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.
Usually a song title containing the word "highway" in it would conjure up the genres of City Pop or rock n' roll in my mind...the latter especially as some lone wolf rides out on his Harley into the sunset on that titular road to nowhere and everywhere.
However, we have Hikashu's（ヒカシュー）2nd single from 1980 titled "Shiroi Highway"(White Highway) which was written and composed by leader Koichi Makigami（巻上公一）. I wrote about the B-side"Puyo Puyo"（プヨプヨ）back in January 2024 and then there was my previous posting on the band which happened to be on their 1979 debut single"Nijuu Seiki no Owari ni"（20世紀の終りに）, so I figured it was time to close the circle, so to speak.
"Puyo Puyo" had that New Wave mixed in with the technopop but the A-side I think is more on the technopop, and strangely enough, Makigami did come up with a story of that loner on the endless titular highway that I mentioned in the top paragraph; there's even a synth version of that famous whistle from "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly" coming in at points. Makigami's vocals make the song sound like a heroic tokusatsu theme so that lone wolf vibe is even more enhanced. But instead of a Japanese superhero show, "Shiroi Highway" was used for a car stereo commercial.
Maybe I'm a little late at 25 years putting this one up onto the blog. "Nijuu Seiki no Owari ni" (At the End of the 20th Century) is the debut single for rock and technopop band Hikashu（ヒカシュー）. Released in October 1979, it's quite the jangly New Wave number by leader Koichi Makigami（巻上公一）. According to his lyrics, apparently love demanded quite a lot at the end of 1999. Luckily, we were all consumed with Y2K to worry about that one.
There is a fellow Blogspot blog titled "Hikashu Appreciation Society" which has a post dedicated to "Nijuu Seiki no Owari ni", and it has the English translation of the lyrics along with a very brief excerpt of an interview done by singer-songwriter and producer Haruo Chikada（近田春夫）who contributed his expertise to the production of the early Hikashu material. From it, I gleaned that the band was trying for something quite different from other outfits such as Yellow Magic Orchestra, and I would say that Makigami and company succeeded.
I'll never trade anything for my many years in Japan. It was a fun and educational experience and adventure. But at the same time, I have to admit that there were some things that I missed out on, and one of them was "The Late Late Show" with Craig Ferguson. His brand of sudden inspired lunacy was my type of humour and I learned that he had at least some affinity with the legendary German band Kraftwerk, as you can see at 56 seconds of the above video.
Craig and his skeletal buddy traded some Kraftwerk songs' lyrics including "She's a model and she's looking good" which I found out originated from "Das Model", a track from their September 1978 album "The Man-Machine". Man, do I love that Micromoog and Polymoog. It's so Kraftwerkian, hypnotic, glacial and crystalline! Just watching the performance by the guys makes me think that they've just out-sprocketed "Sprockets"!
A couple of years later, in February 1980, Japanese technopop bandHikashu（ヒカシュー）provided a cover of "Das Model" called "Model"（モデル）via their debut album "Hikashu" with leader Koichi Makigami（巻上公一）providing the Japanese lyrics. The synthesizers are there but there is also a layer of twangy guitar which adds the New Wave aspect. Makigami's delivery has that certain holy and haunting quality.
All these years after I'd taken this photo from the back cover of an "Eye-Ai" magazine issue, I was wondering in which situation I would ever use this photo from an episode of "Kayama Yuzo no Blackjack"（加山雄三のブラック・ジャック...Yuzo Kayama's Blackjack）. Yes. That Yuzo Kayama portraying that Blackjack from the manga by legend Osamu Tezuka（手塚治虫）. I never would have believed it myself. Well, we all gotta try something new.
Well, the show was realized as the first live-action televised drama of "Blackjack" back in 1981 (although a live-action cinematic version had been done several years earlier), and I can now use the above photo without any irony. The reason for that is that I found the ending theme for "Kayama Yuzo no Blackjack", "Glass no Dance" (translated directly as "Glass Dance" but given the official English title of "Crystal Dancin'", according to the Discogs site.
