Hiroshi Kamayatsu -- Waga Yoki Tomo yo（我が良き友よ）

 

It's been a little over eight years since musician, singer and TV personality Hiroshi "Monsieur" Kamayatsu（かまやつひろし）passed away. During the time that I knew him when he was still alive, I had thought that he was always the happy if grizzled folk-rock veteran. But as it turns out, I'm slowly getting the impression that he was actually quite musically fluid in terms of what he's experienced. Of course, there was his time with the Group Sounds band The Spiders （ザ・スパイダース）but then I also found out through my work on the blog that Monsieur was also quite happy in his AOR mode for a while through songs like "Island Girl".

And then I slowly realize that the folk-rock part of him came later than I had assumed, considering his debut in 1960. When I was looking for information on one of his representative hits, "Waga Yoki Tomo yo" (My Good Friend), I realized that in the 1970s, he was going to live houses in Harajuku and Roppongi to actually look at the real folk-rockers such as the legendary Takuro Yoshida（吉田拓郎）. Apparently, he had always been drawn to musical artists who played stuff that was different from his own material. I'd assumed that his solo debut single "Dounika Naru sa" (どうにかなるさ) was folk, but I guess the country-style rhythms may have changed that.

Striking up a friendship with Yoshida, Monsieur mentioned that he had become an apprentice of sorts for Yoshida which included being forced to drink until he basically burst. There was also a fighting component in there but there weren't too many details there. In any case, it looks like Kamayatsu got the rough and tumble education in tackling folk rock, and one of the big results was his February 1975 single "Waga Yoki Tomo yo", which was written and composed by Yoshida with arrangement by Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）. People around Yoshida had been hoping that their hero would be the one to record it, but instead he offered it to Monsieur who accepted it gratefully.

As it was, the song about a relationship with a rough and tumble university student (I guess this was the Japanese equivalent of Stiffler from "American Pie") was probably a distillation of sorts of the early Monsieur and Yoshida friendship. And strangely enough, it was such a perfect fit for Monsieur that "Waga Yoki Tomo yo" has been the song that I usually associate him with...the reason that I only got to put this one up now after several Kamayatsu articles is that I couldn't remember the title. It did hit No. 1 for several weeks on Oricon and it ended up as the No. 9 single of the year, selling around 900,000 records.

Yuki Yamakawa -- Uratobi Sasuke '78（ウラトビサスケ'78）

 

The last time I wrote about Yuki Yamakawa（山川ユキ）was back in the early days of the pandemic and it was for her debut single "Shinjuku Dada"（新宿ダダ）from June 1977. That was quite the brassy take-no-prisoners variety of Mood Kayo for her.

Well, cue ahead more than a year to August 1978. Yamakawa only released four singles before calling it a day, so this one was her third and penultimate release called "Uratobi Sasuke '78". As for what the title means, I have no idea but I did notice the repeated mention of the store Camera no Sakuraya（カメラのさくらや）on its YouTube page, so perhaps "Uratobi Sasuke '78" may have been used as a campaign song.

Whatever its usage, the song is definitely one funky disco tune that was written and composed by Hiroshi "Monsieur" Kamayatsu（かまやつひろし）, formerly of the Group Sounds band The Spiders. Looking very different and daring on that single cover, Yamakawa just gives out a steady rhythmic patter of lyrics that I think were put together for pure sound effect rather than any deep meaning. I gather that it's an example of disco rap.

Hiroshi Kamayatsu/Ryoko Moriyama -- Gauloise wo Sutta Koto ga Aru kai?（ゴロワーズを吸ったことがあるかい）

 

Hiroshi "Monsieur" Kamayatsu（かまやつひろし）left this mortal coil a little more than six years ago but he still has friends who are more than happy to pay tribute through his music. I was mentioning this week's "Uta Con"（うたコン）episode a couple of times through for example, Crazy Ken Band's "Kankou"（観光）, and singer-songwriter and old friend Ryoko Moriyama（森山良子）also appeared on the show to not only fulfill the night's theme of folk music but also perform one of Monsieur's songs.

