Naomi Chiaki -- Watashi to Iu Onna（私という女）

 

NHK's long-running music program "Uta Con"（うたコン）is provided through three viewings on Jme, the first live show at around 7 am Tuesday morning Toronto time and then two reruns later in the day. I have breakfast in the dining area around the corner from the TV so I can only listen to what's being performed for the first several minutes of "Uta Con". 

Mom noted that the show this week was being broadcast in a Japanese house setup which was rather unusual. Usually it's held on the grand stage at NHK's Shibuya studio in Tokyo or at the Osaka equivalent in front of a live audience, but it looks like for some reason, it was one of those rare bottle shows with just a few guests and a lot of old VTR clips. Maybe NHK Shibuya was undergoing major cleaning or something and the Osaka studio was booked for some other event.

The themes of today's show was a glance back at the 1974 Kohaku Utagassen and a tribute to the wonderful singer Naomi Chiaki（ちあきなおみ）. She's been away from the limelight for over 30 years now, but when she was active for that time starting from the 1960s, she cut quite the figure: smoky voice, sad brown eyes and that full head of hair. 

One new song that I discovered during the NHK tribute was "Watashi to Iu Onna" (A Woman Like Me) which was her 8th single from June 1971. Written by Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）and composed by Jun Suzuki（鈴木淳）, who had been her composer for all of her singles up to this one, it's a fairly lighthearted, perhaps even a bit flippant, kayo kyoku about a lady who may have seen another one of the good guys slip through her fingers while hinting through the title itself that she's one of those women who has seen this situation all too often. 

I really like this live version below because the arranger really amped up the brass. But even with the original, there is the appealingly skippy rhythm and those shimmery strings. By the way, "Watashi to Iu Onna" was her ticket to perform on the Kohaku Utagassen in that year of 1971. Of course, the following year would have her perform her most famous song on that New Year's Eve special.

Aki Yashiro/Naoko Ken -- Tomoshibi（ともしび）

 

I've noticed that I hadn't been covering any of the 1970s kayo kyoku all that much recently...not that I've been intentionally snubbing the songs from that decade; it just turned out that way.

So, luckily, I've encountered this atmospheric piece by the late Aki Yashiro（八代亜紀）titled "Tomoshibi" (The Light) which was the singer's 11th single from May 1975. Delivered softly and wistfully by the singer, if I've read the lyrics by Keiko Yuuki（悠木圭子）correctly, "Tomoshibi" deals with a woman in agony because her former significant other may be on his last legs and the light in him is slowly fading away. It's a nice nostalgic kayo to listen to because I can't quite qualify it in any one genre. I can get the regular kayo but also I feel that it has two other limbs in Mood Kayo and enka at the same time. My compliments to composer and arranger Jun Suzuki（鈴木淳）, especially when it comes to the sharp trumpet. The song reached No. 10 on Oricon and became the 35th-ranked single of the year.

Later in December that year, singer-actress Naoko Ken（研ナオコ）released her 3rd album "Guzu"（愚図...Indecisive） in which most of the tracks were covers of songs including Yashiro's "Tomoshibi". Her take is more along the straight pop line with a twangy guitar replacing the trumpet and some shimmering strings. What stands out for me is that Ken's usually smoky and world-weary vocals come across higher and more emotional.

Betty & Petty -- Sasowarete Scandal（誘われてスキャンダル）/Chianti -- Ano Hito no Ashioto（あの人の足音）

 

On this Saturday night, we once again dive into the mountain of obscure 80s aidoru, and just to let you know right off the bat, the title above doesn't refer to two different aidoru groups but the same one with a name change.

Many years ago, I wrote up an article on a late 1970s aidoru group called Gyaru（ギャル）and over there I gave the lineup of the original members. However, there was one addition when one of those originals had left in 1978. Akiyo Nakaseko（中世古明代）joined up for that brief remaining time until Gyaru called it a day in 1979. But then in 1980, Nakaseko partnered with Kyoko Tsuda（津田京子）to form the aidoru duo Betty & Petty（ベティ＆ペティ）.

Betty & Petty put out a debut single in July 1980 titled "Sasowarete Scandal" (Invite Me, Scandal) which starts off with a streak of sky-high West Coast AOR before changing to a bit of Candies-like summery aidoru music, especially when the harmonies pour on in to sing out "scandal". Kaoru Ito（伊藤薫）was responsible for both words and music. 

Following their second single, though, Betty & Petty changed their name to Chianti（キャンティ）. Not sure whether the name change into that of an Italian wine meant a similar transformation in their style but I have to admit on listening to the B-side, "Ano Hito no Ashioto" (His Footsteps), of their 1983 5th single "Shirakattano"（知らなかったの...I Didn't Know）, it was quite the change at least for this particular song. Instead of channeling Candies, Nakaseko and Tsuda opted for the less cutesy and more elegant stylings of an older duo, The Peanuts（ピーナッツ）. In fact, I've even decided to also categorize "Ano no Ashioto" as a Mood Kayo because of that arrangement. The lyrics were written by Mieko Arima（有馬三恵子）and the music was provided by Jun Suzuki（鈴木淳）.

