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.
A little over a year ago, I put up "The First Day of Summer!", an Author's Picks consisting of all of those summery tunes with the explanation point being that all of the song titles contained the word "summer". Well, I figured that I would go for another similar posting but I've relaxed the rules slightly by also allowing the Japanese term for summer, "natsu". So, without further ado then, get into that hammock and pull up a citrus-y cocktail.
A very nice Sunday to you. Just ran some errands in what was a relatively cool morning out in the neighbourhood and then a post-lunch nap before returning to the computer and the blog.
Kinda feel like how Kanako Wada（和田加奈子）sings here. "Nagareru you ni"(Flowingly) is a track from her 1989 album"dear", the CD that made me give the singer and songwriter a second look after not being all that initially impressed some years back when I listened to her debut album"Tenderness" (1986). Well, there's a bit more variety in "dear" and "Nagareru you ni" seems to cover the Easy Listening Enya type of Wada song. Written by the singer herself and composed by the late Chika Ueda（上田知華）, it flows just like the title says and her lower voice lends to the fresh earthiness of the melody. Perhaps it's time for an extra cup of coffee. ☕
I've been waiting to give this Author's Pick a go for a while since I've enjoyed the works of Kanako Wada during her time in the late 1980s going into the very early part of the 1990s. To be frank, it didn't start out that way after buying her 1986 debut LP"Tenderness" which I was initially unimpressed with aside from the final track. By the end of her recording career though, I was back in the Wada camp again thanks to rediscovering some of her more hookier stuff after that debut and realizing that she was able to come up with some really catchy fare.
Ahhh....it's so nice to hear the velvet tones of Kanako Wada（和田加奈子）once more after so long. And the crazy thing is that this song "Wake Up Dream" was included on her "Golden Best" compilation but I never mentioned it in its article.
Well, allow me to rectify. "Wake Up Dream" was Wada's final single to date, released in July 1991, and it's been given the subtitle of "New Arrange Version". Thing is, I can't find the so-called "old arrange version" anywhere in her other singles or albums. But in any case, this arrangement is a fine one with that refreshing feeling of bossa nova in the morning. Haven't heard this in so long that hearing it again a few days ago brought some hairs to attention.
Neko Oikawa（及川眠子）was the lyricist while Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）took care of the soothing melody. Some very nice background vocals accompanying Wada's own lovely voice which would make it sound quite ideal for radio. The song was also used in a Morinaga Piknik ad; it looks to be some yogurt drink. Below is a commercial for the product but from 1987.
Welcome to another tour of the AI Gallery where we take song titles and throw them into the Bing AI art generator just to see what we get. The hilarious one in today's trio will most likely be Kazumasa Oda's（小田和正）"Love Story wa Totsuzen ni"; the man was so desperate to meet the love of his life, he didn't even let a bookshelf and dislocated shoulders stop him.
Just before I went for dinner before 5 pm today, I noticed a tweet stating that singer-songwriter Chika Ueda, a name that has had plenty of representation on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" almost as long as the blog has been in existence, had passed away last September, but the news was only coming out right now through an online article on the Asahi Shimbun. The article itself had only been up for just some minutes itself and it was the only one stating this sad news, so I decided to wait until coming back onto the computer tonight at 7 pm.
As of this writing, there hasn't been any report given on television news via YouTube, but I've now noticed that her J-Wiki article has been updated to reflect her passing along with some other news sources such as Yahoo News and 2Channel. She died at the age of 64 from pancreatic cancer.
Chika Ueda was born Chikako Ueda（植田知華子）in Tokyo and began studying piano at the age of 3. While studying at the Tokyo College of Music, she brought her talents in songwriting, vocals and piano playing and meshed them with a string quartet to form Chika Ueda + Karyobin which made their debut in 1978. KKP contributor nikala provided an article on a 1980 song by the group, "Purple Monsoon"(パープル・モンスーン) that I think is one of the more quintessential examples of Fashion Music, or the Japanese version of baroque pop, that I ever heard. Although I didn't know who they were at the time, I distinctly remember this song being played on an episode of "Sounds of Japan" on the radio.