When I saw Moriyama talk-sing sinuously her way through "Gauloise wo Sutta Koto ga Aru kai?" (Hey, You Ever Smoke a Gauloise?) on Tuesday night, I figured that the original by Monsieur must be something special. And sure enough, it is. Written and composed by the man himself, this is one of the coolest urban and urbane kayo that I've ever heard. Monsieur's sly-wink telling of the powers of the famous French cigarette to magically transport folks into a mysterious setting within the City of Lights is surrounded by an arrangement of boss horns and an electric organ that would suit the French equivalent of the detective John Shaft striding through the streets of Paris with a purpose. Maybe it's not a surprise that the song was arranged by Greg Adams from the band Tower of Power.

"Gauloise wo Sutta Koto ga Aru kai?" was actually the B-side of Kamayatsu's February 1975 single "Waga Yoki Tomo yo"（我が良き友よ...My Good Friend）. According to his 2002 autobiography, "Monsieur!"（ムッシュ！）, Kamayatsu wanted to whatever he fancied with the B-side since he felt that "Waga Yoki Tomo yo" wasn't really something that fit his image. Well, at around that time, Tower of Power was visiting Japan and somehow the singer was able to sing backup at their concert so the collaboration between him and Adams came about.

Well, I just found out that Moriyama did release her own beatnik jazzier cover of "Gauloise wo Sutta Koto ga Aru kai?" a few months ago in July. 

The Spiders -- Nantonaku Nantonaku（なんとなくなんとなく）

 

It's been about six years since I've added something by the Group Sounds band The Spiders（ザ・スパイダース）, outside of references via ROY articles. The last time was June 2017 when I put up their "Summer Girl"（サマー・ガール）.

Written and composed by band member Hiroshi "Monsieur" Kamayatsu（かまやつひろし）as their Christmas Day 1966 single, "Nantonaku Nantonaku" (Somehow Somehow) has an adorably cornball "Aw, shucks" sort of vibe as Jun Inoue（井上順）sings about how hard he has fallen in love with that girl. It has much more of a cordial country lilt than the usual rock n' roll, maybe even a bit of Hawaiian thanks to Katsuo Ohno's（大野克夫）steel guitar. Despite the Yuletide release, there is something about the song that feels much more summery, and rather than a Christmas tree proposal, I think that the setting here would be a beach for the one-knee ask.

Hiroshi Kamayatsu -- Island Girl

 

I was watching an "Uta Con"（うたコン）episode earlier tonight that I had PVR'ed a couple of weeks ago. There was a congenial theme of cover songs that night, and two of the folks guesting were veteran singer Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）and comedian Tomomitsu Yamaguchi（山口智充）. They performed a duet version of The Spiders' classic "Bang Bang Bang"（バン　バン　バン）which may still be an oldies favourite at karaoke.

The Spiders' guitarist Hiroshi "Monsieur" Kamayatsu（かまやつひろし）was responsible for the dynamic melody behind "Bang Bang Bang" when it came out in the late 1960s. Who knew that approximately a decade later he would be into the light and mellow music for a while? His ninth studio album (and his fourth under the TRIO label), "Pineapple no Yukue e"（パイナップルの彼方へ...Up in the Pineapple）, came out in 1979 and apparently it was his third album in a row that was following the AOR line. Sure enough, the cover of "Pineapple no Yukue e" pretty much screams AOR.

One track in there is the very amiable "Island Girl", a happy-go-lucky tune of that genre with an underpinning of showtime jazz. The overall cheerful effect is similar to the one gotten from Taeko Ohnuki's（大貫妙子）classic "Yokogao"（横顔）from her 1978 album "Mignonne". Fujihiko Shimada（嶋田富士彦）was behind the lyrics to accompany Monsieur's melody. Not a bad way to end a Sunday.

