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.
Well, I gotta say...for a Japanese music listener who's faced his fairly large mountain of English expressions within lyrics for decades, I was truly surprised by this one. I didn't think I would ever hear any singer utter the words "shrewd" and "forestall" separately, let alone within the same kayo kyoku. Mind you, when I heard "forestall", it came out more like the name for a famous American aircraft carrier.
Yes, I am talking about Momoe Yamaguchi's（山口百恵）"Shrewd Fellow", a track from her 16th album "Manjuu Shaka"（曼珠沙華）from December 1978. In fact, it follows right after the first track and one of my favourite Momoe songs of all time, the poignant "Ii Hi Tabidachi" (いい日旅立ち), and yet I had never heard of "Shrewd Fellow" until within the last few months. The lyrics by Hiromi Kanda（神田広美）under her pen name of Rika Nohara（野原理香）tell of one really hot romance...the second line of the song has a lady pretty much jumping onto her paramour's lips on his second word! Personally, I usually like to go it a bit slower through a few dates and dinners before that step. Anyways, the melody by Yusuke Hoguchi（穂口雄右）and its arrangement by Makoto Kawaguchi（川口真）is good ol' downtown City Pop and disco. Once again, Momoe gives it further swagger through the delivery of her own vocals.
Yes, Virginia...there used to be commercials for those ancient artifacts known as audiotapes. I used to buy Normal, CrO2 and even Metal, if I felt like grinding the tape heads on my old cassette recorder. And indeed, those television ads were tied up with a lot of pop singers' material back in the day.
One of those songs for the THAT'S brand of cassette tape was "Senaka Goshi no Close Game: Behind"(The Close Game Behind My Back). Considering that the word 「クロス」can be read as either "close" or "cross", I had to take an educated guess as to which word was the one for the title.
But in any case, I first have to relay Phil Collins and Philip Bailey's message to the singer and composer TOSHITARO: "They want their hit song's intro back!". Yup, I got a lot of "Easy Lover" in the first number of seconds of "Senaka Goshi no Close Game" but thankfully, that was all of the heavy borrowing of the melody which switched into something more crystalline City Pop and rock. You can thank Kenji Omura（大村憲司）for the arrangement and Hiromi Kanda（神田広美）for the lyrics. The song was TOSHITARO's November 1985 single.
Welcome to the Easter Weekend segment of "Kayo Kyoku Plus". Hopefully, everyone and their families are getting together and tucking into some fine dinner whether it be roast ham or chicken or the like. Some of the usual Easter chocolate wouldn't be bad either.
Marcos V. introduced 1980s-1990s aidoru Mikako Hashimoto（橋本美加子）a few years ago when she did a cover of the Eurobeat "Touch My Heart" in 1987. Well, I'm going back a little more in her career to show something more conventionally aidoru. In December 1985, she released her 4th single"Chotto Kokuhaku"（ちょっと告白...A Little Confession） but I'm covering the B-side today, "Juu-go no Melancholy"(Melancholy at 15), a song with a slight AOR rock beat. Not too bad a voice and the slight huskiness in her vocals matches the melody by Yoshio Tatano（多々納好夫）. Kazuo Shiina（椎名和夫）provided the arrangements (including that ghostly synthesizer which immediately brought nostalgia waves) while singer-songwriter Hiromi Kanda（神田広美）brought the lyrics under her pseudonym of Saiko or Ayako Kishida（岸田采子）.
Hashimoto was born in Osaka as Ayumi Sugimoto（杉本亜由美）and through the then-Warner Pioneer-sponsored audition called "The Scout '83", the future aidoru won the audition through her performance of Akina Nakamori's（中森明菜）"Twilight - Yugure Dayori"（トワイライト -夕暮れ便り-）. She made her debut in March 1985 with "Mellow Season"（メロウ・シーズン）. In her school days, she had belonged to the swim and tea ceremony clubs and also practiced Japanese dance. She's also said to be a huge fan of TUBE's vocalist Nobuteru Maeda（前田亘輝）.
Kaori Tsuchiya（つちやかおり）was a 1980s aidoruand a tarento who I've written about twice before. The two songs that I covered also happen to be in different genres: Her debut single from June 1982, "Koi to Namida no Juu-Nana Sai"（恋と涙の17才）is a cover of a Lesley Gore tune "You Don't Own Me" and then her follow-up from later that year in September, "Aishuu no Orient Express"（哀愁のオリエント急行）, was more of a technopop piece.