Following the breakup of the group around 1982, Ueda continued to provide some of her own solo material in the form of albums and songs for other singers. My take on her songwriting is that her music was often very soft and romantic, and not surprisingly, she was an ideal fit for singers like Miki Imai（今井美樹）for whom she came up with a large number of tunes in the latter half of the 1980s going into the 1990s. In fact, one of Imai's biggest hits was "Piece of My Wish" from 1991 which was composed by Ueda and written by Yuuho Iwasato（岩里祐穂） .
In that same year, Ueda released her very first single as a solo artist "I Will", a theme song for a Fuji-TV drama. Wilton Felder of The Jazz Crusaders added his saxophone to Ueda's velvety vocals to create a ballad magical enough to entrance me into buying the CD single and even her album with the same title. This was the first time that I had ever heard of Ueda and after realizing that was making a lot of Imai's wonderful songs, her name was something that would always gain my attention whenever I saw it in anyone's liner notes.
Ueda's list of clients, as it were, is a very long one, and one such singer is Kanako Wada（和田加奈子）for whom the songwriter provided "If" for her 1989 album"dear", one of my favourites for easy listening J-Pop.
One thing that I was surprised about as I delved further into the history of Ueda was that she did have her 1980s solo albums although no singles were released from any of them. I was especially struck by the album "Classiest" from August 1984 because one of those tracks "Madogiwa no High Heel"（窓際のハイヒール）was pure Donald Fagen-inspired City Pop. However, from the same album, I found this gem titled "Starry Night" which is actually more of the wistful pop concoction as if filtered through Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）. This was written and composed by Ueda.
Marcos V. introduced pop-rock singerSaiko SAICO Suzuki（鈴木彩子）through his article on a compilation album "I Love Dance Number". Ueda wrote and composed a track, "Denwa Dekinakatta"（電話できなかった...Couldn't Make the Call） for her on her March 1992 3rd album"Juu-kyuu Sai no Kodou"（19歳の鼓動...Heart Beating at 19）. I can hear the rock gruffness in SAICO's voice but the music accompanying her does sound like an Ueda composition.
One other new song created by Ueda that I'm introducing here is "Umi wo Miteiyou"（海を見ていよう...Let's Look at the Ocean）, a languid bluesy ballad performed by the veteran vocal group Pedro & Capricious（ペドロ＆カプリシャス）with Naoko Matsudaira（松平直子）as the main vocalist. This was the final track in the band's April 2006 album"Cadena".
My final song for Ueda is the one that she composed with lyricist Masami Tozawa（戸沢暢美）, "Boogie Woogie Lonesome High Heel" for Imai's 1989 album"Mocha--Under A Full Moon". The title might be loopy as all get out, but it stands as one of my favourites by either Ueda or Imai. It's just so calming and so representative of one of the things that I loved about the music of the late 1980s and early 1990s: the female singer-songwriter which of course includes Ueda.
It is very sad to hear of her departure from this mortal coil but once again, we have this wonderful legacy of her compositions, and I'm hopeful that many of them inhabit YouTube. All of my condolences to her family, friends and fans.
Listening to Kanako Wada's（和田加奈子）December 1989 album "dear" once more on stereo again had me thinking about which tracks that I had yet to cover since for my article on her 6th album, I only took care of three of them. There were also "See You" and "If" which I covered individually since then and I'd been hoping that the rest of her songs were available on YouTube so that I could do a follow-up on "dear".
Alas, such wouldn't be the case since I could only find one more track that has an existence on the video platform. That would be the second-last track, "Le Vent Doux" (The Gentle Wind). Written by Wada, composed by Tsukasa and arranged by Yuji Toriyama（鳥山雄司）, it's reminiscent of that wave of gentle pop songs by female singer-songwriters that were coming out at the end of the late 1980s and the beginning of the early 1990s. But not only that, "Le Vent Doux" is also representative of why I've cherished "dear" as my reacquaintance with Wada when I was living in Gunma Prefecture.