Satoshi Ikeda & Keiko Kimura -- November

 

Let's see...the YouTube video has the title as "Novembre" while Ameblo has it listed as "November" and the JASRAC database even has it down by its Japanese translation of "Juu-ichi Gatsu"（十一月）. Well, shall we split the difference and go with "November"?

Regardless, "November" is a track on Satoshi Ikeda's（池田聡）October 1992 album, "Shijou no Ai"（至上の愛...A Love Supreme）. I've already covered one other track there, "Itsuka"（いつか）which is an interesting mix of City Pop and Shibuya-kei. But with this duet between Ikeda and another City Pop singer Keiko Kimura（木村恵子）of "Denwa Shinai de"（電話しないで）fame, despite Yasuharu Konishi's（小西康晴）presence on lyrics, I think that "November" is fully into jazz of the 1950s instead of the Shibuya-kei scene (well, there is that electric piano/organ near the end) of which Konishi is an architect. Hiroshi "Monsieur" Kamayatsu（かまやつひろし）was the composer here, and the whole effect is of a tenderly delivered song in an intimate setting such as the old Dug jazz club in East Shinjuku (yup, brick wall interior and all).

I was actually doing maintenance on the 1992 file when I saw that the video for "Itsuka" had been taken down for the usual reasons, so as I found a replacement on Nicovideo, I stumbled upon "November" to my delight. By the way, I do like that cover for "Shijou no Ai" with that silhouetted Chet Baker-like figure with trumpet standing in front of those West Shinjuku skyscrapers. Very cool.

Koutarou Yamamoto -- Mura no Yuubin Haitatsu（村の郵便配達）

 

In the last couple of days, I heard some sad news. Folk singer and songwriter Koutarou Yamamoto（山本コウタロー） passed away at the age of 73 a couple of weeks ago on July 4th from a cerebral hemorrhage. He'd been with at least a couple of bands during his time: Salty Sugar（ソルティー・シュガー）and Koutarou Yamamoto and Weekend（山本コウタローとウィークエンド）, and with the former band, he became famous for the good-time hand-clapping tune "Hashire Koutarou"（走れコウタロー）, a tribute to a famous racehorse of the 1960s but also a good-natured poke at Yamamoto's tardy ways which was created by a couple of his fellow band members.

Yamamoto also had a solo career which started in 1972 and lasted well into the 1980s with seven singles released. Four albums were also released with the most recent one "Moonlight All Night" coming out in September 2013. His first single was the country folk tune "Mura no Yuubin Haitatsu" (Village Postal Delivery), a happy little ditty about writing a love letter and posting it in the mail. Ahh, those old-fashioned ways before SNS.😊

This time, though, it wasn't Yamamoto behind words or lyrics. Michio Yamagami（山上路夫）wrote the words while Hiroshi "Monsieru" Kamayatsu（かまやつひろし）, formerly of the Group Sounds band The Spiders（ザ・スパイダース）, took care of the melody. "Mura no Yuubin Haitatsu" first hit the record shelves in March 1972.

My condolences to Yamamoto's family and friends and fans.

Hiroshi Kamayatsu -- Nagisa no Yuuwaku（渚の誘惑）

 

I don't watch melodramas and from what I've read about this April 1978 movie "Nagisa no Shiroi Ie" (渚の白い家...The White House on the Beach), the movie sounds like it. The star Ruriko Asaoka（浅丘ルリ子）plays a woman in a marital crisis while living in Hawaii who's encouraged by a friend to carry out an affair.

Again, I'm not a fan of romantic dramas but I have to admit that I do like this song from the soundtrack for "Nagisa no Shiroi Ie", "Nagisa no Yuuwaku" (Beach Temptation). Composed by Hiroshi Kamayatsu（かまやつひろし）with arrangement by Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）, it does sound like typical background music for any Japanese TV drama but it still makes for some peaceful and easy listening to any AOR fan. My compliments to the flutist and the bluesy guitarist, especially. Plus, I think that's either Kamayatsu or Hayashi putting in his voice near the end although I don't know who's ultimately responsible for the whistling.