The interesting variety continued via her second album"Kaori Hakusho"（かおり白書...Kaori's Report） which came out in March 1983. One of the tracks is "Fushigi na Gogo"(One Strange Afternoon) which is quite the dynamic track with snazzy horns and a City Pop attitude. It may be no surprise then that Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）, one of the crooning princes of the genre, was responsible for the melody. Meanwhile, Hiromi Kanda（神田広美）took care of the lyrics which speak of a young lass at a street corner with a fellow getting all sorts of giddy thoughts just from having her hand held.
Aidoru + City Pop! What's not to love? An additional bonus is how Tsuchiya bellows out that one part of the title "GOGO!". It not only means afternoon but it also feels like she's trying to put out a "GO! GO!" to prod her young protagonist to bigger and better things, romantically speaking. Encouragement is always helpful.
Yesterday, there was a windstorm that hit the Greater Toronto Area and it did leave a number of neighbourhoods without power, and I think that there are some areas which are still waiting for restoration. Fortunately, that didn't happen to us but there were a few tense hours. Today has made for a sunny December Sunday. It might be fairly cold outside but happily there are no warnings...knock on wood.
An appropriately sunny Sunday song is in order then. I give you singer-lyricist Hiromi Kanda's（神田広美）debut single from January 1977, "Hitomi Shiri" (Shyness). She was all of 20 when this was released and for her first few singles, she actually didn't provide any lyrics. For "Hitomi Shiri", for example, Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）was the wordsmith while the man who would later become her husband, Yusuke Hoguchi（穂口雄右）, provided the melody.
It's a wistful song that brings about a few thoughts such as how Kanda sounds a bit like Junko Yagami（八神純子）in her own early days and the fact that "Hitomi Shiri" gave me hints that not only does it sound like the quintessential summer kayo but it also sounds like something that vocal group Hi-Fi Set（ハイ・ファイ・セット）could also have sung. From Hoguchi's music and arrangement, I'm not sure if I would place it as City Pop or AOR, but I think that it can fit the New Music mold especially with that certain 70s soul-sounding guitar or keyboard plucking away.
There was much more information about "Hitomi Shiri" at "idol.ne.jp" than on her J-Wiki profile, including the statistics that the song sold 50,000 copies and ranked as high as No. 43 on Oricon. Again with that tradition of cheery music underlaid with at least a bittersweet story, according to the reviewer on that site, the story is about a woman saying goodbye to a man for the last time the morning after. The reviewer even posits that "Hitomi Shiri" has that stylish vibe of a city-based Hiromi Ohta（太田裕美）song. Both him/her and me also noticed that Kanda's vocals were quite different here when compared to her 5th single"Don Juan"（ドンファン）which she released more than 18 months later and it turned out to be the last article that I'd written about her more than three years prior.
Although I think the heyday of Japanese folk in mainstream kayo was perhaps the very late 1960s to the early 1970s, its musical effects still lasted to the end of that decade. There were quite a few songs which had that twangy guitar and rollicking melody at that time even with the advent of urban contemporary rhythms and synthesizers.
I think one of those songs is right here. Singer-songwriter (and current jazz chanteuse) Hiromi Kanda（神田広美）released "Don Juan" as her 5th single in July 1978, and it's certainly a jaunty number about a woman wondering whether to fall for a fellow's charms although she knows full well that he's a love 'em-and-leave 'em playboy.
Takuro Yoshida（吉田拓郎）, one of the pillars of Japanese folk kayo, was in charge of composing this while prolific lyricist Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）took care of the words. Considering its contents, I would have thought that "Don Juan" could have made for a bluesy Ginza-soaked Mood Kayo, but instead, it sounds more like a folksy number whose story could have taken place in a much more rural area of Japan.
Got on my CD-buying binge...coming to the end of the year, y'know. One of the first albums I purchased was Anri's（杏里）"Heaven Beach". It's been a target for some time so I was glad to finally get my hands on it, especially after listening to the mellow groove of "Last Summer Whisper".
(full album)
This was Anri's 4th album from November 1982, released some 14 months after her last album, the more European-and-exotic-sounding "Kanashimi no Kujaku"（哀しみの孔雀）. With "Heaven Beach", according to the J-Wiki write-up on the album, this cemented Ms. Kawashima's status as the summer-sounding pop singer that we Anri fans all know and love.