I was reminded right from the start that "Le Vent Doux", despite its French title, is more of a peaceful bossa nova number. I do like all of the instruments in play here especially the guitar and the piano, and of course, it was a wonderful discovery of Wada's velvety voice. To remind folks, "dear" was the first album that I'd bought of Wada since I purchased her debut album"Tenderness" back in my university days, and I hadn't been all that impressed with her vocals back then.
Nice Sunday out there. Not too hot, not too cool and plenty sunny.☀
Also, not sure whether this Kanako Wada（和田加奈子）tune was ever associated with "Kimagure Orange Road"（きまぐれオレンジロード）despite the thumbnail above, but regardless of anime affiliations, "Music ni Katayosete" (Let The Music Carry Me) is a lovely tune to hear right now. There's some boss sax in there and that arrangement of West Coast pop, thanks to Yuji Toriyama（鳥山雄司）. Wada was responsible for the lyrics while Ken Sato（佐藤健）took care of this melody that is representative of what I loved about plain ol' Japanese pop music in the 1980s. And the protagonist in this story looks to be echoing the same sentiments as she requests for some of that good-time music that she and someone close to her once listened to. Is it a former love or someone that didn't quite get to that level? Who knows?
"Music ni Katayosete" is a track on Wada's December 1987 album"KANA". Good to have her company again.
Good heavens! It's been almost a year since I put up anything by Kanako Wada（和田加奈子）. Allow me to rectify.
I think that I've covered most of Wada's singles' A-sides and a few of her albums in general. However, this is the first time that I've even heard of "Sayonara Jasmine Breeze", a B-side for her May 1988 single, "Lucky Love", a slightly mellower cover of Kylie Minogue's"I Should Be So Lucky".
Not quite as catchy as some of her other songs, it does have that Doobie Bounce in the intro going for it and that twangy guitar, but I think that the thumping is a little too strong. During the refrain, Wada's voice and the bass (synth?)/drums seem to be competing too hard with each other for dominance. Shun Taguchi（田口俊）and Tsukasa（司）were behind the creation of the song. I'm not sure whether the song actually got placed onto an album.
Wow! Time indeed does fly fast. It's been almost a year since I put up my last Kanako Wada（和田加奈子）article, so allow me to compensate.
Found this one called "Party Town ～WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU～" from her 4th album"KANA"(1987) which also contains the track "C. Claudel no Tsumi"（C. クローデルの罪）that I talked about some time ago. Not quite sure whether this one written by Wada and composed by Scott Cutler, Jeff Hull & Bunny Hull would fall into the R&B genre exclusively or Eurobeat, but heck, it's a Friday. I'm feeling generous.
It's a mellow but uptempo track by Wada whose arrangement by Yuji Toriyama（鳥山雄司）is nostalgic and refreshing at the same time. It's been a while since I've heard this sort of pop song. And there's a part that sounds oddly familiar to Rick Astley's"Take Me To Your Heart" (which might explain that happy feeling of Eurobeat), but that single wouldn't come out until November 1988. In any case, it's delightful to see Ms. Wada back here.
Kanako Wada's（和田加奈子）2nd album was "quiet storm" from 1987 and it was the first album by her to get onto CD after her debut of "Tenderness" on LP (and as far as I know, LP up to the current day). I didn't get it until a couple of decades later but I just had to complete my collection.
Listening to it again, I thought that "quiet storm" (and no, it's not patterned after the US genre with folks like Anita Baker) was the release where Wada started to stretch her musical muscles across the genres in contrast to her debut album in which she kept things pretty much to pop/rock. Mixed results here with this album especially with her vocals.
