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.
Showing posts with label Junichi Inagaki. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Junichi Inagaki. Show all posts
Nothing like a cool City Pop ballad to add that sensation of drama and urban contemporary refinement to any commercial about tires...in this case, Yokohama Rubber (try 1:50 of the above video of TV ads). Well, after all, tires are integral parts of cars and cars are literally the vehicles for some good City Pop.
I'm talking about Junichi Inagaki's（稲垣潤一）"Blue Jean Pierrot" (A Clown in Blue Jeans). His 8th single from March 1985, this is a downright bitter ballad about being tossed aside from a relationship with the paramour feeling like the title. It's too bad since the song has a cool and measured tone before the flowing chorus...something good for the highway. Written by Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）, composed by Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）and arranged by Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）, "Blue Jean Pierrot" reached No. 30 on Oricon. The song also found itself on Inagaki's May 1985 release "No Strings" which peaked at No. 3 on the album charts.
Happy Monday! Well, the third Monday of July has already passed in Japan but they did celebrate a long weekend culminating in the national holiday of "Umi no Hi" or Marine Day (or Sea Day or Ocean Day). I was watching the NHK news footage of kids and grownups hitting the sea and having oodles of fun while the heat wave bombarded on them. And so I figured about whether I actually had done a tribute to the national holiday. As it turned out, I did do a tribute back in 2023, also on the third Monday of July.
But I still wouldn't let the idea of another Author's Picks go. So thanks to a J-Wiki entry called "Umi wo Daizai to Shita Gakkyoku"（海を題材とした楽曲...Songs Themed on the Sea）, I was able to find some more ocean-frolicking-themed tunes that I had already written about way back when. Without further ado then:
I would expect that there may still be a number of Canadians enjoying their Holiday vacations in the Caribbean for at least a few more days before they have to come back to the bitter cold and work come Monday. Allow them to enjoy the warmth and good feelings for a little while longer.
This is a fairly raucous song for Junichi Inagaki（稲垣潤一）in terms of the arrangement by Akira Inoue（井上鑑）. That percussion and beefy saxophone which start "Bahama Airport" can probably trigger a few tremors but they don't allow themselves to overwhelm Inagaki's tender vocals. It is definitely his style out there. "Bahama Airport" is the second track on the City Pop crooner's debut album"246:3AM" from July 1982. Kozo Endo（遠藤幸三）was the lyricist while Akira Mitake（見岳章）composed the summery happy melody.
It's been quite the rabbit hole over the past few weeks regarding singer-songwriter Maimi Tanaka（田中マイミ）. I first found out about her as the executive behind the theme song for the shopping emporium Don Quixote in Japan, and then I discovered that she once had a discography and a clientele of other singers including former Pink LadyKeiko Masuda（増田恵子）.
(Unfortunately the video has been taken down.)
Admittedly, her own discography is very small compared to the list of songs that she provided other singers. However, one song from her own list when she was known as Mami Tanaka（田中真美）was the pleasant title track from her sole 1981 album"Namida no Lonely Boy" (Lonely Boy in Tears). Written and composed by her, it's got the amiable country twang in the arrangement. Not sure how it did on the Oricon charts.
It's an obscure song to be sure, so I was surprised that it was selected as one of the tracks on Junichi Inagaki's（稲垣潤一）fifth album of his series of duet albums titled "Otoko to Onna 5"（男と女5...Men and Women 5）released in September 2015. With Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）as the arranger, this version of "Namida no Lonely Boy" has a more 50s or 60s pop feeling filtered through some percolating synths.
Inagaki's partner for "Namida no Lonely Boy" was none other than actress/singer/model Anna Tsuchiya（土屋アンナ）. I knew about her when I was living in Japan as someone with the personality of a tough lady who didn't suffer fools at all, but I'm a little surprised that she had yet to appear on "Kayo Kyoku Plus". She was mentioned once before in passing because I had done an article back in 2014 for Ringo Shiina & Neko Saito's（椎名林檎・斉藤ネコ）"Heisei Fuuzoku"（平成風俗）which was basically the soundtrack to the 2007 "Sakuran"（さくらん）, a movie starring Tsuchiya herself. In any case, although the above video has the full version of the duet, the music video below is truncated.
Lining up with masters like Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, needless to say but the songwriting sense of Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）is the biggest thing to listen for when it comes to the iconic "Long Version" which was contributed to Junichi Inagaki's（稲垣潤一）2nd album"Shylights". Additionally, Reiko Yukawa（湯川れい子）leaves quite an impression with phrases such as "I'd only wanted a single play, but before I knew it, I got the long version", and Akira Inoue（井上鑑）provides a splendid arrangement which really hits the mark.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised"(2020).
