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, spring officially arrived at 10:46 am this morning. The problem here in Toronto is that everyone got the memo except for spring itself. It's been a cold and dreary day with freezing rain intermittently falling as I type this.
Ahh...that is just meteorological life in the largest city in Canada. Anyways, let's go to something more hopeful and cheerful. The uploader for the above video stated that he first heard singer-songwriter Issei Endo's（円道一成）"Kono Mama Truly" (Just Like This, Truly) on some late-night TV commercial as a jingle for something alcoholic. Not a bad thing to hear in the overnight hours. I could actually happily fall back into La-La Land listening to this or stay up savoring the music in my head.
Yup, I do like "Kono Mama Truly" which was released as a single in January 1986 (kinda like the "Miami Vice" threads there, Issei), according to Discogs. The singer was behind words and music with Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）providing the arrangement which hints at some old-time wonderful Motown soul. Maybe it is truly meant to be enjoyed along with some libations.
I've seen the cover for singer-songwriter Issei Endo's（円道 一成）1984 album"RUN TO LIVE, LIVE TO RUN" in the book "Japanese City Pop", and I've thought that with that title and Endo looking cool in that baggy jacket against the violet sky, this could have been the ideal ad for Nike shoes.
The commercial would have been amazing especially with the title track which serves as the first song on Side B of the original LP. The fact that it's a City Pop song hits the listener right from Note One and the coolness factor kicks in with the battery of brass and keyboards as Endo sings away. Written by Taihei Tomosada（友貞 太平）, composed by Endo and arranged by Kazuo Shiina（椎名和夫）, I've managed to listen to "RUN TO LIVE, LIVE TO RUN" three times straight without losing the aural flavour. Even at the fair-enough time of four minutes and thirteen seconds, I sorta wish that the song could have been a little longer with the horns playing some more.
I'm not sure who was playing on the title track but the album certainly has a lot of big names helping out in the recording including drummer Jun Aoyama（青山純）, Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）on guitar and keyboards, saxophonist Jake H. Concepcion, trumpeter Shin Kazuhara（数原晋）and Makoto Matsushita（松下 誠）as part of the chorus. It's been a few years since I posted an Endo article; you can take a listen to his "Try Again" that I put up back in 2021.
"Try Again" is a 1985 single and the title track for Issei Endo's（円道一成）album that was used as the ending theme song for Fuji-TV's"Sports Tengoku"（スポーツ天国...Sports Heaven）, and considering the title and the overall arrangement, I gather that it was the ideal tune for a sports-based program. It could have been pretty good for the Olympics, too.
In comparison with the happy soul of "Yoishirete Deja Vu"（酔いしれてDeja Vu） that I wrote about back in January 2020, "Try Again" is some aural encouragement of pop/rock which whips up images of athletes getting up, dusting themselves off and heading back into the saddle again after a disappointing loss. No surprise that it starts off slowly with building anticipation before zipping down the track, and there's something about the song that reminds me of Motoharu Sano（佐野元春）.
According to the JASRAC database, "Try Again" was written by Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）and composed by Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）.
Well, we've got the makings of a humongous storm headed our way over this weekend which could dump us with as much as 50 mm of precipitation tomorrow. That's more rainfall than we usually get in a month. Not much fun, to be sure, and with the temperature hovering close to zero, there could be a lot of ice buildup leading to possible power outages. As well, I've got my first lesson of the year with my Skype student plus a long-awaited talk with JTM right after on the same platform. I've given both of my friends the fair warning about what could disrupt communications on Saturday.
Friday night is of course City Pop/AOR night, and to help me forget about the first major attack of weather for 2020, I got something very jaunty and soulful. Taking a gander at the cover for Issei Endo's（円道一成）1984 album (his 3rd)"Run to Live, Live to Run", the fellow looks like a very young Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）. The title meanwhile reads like a slogan for Nike shoes.
One of the tracks is "Yoishirete Deja Vu"(Drunken Deja Vu), a shoulder-shimmying and easy-on-the-ears Motown-esque number about a guy having some liquid assistance to get out his feelings for the woman he cares for. From the title of the song, it sounds like that he may have relied on the good stuff a number of times. Written by Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）and composed by Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）, Tats himself is on the guitar, and while Endo is pouring out his soul, that horn section is sounding really good.
The whole soulful album, in fact, is packed with music goodness. Along with Yamashita, Jun Aoyama（青山純）and Ponta Murakami（村上秀一）helped out on drums, Yuji Toriyama（鳥山雄二）and Kunio Muramatsu（村松邦男）were also on guitars, Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）was on keyboards, Shin Kazuhara（数原晋）and his horns pitched in, Jake Concepcion was there on sax, and Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）even lent his voice on background vocals.
You can lend an ear to the entire album, if you wish, thanks to Kimi no Station.
From what I've found about Endo is that he was born in 1954 in Kobe, and his hobbies include riding the Harley and watching Brian DePalma movies. What he doesn't like is green peas! Influenced by Wilson Pickett, he made his debut in 1979.