At first assumption, I had thought that at least half of "Heaven Beach" was handled by musician-songwriter Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）but he actually just took care of three of the original 10 tracks. Still, this was the beginnings of a good collaboration between him and Anri in terms of the sunny summer pop that would hereafter characterize the singer. Case in point is the opening song "Ni-banme no Affair"（二番目のaffair...The Second Affair）which has all that Kadomatsu goodness with the skippy bass and galloping beat as Anri sings about struggling to keep from falling for the charms of a friend who may be trying to bring their relationship to another level.
Side A of the original 1982 LP seems to have gone more of the City Pop/dance-pop route that Anri would navigate for the next number of years with Kadomatsu's help. However, one of the songs that I've instantly liked from Listen 1 at 13:02 is by Takeshi Kobayashi（小林武史）, "Resolution". The ballad not only shows the singer's strength in her vocals but also that when it comes to the genre in question, it isn't always about Anri and Kadomatsu.
"Resolution", which seems to be about a woman in love thinking about things on the harbour at sunset, starts off as a J-AOR ballad but then gradually morphs into something even more old-fashioned and romantic.
"Lonely Driving" at 9:40 is some good on-the-road pop written by singer-songwriter Hiromi Kanda（神田広美）and composed by Anri herself.
Side B of the LP goes more into what Anri was doing in her earlier years with perhaps some of that exotic influence from "Kanashimi no Kujaku". Things start off with a bang at 22:02 with "Flash Back Memories" which was also written and composed by Kobayashi. And unlike the mellowness of "Resolution", "Flash Back Memories" actually flashes back memories of 1980s New Wave and Billboard pop. I love that keyboard in there as I get reminiscings of bands like Hall & Oates.
"Natsu ni Se wo Mukete"（夏に背を向けて...Turning Your Back on Summer）at 34:24 is a melodically sweet if lyrically bittersweet take on the inevitable end of a summer fling. Kanda once again provided the lyrics while Fuyumi Iwasawa（岩沢二弓）, one-half of the duo Bread & Butter, came up with the music. The song has that mellow pop sound that I would usually attribute to someone like Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）but again Anri sounds great here.
She also sounds wonderful for the final and title track at 38:46, "Heaven Beach". In fact, I would say that she almost has the voice of her younger teen self in tackling this ballad which makes for an appropriate end to the original album. It has that sort of sunset feeling there but Anri, who wrote and composed it, wanted to imbue a good amount of inspiration, in my opinion.
(1:03:46)
The 2011 re-release of "Heaven Beach" contains a bonus track which originally saw the light as the B-side to Anri's 10th single"Omoikkiri American"（思いきりアメリカン）from April 1982. "Kaze no Naka de Loving You"（風の中でLoving you...Loving You In The Wind） has got that happy light samba beat; Anri has done a number of Latin-tinged songs but although I think the song is fun and all that, it feels as if it has been grafted onto the singer like she is doing more of a karaoke of a song done by the original singer. Machiko Ryu and Michihiro Kobayashi（竜真知子・小林みちひろ）took care of this one.
As I mentioned in the article for "Last Summer Whisper", "Heaven Beach" the album got no higher than No. 89 on Oricon when it was first released. I gather that folks had yet to cotton onto Anri although better days were just around the corner. However, I think in retrospect, the album is an important one for Anri fans since it was a crossroads of sorts for showing what she had been doing and what she would be capable of in the coming years. Definitely happy to get this one.
Once again, having started "Kayo Kyoku Plus" almost 3 years ago has paid off some dividends for me. With Marcos V. introducing me to my eventual purchases of singles by current aidoru such as especia and Tokyo Girls' Style, I'm also now indebted to nikala for providing me information on Ginji Ito's（伊藤銀次）"Baby Blue". With his brand of City Pop and 60s tribute in this album, I was attracted to tracks like "Planet Girl" and "One Way Ticket to the Moon", especially the latter tune since it was such a riff on good ol' Hall & Oates, one of my favourite American bands when I was in high school.
So when Xmas passed on by, I decided to buy "Baby Blue" after wondering about it for almost 2 years. And having put it into my computer hard drive for a spin while I was doing some translation assignment (and how I needed the music to get through my grunt work), I was still very enamored by the variety in this 1982 album.
nikala has provided some fine information on the tracks via her own article on "Baby Blue", so I just wanted to give a bit of a follow-up by talking about one song that she didn't cover, "Ame no Stella"(Rainy Stella) or as it's written on the back of the cover, just plain "Stella". It's another one of the relaxing ballads where Ito seems to be channeling a bit of Eiichi Ohtaki（大滝詠一）as he languidly croons about the wonders of the titular lady. This is nice hammock-and-sipping-alcohol music.