Well, c'mon...it was too tempting to resist. Christmas has arrived at the AI Gallery! I figure that Edition 1 will help start things off and perhaps in a month...on Xmas Eve itself...the second edition will have a few more songs. Plus, Kayo Grace Kyoku is just raring to go on those Yuletide parties.
Ahh...yes. Getting all moony-eyed are we? As a sequel to last night's J-Canuck's Favourite Ballads by Female Singers, I now have the male singers and their songs of love to finish things off.
I did a casual search and it looks like nobody has written anything about this song on Kayokyoku Plus yet so I'll give it a try.
Recently, I've listening to some old Cantonese pops from the 90s and somehow I have been hooked onto Leon Lai's (黎明) "Please don't leave tonight" (願你今夜別離去), which is a cover version of Inagaki Junichi's 稲垣潤一 Terminal Station 終着駅. And since I grew up in Hong Kong, I knew about the covered version first and it's only around 10 years ago that I knew it was originally a Japanese song.
I don't know if this is considered a city pop but it certainly sounds like a city pop to me. The lyrics also carries a heavy city vibe. It's a story about a couple who bid their last goodbye at the terminal station. However, there's an urban legend that if a couple separated at the terminal station, they'd definitely meet again one day at the starting station. That's what the man/woman (depending on your perspective when you listen) was thinking as he/she is walking back towards the starting station, while recalling their fond memories. Music was written by Matsumoto Toshiaki 松本俊明. And like many of Inagaki Junichi's songs, its lyrics was written by Akimoto Yasushi 秋元康. It was released in 1992 in the album called "Sketch of Heart".
To be honest, I actually like the arrangement of Leon Lai's covered version better, although it lost the city pop feel along with it. Here's the covered version. It's also the theme song of the Hong Kong TV drama "The Legendary Ranger" (原振俠) back in 1993.
I've often called crooning drummer and singer Junichi Inagaki（稲垣潤一）one of the princes of City Pop all these years, and he definitely has the flair for the urban contemporary.
However, I've also realized that Inagaki, through listening to his music, also has a love for the pop inspired from the 1950s and 1960s. I think one example is his "Memory Flickers", the penultimate track from his April 1989 album"Heart & Soul". The No. 1-ranking release has been labeled a City Pop album but "Memory Flickers" feels more like an homage to those earlier decades although the music seems to have been filtered as well through contemporary arrangements and synths.
Written by Masao Urino（売野雅勇）, those opening notes of "Memory Flickers" resemble the notes in the intro of Anri's（杏里）classic "Kanashimi ga Tomaranai" (悲しみがとまらない）, and perhaps this shouldn't be surprising since both songs were composed by the one-and-only Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）. Beyond those introductory bars though, Hayashi's arrangements take us through a mix of thrumming keyboards and what sounds like some Motown spice. Urino's lyrics talk about a man reminiscing about a love triangle years or decades ago in which he was one of the corners competing against one male corner for the hand of a female corner. Not sure who won but I get the feeling that the main man is feeling rather bittersweet about the experience. In any case, "Heart & Soul" ended 1989 as the 47th-ranked album.
It's been my wont from time to time that I have reported on the local weather so I guess that this will be my first report of 2024. Yesterday, we were going through our first major bout of meteorological instability with an ugly mixture of snow and rain. We survived it of course but for several hours, we had been worried about the power going out. Things are thankfully much improved today but there will be a more regular snowstorm hitting us on the weekend.
Well, after checking out a B-side to a very early Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）single in the previous article, and it's always intriguing to go back and seek out a long-established singer's embryonic works, I decided to take the same approach with another singer...this time, City Pop crooner Junichi Inagaki（稲垣潤一）. It's been several months since I posted one of his songs onto the blog, so I believe he's been due.
And indeed, I went with the B-side for Inagaki's debut single"Ame no Regret"（雨のリグレット）from January 1982 which I posted in the summer of 2013. "Higurashiyama" (Mount Higurashi) is quite the different animal from its accompanying A-side which is a mellow City Pop number. It's made by the same duo behind "Ame no Regret", lyricist Reiko Yukawa（湯川れい子）and composer Kazuhiko Matsuo（松尾一彦）from Off-Course（オフコース）, but "Higurashiyama" isn't an urban contemporary number at all. In fact, I would say that it's an ethereal love ballad on a true mountain in Hokkaido overlooking Lake Ohnuma and the way that Inagaki delivers it, it sounds as if it could have made for a theme song of some animated fairy tale.
