have a bit of extra time tonight, I decided why the heck not. Plus, it was something that I did want to get out onto the blog in fairly short order. You might consider this a follow-up of sorts from the April 8th Reminiscings of Youth article that I did on Earth Wind & Fire's classic "After the Love Has Gone" since the first time I heard the ballad was through the American sitcom "WKRP in Cincinnati".
"WKRP in Cincinnati", from what I remember as a pre-pubescent kid, was a sitcom that despite its four seasons on the air (1978-1982) never really got the fame or respect that it deserved from the originating network, CBS, for whatever reason. It had funny scenes (including the famous turkey drop scene in the video above), a number of flawed but likeable characters, and being a show based around a radio station, there were some great pop songs played (although legal wrangles apparently stifled at least some of them from being brought back on the DVDs).
One of the other things that I liked about "WKRP" was the theme song. Although I wouldn't realize my love for AOR, soft rock or yacht rock or however people want to describe the genre for some years down the line, the opening theme song remains one of my favourite themes for any of the TV programs that I used to watch. Composer Tom Wells and the lyricist who just happened to be the creator behind "WKRP in Cincinnati" itself, Hugh Wilson, knew what went into a typical harmony-laden radio identification jingle and extended it into a pleasant late 1970s soft rock number with all of the prime instrumental ingredients.
The thing about the vocals was the source of an urban legend that I remember well. One of the actors, Richard Sanders, who played the nebbishy and slightly deranged news reporter Les Nessman, was once assumed to have sung the theme since his voice sounded remarkably similar to the actual singer Steve Carlisle. Apparently, Wilson finally put the legend to rest in a commentary for the DVD set for the first season. But wouldn't it have been something if the nerdy Nessman actually had those smooth and velvety vocals?
Anyways, according to the Wikipedia article for the show, in an example of life imitating art, the theme song actually scored No. 65 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart in 1981 and then No. 29 on the Adult Contemporary chart in 1982 when it was released as a 45' single all the way back in 1979.
So, what got released in September 1978 when "WKRP in Cincinnati" first burst onto the air? Well, two of the three singles supposedly came out in August according to what I had written for them in their own articles but they have shown up for September in "Showa Pops". I think that this will probably be something that will happen now and then, and personally I'm cool with it.
Ever since I first realized that the folk/New Music band Higurashi（日暮し）was the group behind the beautifully breezy "Aki no Tobira"（秋の扉）, a song that I had searched far and long in terms of its identity for literally a few decades, whenever I see anything by them on YouTube, the SOP with me is that I take notice and write about it if possible. Standard operating procedure hasn't changed this time, either.
"Aki no Tobira" was Higurashi's September 1978 single but it was also a track on the band's final album"Kioku no Kajitsu"（記憶の果実...The Fruits of Memory) released in 1979. Now, I've found one other track on the album that is also resonating with me quite nicely.
"Bamen"(Scene), as its title would indicate, paints a very pleasant summery and breezy scene. It begins with some splendid piano with chords that have created that ASMR vibe up my spine, and it additionally helps that keyboardist/vocalist Naomi Sugimura（杉村尚美） nee Sakakibara（榊原尚美）is absolutely wonderful behind the mike. Plus, there is that 1970s City Pop/AOR keyboard haze effect here as well along with some fine solo guitar. The song starts slowly but then gets into a nice gallop on the road.
Written by Higurashi leader Seiichi Takeda（武田清一）and composed by Kazumi Nakaboshi*（中星一美）,"Bamen" and "Aki no Tobira" are such lovely pieces that I would love to get my hands on "Kioku no Kajitsu" someday, if the album still exists on the market. However, I do have their BEST compilation so it's still good. Incidentally, I have been remiss in not relating the entire band lineup. I've already mentioned vocalist Sugimura and leader/guitarist Takeda, but I should give out the name for the third member in the lineup, guitarist Yukio Nakamura（中村幸雄）. There was a fourth member, guitarist Yoshio Noma（野間義男）but he was with the band only for 1974.
*The composer's name has a number of readings, especially for the given name, so if someone can clarify this, I would be most appreciative.
This isn't one of those high-energy City Pop tunes of the 1970s accompanying the grab of a coffee and a danish while rushing to work.