Pedro & Capricious -- Yoru no Carnival（夜のカーニバル）

 

On "Kayo Kyoku Plus" in 2013, I put up an article on the Latin/jazz band Pedro & Capricious（ペドロ＆カプリシャス）for their debut single, the dramatic "Wakare no Asa" (別れの朝）from October 1971 with the first vocalist for the group, Yoko Maeno（前野曜子）, at the helm. It certainly made a mark for the band right off the bat by hitting No. 1 and ending up as the 8th-ranked single for 1972.

The B-side to "Wakare no Asa" is no slouch, either, as it turns out. Never thought that the combination of an electric guitar and a flute could create such a boss sound but that's what starts "Yoru no Carnival" (Night Carnival). When I first heard this, I had assumed as with "Wakare no Asa", it was a Japanese cover of a tune by a non-Japanese singer and in this case, I thought the original act here was Sergio Mendes and his buddies.

Not at all. "Yoru no Carnival" does have that Brazil '66 feeling but it's actually a homegrown song with former Spiders' guitarist Hiroshi Kamayatsu（かまやつひろし）creating that rumbling rockin' samba melody and Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）, the lyricist for "Wakare no Asa", providing the words here as well. It's got quite enough oomph in there that I would have thought it an ideal theme song for some 1970s urban thriller, and man, does that flute have quite the solo. I also do love the harmony between Maeno and the rest of the group and at times, the song can get folks up on the stands to do their go-go.

Koh Suzuki -- Sa-Ra-Vah Street

It was actually quite refreshingly cool when I went out to get the paper this morning. That's a pleasant contrast with the blast furnace that we'd been receiving for the past couple of weeks, but of course, the summer is still young.

I've had this in the backlog for some time now. This would be singer-songwriter's Koh Suzuki's（鈴木こう）1982 album "Sa-Ra-Vah Street", and I'm not sure whether there is any connection between this and Yukihiro Takahashi's（高橋幸宏）1978 release "Sa-Ra-Vah!" but I can say that Suzuki's creation has now gotten my interest and attention following a listen to a few of its tracks.

Pretty much no information on Suzuki himself and just a little more with "Sa-Ra-Vah Street" in terms of who helped out. It's fortified with City Pop/J-AOR goodness thanks to certain people such as Hiroshi "Monsieur" Kamayatsu（かまやつひろし）who produced it, Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）who was behind the vocal arrangements and chorus, and musicians such as Akira Inoue（井上鑑）on keyboards and Tsuyoshi Kon & Masaki Matsubara（今剛・松原正樹）on guitar.

The first track "Welcome, Tokyo Night" bodes well for my listening pleasure. Starting off with Mike Dunn's bass groove which reminds me of the intro for AB'S "In the City Night", Suzuki (who sounds a bit like Al Stewart at the beginning) greets us with some sultry summer City Pop in early 1980s Tokyo. I can go for some of those hotel bar cocktails right now on the patio (although at the time, I was only eligible for Calpis) with that flowing sax solo. Man, to listen to this while I was walking the streets just outside of the Tokyo Prince Hotel back then.

"One Night Chance" is actually the first track that I heard from "Sa-Ra-Vah Street" and it was the one that got me to bookmark it. It's more on the rock side of AOR and is ideal for that midnight bombing down on the highway in the sports car (without attracting police attention). I do love that guitar work.

One more track that I will provide here is "Tameshi ni Dou Dai?"（試しにどうだい...How About Giving It A Shot?）, a happy-go-lucky hybrid of Doobie Brothers Bounce and City Pop chords. This also seems to be perfect for car stereo heaven, day or night. Maybe you can try it on a J-Utah YouTube driving video for Tokyo. By the way, although I couldn't confirm the songwriting details with "One Night Chance", the other two songs here were written and composed by Hiroshi Suzuki（鈴木浩）according to the JASRAC database. That first name kanji can also be pronounced as "Koh" so I'm assuming that is indeed the performer who's behind the songwriting, and he's not to be confused with Hiroshi Suzuki（鈴木弘）the trombonist who has his own article on KKP.