"Glass no Dance" was recorded by the technopop band Hikashu（ヒカシュー） as their 4th single sometime in 1981, although it did appear as a bonus track on a later reissue of the group's 2nd album"Natsu"（夏...Summer） from 1980. Once again written by vocalist Koichi Makigami（巻上公一）and composed by synthesizer operator Yasushi Yamashita（山下康）, the elements of technopop are more subdued here in this case but the hoppy New Wave bop is brought in, and Makigami sounds as if he's exhorting some sort of tokusatsu theme song. And I guess that fits because Blackjack is the hero or the antihero here. I've also noticed a bit of either reggae or ska thrown into the pot as well.
Well, let's see...the last time I had my physical, it was the usual diagnosis: gotta lose weight, no high blood pressure but not too far away from becoming a Type 2 diabetic, and I ought to consider laying off the red meat. Uhhh...I'll get back to you on that.😞
The gentlemen from the slightly avant-garde technopop bandHikashu（ヒカシュー）apparently have had their own issues with medical checkups and that is interpreted simply here with their "Puyo Puyo" (Jiggly or Squishy...adjectives that I'm fairly acquainted with). It is the B-side to their 2nd single"Shiroi Highway"（白いハイウェイ...White Highway） and a track from their first album"Hikashu", both from 1980. Written by vocalist Koichi Makigami（巻上公一）and composed by synthesizer operator Yasushi Yamashita（山下康）, it's a rather hippity-hoppity (enhanced by Makigami's repeated whoops) tune about two fellows (or a split-personality person) giving very different descriptions of their health: one jiggling his way down to the ground and the other guy literally hopping around in peak condition.
According to Yamashita on J-Wiki, the song took only ten minutes to get its melody. The music video probably took a fair bit longer but it really looks like an early 80s production by someone who had an ambitiously tongue-in-cheek story in mind about the risks in the Japanese corporate lifestyle. During my teaching days, I would often hear from the adult students about having to take a day off because of the annual company physical. Makigami seems to have enjoyed his time as a Method actor in these videos and concert performances with his deadpan ultra-serious approach.
I gotta admit that this article is gonna make my Boxing Day. I could never imagine that there would be a connection between a George C. Scott movie and a song by a Japanese avant-garde technopop band. Now, I know the legendary late actor for "Dr. Strangelove" and "Patton" but I barely remember his 1980 "The Changeling" which, according to Wikipedia, was a Canadian supernatural horror film. The only reason that I could still remember it more than four decades later is that Scott was in it.
As for that Japanese connection, I was reading Hikashu's（ヒカシュー）J-Wiki article when I found out that their 3rd single from December 1980, "Pike", was used as an image song when "The Changeling" came over to Japan. It was an interesting decision to be sure, since vocalist Koichi Makigami's (巻上公一) lyrics seem to be about the actual fish known as a pike, indigenous to North America and a fine catch for any fisherman.
Hikashu member Yasushi Yamashita's（山下康）music has got quite a bit going on with technopop, New Wave and rock hitting my ears and memories. The seeming surf rock passages with the rolling drum thunder strike me as being somewhat B-52s while the rest of the music has that spooky yet tongue-in-cheek Halloween feeling which may have been one reason that it was selected for "The Changeling". Meanwhile, the vocals sound like something delivered in a tokusatsu series: loud and proud for the title character. It's no wonder that I've been coming across this particular title whenever Hikashu's name is mentioned.
Considering the overall feel of "Pike", I'm always going to imagine the large and slender fish of volatility, and not a certain Starfleet captain of coolness and good.
The whole thing about starting this Gosanke（御三家...The Big Three） file in the first place was on finding out about the Techno Gosanke as I was about to write an article on the technopop band Hikashu（ヒカシュー）for the first time back in October. Seeing how I already knew about the original Gosanke and the Shin-Gosanke and then discovering that there was a Techno Gosanke, I was inspired to find out whether there were other media-inspired gosanke trios for easy identification.
