Jackey Yoshikawa and his Blue Comets/The Peanuts/Hiroshi Kadokawa -- Ame no Akasaka（雨の赤坂）

 

The above photo was shot midway up the steps toward Hie Shrine in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo. I had wanted to take this picture of what seems to be a mass of traditional (the shrine gate) and the modern (skyscrapers) in the Akasaka background. If I'm not mistaken, I think that this was just after I had a delicious sushi lunch with my good friend and his wife. 

Akasaka is one of the more expensive neighbourhoods in Tokyo but it also has plenty of wallet-reasonable restaurants and izakaya including a section which has a proliferation of Korean BBQ eateries. Apparently, it is also a setting for many a romantic Mood Kayo and I was able to find one in the form of "Ame no Akasaka" (Rainy Akasaka).

In its first iteration, this was the 15th single for the band Jackey Yoshikawa and his Blue Comets（ジャッキー吉川とブルー・コメッツ） released on Christmas Day 1968, and nope, it is most definitely not a Christmas song. Indeed, it is a Mood Kayo and it is the second such song for the Blue Comets after declaring that the group was no longer into Group Sounds. Beginning with "Sayonara no Ato de"（さよならのあとで）which was released a couple of months earlier in October, Yoshikawa and his Blue Comets decided to embrace the more traditional bar-friendly genre and shed their original guitar-based rock-n'-roll sound.

Yet, this creation by lyricist Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）, Blue Comets member/composer Tsunaki Mihara（三原綱木）and arranger Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）still had some faint echoes of a slower GS sound probably due to that electric organ in there. Hashimoto's story of remembering a love affair in Akasaka which passed away sadly perhaps could also be transferred to the fate of the Blue Comets themselves in their original run. Although "Sayonara no Ato de" was another hit for the group by achieving a No. 3 ranking on the Oricon weeklies, "Ame no Akasaka" did more modestly by peaking at No. 20. The J-Wiki article for the song also mentioned that it was from this point that popularity for the band began to wane.

A few covers were done of the song over the decades since that initial release by the Blue Comets. It has never been made clear online when exactly a version by The Peanuts（ザ・ピーナッツ）was recorded but J-Wiki could only narrow it down to sometime in the early 1970s. Anyways, The Peanuts' version has probably made it onto many a Mood Kayo compilation or one of their own collections, and this one has more of a Henry Mancini feeling with those strings and less of that heaviness of the original.

Enka singer Hiroshi Kadokawa（角川博）also covered "Ame no Akasaka" through a cool and contemporary arrangement as his September 1989 single. It's still Mood Kayo but the strings are silkier and of course, a mellow sax solo has also been thrown in. Kadokawa also covered another rainy city in song years later.

The next time that I get back to Tokyo, I'm going to try and get some more night shots of Akasaka.

Hiroshi Kadokawa -- Yurushite Kudasai（許してください）

According to his J-Wiki profile, enka singer Hiroshi Kadokawa（角川博）was known for having the finest prowess in singing about what a woman was feeling in her heart. Although few of his songs have their own articles including this one, I think his 3rd single may have been one of his first numbers to show this ability.

Released in January 1977, his "Yurushite Kudasai" (Please Forgive Me) is basically the enka form of a letter by a woman to her former paramour virtually pleading him to have a good life without her and to utterly forget about the relationship. Meanwhile, her own heart is breaking into tiny pieces inside as she reassures him that she will be OK (maybe/maybe not). It's probably one of the sadder enka ballads that I've ever heard, and that is all due to Kadokawa's plaintive vocals and the arrangement of the song.

Masao Ishizaka（石坂まさを）took care of the lyrics while composer Eiji Takino（たきのえいじ）provided the melody. I don't know how "Yurushite Kudasai" did on Oricon, but it must have fared well enough that Kadokawa got his first invitation to the Kohaku Utagassen at the end of 1978 to perform this very song. He would appear again the following year and then one final time in 1986.

Hiroshi Kadokawa -- Ame no Hakodate （雨の函館）

https://www.flickr.com/photos/iplus/4816923449/?ytcheck=1
by Hajime Seki

Y'know...I really ought to visit Hakodate in Hokkaido one of these days. I only got to see Sapporo when I visited Japan's northernmost island years ago and I didn't even stray into sushi-famous Otaru which wasn't too far away from the prefecture's most famous city. Hakodate has one of the world's greatest night views, and I think it is quite popular as a setting for kayo.

