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.
Whether it be Japan or Canada, I've been stymied about which type of potato chips I've preferred all these years. Pringles is available in both nations and I've always enjoyed it for that uniform stackable shape and the various flavours but at the same time, I've enjoyed Calbee in Japan and Frito-Lay Chips in Canada because of the randomness of each chip along with the increased greasiness and delectably rough crunch.
Now, why am I talking about junk food on a Saturday night? Well, the song of this article was used for a Calbee potato chip commercial in 1994, and it strikes me as a bit unusual since "Lady's Melody" by singer-songwriter Hitomi Yuuki（又紀仁美）sounds quite a bit more refined in voice and arrangement...even more than Pringles chips. To be honest, I would have thought the breezy pop song would have made for a better fit for a cosmetics ad, but here we are.
In any case, "Lady's Melody" was released in September 1994 as Yuuki's 3rd single. It was written by Kyohei Natsume（夏目涼平）and the singer and composed by Kazuya Izumi（和泉一弥）. As for Yuuki, she was born in Tokyo as Hitomi Tsuburaya（円谷 一美）, and if that family name sounds familiar to you, then you must love your tokusatsu TV shows and movies because indeed she is part of the family in control of Tsuburaya Productions, the producer of the "Ultraman" series. I can only speculate that the name change was for Yuuki to be able to stand on her own two feet in terms of her career without needing the Tsuburaya name as a crutch. On the other hand, her sister, singer Yuko Tsuburaya（円谷優子）, kept hers. As well, Yuuki returned to her original name after 1997.
According to her J-Wiki article, Yuuki made her debut in January 1994 and she released 12 singles and 5 albums up to 1999. Upon getting married, she moved to Saudi Arabia and then also lived in Syria and England before returning to Japan and resuming her music career.
They really did like those trumpet-sounding synthesizers back then, eh?
Starting off Monday with this sprightly song by singer/tarento/impressionist Hiroko Moriguchi（森口博子）,"Dress Up The Night". I've realized that another aural touchstone for my music of the late 1980s and early 1990s is that synth on horn mode since I've heard it with other singers such as Miki Imai（今井美樹）at around the same time.
In any case, the ever-smiling Moriguchi's"Dress Up The Night" seems to be all about the painting the town red and tripping the light fantastic. Placed as a track on her 2nd studio album"Prime Privacy" from November 1989, it's got that champagne-and-caviar Swingout Sister-esque sophisti-pop feeling of the times as Moriguchi sings about finding that Mr. Right in that great big city. Gee, I wonder if this was "Sex & The City: Tokyo Edition" years before the actual show? At this point, Kim Cattrall was even a couple of years away from portraying a turncoat Vulcan/Romulan on "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country".
No complaints here, though. It's all good as the song showcases the bright lights and big city of what must have been the heyday of the Bubble Era. Put on that body-hugging dress, red heels and Chanel No. 5 and drink down that crystal glass of hedonism with good friends. Yoshihiko Ando（安藤芳彦）was the lyricist while Kazuya Izumi（和泉一弥）provided the swanky music.
To finish off, here is Moriguchi plying that talent that I first knew her for. But this time, she's not imitating Shizuka Kudo（工藤静香）.
Had this song bookmarked for a number of months so that I completely forgot about what it was all about aside from the title "Dream Shift".
I found out, or to be more accurate, I was reminded that "Dream Shift" was the opening theme for "Zettai Muteki Raijin-Oh"（絶対無敵ライジンオー...Matchless Raijin-Oh）, which, according to Wikipedia, was one of those landmark anime that launched the premise of young kids manning their own mecha to save the world. I was kinda surprised that this premise hadn't started earlier because this sounds like something that has been in Japanese kid culture for decades, but perhaps this was more prevalent in the tokusatsu shows of the 1970s. In any case, try to imagine a callow kid from Tatooine taking on a planet-killing battle station and actually winning.
It was awfully hard to find out anything about "Dream Shift" and its singer aside from the fact that it was listed as such on the J-Wiki article for "Zettai Muteki Raijin-Oh". However, I managed to glean the information that it was sung by a vocalist for the band Silk at the time who had started show business in the mid-1980s as Kinuko Ohmori（大森絹子）; incidentally, that first kanji in her first name actually means "silk". Apparently, she debuted with the opening theme song, "Kon'ya wa Hurricane"（今夜はハリケーン...Tonight is a Hurricane）, for another well-known anime from those days, "Bubblegum Crisis".