For those who know the 1970s folk band, Higurashi（日暮し）, this is a song that is right up their tree-lined alley. "Kaze no Oto wo Kikitai" (I Want to Hear the Sound of the Wind). A track on their third album "Machikaze Kisetsu"（街風季節...Town Wind Season）released in November 1974, "Kaze no Oto wo Kikitai" is definitely more for sitting down in a quiet cafe and sipping the coffee slowly while contemplating what has come before and what will happen.
Written and composed by Higurashi guitarist Seiichi Takeda（武田清一）, the song centers around someone who seems to be going through some doldrums while living in the big city and is searching for some solace from the wind blowing outside. The music is calming enough with main vocalist Naomi Sugimura's（杉村尚美）cottony-soft voice but when the whole band joins in the chorus, the atmosphere gets downright hypnotic for me. It's a folk tune but there are elements in there (keyboards for example) that further make me feel that the setting is somewhere in the metropolis rather than out in the countryside. In a number of ways, "Kaze no Oto wo Kikitai" reminds me of the very first Higurashi song that I had ever heard, "Aki no Tobira"（秋の扉）.
A couple of things of the nomenclature involved here. As I also mentioned in the second Higurashi article for "Inishie"（い・に・し・え）all the way back in 2013, I was never quite sure about how to read Takeda's first name since the kanji has a number of readings but for now, that's what I'm going with unless someone corrects me. Also, the first pair of kanji for the title for that third album has been romanized as machikaze for one entry after a Google search of the album, but according to Jisho.org, 「街風」is also the proper family name Tsumuji. However, not quite seeing the significance of "The Season of Tsumuji" and with none in the band with that name, I think I can stand my ground with "Machikaze Kisetsu".
Yup, the Kanto is still digging itself out of the big snowstorm it got hit with back on Sunday night, and things are getting colder again here in Toronto, so winter is nowhere near done with us yet.
Well, allow me to bring back folk group Higurashi（日暮し）with one of their early singles, "Fuyu no Yoru" (Winter Night) from December 1974. Written and composed by Higurashi guitarist, Seiichi Takeda（武田清一）, the song goes down like a comforting cup of cocoa and basically that's what "Fuyu no Yoru" is all about...just a couple enjoying a quiet night in some lodge or even an apartment unit together while the snow is falling outside.
I think the song is not totally folk simply because of those lush strings. They rather add a more kayo feeling to the proceedings. Not that I'm complaining here; it is a restful song. I'm just hoping that all of the folks in Tokyo and environs have managed to get a hold on the weather and kicking back for the night.
Part II of my "Memories of My Standout Singers" series has me thinking about all of the Japanese singers that I first discovered via episodes of the radio program "Sounds of Japan" that aired on Toronto's CHIN-FM during the 1970s and 1980s. I recollect that my parents had it on when I was still not too keyed into kayo kyoku as an elementary school student but once I finally caught the kayo bug after the trip to Japan in 1981, I was far more focused on the program to the extent that I started taping episodes on cheap Canadian Tire Mastercraft audio tapes, as you can see above.
A couple of observations that I have about this list of singers: 1) Unlike my list from Part 1, the singers I fell for on "Sounds of Japan" were obviously not seen but simply heard. There were no sights of young kids prancing about in frilly dresses or striped shirts & blue jeans and I would have no idea about how any of these singing ladies and gentlemen looked like for several years. For example, I wouldn't know the appearance of Kazumasa Oda（小田和正）from Off Course until I saw him on TV while I was in Japan on the JET Programme in 1989! It was the pure music I fell in love with.
2) Thanks to "Sounds of Japan", I could encounter a musical world in Japan that didn't necessarily include aidoru or enka singers. Wonderful pop that didn't sound like anything from either of those genres and yet didn't sound like anything I knew in the West entered and enchanted my ears. Plenty of audio gold was to be mined over the years.
My list is a bit longer than the one for 1981. Initially, I had intended to just keep to the six entries but, heck, I just couldn't help myself.