The above is the video for the entire album so give it a shot and tell me what you think. I will have to put this up on my Xmas wish list.

Hiroshi Kamayatsu -- Pineapple no Yukue e (パイナップルの彼方へ)

Can't consider myself a prolific baker but once in a while, I like to whip up some old-fashion Pineapple Upside-Down Cake for the family. Haven't done it since COVID-19 darkened our shores, but perhaps I can do it again in the near future.

A few weeks ago, I was given a recommendation by Rocket Brown from Come Along Radio, and it was a surprising one. From 1978-1979, the late Hiroshi "Monsieur" Kamayatsu（かまやつひろし）provided 4 albums for Trio Records, and half of them were releases based on the AOR genre.

All this time, I had seen the congenial Kamayatsu on TV for years and knew him as an ever-grinning tarento and a musician from the Group Sounds period via The Spiders and then as someone who embraced folk and rock (maybe one of the New Music pioneers) going into the 1970s. However, I'd had no idea that he also headed into Margaritaville later that decade. Indeed he did, though, with "Walk Again" in 1978, and then this album the following year, "Pineapple no Yukue e" (Up In The Pineapple).

I was only going to talk about the first track, "Do You Wanna Ride" but then ended up listening to the next three tracks since I got rather entranced by them. As for "Do You Wanna Ride", which was composed by Monsieur and written by Yutaka Hoshi（星豊）, it's indeed him singing in both English and Japanese, and I swear that he could be singing about that front cover showing the beach and the palm trees as he invites the listener to come along with him in his wonderful world. That cover is so AOR-friendly (including the lettering) that I had a huge craving to buy a hammock from Canadian Tire (curbside pickup, of course).

Batting second at 3:28 is "No No Boy" which is a song that had originally been recorded by him and the rest of The Spiders back in the 1960s. This cover version takes on a more upbeat but just-as-gentle feeling when compared to what I think is a more melancholy original. At 6:13, "No No Boy" gets quickly shuffled off for Track 3, "Gentle Wind", a brief instrumental composed by Ken Morimura（森村献）. that begins with that 1970s City Pop/AOR trope of the Haze riff, but I think the melody has got a bit more of a funky breeze kicking about in there with a little wacka-wacka for good measure.

Finally at 8:05 is "Summer Love Again" which seems to contain a hint of Neil Sedaka and Akira Terao（寺尾聡）. This is another short-and-sweet track with perhaps a little City Pop in the arrangement which will have the libations flowing under the beachfront umbrellas. Takeshi Shima（島武実）this time provided the lyrics for Kamayatsu's mellow melody.

Indeed this is some fine Resort Pop for folks who want to listen to something summery and relaxing. Referring back to my second paragraph about showing some surprise that Kamayatsu did embrace his inner AOR, I think that surprise should be curbed somewhat because of course he wasn't the only one to do so. People who were involved in 1970s folk such as Iruka（イルカ）and bassist Kingo Hamada（濱田金吾）from Craft（クラフト）also took their 1980s plunge into City Pop/AOR through "Follow Me" and "midnight cruisin'" respectively.

Light House/Rei Nakanishi & Kazumi Yasui with Hiroshi Kamayatsu/Miki Imai -- Hatachi no Koro（ニ十才の頃）

Once in a while, I come across a song purely by accident that gives me the thrill up my spine or the warm and fuzzies or as they seem to call it on YouTube now, ASMR!

This particular song popped up from YouTuber Marty McFlies' account (for which I'm grateful) and at first when I took a look at the thumbnail image, I'd assumed that it was a severed arm holding a bloody tissue.💀 Perhaps it was a punk album, I thought. However and thankfully, I did realize that it was indeed an extended arm grabbing onto an orchid.