While Ito came up with the music, the words were provided by singer-songwriter and current jazz chanteuse Hiromi Kanda（神田広美）. "Ame no Stella" also happened to be released as Ito's 5th overall single in April 1982. He wasn't all that prolific considering his very first single came out in 1972 and was hopping among a number of studios until he landed at Polystar where he recorded "Ame no Stella" and "Baby Blue" and spent the longest time of his career, releasing 7 albums and 9 singles there between 1982 and 1985.
Whenever I listen to a new album for the first time, my mind gets a little overeager and tends to process the entirety of the disc a little too zippily. So I'm happy to have listened to this new experience by Ito by itself and to appreciate it even more.
Amazing where getting information for writing an article on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" can take me. I was looking up the usual information about my last entry, Yoko Oginome's（荻野目洋子）debut single, "Mirai Koukai"（未来航海）and saw the name of the lyricist, Hiromi Kanda（神田広美）, and just on a whim, I decided to check if any of her songs were available on YouTube after seeing her own J-Wiki article.
Sure enough, I did hit pay dirt. This is "Kanashimi Yohou"(Melancholy Forecast), her 2nd single from May 1977, and I found it to be a very light and pleasant number which reminded me somewhat of the songs by another Hiromi...Hiromi Ohta（太田裕美）from around the same time. It has that sunny and summery feeling. Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）provided the lyrics and Yusuke Hoguchi（穂口雄右）was behind the nostalgic music. Hoguchi was also responsible for composing a number of Candies'（キャンディーズ）hits such as "Toshi Shita no Otoko no Ko"（年下男の子）. And on a personal note, Hoguchi and Kanda would later marry.
Kanda was born in 1956 in Kishiwada, Osaka (according to J-Wiki...her own website has her coming from Nagasaki), and first got into the music business through an audition for NTV's "Star Tanjo"（スター誕生...A Star is Born）. After winning the competition, she was signed to the Polydor label and debuted in January 1977 with "Hitomishiri"（人見知り...Shyness）. Up to 1980, she would release 6 singles and 1 album, but also got into the songwriting profession. Along with the Oginome debut, she wrote lyrics for Anri（杏里）and Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）.
In the past several years, though, Kanda and her husband have settled into life in Hawaii, and she's gotten full throttle into the jazz genre. Her first album in America was "Hiromi in Love" in 2010, and she has just released her sophomore album, "Days of Yesterday" back in September this year. Above is her performance of Cole Porter's classic "Night and Day".
Whoa! Another oldie that I haven't heard in a while. I had actually been taking a listen to my old CD of Yoko Oginome（荻野目洋子）, "Pop Groover" to re-acquaint my ears to some of the singer's early hits when I got delightfully detoured to her time as a pint-sized member of Milk...ended up writing an article about their 2nd single, in fact.
Well, I'm back on track and I'm unearthing her debut single as a solo aidoru, "Mirai Koukai"([Future] Sailing). After her time with Milk came to an abrupt end, her other notable achievement was her seiyuu work as the title character in Fuji-TV's"Miyuki"（みゆき）during 1983. She still continued on the seiyuu track for a while afterwards, but as a newly-minted high school freshman in 1984, she also started her aidoru career with "Mirai Koukai".
Written by singer-lyricist Hiromi Kanda（神田ヒロミ）and composed by Yukiyoshi (or Yukinaga) Shimazu（島津行良）for release in April 1984, it was nice revisiting Yoko-chan before she transformed into the dancing heroine of Eurobeat. "Mirai Koukai" is interesting in that it has Oginome in conventional aidoru mode with a more high-pitched, less nasal singing voice although I think the song itself still stands out...maybe it's just the fact that it is Yoko Oginome, but I also like the urgency of the beat and the instrumental bridge.
"Mirai Koukai" peaked at No. 32 on Oricon and was included on her debut album, "Teens' Romance" which was released in September 1984.
(Sorry but the video has been taken down.)
A small video bonus above. Yoko's sister, actress Keiko Oginome（荻野目慶子）appeared on a periodic family-oriented karaoke special back in 1983, and introduced her family, including her kid sis before she hit the big time.