Ohmori then got Silk together in 1991, the same year when "Raijin-Oh" debuted on TV screens. I can imagine the kids getting really revved up at the start of each episode with "Dream Shift". It's pretty nostalgic for me, too, since Ohmori sang like a number of other female pop singers at the time: lots of gushing enthusiasm backed up by a dynamic guitar pop-rock melody. When I first heard the song, I immediately thought Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）, but then there were other big-voiced singers at the time contributing their wares to anime such as Mariko Nagai（永井真理子）and Miho Morikawa（森川美穂）.
"Dream Shift" was written by Hitoshi Shinohara（篠原仁志）and composed by Kazuya Izumi（和泉一弥）. As for Ohmori, she would retire in 1994. To finish off, I leave you with this scene of what must be the world's coolest public school.
P.S. I found the translations for the lyrics here.
I had finished my first full year on the JET Programme, and the No. 1 single of 1990 was "Odoru Ponpokorin"（おどるポンポコリン）, the eternal theme song for the long-running "Chibi Maruko-chan"（ちびまる子ちゃん）. Sung by novelty band B.B. Queens, I wouldn't find out until later that the squeaky-voiced female vocalist was Yuiko Tsubokura（坪倉唯子） a singer who actually has had a powerhouse voice and has sung one of the best City Pop numbers that I had ever heard of, "Tsukanoma Yotogi Bito"（一瞬夜伽伴侶）.
But "Chibi Maruko-chan" wasn't the only anime that Tsubokura was associated with, I think she also added a few tunes to the "Kimagure Orange Road"（きまぐれオレンジ☆ロード）franchise as well. Case in point: there was the opening theme for the 1991 3rd OVA for "KOR", "Choose Me".
I'm sure that there are folks who may be hearing "Odoru Ponpokorin" and "Choose Me" for the first time, and are doing a double-take. This is the same singer?! Oh, yeah. She is cute in the former and sultry and sexy in the latter.
Written by SHOW and composed by Kazuya Izumi（和泉一弥）, despite the release year, "Choose Me" definitely has that 80s pop/rock feeling, and when I first heard it, I couldn't help but be reminded of those montages in those action films where the protagonist is training for some major fight in the ring or a battle on the street. Let's see Arnie and Sly and Bruce getting pumped up to this one, eh! In any case, some of my nostalgia alarms were going off at the arrangement. And man, what a voice by Tsubokura.
I've already given most of my thoughts on Akina Nakamori's（中森明菜）24th single, "Dear Friend", namely the big comeback single after recovering from her suicide attempt a year previously. However, until now I had yet to say anything about the B-side of this very sunny comeback, "Caribbean".
Written by Miho Onishi（大西美帆）and composed by Kazuya Izumi（和泉一弥）, I think I like "Caribbean" a bit better than the A-side. The song is definitely upbeat like "Dear Friend" with all of that Caribbean cruise feel. But it, at least in my estimation anyways, sounds mellower and more natural for her. As I mentioned on the article for that A-side, I always had that sense that Akina sounded a bit forced in her gaiety when it came to recording "Dear Friend".
I have to say that she really does look the part of a 19th-century belle in her 1991 concert performance of "Caribbean" above, although I think her apparel would have her fitting more on a riverboat near New Orleans rather than a cruise liner near Port-Au-Prince. In any case, whenever I listen to her 1989"Cruise" sometimes, I go back to "Dear Friend/Caribbean" to balance the emotional scales, so to speak.
About a few weeks before I was to leave for the JET Programme on my very first post-university job, I received the shocking news that one of my favourite aidoru, Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）, had attempted suicide on July 11 1989, just a couple of days before her 24th birthday. Of course, this was back in the pre-Internet days so I couldn't exactly rush to a computer terminal and find out lickety-split about what her status was. Also knowing that a few years previously aidoru Yukiko Okada（岡田有希子）had killed herself didn't help my fears about Akina. As the days toward my departure for Japan drew near, I was able to piece together that the attempt had occurred supposedly because her long-time boyfriend, aidoru Masahiko Kondo（近藤真彦）, had dumped her and that Akina had made the attempt in his apartment.
Although I was relieved that Akina would recover from her injuries, the fact that she had actually tried to kill herself and that she would take a year off did sadden me since I was such a big fan of hers. When I finally got to Japan at the end of July, I had known that her 14th album, "Cruise" was coming out. It had come out just a few days before my arrival and I was in Tokyo for 5 days of orientation before being shipped out to the mountains of Gunma Prefecture, so during the little free time I had I was able to find a major CD shop in Shinjuku to search for the album.