Ironically, when I wrote about "Ame no Regret" back then, there had been a similar major storm in Toronto the day previously although it was a summer deluge.
Back in the summer of 2020 when the world was in the middle of the pandemic, I posted up the third in the series of "Happy Songs for Me"...those tunes that would get me in a better frame of mind just simply by listening to them. Well, yesterday I listened to a Junko Yagami（八神純子）favourite on YouTube, "Be My Best Friend" from 1980 and although I hadn't been in a dark place, I could immediately feel the glorious decompression setting in once I heard those golden bossa nova tones.
Looking at the comments below the video, I saw one Japanese person mention how kokochi yoi"Be My Best Friend" was. Of course, I don't really teach Japanese through the blog but in the interests of cultural exchange, kokochi yoi means "comfortable" or "pleasant". So, today I decided to start today's round of KKP posts with an Author's Pick on those comfy and relaxing songs. These ones can be different from the ones that I've picked on "Happy Songs for Me" (although there may be some overlapping) in that these don't so much energize me into bliss as they actually give me that ASMR feeling of "Ahhhhhh". More hammock than nightclub, you might say. Anyways without further ado and in no particular order, I give you the following tunes.
Perhaps knowing that City Pop is my favourite aspect of Japanese popular music, KKP readers may be wondering why I have yet to put up any Gosanke（御三家...The Big Three）, real or imagined, of City Pop singers male or female. The reason is that outside of Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）and perhaps Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）, it's awfully hard to come up with a triumvirate that wouldn't have me bashing my head on the computer for not including this particular guy or gal. And if I'm fighting myself, I'm sure that there would be plenty of fans who would be pelting me with their two cents' worth.
However, there is an out of this potential trap although it still breaks one basic rule of the Gosanke. Instead of three, there are four men in this Gosanke so it really ought to be called a Goyonke（御四家...The Big Four）. This particular grouping which was apparently real has stuck itself into my head for years after first seeing it in the J-Wiki articles for each of the four singers mentioned (and it's been cited in one music-based Ameba blog, "Cobalt Blue"). And these guys are mentioned because they once belonged under the Toshiba EMI umbrella in the 1980s. Singers Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）, Akira Inoue（井上鑑）, Junichi Inagaki（稲垣潤一）and Yudai Suzuki（鈴木雄大）were known as the New Wave Yon-nin Shuu (The New Wave 4).
I'm not particularly sure why Abe, Inoue, Inagaki and Suzuki were placed under New Wave considering what New Wave was all about in Western music in the 1980s. However, perhaps Toshiba EMI had thought that the four represented a truly new wave in adult contemporary music in comparison with the aidoru, enka and technopop that were also prevalent at the time. Regardless, I've placed 1982 in Labels since Abe and Inagaki were the last to debut in that year.
I'm going to be finishing off my usual Friday night group of four entries of a City Pop nature with one of the princes of the genre: Junichi Inagaki（稲垣潤一）. Whenever I listen to any of his arrangements, I often get that feeling of being in a bar of a metropolitan hotel nursing a drink or a sundae. 🍨
That's exactly the case with his fourth single"Escape" from March 1983. A song about a man who finds a woman's beauty so exquisite and blinding that he feels that he has to flee, I simply find myself in the old lobby of the Tokyo Prince Hotel. No woman that amazing there but the chairs are comfy.
The lyrics and arrangement were handled by Akira Inoue（井上鑑）while Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平） composed the basic melody. It sounds all very classy but with a fairly quick tempo and rhythm as if a convertible is needed to truly appreciate "Escape" while it's playing on the car stereo. "Escape" managed to peak at No. 19 on the Oricon weeklies and the song was also included in Inagaki's third album"J.I." from September. That album hit No. 2 and ended up as the 19th-ranked album for 1983.
About an hour ago, I completed an article describing what NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）had put out as their seasonally transitional songs, namely from summer to fall. I figured that today being September 1st, it was quite timely. I'd also wanted to include some of my own tunes but noting that Labels would get a little cranky at me, I opted to split it into two parts with this article taking care of my own picks.
Now for those KKP readers with eagle eyes and elephant memories, I did write up "J-Canuck's September Songs" almost a year ago, and yep along with the fact that those tunes all have the month included in their titles, they do have that feeling of fall as well. So I am not including any of those but feel free to check those out. Regardless, there are a few other songs off the top of my head that strike me as showing a change in the seasons, although I know that there are probably many more out there with that theme in mind.