As I mentioned in Hikashu's "Atarashii Buzoku"（新しい部族）, the Techno Gosanke included the three bands Hikashu, P-Model and The Plastics（プラスチックス）. Why Yellow Magic Orchestra hadn't been included remains a mystery to me (although perhaps they were seen as being too big to belong in any conglomeration), but the fact that I could identify those other three bands easily now is fine to me. In any case, whereas The Plastics got their start as a band in 1976, P-Model and The Plastics debuted in 1979, so I will go with that year as a source year. Though the media may have coined the label of the Techno Gosanke for them, I don't think that the name was ever used in any promotions for them to show up together on TV shows and the like.
I didn't know this fact. But to preface this fact...from doing this blog and reading some things in the Japanese pop culture books, I found out that in the 1960s, the term gosanke（御三家...The Big Three）, which was originally used to refer to the three big members of Ieyasu Tokugawa's（徳川家康）clan, was used to also describe the top three male singers at the time: Yukio Hashi（橋幸夫）, Kazuo Funaki（舟木一夫）and Teruhiko Saigo（西郷輝彦）. Then a decade later, there was the Shin Gosanke（新御三家...The New Big Three） to describe the heartthrobs of Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）, Hiromi Go（郷ひろみ）and Goro Noguchi（野口五郎）. Apparently, gosanke has been used ever since right up into the 21st century to describe certain outstanding trios in the music industry (and also in many other industries such as tourism and corporate Japan).
Now, to the fact that I hadn't known about until tonight. Along with the above two trios for handsome male stars from two different decades, I found out that there was such a thing as a Techno Gosanke（テクノ御三家） which consisted of the bands P-Model, The Plastics and Hikashu. Well, P-Model and The Plastics are bands that I've actually written about here on KKP. And before anyone asks, yup, I was left wondering then about Yellow Magic Orchestra.
OK, so then what of Hikashu? I never heard of them before but according to their J-Wiki article, they started out in 1977 and with a lineup that changed a fair bit over the decades. Currently, the band has vocalist Koichi Makigami (巻上公一) who also plays the bass, cornet and theremin, Mita Freeman (三田超人) on guitar and sampler, Masami Sakaide (坂出雅海) on bass and his laptop, Kazuto Shimizu (清水一登) on bass clarinet and piano, and percussionist Masaharu Sato (佐藤正治). Although Hikashu started out as that technopop band, they did later dip their toes into the avant-garde, acid jazz and avant-pop. Wikipedia has described them as experimental musicians, too.
From their 3rd album, "Uwasa no Jinrui"（うわさの人類...Mankind of Rumour） from May 1981 (produced by Haruo Chikada/近田春夫), I give you "Atarashii Buzoku" (New Tribe). Written by Makigami and composed by former Hikashu percussionist Toshiro Sensui（泉水敏郎）, the song begins with a Bullet Train whizzing through a station before something operatic and inspirational this way comes. Yup, the synths are in there, but I think that "Atarashii Buzoku" has more of that avant-garde New Wave feel. As well, I think that the song was meant to be performed on a stage as a march to accompany cyborg soldiers off to war...to assimilate the Federation, perhaps. Anyways, I did mention something about tribal experiences the other day; maybe this is the music for them.
Our local recent expert on Japanese technopop, commenter Tae, may have some better insights about Hikashu than I do, so I invite her to make any statements later on. Ah, incidentally, I was wondering how the band came up with their name. Back to J-Wiki, former member Yasushi Yamashita（山下康）got the light bulb over his head from "Hika"（悲歌...Elegy）, a work by the late composer/producer Toru Takemitsu（武満徹）. However, at the time, the members tried to avoid making any explicit explanations in public and they came up with some wild reasons such as discovering the name through seeing one mouthing something in a mirror or the sudden exclamation that popped out of one's mouth after getting surprised. Well, they are an avant-garde group.