It would turn out that I didn't need to look too hard. As soon as I entered the very air-conditioned store, "Close Your Eyes", one of the tracks, was playing over the store speakers and the album was featured very prominently on the wall. I had bought her albums during the late 80s, and frankly found them not too listenable since she seemed to get a bit too avant-garde or hard rock for me. But I was struck by "Close Your Eyes", a very atmospheric piece with a Mediterranean feel; her voice sounded different, too. The huskiness that had been her trademark since her mid-80s peak was still there but transformed into something more delicate. This was an Akina who sang as if she were a seen-it-all, heard-it-all, felt-it-all diva in resignation. The lyrics, by the way, were provided by Masako Arikawa（有川正沙子）, who had written many of Akira Terao's（寺尾聡）tunes on his hit album, "Reflections" in 1981.The music was composed by Brazilian artist Osny Melo, who has written songs for a number of Japanese singers like Hiromi Go（郷ひろみ）and Akiko Kobayashi（小林明子）.
When I bought "Cruise", the significance of the situation hadn't been lost on me. I did feel somewhat eerie about buying an album just a few weeks after the artist had tried to leave this mortal coil.
Because of the attempted suicide, "Cruise" took on a more poignant meaning for me. I found that there were no uptempo songs on the album at all, and tracks were given titles such as "URAGIRI"(Betrayal) and "Liar". How much of her life was flowing into these songs? Were her collaborators aware of what was going on in her life? The songs seemed to be linked by a theme of ennui and sadness. "Sayonara ja Owaranai"（さよならじゃ終わらない....It Won't End With Goodbye） is one of the relatively more mid-tempo tracks in which she finds it difficult to leave her beau. It was written by Goro Matsui (松井五郎） and composed by Anzen Chitai（安全地帯）vocal Koji Tamaki（玉置浩二）. What is remarkable about some of her appearances for this song and "Close Your Eyes" is how fragile Akina looks in them. She sang the song as if she were keeping up a brave face under difficult circumstances.
"Liar" was the only track that had been a single release back in April. Written by Mitsuko Shiramine（白峰美津子）and composed by Kazuya Izumi（和泉一弥）, this was a song of lost love. Not quite sure if it had been meant for Matchy. The single hit No. 1 from the get-go and ended up as the 28th-ranked song of the year. "Cruise" itself also reached the No. 1 mark and became the 31st-ranked album of 1989.
As much as the Yellow Magic Orchestra's debut album had become my very first J-Pop purchase on cassette tape almost 10 years previously, "Cruise" was my very first CD purchase of a J-Pop singer. Unlike some of her past albums, I bought this one without feeling any trepidation at all.
P.S. September 15 2021: I've done a follow-up on the remaining tracks for "Cruise" right here.
I'd been a huge Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）fan since the mid-80s...even had a poster of hers from an old Myojo magazine hanging on my wall for years. So, it was with shock that I had heard about her attempted suicide in 1989 through reading a tiny article in a Toronto newspaper....of course, this was a few years at least before even electronic bulletin boards came into vogue. I'd gone to Japan to start my new life as a member of the JET Programme at the end of July of that year, just a few weeks after that horrible event. It was rather an eerie feeling seeing her album, "Cruise" getting the heavy promotion in the CD shops at the time. I bought it and it took me a while to warm up to it since the songs seemed so sad and filled with ennui about life.
About a year later, Nakamori started her comeback into show business by releasing "Dear Friend" on July 17, 1990. The cover had her in a carefree, content pose bathed in warm sunlight in what seemed to me as "Hey, I'm OK...you're OK". The song was even more surprising for me. It was a complete turnaround in attitude from any of her tunes in "Cruise".Akina and the music sounded alive and happy....even joyous. That's not only a big contrast from her last album, but basically most, if not all, of her previous hits dating back to her debut in 1982. Even from her earliest songs, there was that feeling of heartbreak and romantic disillusionment....and a note of defiance. I always saw Akina to Seiko in the same way I look at Mick Jagger to Paul McCartney, although my analogy may be stretching things a bit here.
According to J-Wiki, Akina had remarked that "Dear Friend" was her happiest song. A part of me thinks whether some of that happiness which came out of her singing was slightly forced. It just struck me that much. In any case, she would return to her more defiant and darker mode with future releases, but for that brief time in the Summer of 1990, that single stood out like no other in the Nakamori oeuvre.
"Dear Friend" hit No. 1 virtually right from the get-go and on one other date (July 30 and August 13). It was the 6th-ranked song of the year. The song was written by Mayumi Ito（伊東真由美） and composed by Kazuya Izumi（和泉一弥）.
I should also get around talking about the B-Side, "Caribbean".