That amazing "Whoooooo" at the beginning may as well lift me off my feet toward the door to autumn as described in the title. As I mentioned in the original article, folk/New Music group Higurashi's（日暮し）"Aki no Tobira" was a long-sought tune since I had no idea of the title or the group when I first heard a very badly recorded version of it off of "Sounds of Japan" decades ago. The whole song can actually induce me to inhale deeply for a relaxing breath of fresh air.
Another "Sounds of Japan" treat from years back, this song can also induce an ASMR response from its opening notes. "Aki no Kehai" also served as my introduction to the laidback sounds of Off-Course（オフコース） and I've never looked back. Although the lyrics are sad, the music feels like a gentle sweep of the arm leading me from summer to autumn.
Provided that the above video stays up, that thumbnail photo of an Eizin Suzuki illustration is the perfect shot of what "Natsu no Claxon" means to me. Maybe the only thing that could better it is more of a sunset sky signifying the end of the summer season. As with the above two selections, the background chorus just adds to the wistfulness of it all.
To be honest, until recently, I hadn't thought about "Seasons of Change" as a tune to mark the transition from summer to fall. However, Sing Like Talking is a great band, they make great music, and "Seasons of Change" just from the title alone kinda sparked off all sorts of alerts in my head when I was thinking of this particular list. It is quite a bit more dramatic than the above three, to be sure. Very TOTO and early Supertramp, perhaps.
If you have any particular choices of your own, please let me know.👍
Having done my usual self-imposed quota of four urban contemporary tunes today, I was quite ready to call it a day on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", but having just completed a Skype lesson with my friend that got me all buoyed up, I did feel like putting this particular article up as a fifth contribution for Friday. Plus, I've been itching to do this Kenny Loggins song as a ROY piece for some weeks now. Another reason is that in the past few weeks, I've observed that Loggins has been getting that love again from Hollywood via "Danger Zone" returning to the "Top Gun" sequel and "Footloose" making a surprising, hilarious and super cool appearance in the third season of "The Umbrella Academy".
However, those two Loggins hits were his rock n' roll tunes later in the 1980s, and my favourite song by this well-coiffed singer-songwriter from Washington State is purely in the AOR genre. Yep, I'm talking about "Heart to Heart", his November 1982 single that came from his September album "High Adventure".
All these years, I'd assumed that "Heart to Heart", one of my favourite songs in any genre and language, was something from the late 1970s by Loggins so it was some surprise that it actually came out in the early 1980s. It was such a regular presence on my radio and it currently still is one of those soft rock classics that manage to send a thrill up and down my spine from intro to outro. It's amazing about the combination of fellows who came up with "Heart to Heart": Loggins, Canadian music royalty David Foster and Doobie Brothers' Michael McDonald, and together they created this love song of second chances and keeping the faith. All three, by the way, already have their representations on the blog, including Loggins' cover of Pages'"Who's Right, Who's Wrong".
"Heart to Heart" may be a love song but whenever I hear this one, I always think of a Cessna flying over the Grand Canyon at sunset. Pure freedom and joy! It's got a lot of wonderfully mixed influences in there: the elegance and romanticism from Loggins' alternately sultry/soaring vocals and the shimmering strings, David Sanborn's downtown saxophone solo, and McDonald's and Foster's funky/groovy keyboard work. I make it a point to listen to it now and then just to remind myself that amazingly moving music still exists here.
The song hit No. 1 and No. 3 on the Canadian and US Adult Contemporary charts respectively. I've actually talked about "Heart to Heart" before on my "Radio Influences (City Pop/AOR)" article back in 2018 before I started up Reminiscings of Youth, and there are a few songs in that list which have become ROY articles since then along with at least one more song that will be getting its own ROY treatment in the near future. I felt that like those, "Heart to Heart" needed its own article since it is such a beloved reminiscing song from my youth.
One final reason that I've put up "Heart to Heart" is that the three Japanese songs that are following this paragraph are all from the similar City Pop/J-AOR genres. I think that's the first time that's ever happened in a ROY article. To be precise, these are all singles that made their premiere in November 1982.
Not quite a month ago, I put up an article talking about J-AOR crooner Junichi Inagaki's（稲垣潤一）6th BEST compilation album from December 1990, "TRANSIT". Because of the two discs containing oodles of his past hits, I decided then to focus on the first disc for that article, and as such, today we'll be taking a look at some of his stuff from Disc 2. As was the case with Disc 1, there are a few tracks here that I've covered in individual articles and I'll probably be leaving a few more here for their own articles in the future.