The cover was actually one for the 1984 album "A-bec" by Light House which was a side project consisting of one-half of the brother act Bread & Butter（ブレッド&バター）, vocalist Satsuya Iwasawa（岩沢幸矢）, and his wife, pop singer MANNA, aka Mariko Iwasawa（岩沢真利子）, according to the J-Wiki article on the long-running duo. One of the tracks on "A-bec" is "Hatachi no Koro" (When I was Twenty), and it's this relaxing orange mimosa-friendly synthpop song with an infusion of bossa nova. As I mentioned above, I received that ASMR buzz as I was listening to whom I'm assuming is indeed MANNA (I couldn't find out for sure if Light House was just the Iwasawas or if there were other vocalist members involved). I don't know what the rest of "A-bec" is like...whether it's all synthpop or if "Hatachi no Koro" represented one of a number of genres on the first of two albums that Light House released (the other one being called "Box Seat").

After listening to "Hatachi no Koro" on "A-bec", I soon found out that this was actually a cover version of the original song from the late Hiroshi "Monsieur" Kamayatsu's（かまやつひろし）February 1970 album "Monsieur/Kamayatsu Hiroshi no Sekai"（ムッシュー/かまやつひろしの世界...Monsieur/The World of Hiroshi Kamayatsu）. Composed by Kamayatsu and written by Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）& Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）, the two lyricists even performed "Hatachi no Koro" along with Monsieur, a song of remembering one's youthful follies way back when. The bossa is still happily in there and considering the era, there is that sense of the genre's pioneers such as Jobim and Mendes.

Chanteuse Miki Imai（今井美樹）knows her way around a bossa nova tune and so it's no surprise that she also covered "Hatachi no Koro" as a coupling song for her 25th single "Toshishita no Suifu"（年下の水夫...The Younger Seaman）released in October 2006. There's some more jazz included in this version and Imai's vocals fairly wind themselves around the melody like a silk veil. Imai's cover is also included in her 2006 17th album "Milestone" which peaked at No. 35 on Oricon.

Hiroshi Kamayatsu -- Seishun Banka（青春挽歌）

I gave another listen to CD 1 of veteran composer Kyohei Tsutsumi's（筒美京平）50th anniversary tribute album last night, and once again, it was good to hear the old kayo.

Over the past several months, I've peppered the Tsutsumi file with some of the songs from the album such as Ox's "Swan no Namida"（スワンの涙）and Zariba's（ザリバ）"Aru Hi"（或る日）, and here is another interesting entry by the late musician Hiroshi Kamayatsu（かまやつひろし）.

"Seishun Banka" (Elegy of Youth) was Kamayatsu's 5th single as a solo artist following the end of his old Group Sounds band The Spiders（ザ・スパイダース）and it was released in November 1972. With the help of the harmonica at the start, Kamayatsu sings a bittersweet (happily more on the sweeter side) folksy ballad that's so reassuring and tender like the 10 oz. sirloin that I had almost a couple of weeks ago. The cover of the single perfectly matches the mood of Tsutsumi's melody and for that matter, Yu Aku's（阿久悠）lyrics about a woman going through love and life through the representation of the four seasons. It's short and very sweet, but happily, even though the message is that youth goes by quicker than people would hope, there is still a measure of contentedness at the end as a full adult.

Hiroshi Kamayatsu/Kiyohiko Ozaki -- Dounika Naru sa (どうにかなるさ)

Amazon.com

In the early days of television in North America when variety shows were a common occurrence over the airwaves, viewers tended to treat the celebrities virtually like extended members of the family. There was comedian Milton Berle who everyone called Uncle Milty since he was a welcome weekly visitor and then there was the legendary newscaster Walter Cronkite who was known as The Most Trusted Man in America and could pretty much seat himself around any table at any household. Basically, the variety show performers and other television personalities were familiar presences. However all that changed starting from the 1970s when variety shows started going extinct for the most part.