However, one song that I did like was the first track "Suna ni Kakareta Document" (Document Written in the Sand) which was placed (on the original LP, I gather) on the "Martini" side. A nice go at bossa jazz, Wada's voice hadn't quite reached that mellow low at this point but it still worked well here and listening to it a number of times since then, I thought that perhaps that the melded genre would continue to do good by her. Written by Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）, the melody was provided by saxophonist Yasuaki Shimizu（清水靖晃）who also provided his solo here.
Happy Monday! Some snow here but at least the temperatures have finally gotten up to something near seasonal at an absolutely balmy 0 degrees Celsius. I would expect folks here to get jump out in their T-shirts and flip-flops just about now.
Some weeks ago, I read that one of the seiyuu from the 80s classic TV anime "Kimagure Orange Road"（きまぐれオレンジ☆ロード）, Hiromi Tsuru（鶴ひろみ）who had played the main character of Madoka Ayukawa, passed away suddenly last November. Over the past several weeks, I've seen some comments mourning the loss of Tsuru who left this mortal coil too early at the age of 57.
It's been over a year since I've put up an article featuring one of the go-to singers for songs connected with "KOR", so it's nice to have Kanako Wada（和田加奈子）back on the blog. Unlike some of her other contributions, "Jenina" wasn't an opening or a closing theme but a number that was used somewhere during the show's run. However, having listened to it again, I think it is the most urban contemporary song by her in the "KOR" collection. It's nice to hear those keyboards and that sleek arrangement.
Composed by Shiro Sagisu（鷺巣詩郎）and written by Reiko Yukawa（湯川れい子）, the mysterious Jenina is greatly coveted by an ardent admirer who will go to the ends of the earth for her. The song was the B-side to Wada's 5th single the breezy "Natsu no Mirage"（夏のミラージュ）, itself one of the ending themes for "KOR" when it was released in May 1987. If I'm not mistaken, it's been included in at least one of the soundtrack albums for the anime and it's definitely on "Kanako Wada ~ Golden Best".
Man, am I beat! Since I have to be away from the apartment tomorrow, I offered my project manager to do some extra translations to compensate and he really compensated. Ended up getting the largest batch of regular files so far in my translation history. He was kind enough to give me a deadline of Thursday but since when I get onto a daily assignment, I usually want to get it done on that day, I plowed through it like a tank and got it all done in about 4 hours. It's actually nice then that I could get a nice dinner tonight and of course, I can write here. Plus, there are the fall finales for "The Flash" and "Agents of SHIELD" to look forward to later tonight.😌
It's been a while since I've written about Kanako Wada（和田加奈子）in a single article. And all this time that I was worrying that I was overdoing it on her contributions to "Kimagure Orange Road" (きまぐれオレンジ☆ロード), I found out that it's been over 2.5 years since I actually typed in any sort of article having to do with a Wada-KOR collaboration.
So, here is "Mou Hitotsu no Yesterday" (Another Yesterday) which was the ending theme for a KOR OVA (nice ancient media concept), and I was surprised to find out that the OVA had come out in 1991. And here I thought that KOR was strictly an 80s concoction. Still, the song has that genki 80s feeling to it and it just seems to have that good fit with Wada. Penned by Reiko Yukawa（湯川れい子）and composed by Yuuichiro Oda（小田裕一郎）, "Mou Hitotsu no Yesterday" has that sprightly spring in its step with the horns and the mellow feel-good vocals of the singer.
When I had first heard it on "Kanako Wada -- Golden Best" which seems to be the only Wada album that it has been recorded on, "Mou Hitotsu no Yesterday" didn't quite click with me but that kinda showed how much I liked the other songs by the singer for the anime. Now, it fits in quite nicely with my mood. Of course, the song is also on one of the myriad soundtracks for the show "Kimagure Orange Road -- Singing Heart".