To be honest, when I first listened to "Ai no Super Magic" (Love is the Super Magic), I was caught a bit off-guard by that opening salvo of the title but when I got used to that particular greeting, I found the song pretty comfortable with that hint of Caribbean and Bacharach. The songwriting team of lyricist Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）and composer Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）was responsible for this non-single track that was originally included in Inagaki's 6th studio album"Realistic" from March 1986. The album was a No. 1 hit for the singer and ended up as the No. 16 album of the year.
Inagaki's 7th album was also another No. 1 hit, "Mind Note" from March 1987 and it begat the reassuring love ballad "Toki wo Koete" (Beyond Time). Copywriter Yoshiaki Sagara（さがらよしあき）along with Hiroshi Shigemi（重実博）provided the lyrics about being there for someone during the hard times although I get the impression that there is a one-sided love thing about it all. Actress-turned-singer/songwriter MAYUMI came up with the perfectly AOR romantic melody which fits Inagaki to a tee.
Gotta be with my girl! That's the message from Inagaki's "Kimi ni Aitai Gogo" (The Afternoon I Want to See You), a track from his April 1989 9th album"Heart & Soul". Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）wrote the words about a fellow who's barely enduring the weekdays that he has to go through before being able to see the girlfriend for a weekend of dining, driving and loving. Once again, MAYUMI was behind the music here which has the tropical feeling but also has that unmistakable sense of either Steely Dan or the Doobie Brothers.
I chose "Stay With Me" just to see how many Miki Matsubara（松原みき）fans would perk up, but although Inagaki indeed covered the Matsubara classic years later, this first "Stay With Me" is a wholly different animal. As another track on "Heart & Soul", this was once again written by the aforementioned Akimoto and composed by Junichi Kawauchi（河内淳一）, and though this song won't have anyone forgetting that other "Stay With Me", this Inagaki original is pleasant enough with some hints of Motown. I probably would have preferred some horns over the synthesizers, though.
My final song for the article is Inagaki's 18th single"Shine On Me", a very uptempo and bright-sounding tune released in March 1990. Y'know, I'd always thought that the singer had the demeanor of a button-down mid-level manager in a huge corporation, and maybe the person who came up with the music video for "Shine On Me" thought the same as well. Inagaki looks perfect as a corporate kacho in that open-format office, but of course, he's also fine behind the mike to perform the song which was written and composed by songwriter Tatsuto Kuwamura（桑村達人）. The song was also placed in Inagaki's April 1990 album"Self Portrait".
Following the listen to Disc 2, my general impression is that Inagaki gradually shed some of that Japanese City Pop as the 80s came to and end, and went into a more West Coast pop direction although I don't think that he strayed far from his AOR roots. He will always be my Mr. Relaxation of J-Pop!
The very first song that I had ever heard from City Pop/J-AOR crooner Junichi Inagaki（稲垣潤一）was "Natsu no Claxon", this very relaxing end-of-summer ballad that I saw performed by the Sendai-born singer-songwriter on an early morning episode of Fuji-TV's"19xx" while I was shivering in my futon in snowbound Gunma Prefecture. Listening to this one was enough for me to get my first Inagaki album which turned out to be "TRANSIT", his 2-CD BEST compilation released in December 1990. "TRANSIT" was actually his 6th collection of his best stuff and it hit No. 7 on the Oricon weeklies.
Seeing that cover of him in the cool pale clothing and the tasteful silhouette, I figured that Inagaki was going to be about the classy urban contemporary. But as I gradually discovered over repeated playings of the discs, within that particular genre, the singer touched upon a number of influences whether it be Doobie Bros. AOR, some light doo-wop or down-home City Pop.
In any case, because of the number of total tracks involved, I've decided to do this first entry for "TRANSIT" by focusing on the entries for Disc 1 only today. Several of those have already gotten their own articles so you can click on the links. By the way, all of the tracks featured here were arranged by Akira Inoue（井上鑑）.
First off is "Aoi Tsuioku" (Blue Recollections) which was the B-side to Inagaki's 3rd single"Dramatic Rain" released in October 1982. Written by Reiko Yukawa（湯川れい子）and composed by Akira Mitake（見岳章）, as the title hints, it's a minor-key mid-tempo song about picking up the pieces after a breakup and realizing that there so many pieces remaining on the wet ground. It's got all of the feeling of a modern film noir in 1980s Tokyo but there is one passage near the end which actually shows a melodic beam of light shining in through the clouds for some reason. "Aoi Tsuioku" also ended up on Inagaki's debut album"246:3AM".
The opening notes for "Getsuyoubi ni wa Bara wo" (Monday Rose) struck me as being so Boz Scaggs or Bobby Caldwell. Also a track from "246:3AM", this is a gentle ballad over what seems to be a disagreement in the philosophy of love with one believing that love is nothing but a fleeting little game while the other feels that their relationship should be taken with the seriousness it needs. With lyrics by Yoshiaki Sagara（さがらよしあき）and music by Toyonobu Ito（伊藤豊昇）, I especially like the part near the end where Inagaki stretches out the title phrase of "Monday Rose".