According to "Idol.ne.jp", there was one more single in 1984 by Chianti before they broke up. I'm not certain whether the duo produced an album.

Aki Yashiro -- Shinobi Koi（しのび恋）

 

Woof! It's been a very long time since I put up an Aki Yashiro（八代亜紀）article with her as the solo subject. Maybe the most recent one was "Mou Ichido Aitai" (もう一度逢いたい) that was written up in July 2016, so yeah, it'll be five years.

This time, though, I have her 7th single from January 1974, "Shinobi Koi" (Secret Love). Ultimately, I've categorized this song by the husky-voiced Yashiro as an enka tune although it has that bluesy saxophone which I usually place with Mood Kayo. The rest of the arrangement makes "Shinobi Koi", a song about the struggles of keeping a romance quiet from the world around the couple, somewhat more delicate and innocent. So it's not so much of a drink-and-dance in a hidden watering hole or a tryst in a hotel but perhaps more of an affair being kept sub rosa within a small town. Certain instruments such as the strings keep things quite light and wistful.

Lyricist Keiko Yuuki（悠木圭子）and composer Jun Suzuki（鈴木淳）were behind the creation of "Shinobi Koi" which peaked at No. 13 and ended up as the 46th-ranked single of 1974. 

As often as has been the case for many a kayo, "Shinobi Koi" ended up getting the film treatment as part of the "Yoru no Enka"（夜の演歌...Night Enka） series which includes movies that have been based upon hit kayo. Released in April 1974, its English-language title is far more sinister: "A Blood Stained Love Affair".

Yukari Ito -- Ano Hito no Ashioto（あの人の足音）

Last month, I had put out an APB on that mysterious song that Yukari Ito（伊東ゆかり）had performed on what was probably a B-movie spy caper titled "Five Golden Dragons". Despite doing some searching, I still haven't been able to nail down the identity of that song, and so I'm thinking that maybe it was indeed just something that had been put together for just that movie. Perhaps it doesn't even have an officially-known title. But let's see what the future holds.

As I was doing that initial search via YouTube and J-Wiki, I tried out this September 1967 single by Ito titled "Ano Hito no Ashioto" (That Man's Footsteps). As it turned out, it wasn't the song from "Five Golden Dragons" but it has a similarly romantic Mood Kayo tone with some fine brass.

Written by Mieko Arima（有馬三恵子）and composed by Jun Suzuki（鈴木淳）, "Ano Hito no Ashioto" is a slightly mournful ballad about a woman who misses the love of her life dearly and knows him so well that she can peg him just from the sound of his footsteps. No idea about what happened to the lad but regrettably for Ito, it sounds like he may be gone for good. I can just envisage her standing at the end of some foggy pier at night, just to bring in that well-worn Mood Kayo trope.

Aki Yashiro -- Namida Koi （なみだ恋）

This was another track on that compilation CD of Mood Kayo I purchased in the last few weeks. But Aki Yashiro's（八代亜紀）"Namida Koi" (Tearful Love) is one of those strange creations in that it doesn't sound like a pure Mood Kayo although that boozy saxophone is in there and the setting is the bar-filled alleyways of Shinjuku. Jun Suzuki's（鈴木淳）melody sounds remarkably light for a Mood Kayo; listening to this, I would have been expecting a cup of hojicha instead of a tumbler of Old Parr. Those strings seem to take the song and Yashiro into countryside enka territory hinting at a more positive outcome to the romantic relationship playing away.

Former actress Keiko Yuuki（悠木圭子）was responsible for the lyrics for Yashiro's 4th single which became her first big hit when it was released in February 1973. It peaked at No. 12 on the Oricon weeklies and punched her first ticket to the Kohaku Utagassen that year.

Naomi Chiaki -- Ame ni Nureta Bojou （雨に濡れた慕情）

I came across Naomi Chiaki's（ちあきなおみ）debut song by accident tonight as I was watching NHK's "Kayo Concert". "Ame ni Nureta Bojou"(A Rain-Soaked Yearning) was a surprisingly deeply bluesy beginning to the 21-year-old Chiaki's career, but then again, before breaking into the limelight, she had been performing on US army bases, jazz cafes and cabaret clubs, so a lot of that maturity that went into her debut song was well-earned. "Ame ni Nureta Bojou" was released in June 1969; it was written by Oh Yoshida（吉田旺）and composed by Jun Suzuki（鈴木淳）. Yoshida would also later write Chiaki's trademark song, "Kassai"（喝采）, in 1972.