Oh, dopey me. But when I've done so many articles since January 2012, I think I was about due to make an error like this. Back in June, I wrote up Part 1 of "Selection of 10 Japanese City Pop Singles by Tsutomu Mori" stating at the end that I would concoct Part 2 within a few days. Well, it's been a few months. If it hadn't been for a commenter who wrote something at the bottom of Part 1, I wouldn't have noticed the error which was due to utter forgetfulness on my part.
Anyways, better late than never. So here is Part 2 and just to remind readers, this was a list from Page 58 of "Japanese City Pop" that was compiled by a record store owner. I did No. 1-5 last time so here are 6-10. And No. 6 starts off a bit weirdly.
Now, does anyone know or remember the movie "The Black Hole"? I do, but that's because I'm old now. Well, this was a sci-fi flick that was produced by Walt Disney as perhaps its answer to the original "Star Wars" craze. Although I did get a picture book of the movie which starred Maximillian Schell, Ernest Borgnine and Yvette Mimieux, I never saw the movie itself. And from what I heard, it was perhaps the first Mouse House movie that got something heavier than its usual G rating due to scary scenes.
6. Kaoru Sudo -- The Black Hole
Yup, that's why I introduced the movie. When "The Black Hole" was released in Japan, the folks over there needed to have a campaign song attached so Kaoru Sudo（須藤薫）introduced her 4th single "The Black Hole" from November 1980. Mori provides the information that the song was written by Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）under her pen name of Karuho Kureta（呉田軽穂） and composed by Masamichi Sugi（杉真理）. Now, frankly speaking, aside from the arrangement perhaps of the tune, I have no real idea why Mori selected this one since Yuming's lyrics just talk about the concept of love gained and lost in an outer space milieu. It's an amiable song to be sure and notable for that Sudo recorded it in a fairly high voice. She may have needed some lozenges after the recording session. After all, in space, no one can hear you clear your throat.
7. Kenji Omura -- Kenji no Haru ga Ippai
Another Mori selection that had me scratching my head. It actually sounds somewhat techno-Hawaiian although I do like it (then again, the city would be the environment for technopop). Omura's take on "Kenji no Haru ga Ippai"（けんじの春がいっぱい）from 1981 is actually a cover of "Spring is Nearly Here" by British guitar group The Shadows from perhaps 1968. Assisting Omura（大村憲司）was the gang from Yellow Magic Orchestra.
8. Frank Nagai -- Woman
Man, the second half of Mori's list just gets curiouser and curiouser. The King of Mood Kayo from the late 50s actually tackled City Pop! And his "Woman"（ウーマン）from 1982 was written and composed by one of the big guns of late 70s-early 80s City Pop, Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）. Even the cover of his single has that City Poppy design. It's kinda like hearing Perry Como doing Hall & Oates. Well, perhaps this might grow on me but for now, I will say that I prefer Frank Nagai（フランク永井）in his tuxedoed Mood Kayo mood.
9. Yaya -- Suna ni Kieta Namida
This is the only song that I couldn't find any representation online by this singer Yaya（やや）, aka Yaeko Kojima（小島八重子）, although she does have a more famous song that is on YouTube which I will get to in the coming days. "Suna ni Kieta Namida" (砂に消えた涙...Tears in the Sand) is a sunny song that had its origins as a hit by Italian singer Mina in 1965, "Un Buco Nella Sabbia". Yaya's version was in 1987. Since that version is not available, I will provide an adorable version by Mariya Takeuchi and Kosetsu Minami（竹内まりや・南こうせつ）.
The only song on this half of the list that I have already covered, I was initially surprised to see its inclusion in the list although I was also happy since I like the melody for her 6th single from March 1988. I gather that the melody and the lyrics by Wada（和田加奈子）herself about a woman celebrating a birthday with her boyfriend who is a year younger than her and all the surrounding kerfuffle about the disparity would probably be something that would belong in a city-based trendy drama of that time.