"MARIA" is West Coast AOR concocted by lyricist Masao Urino（売野政男）and composer Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）and the message is clear as a bell...a guy is in love with a lass named Maria. Hopefully the lucky fellow and Maria are in that convertible bombing down the Ventura Freeway. "MARIA" was a track on Inagaki's 1983 3rd album"J.I.".
When I hear "Natsu no Yukue"(Summer Whereabouts) which followed "MARIA" on "J.I." and is the B-side to "Long Version", I gather that Inagaki had wanted to infuse some of that 1950s/1960s balladry into the music, thereby joining the likes of singers like Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）. Once again, that oft-traveled theme of the end of summer meaning the end of romance is parlayed again as a man stands alone at the countryside cottage after his paramour has gone back home to the city. Maybe they'll have that tryst again next year or maybe not. AKB48 Svengali and lyricist Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）provided the words while Kazuhiko Matsuo（松尾一彦）came up with the sweetly lilting melody.
This time, it was Akimoto and Hayashi working together to create "Iidasenakute" (Can't Say It) for "J.I.". A breakup doesn't sound much more bittersweet than this one, and with the shimmering strings and the electric guitar solo working with Inagaki's high-toned and resonant vocals, I wouldn't be tremendously surprised if there were quite a few fans who grabbed the nearest box of Kleenex. There are also some similarities between this one and "Long After Midnight".
From Inagaki's May 1984 4th album"Personally" comes "Kanashiki Diamond Ring" (Melancholy Diamond Ring) which has the singer returning to some of that old-fashioned vocal group pop. This song starts off the album and though it can be called bittersweet, there is more of the sweet rather than the bitter in this one written by Urino and composed by Hayashi. A man returns to his hometown to see an old flame getting married to another fellow and the wedding has him thinking about opportunities lost but well wishes given out all the same.
I really love the epic intro and the rich piano behind "Dare ga Tame ni..." (For Whom...) as Inagaki takes on a slightly more measured delivery and he sings about a happy relationship going through the usual things before the vows are taken. Also, a track on "Personally", Sagara was the lyricist with Hayashi on music. I think among the ones that I've covered on this Disc 1, "Dare ga Tame ni..." is about as straight-ahead pop as I've heard so far.
But then we come to "J no Kanojo" (J's Girl) which is an upbeat pop number which launches his May 1985 5th album"No Strings". In fact, there is one frantic instrumental bridge that almost takes things into New Wave...and maybe a bit of Dire Straits thanks to the guitar. However, generally speaking, this is a good-time pop tune about having some risky thoughts for J's girl on the dance floor. I have no idea who this J is. Is it Junichi himself or is it someone with a scarier name like Jaws or Jack the Knife? It was lyricist Akimoto and composer Yasuhiro Kido（木戸やすひろ）on this one.
(I'm sorry but the video has been taken down.)
At 1:04:40, there is "Traces" which ends Disc 1 on "TRANSIT". It is not only the B-side to Inagaki's April 1987 11th single"Omoide no Beach Club"（思い出のビーチクラブ...Beach Club of My Memories）, but it's a cover of the original 1968 ballad by the American band Classics IV that ended up becoming its biggest hit.
Hopefully I'll get Disc 2up and running sometime in August.
Allow me to provide a touch of melancholy and bittersweet for your Monday evening, and there are very few better to express that in Japanese pop than Junichi Inagaki（稲垣潤一）.
In October 1992, Inagaki released what would probably be his most famous song to the public at large and one of the most popular J-Xmas tunes ever made, "Christmas Carol no Koro ni wa"（クリスマスキャロルの頃には）. Well, believe it or not, despite the monstrous popularity of that song, there was a coupling song recorded onto that CD single.
Titled "Toki no Kishibe" (Shores of Time), Inagaki gives his familiar crooning delivery to a story of moving on from a romantic relationship that has most definitely gone beyond the period of that sentence. Thanks to those keyboards, there is plenty of sadness but perhaps there is also some hope expressed in the refrain. Either now-ex-partner has probably sniffed away their final healing tears and have decided to take those strides into a better future.
Written by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）and composed by Masayuki Kishi（岸正之）, the coupling song has been given the added information of it being a "New Version", so I wondered what the original was like and where it came from.