1. Mariya Takeuchi （竹内まりや）
Couldn't tell whether this was Mariya or Mario singing "September". I just couldn't tell because of that lower register. Still, this was the song that hooked me into Ms. Takeuchi's brand of non-aidoru but peppy pop. It had that bit of disco but I don't think I had ever heard of anything like this in the West.
2. Iruka（イルカ）
The warm and crumply voice of Iruka singing "Ame no Monogatari"（雨の物語）was the one that convinced me that there was a world beyond the usual guests on "The Top 10" or "The Best 10". The electric guitar, the shimmering strings and of course that voice of hers did the trick for me.
3. Junko Yagami（八神純子）
Iruka's voice was warmly crumply but Junko Yagami's（八神純子）was a sonic boom. Her huge hit "Mizuiro no Ame"（みずいろの雨）followed immediately after "Ame no Monogatari" and added to my impression that there was some fine pop music to be had in Japan. I would later learn that she was one of my guides into New Music and City Pop.
4. Off Course (オフコース)
Unfortunately, the above video isn't of the original version of "Aki no Kehai"（秋の気配）but it was that original version (actually, it is now) that first attracted me to the charms of this folk-turned-pop band. As I said at the top, I didn't see what these guys actually looked like until many years later and by then, Off Course had already broken up with the leader well on his way to carve a very successful solo career.
5. Higurashi（日暮し）
(cover version by YO-EN)
This group may not have hit the huge heights of Anzen Chitai（安全地帯）or Off Course but their "Aki no Tobira"（秋の扉）still remains the reason why I became a devoted follower of "Sounds of Japan". I was always looking forward to hear that next wonderful uptempo song or ballad in any new episode since this song hit my ears...and it literally took me decades to finally track down the title and name of the band.
6. Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）
Yep, it was the radio program that first introduced me to Yumi Matsutoya via "Dandelion". I wasn't instantly hooked although "Dandelion" was a pretty enough ballad but her songs were regular entries on the show, so it wasn't too long before I became a fan and then started purchasing her many CDs.
7. Mariko Takahashi （高橋真梨子）
Actually, "for you..." wasn't the first song by chanteuse Mariko Takahashi（高橋真梨子） that I had heard on "Sounds of Japan". It was actually the second one but regrettably the first one has yet to grace a YouTube video. In either case, her vocals and the arrangement of her songs simply struck me as being incredible.
8. Mieko Nishijima（西島三重子）
Nishijima was also another one of those underrated singers that seemed to have a regular home on the radio show thanks to the hosts which meant that I could hear a fair number of her songs. I still have a soft spot for "Hoshi Meguri"（星めぐり）which is half-summer ballad and half-lullaby. The audio on the tape was extremely scratchy for this particular episode but I still loved listening to this song.
I recalled from my tribute to the works of Rokusuke Ei（永六輔）the other day about how much he had loved radio to the very end of his life...probably both as a listener as well as a broadcaster. Up to this point, I have only had the one role but even as a listener, but I still cherish those Saturday nights taping and hearing all that great music on "Sounds of Japan".
Whoo...it's been a while since I put up a Higurashi（日暮し）song. But I think it's a good time to get one in here. We're at the end of March, the weather is slowly warming up after another long, harsh winter, and perhaps something nice and nostalgic would be fine here.
I'm currently going the usual pile of translation assignments. The afternoon is usually the difficult time since it's a long haul between lunch and dinner, and a lot of the energy is spent digesting lunch which means getting hit with a spate of drowsiness...not the best thing when you're concentrating on converting Japanese into English. So it was time to throw in a CD into the hard drive, and so I went with the BEST compilation for this fairly obscure folk band from the 1970s.
However, as I said on the first article I did for Higurashi, there's something personal between me and them since I had been searching for the lone song that I had known without being able to know the title. Luckily, when I finally deciphered the title as "Aki no Tobira"（秋の扉）, the door did definitely open and I was able to get a CD of their best stuff.
Generally, the Higurashi sound consists of good ol' folk with a slight bit of City Poppy keyboard anchored by Naomi Sakakibara's（榊原尚美）wonderfully breezy vocals. One of the songs I heard today was their 5th single from June 1977, "Orange Iro no Densha" (Orange Train). Written and composed by band vocalist and guitarist, Seiichi Takeda（武田清一）, the music comes off as that pleasant ride on that orange train (perhaps Tokyo's JR Chuo Line?) as it heads off to the countryside. It was just the tonic to listen to; I could imagine the scene as being sunny and spring-like. Compared to the slightly more City Pop of "Aki no Tobira", "Orange Iro no Densha" is definitely on the relaxing folk side of things.