Well, in a way, I'm rather glad that I actually let a few months slide between Parts 1 and 2 since I can actually realize how different they are from each other. It does give me incentive to whip up my own personal Top 10 list of City Pop tunes. I may actually get it done tomorrow if only to prevent any further memory lapses on my part.
Everybody by now knows about my penchant for putting up photos either at the beginning and/or the end of my articles. The above is a photo of the view outside of my good friend's apartment in the district of Musashi-Kosugi in Tokyo. I would have loved to have put up an actual photo of the topic of today's Creator article, lyricist and music critic Reiko Yukawa, but I couldn't really find one from a site that would have allowed me to post it up without any sort of potential complaints in terms of copyrights. But in a way, the photo of the dramatic city view can be considered apropos since it kinda fits my impression of Yukawa in terms of some of the songs that she has helped create. From what I find out from her J-Wiki biography, she has written Japanese songs across the spectrum whether it be a pop love ballad by Akiko Kobayashi to a Latin-infused kayo sung by enka heartthrob Kiyoshi Hikawa（氷川きよし）. Referring to that image, though, whenever Yukawa's name pops up in my mind, I usually think urban contemporary in Japan, namely J-AOR and City Pop for some reason.
And the song that pops up consequently is "Long Version"(ロング・バージョン) from 1983 by mellow crooner Junichi Inagaki（稲垣潤一）. As I posited in the article for the song, this is one tune that deserves to be heard while looking at my top photo and sipping back a bourbon.
However, arguably, her most famous work might just be on Akiko Kobayashi's（小林明子）"Koi ni Ochite"（恋におちて）from 1985 with those wistfully sigh worthy lyrics about falling in love. I've sung it in karaoke a number of times but of course, I had to change one line (with all due respect to Ms. Yukawa): "I'm just a HU-man, fall in love". I sounded somewhat like a Ferengi when I sang that (all you Trekkie kayo fans can chuckle quietly now).
But for some information on Ms. Yukawa. She was born in Meguro Ward, Tokyo in 1936 with her father being a captain in the Japanese navy and a great-grandfather who had been the man to introduce the beloved brand of pear known as La France to Japan among other famous relatives. In 1953, she took her first steps into show business by debuting as a stage actress and appearing in movies. Yukawa had even entertained the troops at American military bases in Japan as well, and through an old boyfriend, she started gaining an interest in jazz. In 1959, she was employed as an interviewer and a jazz critic for the Japanese magazine, "Swing Journal", following which she also got gigs as a radio DJ and a commentator on TV wide shows. In fact, I was surprised to find the above video in which Yukawa in her twenties appeared on an old American game show I used to watch as a toddler, "What's My Line?"
In 1965, Yukawa wrote the Japanese and English lyrics for "Namida no Taiyo"（涙の太陽）as sung originally by Emy Jackson. Now I'm not sure if this song was the very first contribution by the lyricist but it's the entry that does come first in her bio about her songwriting so you can take it as you will. And I didn't find any information about how Yukawa gained her prowess in the English language but she certainly did well on "What's My Line?" and she is also listed among her other credits as a translator.
I guess there was something about the music of Americana that stayed with Yukawa since she contributed to a number of The Chanels' hits such as "Runaway" (1980). The band is now known as Rats And Star (ラッツ&スター).
Yukawa also provided lyrics to 80s aidoru such as Yui Asaka（浅香唯）. I haven't applied a fine-toothed analysis into the lyrics that she has written but my initial impression is that she worked on songs with a bit more of a dynamic edge for the Japanese teenyboppers. The above is "Hitomi ni STORM"（瞳にSTORM...Storm in Her Eyes） which was composed by Daisuke Inoue（井上大輔）. Incidentally, both Yukawa and Inoue were also responsible for the aforementioned "Runaway". "Hitomi ni STORM" was released as Asaka's 7th single from May 1987 and it went all the way up to No. 4. It is also included on her 3rd album"Rainbow" from the same year.