Of course, there is one of Saburo Kitajima's（北島三郎）signature songs, the jaunty "Hakodate no Hito"（函館の女）from 1965. But while I was watching today's "Nodo Jiman", one of the citizens sang this Hakodate-based tune called "Ame no Hakodate" (Rainy Hakodate), a grand song of love gained and lost in the titular city.

The song was actually released in July 2013 by veteran Hiroshi Kadokawa（角川博）. Written by Mami Takubo（田久保真見）and composed by Chiaki Oka（岡千秋）, it seems to come across as a proud lament as Kadokawa sings about losing the woman of his dreams to another fellow. I've always been a sucker for horns as I've said many times before and "Ame no Hakodate" is no exception.

(karaoke version)

Kadokawa was actually born in 1953 in Hiroshima. He started out playing high school baseball but then later on was singing in a Fukuoka club when he was scouted. So he made his way up to Tokyo where he debuted with "Namida Gurashi"（涙ぐらし...Tearful Life）in April 1976 and won the Best New Artist prize in the Japan Music Awards. He's even appeared on the Kohaku Utagassen three times: 1978, 1979 and 1986.

Akira Sawada & Harbor Knights -- Tokyo Eleven Love Call (TOKYO イレブンラブコール)

Another weekend comes to an end. I had another good Sunday with my friend for another round of anime and food and since we're into April now, the Winter season has been wrapping up with some satisfaction on our part. However, this article isn't about any anison here but being late in the evening as I write this, I've decided to go with Mood Kayo.

I had never heard of this group called Akira Sawada & Harbor Knights (沢田あきらとハーバーナイツ...not sure whether they were knights or nights, but for the sake of argument, I'll go with the former), and according to one Japanese fellow's blog, this Mood Kayo sextet never really made it big. In fact, it was quite hard to find any information on the group especially since there is no representation of them on J-Wiki so I couldn't even find out when Sawada & Harbor Knights first started out.

However, there is this one song from 1982 that they performed called "Tokyo Eleven Love Call" which was not too bad for either me or that fellow with the blog. It's got all the tropes for a typical Mood Kayo with the Knights providing the chorus, the Latin touch to the music by Tetsuya Gen（弦哲也）, and Kazumasa Koganei's（小金井一正）lyrics about a sophisticated night on the town in the nation's capital. But Sawada isn't the one on vocals; the crooner here is Knight Koji Hama（浜こうじ）.

(karaoke version; original video was taken down)

And yet, the female announcer introducing the song here states that "Tokyo Eleven Love Call" was a hit for Sawada and his group so who knows how it did originally? Plus, there's the fact that the song was performed on TV so perhaps there has been some legacy of success. In this case, it was covered by Hiroshi Kadokawa（角川博）.

Hiroshi Kadokawa -- Yo Naki Dori (夜泣き鳥)

From the way Hiroshi Kadokawa (角川博) looks, I had never imagined such a smooth voice to ever come out of him. When I first laid eyes on the Enka singer - who's been active since the mid 70's - not too long ago, the impression I got was that this severe-looking guy who seems to have a slight frown had one of those husky, gritty voices and sang manly songs... kinda like Ikuzo Yoshi (吉幾三), but without the comedic element.

So I was wrong. And he does have a comedic streak - I saw a snippet of him singing one of Hibari Misora's (美空 ひばり) songs while cross dressing with heavy makeup.

'Yo Naki Dori' is the first song I heard from Kadokawa, and it's also his most recent single released on 21st May 2014. I would say that this is one of those Enka tunes that are easy on the ears for first time Enka-goers as Kadogawa's pleasant singing style is not too radical unlike some others, and the music (by Chiaki Oka (岡千秋)... hey, this guy's name rings a bell!) is quite pleasing to the ears.

If you've noticed, there is a bird mentioned in the title. At first glance it may seem a little weird since the lyrics  (done by Mami Takubo (田久保真見)) portray the typical Enka song: Drinking away at the izakaya - alone of course, while thinking about the one who got away. But according to Kadokawa on an episode of 'Nippon no Uta', the cries of the bird at night (basically, the title) gives you a feel of loneliness. So that's pretty much why Kadokawa says that he's a crying bird... at night... to represent the protagonist's loneliness.

'Yo Naki Dori' did pretty well on the Enka/Kayokyoku Oricon charts, although now I can't seem to check it again to make sure that I'm right. All I remember was that it was floating up and down for a couple of weeks in the Top 20 a couple of months ago.

enkado.net