The song was also a track on Higurashi's 1977 album, "Arifureta Dekigoto"（ありふれた出来事...Everyday Happenings）. Also, just for the record, the band lineup was Naomi Sakakibara (vocals and keyboards), Seiichi Takeda (vocals and guitar) and Yukio Nakamura (中村幸雄...vocals and guitar). In 1981, Sakakibara changed her name to Naomi Sugimura（杉村尚美）after which she released three singles as a solo singer (the band broke up in 1979). Some time later, she got married and retired from the industry.
No, it's not orange but
it gave a good tribute to
"Galaxy Express 999".
I mentioned in my first profile on this relatively short-lived 70s band, Higurashi（日暮し）, that their song, "Aki no Tobira"（秋の扉） was a tune that I'd been searching for literally decades until the combination of hearing Japanese daily for years and a pretty darn good tape recorder that could cut through the static finally unveiled the name of this group fronted by vocalist Naomi Sakakibara（榊原尚美） and Seiichi (?) Takeda（武田清一）.
"Aki no Tobira" was Higurashi's 2nd last single released in the Fall of 1978, but "Inishie"(Antiquity) was their 6th of 9 singles, written and composed by Takeda and released during their career in December 1977. Compared to the sunnier and breezier "Aki","Inishie"was a more melancholy ballad about still thinking about that past lover who will never come back, only having memories and a letter to remember him/her by. The first YouTube video (which has since disappeared) I saw of the song was one of a car trudging through the snow on a dark night, with the uploader mentioning that he would always consider "Inishie"as a wintry song. And indeed, listening to it should be accompanied by a fireplace, an armchair and a cup of steaming coffee along with that mood of contemplation.
This turned out to be Higurashi's biggest hit with the song peaking at No. 14 on the Oricon weeklies and becoming the 62nd-ranked song of 1978, selling about 210,000 copies.
I hope that this song stays up a good long time at YouTube, since there is an especially personal stake in this one. You see, I had been searching for this song for 30 years. It all started when I started taping those "Sounds of Japan" radio broadcasts onto really cheap Canadian Tire cassette tapes. The show for September 11, 1982 was an especially good one since its theme was Autumn. There were wonderful songs such as Off Course's "Aki no Kehai", and Mariya Takeuchi's"September". But because of my inexperience in listening to any Japanese outside of my parents, I could never quite get what the title and the band were for the very first song. The other thing was that there was a fair bit of static crackling through which didn't help matters at all.
Over the next 30 years, I would once in a while try to see if I could figure out who had sung that lovely tune. I thought it may have been either one of the vocal groups, Hi-Fi Set or The Circus but I never found the song on their respective BEST compilations. Even living in Japan for a little over half of those 3 decades didn't unearth the answer to this mystery song.
Then, this morning, on a whim, I decided to dig out that 30-year-old tape from deep in the stereo cabinet and threw it into my Dad's recently-bought tape cassette player. Strangely enough, the sound seemed to come out a bit clearer this time although the static was still there. And this time, I could get the title and the band name (amazing what life in another country can do for one's listening comprehension!).
Took a chance and searched YouTube. And sure enough, once I popped in the data, I could finally get the song that I had been searching since Pierre Elliott Trudeau was still Prime Minister of Canada.
Higurashi（日暮し）was active as a folk band from 1973 to 1979, and released 9 singles and 6 albums."Aki no Tobira"(Autumn's Door) was released, naturally enough, in September 1978, and was part of the band's final 1979 album,"Kioku no Kajitsu"（記憶の果実...The Fruits of Memory). What struck my interest in the song was just the whole relaxing nature of it with the operatic voice of the lead vocal, Naomi Sugimura（杉村尚美）. This wasn't really a folk song...I think it was more akin to breezy City Pop.
It is really nice to track down a treasure at last. I still have one more lost band to find, though.
.JPG)