Anison was also an area that Yukawa dabbled in. For example, she provided the lyrics for the soaring Kanako Wada（和田加奈子）theme to "Kimagure Orange Road"（きまぐれ・.オレンジ☆ロード）, "Natsu no Mirage"（夏のミラージュ）. And she was also behind the words for one of the opening themes to another 80s classic anime "Maison Ikkoku"（めぞん一刻）, "Sunny Shiny Morning"（サニーシャイニーモーニング）from 1987 by Kiyonori Matsuo（松尾清憲）.
Do you remember The Monkees? Sure you do! Watching their Saturday-morning program was one of my rituals way back when. Davy Jones was the cute little British member that all the girls fell for. Plus, it seems as if he had an effect on folks in Japan since I did see him time and again show up on variety programs over there. Well, I found out from Yukawa's bio that she and Inoue once again got together to weave a disco tune just for him back in 1981 titled "Maho de Dance"（魔法でダンス...Dance, Gypsy）. No idea how the song did on Oricon, but I rather noticed the Roy Orbison riff that Inoue placed in the song.
(instrumental cover version)
I'd like to leave off my exploration here with another Junichi Inagaki tune, "Ame no Asa to Kaze no Yoru ni"（雨の朝と風の夜に...Rainy Mornings and Windy Nights） from August 1996 as his 34th single. It's pure Inagaki here with Toshiaki Matsumoto（松本俊明）behind the mellow melody. Yukawa's lyrics seem to describe a contented couple some 10 years into their marriage walking through the park. The song got as high as No. 83 on the charts and is a track on his 16th album"PRIMARY" from September in the same year. It made it up to No. 30.
The trigger that finally had me writing up about Yukawa was on seeing an NHK interview of the now-80-year-old lyricist recently. I found out through the J-Wiki bio that she is a huge fan of Elvis and The Beatles, and she gave an anecdote to the interviewer about the time that she actually got to interview the Fab Four in 1966 at what may have been the Hotel New Otani (one of the places that I taught at for years). The story is also listed in J-Wiki, but apparently although Paul, George and Ringo were really nice to Yukawa, John Lennon was not exactly the most welcoming sort, and in fact, simply snubbed her. Some years later after The Beatles had broken up, Yukawa got to interview Lennon on his own and asked him point-blank about his attitude back then. John also remembered the cold shoulder he gave and apologized as he explained that at the time, a long line of sycophantic politicians was lining up to meet the band and he simply got really pissed off at the lot and thought that Yukawa was one of the same folks.
I still don't know all that much about the life and times of Reiko Yukawa but I've got the feeling that she has amassed an iceberg's worth of stories over the past 50 years. As for an impression of her lyrical style, I can only give a surface opinion since I have yet to go through all of her songs and I know that the list given in J-Wiki is not comprehensive, but from what I have gone through, I gather Yukawa is a student of love in all its aspects.
Another nice start to the weekend with one plus being I get to head out for dinner with friends and family tonight in Greektown. It's been a while since I've had some good souvlaki...not sure if I can handle that much food anymore but I can still give it the good ol' college try.
Moving on...since it is a very pleasant Saturday outside, I thought I would write about a just-as-pleasant-and-breezy number titled "If" by Kanako Wada（和田加奈子）. This was another track from her 6th album"dear" from 1989, and it's a medium-tempo song with some pep and tight hornsmanship (yes, new word). Do love those horns. Written by Goro Matsui（松井五郎）and composed by Chika Ueda（上田千華）, I'm not totally sure about the lyrics since Kanako breezes right through them and the print in the liner notes is so small, but I believe that they are about a woman who is about to happily leave a relationship that is not working. So the title is not merely a supposition but perhaps a very short and to the point ultimatum.
I fully realize that Wada was one of the more famous anison singers in the 80s, most notably for "Kimagure Orange Road", but I also like her for this little musical niche she had made for herself: nicely polished pop songs which won't cure disease but like a good house guest, come in, provide a good experience and never overstay their welcome.