But for those who know Japanese TV, the phenomenon never died. Variety shows in all their various forms have continued to thrive, and the tarento and comedians and announcers come into viewers' homes almost on a daily, let alone weekly, basis. That also includes musicians and bands whose shelf life may have come to an end so that they made the transition into familiar tube presences.

During my fascination with the medium, there was one fellow who popped up from time to time. His name was Hiroshi "Monsieur" Kamayatsu（かまやつひろし）and he was a guitarist for the Group Sounds band The Spiders（ザ・スパイダース）. A couple of his bandmates, Masaaki Sakai and Jun Inoue（堺正章・井上順）, have become those extended family members of Japan through their various hosting and guesting and acting duties over the decades. Kamayatsu didn't appear as much since he stayed with his music but there was no way that he could be forgotten. He struck a very unique appearance with his long straggly hair and that wool cap which often covered his head right down to his eyes. Plus, he had that wide and gentle smile. I sometimes wondered whether Totoro had been based on Monsieur. In any case, it took me some years to realize his relationship with Sakai and Inoue but in the meantime, I saw him as that somewhat eccentric but cool uncle who would enter our homes once in a while after another set of adventures.

A few days ago, I saw a photo of him online somewhere and it wasn't a very happy picture which struck me as being very atypical. It was also sadly prophetic for me since I read a few hours ago that Kamayatsu had passed away yesterday from cancer at the age of 78. On Twitter, I kept seeing tweets about the man along with the letters "RIP" and I just went "Aw, man...". A welcome member of the TV and music families has left for greener pastures.

Kamayatsu had started his career about a year before joining The Spiders and of course, after the Group Sounds band had broken up in 1970, he went back to his solo career. His first solo single at the tail end of his time with The Spiders was "Dounika Naru sa" (Somehow It'll Work Out) which was released in April 1970.

"Dounika Naru sa" is a wistful folk song about a fellow who's gotten tired of his old life and has decided to leave the city without any sort of plan to guide him. Riding that train out, he assures himself that things will work out in the end. It's different from the usual kayo about getting homesick and scratching that itch to head back home; the fellow in this song may head back home or perhaps home is also not the answer. Whatever he decides, he will do so on his own.

Considering that Kamayatsu has just died, listening to "Dounika" has probably left quite a few more pangs to the heart for his fans and those who were used to seeing him on television. The guitarist created the song while Michio Yamagami（山上路夫）wrote the lyrics. It peaked at No. 50 on Oricon. The song was also a track on the February 1970 album "Tora 70619" (トラ70619) by the group Sally & Shiro (サリー&シロー) which consisted of the two brothers who had been members of another prominent Group Sounds band The Tigers（ザ・タイガース）, Shuzo and Shiro Kishibe（岸部修三・岸部シロー）. Apparently according to J-Wiki, Kamayatsu, who had also been a country music fan, got his inspiration for the song from Hank Williams' "Lonesome Whistle" from 1951. It was also recorded on a 1971 Spiders' album following their breakup, "Dounika Naru sa/Album No. 2".

In that same year, Kiyohiko Ozaki（尾崎紀世彦）did a cover of "Dounika" for his album "Kiyohiko Ozaki Album No. 4"（尾崎紀世彦 アルバムNo.4）. The country feeling was even more pronounced in this version and Ozaki seemed to have reined in his boomer of a voice here which was appropriate. It's ironic about his contribution here since I think the late singer was the first singer mentioned in the blog for whom I did a tribute soon after his passing.

I'm pretty sure that there will be some mention of him tomorrow on NHK and perhaps some tribute to him on a future "Uta Kon" (うたコン). My condolences to his family and friends. And what I only found out a few hours ago was that he was cousins with folk singer Ryoko Moriyama（森山良子）, and his father was jazz singer Tib Kamayatsu（ティーブ・釜萢）.