Well, I didn't have to go too far back along those shores of time. "Toki no Kishibe" was also a track on Inagaki's 8th original album"EDGE OF TIME" from April 1988. There are fewer synths involved here and a piano to start things off and the overall arrangement reminds me a tad of Carly Simon's"Nobody Does It Better" from the 1970s. Both versions have that wonderful but brief electric guitar solo near the end.
"EDGE OF TIME" hit No. 1 on Oricon and became the 37th-ranked album for 1988.
This morning, I was watching the usual NHK evening news broadcast when there was a brief one-minute statement announcing the passing of prolific kayo and J-Pop composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）. He had passed away on October 7th from pneumonia at the age of 80 but to hear that one of the musical greats was gone still had my jaw dropping.
The news was still quite fresh in the media which explained the brevity of the announcement but I think for someone like Tsutsumi, there will be big tributes to the composer in the weeks and perhaps months to come on shows such as "Uta Kon"（うたコン）and maybe there will be a show dedicated to him on at least one of the major networks. Certainly, he was well represented on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" over the years via articles on individual songs and even articles showing how big he was such as a Creator article and an Author's Pick. Not surprisingly, Tsutsumi probably has the most number of KKP articles as a songwriter which partially reflects his status as the No. 1 popular music composer in Japan and also how much I enjoyed his work over the years. My most recent article involving him was about a week ago for Asami Kobayashi（小林麻美）.
As such, I've decided to pay tribute to the Tokyo native by showing off some of my favourites composed by him. It was fairly difficult to pare down; I had thought that I could give five but could do no "better" than ten. The majority are naturally the big hits but there are also a few that are perhaps not well known but are quite dear to me.
"Blue Light Yokohama" by the vivacious Ayumi Ishida（いしだあゆみ）, I think, was one of Tsutsumi's earliest hits and remains one of his evergreen classics. I also think it has one of the best intros to any kayo, and the song was created in tandem with Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）, his first regular songwriting partner. It may be an oldie but whenever I enter Yokohama itself, this song inevitably enters my brain at some point.
The song may not have the happiest lyrics by Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）, another frequent songwriting partner, but there's no doubting the bouncy melody by Tsutsumi. Since I hadn't been a lyrics person at the time, when I first heard "Momen no Handkerchief" sung by Hiromi Ohta（太田裕美）, I just thought it was one of the most carefree songs that I had ever heard in Japan.
Another wonderful creation by Tsutsumi and Matsumoto,Junko Ohashi's（大橋純子）"Tasogare My Love" also showed that the former could also come up with some of that urban kayo along with the breezy love ballads. For Ohashi fans, there are plenty of splendid examples in her discography but "Silhouette Romance" and this one are probably the two songs that Ohashi is widely known for.
In Tsutsumi's vast collection of songs, Judy Ongg's"Miserarete" is his biggest-selling single and one of the prime examples of the exotic kayoboom that was taking place in the late 1970s. Of course, a lot of folks will point out the visual spectacle of Ongg and that dress of hers, but that dramatic and free-flowing melody has provided the wind beneath her wings (as corny as that may read).
Compared to the previous songs, MANNA's "Tokio Tsushin" is probably one of the lesser-known creations by Tsutsumi but it has been one of my favourites by the composer. It's got that disco beat, to be sure, and I think he was on that disco kick for a bit, but it also has some of that exotic kayofeeling as well. Perhaps he was aiming for France in this case. As I mentioned to one person, "Tokio Tsushin" is appealingly quirky.
"Kokuhaku Telephone" is another appealingly quirky and lesser-known song composed by Tsutsumi with new singer Endo（遠藤響子）providing the lyrics. "Kayo Kyoku Plus" helped me get to know more about the songwriters for all of the kayo, and with Tsutsumi, I first got to realize how many of the big hits he was responsible for, but then with further digging, I also discovered that he had a lot of hidden gems in his jewel case as well. For "Kokuhaku Telephone", the setting might be a stationary one by the phone but Tsutsumi makes it all sounds like a whirlwind tour around the city.
As I stated in the original article for "Aishitsuzukeru Bolero", this won't be one of the bigger songs for enka/kayo master Hiroshi Itsuki（五木ひろし）, but it's still one of my favourites by the singer and that is because of Tsutsumi's melody. The composer splendidly weaves in Latin, Mood Kayo and even some hint of City Pop to create that classy tune to accompany a drink in an expensive Akasaka bar. After first listening to this one on "Sounds of Japan", I realized that Itsuki wasn't just strictly an enka singer.