Well, March roared in like a lion today. Just as we all thought that winter was on its way out mewling like a kitten on Sunday with 14-degree temps (that is an absolute heat wave in my area of Canada at the end of February), the cold season is threatening to take its measure of revenge with a storm promising 15 cm of snow by tomorrow. Dogpiling onto that misery is that our transit system shut down this morning due to a power outage because of an overnight fire. When it snows, it pours.
Fortunately for me, I work from home. I can observe the carnage on television and sympathize for my TTC-using friends.
In any case, I start my contribution to "Kayo Kyoku Plus" for March 2016 with an interesting song by Kanako Wada（和田加奈子）which was the final track on her 4th album "KANA" from 1987, "C. Claudel no Tsumi" (The Indiscretion of Camille Claudel).
Written by Wada and composed by Tsukasa, it's a bit different from the usual sunny/romantic Wada music that often graced a "Kimagure Orange Road"（きまぐれオレンジ☆ロード）soundtrack. For one thing, it's a fairly introspective (though not dour) piece that smacks more of Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）and perhaps even Eric Carmen as one YouTube commenter stated. And as the title would indicate, there is a deeper take on the lyrics as Wada wonders aloud about the trials and tribulations that 20th-century French sculptor Camille Claudel had endured as the confidante and paramour of Auguste Rodin before she succumbed to mental illness for the last few decades of her life.
Although my initial impression of Wada when she debuted with the album "Tenderness" in 1986 was that she didn't have the most stable of vocals, the singer-songwriter definitely got quite a bit better pretty quickly especially after I heard this particular ballad for the first time. Perhaps she had settled on the right genre but I really enjoyed how resonant she sounded particularly on some of those high notes. And there was a certain brief switch in key during the refrain that managed to strike a chord. It's not every day that I come across an enjoyable pop song about a figure in art history.
From the same duo of Kanako Wada/和田加奈子 (lyrics) and Hiroyuki Izuta/伊豆田洋之 (music) who came up with the hauntingly beautiful anime ballad "Ano Sora wo Dakishimete"（あの空を抱きしめて）, here is a much more bouncier tune, "Hello My Radio" from Wada's 5th album"Vocu"(1988). Not quite sure what happened during the production of the album but the cover, the liner notes and even the CD have spelled the first word in the title "Hellow".
Starting off with a Doobie Bros. riff, Kanako sings about her love for the good ol' radio which was the prime source of pop entertainment before the television came in. I was born long after the telly made its presence known, but there was a period during high school and university in which my gray tape-recorder radio was indispensable for hearing the latest hits and remixes...and of course, "Sounds of Japan". "Hello My Radio" just served as a nostalgic reminder of how I used to get my first listen to music before the Internet took over.
Along with "Tanjoubi wa Minus Ichi"（誕生日はマイナス1）and "Tori no You ni"（鳥のように）, "Sunday Brunch" was another track on Kanako Wada's（和田加奈子）4th album, "KANA" from 1987. I was looking for another song in the Wada discography that had nothing to do with "Kimagure Orange Road"; not that I have anything against the anime or Wada's contributions to it at all. Some of her best work has enhanced the appreciation of KOR but I also want to show some of the fine stuff from her non-KOR list.
You would think with a title of "Sunday Brunch" that it would be a nice and relaxing ballad to be enjoyed with some tea and French toast. But actually, no. The song is an upbeat urban contemporary pop tune written by Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）and composed by Yuji Toriyama（鳥山雄司）about a woman getting together with that guy at a stylish restaurant for a bit of that titular meal with the sole purpose of whether the relationship can be upgraded or re-kindled. Maybe the lady will be staring more at him than her Eggs Benedict during the course of the brunch.
I really like that bass line and the cheerful lightheartedness in Wada's delivery. And I always welcome a well-placed harmonica. Perhaps it could have made for a nice addition in the KOR albums after all.