Miki Imai -- Lluvia

Miki Imai -- Lluvia

"Lluvia"(Spanish for rain) is Miki Imai's（今井美樹） 6th album, released in September 1991. I missed getting this album just by a couple of months since I had headed back to Canada from the JET Programme. Kicked myself in the keester for the bad timing, but I was able to get it through the old "Eye-Ai" mail order page the next year. And glad I did, too. Coming after her glorious 5th album, "Retour", "Lluvia" was a continuation of that wonderful early Miki Imai sound. I was thinking about using the word, "epilogue" to describe the album, but I thought that would be giving it short shrift since it doesn't feel like a disc of musically tying up loose ends here.

The reason that that early Imai feel comes through the album is because Imai's compadres from her late 80s and early 90s period come back again. Singer-songwriters Chika Ueda（上田千華） and Akemi Kakihara（柿原朱美） put in their contributions as does lyricist Yuuho Iwasato（岩里祐穂）, and a number of the musicians from past albums come in like drummer Jun Aoyama（青山純） and guitarist Tsuyoshi Kon（今剛）. 

My favourite song on the album is the title track itself. Written by Imai and composed by MAYUMI (Reimy's older sister), I love the intro and what has been called in the liner notes for the song, the "Rambu de Lluvia"instrument by Fernando Shimizu, which sounds like a pan flute. It reminds me of the sound from the very first Imai song I'd heard a few years earlier, "Natsu wo Kasanete"（夏をかさねて）. Thematically, it's classic Imai. The song is post-breakup with the singer wondering how her former beau is doing although she and presumably him have gone on with their lives. It's another calming tea-sipping tune.

Another Imai custom is to have a bossa nova-style song in her albums, and so here is "Tea For Two"...makes for a nice segue from my tea-sipping remark in the last paragraph. Imai was behind the lyrics here as well, but the composer (although the J-Wiki article has the Antonio Carlos Jobim responsible for music and lyrics with Kamayatsu adapting it and Imai translating the words) was Hiroshi 'Monsieur' Kamayatsu（かまやつひろし）, a frequent visitor on TV and former member of the Group Sounds band, The Spiders way back when. This time, the words are much less bittersweet with the couple involved much more in thrall with each other.

The very first song from this album that I heard was actually "Plus Alpha"（プラスα）, an atypically funky number for Imai written by Yuuho Iwasato and composed by the bassist on the song, Jun Sato（佐藤準）. I heard this being played in a CD shop just in the last couple of days before my departure from Narita; took me a bit of time to realize it was Imai singing this. Lyrically, this might be the more raunchy Saturday night in Roppongi compared to the sunny Sunday morning of "Tea For Two".

Whatever you do, do NOT play this song after a breakup involving you or anyone else. May cause excess dehydration via the lacrymal ducts. I couldn't ask for a more epic crying song from Miki Imai than "Egao"（笑顔...Smile）. Written by Iwasato and composed by Chika Ueda, Imai's delivery here, depending on my general mood, can get a lump to form in my throat the size of a a tangerine. This seems to be a field that Imai excels at singing about....having to break up a wonderful relationship and still missing each other greatly but offering that smile in the faint hope that the two will meet again. Tissues....double ply!

For the 2nd album in a row, none of the songs on the album were ever made into single releases, but it became the first Imai album since "Bewith" in 1988 to hit the top spot on Oricon and managed to become the 13th-ranked album for 1991 despite the relatively late release date, selling a little over 750,000 copies. As I mentioned at the top, I eschewed calling "Lluvia" an epilogue of "Retour". However, the album did signify an ending of things, namely the soft tea-friendly sound of her early years, something that hasn't been lost on Imai fans....in the Japanese social networking site, Mixi, there are Miki Imai communities but there is also one that emphasizes those early years from 1986 to 1991 for which I am a citizen. Her sound underwent changes from her next album, and although I have enjoyed a number of her tunes from that time onward, for me, it will always be those years mentioned that will be my favourite time when it comes to her.

http://www.amazon.co.jp/Lluvia-%E4%BB%8A%E4%BA%95%E7%BE%8E%E6%A8%B9/dp/B00005G5J7

(excerpts only)