For me, "Natsu no Claxon" is one of Inagaki's trademark tunes as he wistfully sings about the end of the hot season, and Tsutsumi here spins up a bluesy City Pop/AOR melody handled by the piano, strings and background chorus to provide instant relaxation and some reminiscing of the pop ballads of yesteryear on the radio. Summer might be going away for another year but it's going out gracefully.
I think by this point, Tsutsumi may not have been as prevalent in the pop culture sphere but he still provided a banger with "Ambitious Japan" by the Johnny's Entertainment band TOKIO. I'm not sure if the composer had meant to do so, but he may have given the staff of Japan Railways and for that matter, anyone who wants to see Japan get higher, stronger and faster, the song to rev up to. The entire arrangement is designed to power a maglev train up to 603 kph and then whip it across the country. I'd probably say that this is my favourite Johnny's song.
I've saved this one up for the very last entry since I think as a final farewell song for Kyohei Tsutsumi, "Mata Au Hi Made" is the one to use since it does mean "Until We Meet Again". Ironically, when I wrote up the article back in June 2012, it was on the occasion of singer Kiyohiko Ozaki's（尾崎紀世彦）death. One of Tsutsumi's greatest creations may have been initially meant for an air conditioner commercial, but I think since then, it has become not only Ozaki's most famous song but also a fine kayo of bittersweet bye-byes and then hoped-for reunions. Speaking of hope, I do hope that this will be the show-ending showstopper for any televised tribute to Tsutsumi. Perhaps this could be an idea for the upcoming Kohaku Utagassen, as different as it will be this year.
As I mentioned off the top of the article, it was difficult to pare down my choices and I've left a few that I would have put up if I had wanted to push it to twenty. However, these are my own favourites but if any of you have your favourites that I didn't mention, please feel free to say so below.
Although I couldn't track down how many songs he composed in total during his 55+ years in music, according to his J-Wikiarticle, Tsutsumi has 2709 songs registered in JASRAC which I'm pretty sure is only part of that total. He may not have covered the entire breadth of music in Japan (just couldn't see him doing punk rock or hardcore enka) but he took care of a huge chunk of it. One question that I've seen pop up in Japanese sometimes for a Tsutsumi tune (and one that I've blurted out myself) in the comments section of a YouTube video consists of three words, a question mark and an exclamation mark: "He composed that?!". Yup, he certainly did.
He may not have been as prolific in recent years as he once was, but he kept on working right to the end. In fact, his final song was one he did for seiyuu/singer Azusa Tadokoro（田所あずさ）in mid-2019 at the age of 78.
About a year has passed since the last article for Junichi Inagaki（稲垣潤一）and I would like to give one of the princes of City Pop/J-AOR another go before the year is out.
His 9th single from July 1985 is "Bachelor Girl", a brassy example of pop for Inagaki...yep, I wouldn't say that it's quite City Pop or AOR here for the Sendai-born singer. For a song about the impending end of a romance, the melody comes across as proud as a strutting peacock. Perhaps it's more of the triumph for the woman who's leaving the duo while the man can only stare as she slowly disappears beyond the horizon. And maybe that's because the composer is none other than the late Eiichi Ohtaki（大滝詠一）who I've seen as someone who can come up with the big and brassy. His songwriting partner is Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）, his old bandmate from Happy End（はっぴーえんど）.
As a detour, although I couldn't find the actual recording by Ohtaki himself, I did track down this wonderful cover of the songwriter's version by a fellow named Sammy Koiwa, and I think the arrangement is reminiscent of an Ohtaki tune. It feels like the synthesizers did the work here but the impression is that proud 60s Spector-ish sound that I've often put alongside his melodies. His version was released as a B-side for his 11th single"Fjord no Shojo"（フィヨルドの少女...Girl of the Fjords） which came out in November 1985 and managed to reach as high as No. 31 on the charts.
Meanwhile, getting back to Inagaki's single, the B-side for "Bachelor Girl" is "Ai wa Ude no Naka de"(Love In Our Arms) which is about as opposite as Inagaki can get from the A-side. Whereas "Bachelor Girl" is booming and melancholy, "Ai wa Ude no Naka de" is cozy and rosy as the crooner sings about reminding his lady love about the night they met...just before Labour Day at Harry's. I'll have to pick Yasushi Akimoto's（秋元康）brains on how he came up with that particular lyric.
The melody by Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）is pure City Pop including that exhalation of breath in the intro which may as well represent that bottle of Evian being poured (fluffy pink cardigan sold separately). In fact, I can posit that the melody reminds me in a glancing way of Al Jarreau's"Moonlighting", whose TV show starring Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis, I believe, premiered in that same year of 1985. In any case, with this Inagaki single, you've got the perfect yin-yang of bitter/sweet.
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